Reginelli's Pizzeria is throwing open its doors — and an entire stretch of State Street — for a free Italian festival this Saturday, October 10, marking both its 30th anniversary and Italian-American Heritage Month. The celebration runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., centered at the chain's flagship location at 5961 Magazine St. and extending along State Street between Magazine and Camp streets.
The event caps a year-long 30th-anniversary celebration for the local pizzeria, according to Biz New Orleans. Reginelli's co-founder Darryl Reginelli said October was the perfect time to celebrate the food and traditions that have inspired the restaurant for three decades, adding that New Orleans has a rich Italian-American history and that food brings people together. Co-founder Bruce Erhardt framed the gathering as more of a neighborhood celebration than a straightforward anniversary party.
Reginelli's opened in New Orleans in 1996 and has spent the years since building a local brand around handcrafted pizzas, sandwiches, salads and Italian-inspired dishes. The restaurant originally set up shop at 741 State Street on the corner of Magazine Street — a storefront that now houses local restaurant Picnic Provisions & Whiskey, per Reginelli's own company timeline — before the flagship Uptown location moved across the street into a standalone building at 5961 Magazine Street in 2013.
From Corner Shop to Regional Brand
The pizzeria's growth wasn't just physical. In 2007, Pizza Today Magazine named Reginelli's its Independent Pizzeria of the Year, recognizing the brand's culinary standards 11 years after it first opened, according to the company's own account of its history. Five years later, Reginelli's owners partnered with Commander's Palace co-owner Ti Adelaide Martin and her family to expand the casual Italian concept into Baton Rouge and Houston, as reported by Nation's Restaurant News.
The brand also survived one of the city's darkest chapters. After Hurricane Katrina flooded its Lakeview location on Harrison Avenue in August 2005, Reginelli's rebuilt and reopened that storefront exactly two years later in August 2007, per the company's timeline. Even its advertising has local roots — the catchy radio jingle, “Reginelli's Pizza, ooh I wanna eatcha,” was composed and recorded in 2002 by Josh Pennison, a former dishwasher and punk rock musician who wrote it after overhearing his manager brainstorming ad ideas.
Food, Art and Music Fill the Street
Saturday's free, family-friendly festival will feature Italian-inspired food, local vendors, artists, live entertainment, cooking demonstrations and community partnerships. Participating food vendors include Angelo Brocato's, Perrone, Meyer Provisions and Mycelium Express, with offerings spanning chicken cutlets, muffulettas, bruschetta, fresh mozzarella, barbecue shrimp, Italian ice, gelato, cannoli and pasta. Grande Fresh will run fresh mozzarella demonstrations, and wine by the glass and bottle, along with beer, will be available within the permitted festival area.
Angelo Brocato's, one of the festival's anchor vendors, brings its own deep New Orleans history to the event. The Italian ice cream parlor was founded in 1905 in the French Quarter by Sicilian immigrant Angelo Brocato Sr. before relocating to Mid-City on North Carrollton Avenue in the late 1970s, according to 64 Parishes. Hoodline previously described Lefty's as planning to open beside the Mid-City landmark.
The festival will also include an art market featuring students from the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts alongside live painting, plus a farmers market with growers and makers from local markets. The Academy, located just blocks away on Magazine Street, was founded in 1978 at 3218 Magazine Street by artist Auseklis Ozols before moving to its permanent Victorian building at 5256 Magazine Street in 1980, according to 64 Parishes. Live music throughout the day will come from Sophia Parigi, Hypno Nun and the N.O. Brass Band.
Tying a Milestone to Italian-American Heritage Month
The timing isn't incidental. Italian-American Heritage Month is recognized every October, celebrating the history, culture and contributions of Italian Americans across the country. The federal designation dates back to 1989, when Congress passed Public Law 101-128 and President George H.W. Bush proclaimed the observance, according to Wikipedia.
That national designation carries particular weight in New Orleans, where thousands of Sicilian immigrants arrived through the port during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and established a dense cultural enclave in the lower French Quarter once known as “Little Palermo,” per Wikipedia's history of Italians in New Orleans. Organized Italian heritage celebrations in the city go back decades, anchored by groups like the Italian American St. Joseph Society, which traces its roots to the Italian American Marching Club founded in 1970 and still hosts annual St. Joseph's Day parades and feasts.
Against that backdrop, Reginelli's festival reads less like a corporate promotion and more like the pizzeria staking its claim as part of that same civic tradition — pairing a century-old gelato maker with a decades-old arts academy and a local pizza chain that has outlasted a hurricane and expanded across state lines. Admission to the Italian Festival is free and open to the public.
