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Nicola's! Surely everybody remembers this
place — it was our hangout. This was the place to go with a
date you were trying to impress. But, do you know the story
behind the restaurant?
It was started by Nicola Zappetti, an
American marine. Zappetti was among the first American troops to
arrive after Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. He
was not the kind of fellow who did things by the rules. His
''flexibility'' led him to become an American tycoon in Tokyo,
deeply mixed up in just about anything that was spicy or shady.
When we say "spicy," we don't mean pizza spicy.
The law caught up with Zapetti and he served
time in a Japanese prison. While he was in prison, where the
food was probably not an epicurean delight, he must have thought
about good Italian food. Upon his release in the mid 1950s he
decided on another business direction and opened up a pizza
restaurant. Zapetti opened Nicola’s Pizza in 1956 even though
he knew nothing about the restaurant business.
Nicola's was an instant success and quickly
became the hangout for Americans, other expatriates, and of
course, us — ASIJ high school kids. To liven things up there
were also plenty of yakuza (Japanese gangsters) on any given
night. The American Embassy kids were told to be
careful because Nicola’s was practically next door to the
Soviet Embassy. Comrade Robert who appeared to have leftist
leanings seemed to hang around there a lot!
The following addition was provided by
Miranda Kenrick (Class of 1965).
I [Miranda Kenrick] was looking at your web
site earlier today and read what you said about Nick Zapetti of
Nicola's Pizza. Did you know that his daughter Patty was in the
Class of 1970? She and her brother Vince both went to Nishimachi
through grade school and jr. high. In those days Nishimachi
didn't have a high school, so there were kids who were in Japan
all their school lives but attended ASIJ only in high school. I
don't know where Vince went. Perhaps St. Mary's, because he was
about my age. Do you know the book "Tokyo Underworld"
by Bob Whiting? He writes Nick's life story in great detail in
it. I knew Bob Whiting when we were at Sophia University
together in the late 1960s. Lost sight of him until he became
famous with his books about baseball and now the [Japanese]
mafia. Entirely by coincidence I saw him last week for the first
time since our Sophia University days.
[By the way, there is another
picture cleverly hidden away on this page.]
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