If I Mention Pizza, Will You Read This Column?

V&T Pizzeria in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan holds a special place in my family’s history.

By all accounts, the first piece of pizza my dad ever ate was in the small pizza shop owned by a set of brothers named Vincent and Tony in 1947. The brothers moved their restaurant to its current location sometime after 1947, and that is where I had my first piece of pizza a little less than 30 years later.

I also know where my dad first ate Chinese food, but that’s for another article.

My dad picked up a large pie from V&T every Friday throughout my childhood. It was not a slice shop – whole pies only – and the pizza was cheesy, saucy, and delicious… a far cry from the charred pizza crisps that garner all the accolades today. After the brothers sold the restaurant, the new owner and my dad became good friends. We would eat at V&T before or after Yankees, Knicks, and Rangers games.

Dad was not a traditionally religious man, but this pizza restaurant was a holy place for him. Kind of ironic, considering that directly across the street from V&T sits the Cathedral of St. John the Divine – the largest church in North America.

After a particularly breathless reminder of V&T’s greatness and its legacy, espoused by my dad, I peered over at my mom and inferred a different sensation. She was unaffected. My mom basically kept her pizza opinions to herself, but I knew that her preference was John’s of Bleecker Street.

She would meet up in the city with her childhood friend Ruth to see a play, then wander through the village, stopping at John’s for a day-ending pizza meal. As most New Yorkers know, John’s pizzas were and are thin, charred, and tomatoey. We’re talking polar opposites in the pizza department from V&T.

She would save a slice for me.

When you love someone, you eat their pizza. 

By now, you’re likely asking what pizza and estate planning have to do with each other… fair question. I’m having a fair bit of trouble coming up with a connection between the two myself. I really just wanted to talk about pizza for a while. But here it goes: personal taste is a big part of forging your perfect piece of pizza and your estate plan.

Think about the slice.  Is it charred, or thick and cheesy? Does it have pepperoni on top, or is it plain?

Think about your estate plan? Do you want to retain in full control, or can you appoint a trusted family member to handle your affairs? Will property you own remain as a residence, or are you planning on renting it out, requiring an LLC?

The thing is, you can compromise on a pizza. Dough, cheese, and sauce combined and baked is going to taste pretty good. You can have a New Haven pizza or a deep dish and derive a high level of satisfaction from both. But compromising your estate plan will never be good.

If your house ends up as a probate asset and Medicaid exerts its estate recovery rights, then no amount of pizza will bring a smile to your face.    

Alan D. Feller, Esq., is managing partner of The Feller Group, located at 572 Route 6, Suite 103, Mahopac. He can be reached at alandfeller@thefellergroup.com.