Legendary New York City pizza maker Andrew Bellucci died suddenly of a heart attack while working at his restaurant Wednesday night, his business partner told The Post.
Bellucci, 59, was busy making one of his famous clam pies when he collapsed at Andrew Bellucci’s Pizzeria in Astoria, Queens, around 7:30 p.m., Matthew Katakis said.
Katakis had been in his office next door when heard what happened, ran inside the pizzeria and saw Bellucci turning purple on the floor surrounded by staff, who had called 911.
He gave Bellucci chest compressions for about four to five minutes before EMS arrived and took him Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“I saw his last breath leave as I was giving him chest compressions. It was really sad,” Katakis said. “To me, he was my mentor.”
The two linked up in October 2021 after Bellucci announced he was leaving his former and rival business, Bellucci’s Pizza after a bitter feud with his ex-business partner Leo Dakmak.
Within 15 minutes of Bellucci posting his departure on social media, Katakis said he “convinced him to come into my office, we had a two-hour meeting and decided to become partners.”
The pair opened up Andrew Bellucci’s Pizzeria just eight blocks away from rival Bellucci’s Pizza.
At the new pizzeria, Bellucci developed his clam pie that the New York Times called “life-changing” in a rave review last year. The pizzeria was thriving, with an anticipated review from Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy scheduled in the coming weeks and its popular pizza cooking classes on Saturdays.
“We were finally at the point where we felt streamlined, ready, operating correctly and had everything working. And now, this is a tremendously tragic event. But we learned from him,” Katakis said.
“He was a great teacher and philosopher of the dough,” he added.
Katakis had given Bellucci the nickname the “Don of Dough.”
“That’s who he was. There was no better crusts in my opinion in New York City,” he said.
Bellucci first made a name for after revamping Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan in the early 1990s.
However, his career was interrupted by a stint behind bars for embezzling funds from a law firm where he previously worked. He shared a cell at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York with mafia boss Sonny Franzese — after whom he named one of his famous pies.
He then spent 16 years driving a cab before perfecting the pizza craft all over the world, from Malaysia, Hawaii, China, Thailand and Michigan.
“He was a pizza cowboy for hire,” Katakis said.
He decided to open a pizzeria during COVID-19 and teamed up with Dakmak to open Bellucci’s Pizza before the relationship soured and he quit and partnered with Katakis.
His storied life was chronicled in part in the 2020 seven-part series called “Untitled Pizza Movie,” made by filmmaker David Shapiro.
Katakis said he called Bellucci’s 10 best friends this morning after a sleepless night and asked them what he should do moving forward.
“I wanted to open tomorrow because I know that’s what Bellucci would want, and concentrate on the pizza. I know he’s looking at me saying, ‘Let’s make sure you’re doing it the way I told ya,’” he said.
On Friday, 100% of all the sales will go to Slice Out Hunger, a nonprofit that hosts pizza-related events to combat food insecurity and to arrange a funeral for Bellucci next week.
Another number of ideas to memorialize “a legend” are being considered,” Katakis said.
