A neon sign reading Welcome Home Pizza Lovers now hangs inside Pizzeria Cusumano at 872 A Haddon Ave. in Collingswood, where Sal Cusumano is preparing to open his long-awaited specialty pizza shop this October. The all-new spot sits beside the PATCO station, steps from the transit line that shuttles commuters between South Jersey and Philadelphia, and it caps a project that has been in development for several years.
According to 42 Freeway, Cusumano is putting on his chef’s jacket and firing up the ovens after years of planning, construction and recipe development, though an exact grand-opening date has not yet been announced. The outlet’s earlier coverage reported that Cusumano worked with a restaurant consultant to develop a specialized dough designed to be lighter and less filling than what his family has traditionally served. That consultant was Philadelphia pizza specialist Gregorio Fierro, hired back in 2017 to overhaul the family’s dough formulation — a project that led to a $12,000 investment in an Italian-made Esmach spiral mixer and specialized flour blends, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Cusumano is a third-generation pizzaiolo on both sides of his family and a member of the South Jersey pizza clan behind My Angelo’s Pizza, which has locations in West Berlin and Voorhees serving thin-crust, New York-style pies. Pizzeria Cusumano is named for his grandfather, Salvatore Calogero Cusumano, who emigrated from Italy in his 20s, the Inquirer’s historical reporting notes. The new shop is designed to move well beyond the family’s usual conveyor-oven style, with Cusumano developing a menu built around a single-category, artisanal format centered on an imported oven rather than the broader pasta-and-sandwich menus typical of South Jersey slice shops, according to NJ Pen.
A Recipe Years in the Testing
The dough itself has gone through extensive experimentation. Development plans included testing pan-style varieties such as rectangular Detroit-style pizzas and Roman-style pies with extended fermentation, per WhatNow Philadelphia — techniques prized for producing a light, airy crumb beneath a crisp crust. Pizzeria Cusumano first teased its existence with an Instagram post on September 16, 2021, and has since shared a teaser video building anticipation for the eventual opening…