Garibaldi Wins Bracket Commercial de Garibaldi for the best pizza in Memphis

deleciousfood | April 22, 2025 | Pizza | No Comments

Garibaldi’s pizza won the first medium madness pizza support for March Madness of the commercial call.
Founded in 1975, Garibaldi extended to three locations and is known for his community involvement.
Mike Garibaldi Jr., son of the founder, now directs the company.
Garibaldi is proud of quality ingredients, coherent products and family values.

The readers of the commercial call spoke and voted for the Garibaldi pizza as the best pizza in Memphis in our inaugural March Madness pizza support.

Memphis Pizzeria, 50, beaten Lucchesi, Coletta’s, 3 Guys Pizza Pies and Fox Ridge Pizza en route to a confrontation in the final against Aldo pizzas. With more than 3,700 votes expressed in the final, the Memphians proclaimed their love for Garibaldi, who received 55% of the votes.

Garibaldi loves the city of Bluff since the time when Goldsmith and the Raleigh Springs shopping center were regular weekend destinations, and the largest university in the city was called Memphis State.

What started as a recent graduate of the University to make a means after obtaining the diploma ended up telling itself in its community of Memphis, with branches through the city and people who call it with love.

Mike Garibaldi Sr. founded his pizzeria on Walker Avenue, near the University of Memphis in 1975. He was long before expansions or even Michael Jr. – who now directs the family business – were never thought of. He said that at the time, the area near the campus had only one McDonald’s and a newly open pizza hut, compared to the most dynamic food scenes he had seen from other university cities near their campuses.

“The culinary scene was fairly sparse, and I just knew that (a local pizzeria) could go here,” recalls Garibaldi Sr. “and we needed it.”

What started as “learning the pizza company as you go” has since extended to two Memphis locations and a third in Germantown. Garibaldi Sr. attributes video games and pinballle in the restaurant dining room to keep them interesting and open when business lulls have closed other restaurants for good. But it is more likely that his involvement of the intentional community played a major role in customer loyalty to the brand.

Over the years, Garibaldi has sponsored teams from Little League, a donation to several local charitable organizations and a deep and long -standing relationship with the University of Memphis and the High School Christian Brothers. Their community ties add branches to the Garibaldi tree, attaching them to Metro Memphis as a beloved restaurant and a member of the community.

“We have done a very good job to keep the product coherent, be involved in the community and the family,” said Garibaldi Jr. “We are Italians. Everything concerns the family (and) the breakdown of bread. We want our customers to feel what we feel.”

While he grew up his business, Garibaldi Sr. also developed his family. His son, Michael Jr., says he remembers having walked – and perhaps sometimes run – through the Walker Avenue store from the age of 6. At 8, he had learned to manage a knife safely and helped prepare food in the kitchen. His adolescence was spent working in the part -time restaurant.

“They taught me the art of rolling and turning dough and in different preparations,” said Garibaldi Jr. about his first memories of the Pizzeria. “It was really cool (but) I was not originally intended to embark on the business.”

Garibaldi Jr. specialized in finance at the University of Memphis and planned a career in this industry. In a touch of fate, he ended up going home to Memphis after a job in the New York finance sector. Garibaldi Jr. recalled the breakfast meeting of September 11, 2001 that he had with the CEO of his office scheduled for the day that changed countless lives.

“(The CEO) said to me:” I remember the day JFK was shot down and you will remember today “,” he said. “I needed a job and (my father) had problems with certain management problems, so I said:” Sign up me. “”

The management of stores has led to entering his father’s shoes when the elder Garibaldi withdrew from daily operations. Today, Garibaldi Jr. has 24 years of full -time pizzeria experience in his credit and manages the operation. But the family patriarch still welcomes traditional Italian family dinners every Sunday for his children and grandchildren; A tradition that he and his wife have followed in the last three generations. There is even a third generation Michael, affectionately known as the trip.

“It’s wonderful,” said Garibaldi Sr. about his family and her inheritance. “We were blessed.”

Regarding pizza which the Memphians cannot have enough, Garibaldi’s hand makes the hand of his dough which is made with superior ingredients from the whole country. The evidence of the dough for at least 12 hours, allowing flavors and air pockets to develop. The sauce, cheese and other fillings are delicately placed in a precarious way near the edge of a crust which is a delicious balance between crunchy and soft. Pepperoni comes out of the oven with the most wonderful crunch on the tips of their covered edges. If you haven’t done it yet, the pizza is worth trying.

Garibaldi Sr. says that his favorite tart on the menu is meat enthusiasts who have pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef, smoked bacon and Canadian bacon, but admits having ordered simple pepperoni more often so that his grandchildren can choose freely on his plate. Bar-B-Que Pizza claims first place on the list of favorite pies of Garibaldi Jr. The menu also includes salads, pasta with homemade sauces, sandwiches, many aperitifs and more (not to mention the best crushed ice).

“We keep things simple,” said Garibaldi Sr. “We use the best ingredients on which we can get our hands on and we have refined our techniques for 50 years.”

This longevity allowed the Memphis brand to promote solid relations with suppliers of everything, from flour to pizza boxes. These relationships are reflected in quality foods at affordable prices for the faithful customers of Memphis from their family to yours. And that’s how the Garibaldi pizza lasted “50 years old and still shooting”.

Ellen Chamberlain is the food and catering journalist on the commercial call. Send him an email to hern.chamberlain@commercialappeal.com and follow her on Instagram @esifsshesaid.