L& B Spumoni – New York – USA

Ludovico Barbati came to the United States in 1917 from Torella Di Lombardi, Italy.

He married Paolina Maugeri in 1918. They had six children, Carmine, Rose, Anna, Mary, Salvatore & Ludovico, Jr.

In 1938 Ludovico learned from a baker how to make pizza in a garage on West 8th Street, Brooklyn. To sell his products he decided to peddle them using a horse and wagon. So he purchased Babe the horse, and a wagon, and sold his products up and down the streets of Gravesend and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

In 1939, Ludovico, Sr. decided he needed a little, inexpensive place to make the Spumoni and Ices, so he purchased vacant property on 86th Street in Brooklyn. He asked his friends, who were carpenters, brick layers and cement workers from the old country, to build the first of now three buildings. As he manufactured his Spumoni in his new factory, neighborhood people would come in to buy his products, stopping him from making the goods to sell from his horse and wagon. As business grew he decided it couldn’t go on that way. So he told his daughter Anna to stay in the factory and serve the people while he made the Spumoni. Well, it caught on, so once again he asked his friends to build a shanty in front of the factory where he could put out some tables and chairs, and plant some trees.

In the mid 1950s L&B Spumoni Gardens built the second of the now three buildings, which is now the Pizzeria, selling our famous thick Sicilian pies, as well as our regular round pies. Progressively, through the years, our third building was added which was a luncheonette. It has since been expanded to house our Dining Room. L&B Spumoni Gardens is now in its fourth generation. There will always be a family member to greet you at our doors. We are proud of our heritage and we know how proud our grandfather Ludovico would be of us. We are so very grateful for his insight.

The Barbati Family