About MaryAnn
The Heart Behind the Pie
I've always believed that making people feel at home is one of the most important things you can do. From the very beginning, my goal was simple: make sure everyone who walks through our doors feels welcome.
For me, great food has always been about more than what's on the plate, it's about the people sitting around the table. I'm so proud of what Paulie and I have built together and grateful every day for the community that has grown around it.
I tend to stay behind the scenes, but if people feel the warmth when they come in that means everything to me. I just try to do things with heart, treat people with kindness, and let the rest take care of itself.
How It All Beg![]()
an
A Brooklyn Love Story
It was November 12, 1976. A disco in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Paulie walked up to me and said, "I know you. I see you on the RR train." I said, "Likely story." He still insists he remembers the tan coat I wore to work. His friends dragged him into our car that night, and by the time we got home, my friend — also named MaryAnn — had shoved my phone number into his hand. He called. We went for a burger. That was almost 50 years ago.
For most of those years, Paulie worked at AT&T, I worked, we raised a family in New Jersey, and our friends begged Paulie to open a restaurant. His response every time? "I want no part of it." This may be one of the funniest things he's ever said.
What changed everything was a backyard oven. In our late forties and early fifties, Paulie became obsessed with wood-fired pizza. He went online, found oven plans, and one day came home with a brick cutter. I told him: "Okay, but you better still have your two hands when I get back." He did. And what came next was something neither of us could have predicted — backyard pizza parties, homemade limoncello, food bloggers showing up at our door, and eventually, investors. One leap of faith later, Paulie Gee's was born.
The Restaurant
From Backyard Oven to Greenpoint, Brooklyn
We opened Paulie Gee's at 60 Greenpoint Avenue in Brooklyn. A former restaurant space that had burned down and sat empty, with no "for rent" sign. Naturally, Paulie tracked down the landlord anyway. The second he walked in, he knew. It was the scariest day of his life, but was the right one.
We're not businesspeople. We're people people. We didn't have funding or a restaurant group behind us. What we have is an instinct for hospitality, for connecting with our community, learning our guests' stories, and sometimes even recommending other great pizza places when we think they'd love them. That's just who we are.
Today, Paulie Gee's has grown into something bigger than either of us ever imagined. Multiple locations, slice shops, and a community we are so proud of. But no matter how much it grows, you'll still find Paulie and me making our rounds, talking to guests, playing music, and doing what we love.