By Charlie Pogacar
For several generations, visitors to the New Jersey Shore—swimsuit-clad and nursing sunburns—have walked up and down the boardwalk searching for a good slice of pizza. And long before other pizzerias began optimizing pies for on-the-go eating, boardwalk establishments were mastering the craft of what became known as the boardwalk pizza style.
New Jersey boardwalk pizza means thin-crust pies served with a sweet sauce and liberal amounts of mozzarella—and sometimes cheddar—cheese. They’re similar to the pies you’ll find elsewhere in New Jersey but are best enjoyed, fans believe, with a side of ocean views. And while there’s no consensus on who invented the style, several pizzerias that serve it have been in business for generations. That includes Mack’s Pizza, which has two locations on the Wildwood Boardwalk—just 10 blocks apart. In other words, demand for their pies is that strong.
The same family has owned Mack’s since 1953. Pete Riess, a manager at one of the Wildwood locations, says Mack’s has a secret family recipe that only a handful of people know. That’s not the only thing that makes Mack’s pizza unique either, he says. “Every pizzeria [on the boardwalk] has its own unique flavor,” Riess said. “Everybody’s crust is different. Their sauce is different. I just think the water in South Jersey makes for a better crust.”
But boardwalk pizza is about a lot more than the crust, sauce and cheese. For Riess and so many others with a deep nostalgia for vacationing on the Shore, the pizza makes the trip that much better—and vice versa.
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Pizza and a Show
Manco & Manco Pizza, which has been family-owned and located on the Ocean City Boardwalk since 1956, has three locations on the Shore. General Manager Tom Rossi says this unique style of pizza is all about tradition and a topnotch in-person experience.
“[Manco & Manco] came down from Trenton in 1956 to Ocean City Boardwalk, and we’ve been here ever since,” Rossi says. “So when you think Ocean City, you think of the beach, you think of the boardwalk, you think pizza—and our recipe has not changed since 1956.”
To enhance the customer’s dining experience, Rossi notes, his pizza makers put on a theatrical dough-throwing spectacle for guests. “Our guys are basically the professional athletes of the pizza industry. They’re throwing the dough in the air, giving everyone a show—it’s a great experience in general. It’s not just pizza. It’s pizza and a show.”
The team at Manco & Manco Pizza has other tricks up its sleeve to distinguish its boardwalk pies from the competition. Instead of first saucing the dough and then adding cheese, the brand reversed the process: They add cheese and then grab a plastic tube that spews out tomato sauce from a refrigerated vat. Each pie has a swirl of tomato sauce on top rather than an even distribution across the base layer.
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Beyond the Beach
Customers love Manco & Manco’s offerings so much that the business has been able to expand inland. In 2022, the brand opened a location in Citizens Bank Park, home to the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2024, it added a location at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida, where the Phillies plays their spring training games. With so many people from the Philadelphia metro area making annual visits to the Jersey Shore, Manco & Manco has built-in brand recognition at both venues.
“Ocean City is more of a resort town, and a lot of our customers are from the city,” Rossi says. “The majority of our families come from the Philly area or the surrounding areas. So we decided to bring our pizza to them instead of them coming down to us all the time for pizza.”
It’s worth noting that some say the pizza doesn’t taste quite the same when you eat it in a baseball stadium in a landlocked city. It’s not that the ingredients are modified or that Manco & Manco does something different for pizzas made during Phillies’ games. It’s just that, for so many, being at the ocean is all part of the experience. Boardwalk pizzerias are so intertwined with the beach experience, in fact, many of them are seasonal. Both Mack’s locations are open from the spring until fall, while Manco & Manco shutters two of its boardwalk locations in the winter while a third remains open.
Perhaps because it’s so closely associated with vacation, family and the beach, boardwalk pizza represents community to those who love it. Riess and Rossi would know something about that: Rossi has been with Manco & Manco for about 30 years, while Riess has worked for Mack’s on and off for 40-plus years. “We pride ourselves on not only customer loyalty but service to our employees,” Rossi says of Manco & Manco Pizza. “We have a long tenured employee list. There’s a lot of people that have been there over 20 years—everybody comes back because it’s such a family-oriented organization.”
“It’s just a tradition: eating on the boardwalk,” Riess adds. “It’s the ambiance that makes it special—being out at the shore and enjoying your pizza. It’s part of your Shore vacation. We’ve always said: Bad boardwalk pizza is better than good pizza at home.”
Charlie Pogacar is PMQ’s associate editor.
