NYPD's Top Detective Used To Serve Justice, Now He Serves Pizza

WEST VILLAGE, NY — The most decorated detective in NYPD history has gone from serving justice in the South Bronx to serving slices at Bleecker Street Pizza in the West Village.

Retired Officer Ralph Friedman, 70, has been in 15 gun battles and shot eight men, including four he killed. He piled up more than 2,000 arrests — 105 while he was off duty — and earned 219 NYPD awards and 36 civilian honors during the five years he served at the notorious 41st Precinct during the 1970s.

He has been stabbed, whacked over the head with a tire iron and broke 23 bones in his body in the car wreck that ended his career, but that's just a taste of the stories he swaps with hungry customers who walk in with a hankering for pizza and leave with a slice of history.

Friedman began working at Bleecker Street Pizza a year ago when his friend Douglas Greenwood, the pizzeria's founder and an NYPD captain who died last December, asked if he would lend a hand. Since then, Friedman has been working part time on nights and weekends, trekking from Connecticut to sell pies and help around the 14-year-old pizza joint, whose regulars include Hugh Jackman, Brook Shields and James Biberi.

Bleecker Street Pizza also boasts a slew of police as regulars since the NYPD's 6th Precinct is only three blocks away.

"I like that feeling of being a part of something — I'm a part of the team here with the pizza, and I'm still a part of the police," said Friedman, who was on the force from 1968 to 1975 and who wrote a book and has a show about his time with the police. "And this is real, fresh pizza. Not like that 99 cent pizza that is cardboard painted red."

The slices at Bleecker Street Pizza cost $3-4 and are made with fresh ingredients including parmigiano-reggiano cheese from Italy, which the store pays $1,000 for each week, according to one of the pizzeria's co-owners. Their famed Nonna Maria pies are made from an old family recipe with fresh mozzarella, homemade marinara sauce, aged parmigiano-reggiano and fresh basil on a thin Tuscan-style crust. USA Today even nominated Bleecker Street Pizza for the title of best pizza in New York state.

Customers pour in seven days a week from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m., and an unintended perk of having Friedman around during the wee hours of the morning is the security his presence provides.

"Having Ralph here is like extra security," joked Upper West Sider Tony Salihaj, 40, one of the pizzeria's owners. "There was a big rash of robberies [in the West Village] but they haven't come here since Ralph's been around."

Customers' eyebrows go up when people learn of Friedman's background, usually followed by a slew of questions before they leave with pizza and a story.

"You never know who is behind the counter," said Hell's Kitchen resident Robert Giordano, 43, who swung by for a slice. "I went in for pizza and I come out meeting a legendary cop. That's New York for you."

Photos courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch