[1] It was believed that Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi started the business in 1897 as a grocery store at 53½ Spring Street, and began selling "tomato pies" (in which the cheese is put down first then covered by tomato sauce) wrapped in paper and tied with a string at lunchtime to workers from the area's factories.

[2] However, in 2019, suspicion was raised about whether Gennaro Lombardi was the true founder, after a search of his birth record, naturalization papers, and other supporting documents show he first came to America in November 1904 at age 17, classified as a "laborer."

This hiatus and location change surrendered the title of America's longest continually operating pizzeria to Papa's Tomato Pies in Trenton, New Jersey, which opened in 1912 and has sold pies without interruption since.

[5][6] Brescio, who remains the current owner, was named as a captain in the Genovese crime family by law enforcement in 2017.

When Lombardi's business suffered in the early portion of the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020s, Lombardi ended its lease at 32 Spring Street (although keeping 30 Spring Street) and the owner of the building destroyed the coal oven.