'Mama' Sbarro dies

She once was a driving force behindone of the most popular spots in Bensonhurst to buy smoked mozzarella and all sorts of meats.

But Carmela Sbarro is best known around here for being 'Mama Sbarro,' the name that adorns pizza and Italian restaurants throughout Nassau  including a store in the Westfield Sunrise Mall.

Sbarro died on Saturday. She was 90.

Sbarro is now a Melville-based chain, but some of the more colorful stories about her date back to Brooklyn.

For example, when one customer asked for a specific condiment, she wasn't amused. According to the New York Times, Mrs. Sbarro would respond, "I don't do that. You want mayonnaise on your sandwich, go somewhere else.”

Carmela outlived her husband Gennaro, who died in 1984.