The moment you step through the wooden doors of Mama Santa’s in Cleveland’s Little Italy, you’re hit with an aroma so intoxicating it should come with a warning label – prepare to crave this pizza for the rest of your natural life.
This brick-faced cornerstone of Cleveland’s culinary landscape isn’t trying to be cool, trendy, or revolutionary – and that’s precisely what makes it perfect.
The vintage sign hanging above the entrance has become something of a beacon for pizza pilgrims seeking authentic Sicilian-style pies that have remained blissfully unchanged while food fads have come and gone.
Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood holds many treasures, but locals speak of Mama Santa’s with a reverence usually reserved for championship sports victories – which, if you know anything about Cleveland sports history, makes this restaurant all the more remarkable…