The 75-year-old Philadelphia-based pizzeria plans an early 2022 opening on Haddon Avenue.
By Matt Skoufalos | September 17, 2021
Tacconelli’s Pizzeria Maple Shade. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
For the past three years, Vincent Tacconelli said his family’s 75-year-old pizzeria has been scouting a second New Jersey location.
“We’ve been open to the idea of expanding,” Tacconelli said, “but we were waiting for the building to find us.”
The family contemplated a range of options, including a Jersey shore location, but after driving by the former David Wilson’s Men’s Shop in Haddon Township, their building finally found them.
“When we met Dave Wilson and his family, it felt right,” Tacconelli said.
The 4,500 square-foot property at 164 N Haddon Avenue will enable the pizzeria to “keep a nice, large, open kitchen as we do now,” he said, with seating for about 85 guests.
Tacconelli, a fifth-generation pizzaiolo, describes his family’s signature recipe as a cross between Neapolitan tomato pies and American boardwalk pizza.
Cooked in a 550-degree, coal-fired oven, Tacconelli’s Pizzeria is known for a crispy pie “that stands up, holds its own, and has integrity,” he said. The most popular pie with customers is white, with salt, pepper, garlic, chopped spinach and tomato.
David Wilson’s Men’s Shop in Haddon Township will be converted into a Tacconelli’s Pizzeria location. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
The family’s Maple Shade restaurant also offers fresh salads, house-made pastas, and desserts.
Both locations also feature niche restaurant equipment from Rosito Bisani, including pasta machines, an Italian espresso machine, and a gelato machine.
In Haddon Township, Tacconelli said the restaurant will add a Rosito Bisani dome oven, imported from Italy, in sequence next to its gas-fired Woodstone ovens.
That will enable them to expand their menu to include “a bunch of oven-baked appetizers,” Tacconelli said, including baked lasagna, meatballs, and stuffed peppers.
“I’m blessed,” he said; “I get up, I cook what I want.”
Tacconelli said he expects to open in Haddon Township in the first quarter of 2022, and is hiring a full staff for the new location.
“We’re looking to feed people and make people leave happy,” he said. “The only thing we care about is come in and have a good night out.”
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