Pica’s Pizza Turns 60 Today

Monday is a big day for Pica’s Restaurant in Upper Darby: the iconic pizza-and-pasta spot turns 60 years old today.

Anyone in Delaware County knows Pica’s for its venerable rectangular pies, but the entire country — or at least those who watch Jimmy Fallon — got to know Pica’s in 2014 when Upper Darby native Tina Fey chowed down on Pica’s pizza on his show.

Pica’s owner Frank Pica Jr. told us that people were driving from as far as Virginia just to try his pizza after the episode aired.

While the Upper Darby location turns 60 on Monday, the restaurant actually has older roots in the area. It was 75 years ago this year that Frank Pica Sr. opened Frank’s Pizza at 62nd and Race streets in West Philadelphia, when Frank Jr. was just six months old.

The original location was all pizza. The Upper Darby Pica’s became a full-service restaurant with a full bar.

Pica’s pizzas are as great as the hype, but there are plenty of other winners on the menu like the homemade pastas, meatballs, veal parm, and the best escarole soup around. Parents tired of children’s menus that only offer chicken fingers and burgers will be happy to see prime rib ($12.95) and stuffed shrimp ($11.95) on the Pica’s kids’ menu, both served with salad, a vegetable, a roll, and a drink.

And there’s another Pica’s on the way. The family plans to open a virtually identical Pica’s at 1231 West Chester Pike in West Chester this fall.