Iconic NJ pizza joint may be sold after owner suffers stroke

Well, this story just gets sadder every time.

Of all the pizza joints in New Jersey, Santillo’s in Elizabeth arguably has the most passionate fans. The pizza shop that you miss if you blink, whose entrance is kind of down a side alley, has been famous for its brick oven pizza for about 100 years.

Opened in a different location in 1918, it relocated to its current spot in 1957. Current owner Al Santillo always worried about a fire. Codes being what they were back then, the ceiling was built too low over the brick oven. It would trap heat, and risk a fire.

The Fire

On a Saturday morning back in January 2024, it finally happened. A fire was in the ceiling. Pictures of the damage were posted to Instagram shortly after the devastation.

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A post shared by Tom Colicchio (@tomcolicchio)

The community reached out. Santillo was determined to rebuild. He did pop-up pizza joints to stay busy while he waited. Help even came from Barstool Sport’s Dave Portnoy. He raised money to contribute to help the restoration, one pizza fan to one pizza guru.

It was coming together. After taking much longer than anyone wanted the renovations were being made and the hope was to finally reopen this year.

a person is kneading dough on a table

The Stroke

Then more tragedy. Al Santillo suffered a stroke in April. He survived and is fighting his way back with lots of therapy but it was another setback.

Now nj.com has reported Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizza may be sold off. A Facebook post was made by his family.

“With the responsibilities involved with the pizzeria the family has decided to see if there is an appetite for the business, a broker has been retained to assist in seeing if there is a party interested in purchasing the pizzeria.”

Nothing is final. Nothing is for sure. But this legendary pizza place may be sold off. Which could mean anything about its future. It’s a real stay-tuned.

And the Santillo's faithful certainly will.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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