{"id":62781,"date":"2025-12-06T19:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T19:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/62781\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T19:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T19:58:06","slug":"ron-desantis-visits-staten-islands-lees-tavern-orders-famous-clam-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/62781\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis visits Staten Island\u2019s Lee\u2019s Tavern, orders famous clam pie"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Lee\u2019s Tavern welcomed a special guest Friday morning \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor posed for photos with co-owner Diego Palemine and ordered a clam pie, along with the Lee\u2019s Special: sausage, saut\u00e9ed onions, fresh tomato and mozzarella.<\/p>\n

\"Lee'sThis is not a cardboard cutout of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The special guest at Lee’s Tavern was indeed at the historic restaurant to savor its famed pizza. (Courtesy of Diego Palemine)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came in at 10 a.m.,\u201d Diego said, noting the party of eight had originally planned to arrive an hour later. \u201cHe was really nice, easy to talk to, very down to earth. He was also very generous with a tip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lee'sDeSantis left a generous tip as well as a challenge coin as a gift for the Palemine family.(Courtesy of Diego Palemine)<\/p>\n

DeSantis\u2019 staff told Diego the governor was in town for press appearances and meetings. Diego laughed about the photo op: \u201cEveryone said it wasn\u2019t real. It wasn\u2019t a cardboard cutout. I put my arm around him for the picture. It\u2019s not every day you meet a governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The visit shines a spotlight on Lee\u2019s Tavern, one of Staten Island\u2019s oldest pizzerias. Located at 60 Hancock St. in Dongan Hills, the no-frills spot has been serving locals since 1940. Known for its clam pie and crisp fried calamari, Lee\u2019s keeps a low profile. It has no sign on the facade and no social media presence, yet it continues to attract generations of loyal customers.<\/p>\n

\"ClamLee\u2019s Tavern\u2019s clam pie is a masterpiece, by some standards, with its garlicky goodness and clams baked into the cheese.Benanti<\/p>\n

Founded by Leroy \u201cMr. Lee\u201d Moresco, the tavern was taken over by the Palemine family in 1969. It has earned national attention<\/a> from bloggers, a solid Barstool Pizza Review rating<\/a>, and even appeared in Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Irishman,<\/a> where it was briefly transformed into Nemo\u2019s Bar & Grill for the shoot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Lee\u2019s Tavern welcomed a special guest Friday morning \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-62781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}