Santucci’s has opened their seventh location at the southeast corner of 10th & Christian, their first location outside of Northeast Philly. Back in 1959, Joseph Santucci, Jr. and his wife Philomena reinvented the traditional square tomato pie by adding slices of mozzarella cheese under their homemade special sauce, creating what is known today as the local and famous Santucci’s Square Pizza.
As it is located near the Italian Market, this Santucci’s will also offer more options than just square pizza – salads, appetizers, antipasti, entrees, and Sunday brunch. Their new dining room is spacious and open to overlook the pizza ovens. If you’re feeling lazy, Santucci’s will also deliver to the surrounding neighborhood. It’s exciting that neighbors in South Philadelphia can finally experience this pizza, which is something of an institution in the Northeast.
The fact that the building has been redeveloped at all is perhaps the best news for folks in the Italian Market/Bella Vista area; it was boarded up and vacant for the past few years as a result of stalled development. Previously, the building housed Luciano’s grocery store for many years, but the grocery was not in active use for quite some time. Blighted buildings are never good for the neighborhood, but when pizza replaces blight, everybody wins!
The building in 1954. The grocery signs remained until about five years ago. Image from Phillyhistory.org
- Perhaps two years ago. The building actually looked worse than this for awhile. Image from Google.
