Santillo's Pizza rises from ashes with a boost from Dave Portnoy

It was about a year and a half ago that I told you of a local pizza legend being sidelined over a fire.

That quirky little blink-and-you-miss-it pizza joint called Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizza was iconic. A tiny, been-there-forever kind of place in Elizabeth that you had to walk down an alley to find the entrance of.

Al Santillo Jr., the grandson of the guy who started it back in 1918, didn’t know at the time what he was going to do. But he didn’t want to just retire.

Well, I have a happy update.

The work has been ongoing. And Santillo says his own money ran out long ago. He’s reporting now that whenever he has needed to pay for the latest construction phase, Dave Portnoy has been true to his word and has always been there with the next check.

It has been a slow process because of what is being recreated. In the pizza business, his ancient brick oven was nicknamed The Cathedral. That’s because of its beauty and size.

Canva / TSM Illustration

Being replicated by John Rennie of Duddy Contracting is a 16-foot-wide and 10-foot-deep arching brick oven. It’s painstaking work. Part of it involves specially designed curving bricks. It all has to be constructed in phases.

But the result will be amazing. To have that massive oven back again, which could bake 30 pizzas at a time, will be the key to Santillo’s comeback success. He says Dave Portnoy has graciously honored all commitments he made, and Santillo will only say it has been a lot. When asked by reporters, all the pizza makers will say is, “It’s a big number.”

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It’s nice to see a big name like Dave Portnoy stay true to his word on a big commitment. And also, I’d be shocked if he didn’t come do a "One Bite" review of the new Santillo’s when it finally opens.