Landlord problems continue to plague pizza shops as The Original Charlie’s Pizza, which has roots in Philadelphia dating back to 1946, was forced to close earlier this month.
Owner Don Vittorelli Jr. served up his final batch of pizzas—actually frozen—on March 13, although he’d originally planned to close on February 28. It appears that demand for his “mini”-size frozen pies kept him busy for two more weeks. And they might prove to be the future of his business as well.
Regardless, The Original Charlie’s space is no longer in his hands. “We were unable to renegotiate a new lease,” Vittorelli posted on Facebook. “We requested an extension but were refused.”
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“Our decision [to close] was based on both financial issues as well as the landlord’s refusal to permanently correct a serious plumbing issue that has caused us problems since opening,” Vittorelli explained. He said The Original Charlie’s Pizzeria was the fifth business in Philly’s Morrell Plaza to close down, one of them being a T-Mobile store.
However, Vittorelli said he is “seriously considering a pizza truck/trailer” after he takes a few months off. “The mini pies are selling so well I’m going to keep making them,” he told his Facebook followers.
Vittorelli is a direct descendant of Erminio “Charlie” and Mary Yacovetti, who famously sold pizzas out of their rowhouse in North Philadelphia in the 1940s before opening Charlie’s Pizzeria in 1946. Three of the Yacovettis’ children, including Lucy Yacovetti and her husband, Bill Rieger, went on to open a second Charlie’s restaurant on Roosevelt Boulevard in 1959.
Vitorelli is Lucy and Bill’s grandson. He launched his own shop, The Original Charlie’s Pizzeria, in 2021 as an extension of the family tradition. That move came about after maintenance problems kept cropping up at his family’s old building on Roosevelt Boulevard.
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Both Charlie’s Pizza, which finally closed on May 1, 2022, and The Original Charlie’s were known for their thin and crispy tomato pies featuring a layer of mozzarella underneath the sauce and toppings, plus a sprinkle of grated cheese. Instead of slices, Vittorelli offers the mini pies that have proven so successful.
In 2021, Dave Portnoy dropped in at Charlie’s Pizza—the one on Roosevelt Boulevard—for a One Bite Review. He described it as “an old-school joint” staffed with “old ladies who look like they’ve been in the family for a hundred years.”
“There’s an old lady in there who looks like she literally, like, just stepped off the boat from Italy,” Portnoy said. “She’s just sitting there making all the sauce.” He gave the shop a respectable 7.6 score.
