People lined up for the dedication as the City of Boston unveiled a new street designation honoring Pizzeria Regina, the North End institution now marking 100 years of continuous operation. The ceremony took place Monday, with attendees served a slice of pizza as the city renamed the intersection around the pizzeria's flagship location “Regina Pizzeria Square.”
As reported by WHDH 7News, people lined up to witness the unveiling.
Pizzeria Regina's North End story stretches back to 1926, when Luigi D'Auria opened the restaurant under the name “Regina Pizza” — Italian for “Queen Pizza” — at 11 1/2 Thacher Street, per Wikipedia. The Polcari family bought the business from D'Auria's grandson in 1956 and has run it for 70 years since, expanding the single North End storefront into a regional brand under parent company Boston Restaurant Associates.
A Century-Old Oven at the Flagship
The flagship restaurant has an oven built in 1926 and uses natural-yeast dough that is aged. TripAdvisor recognized Pizzeria Regina as the best pizza restaurant in the United States in 2018.
The pizzeria has also built deep local ties beyond the North End storefront. Pizzeria Regina now operates 14 locations across Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the brand carries the “official pizza of the Boston Red Sox” designation, reinforcing its visibility across New England.
Footprint Shifts Behind the Milestone
The centennial comes after a bumpy few years for the company's broader footprint. Boston Restaurant Associates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2015 to shed unprofitable suburban mall leases while protecting the flagship North End location and its core restaurants, according to CBS News Boston. More recently, the company closed its Boylston Street location near Fenway Park in March 2026 after more than a decade in business, when owners chose not to renew the lease — a shutdown Hoodline reported at the time.
That closure later came up again in coverage of a wider pattern of historic Boston pizzeria shutdowns, when Hoodline reported on Rome Pizza's exit from the South End after 30 years in business, referencing Pizzeria Regina's Fenway departure earlier in the year. Despite that contraction in Boston proper, the North End flagship has kept its brick oven running without interruption since 1926.
For now, the newly christened Regina Pizzeria Square gives the pizzeria a civic marker alongside its century-old brick oven.
