Have you found that perfect pizza parlor? The one where the moment you walk in, you're suddenly craving everything on the menu? Where four pizzas don't even feel like enough to satisfy your need? I know such a place and have experienced that same feeling.
Martellucci Pizza
I can barely say enough to describe my love for this place. Fortunately for me, the restaurant was only three blocks from the house I grew up in. That would be 18 years of amazing cheese, sauce and dough. I spent my childhood years being one of their most faithful patrons. To this day, my family and I still talk of ordering a large cheese pizza and two appetizers - mozzarella sticks and pierogies.
If the pizza itself wasn't fantastic enough, the service and atmosphere is what brought me back year after year, week after week. The two owners, Rita and Paul, are both originally from Italy. Rita is from Rome while Paul is from Italy. Ironically, it was not until they immigrated to the United States, took up residence in Bethlehem, PA that they met each other. While attempting to learn English they met at the local high school. The rest is, as they say, history. For the past 35 years, the two have made dough, prepped sauce, served pizza and greeted guests with more hospitality then some people find at home.
After years of being simply a patron, I reached the age where employment was an option. It was an opportunity I'm so grateful I didn't pass down. Rita and Paul are some of the most wonderful people I've ever had the chance to know. Working there, I became part of the Martellucci family. Nearly half of our patrons were considered regulars. I remember one Saturday night (my favorite night of the week to work), after almost everyone left we served cake and ice cream for Fran's birthday. She and her husband ate there every Saturday night, long before I started working there. We stayed late that night and they even helped us close up.
Some of my favorite memories of my hometown were at that restaurant. Bringing some of my closest friends there for the first time, stopping there on the night of my high school prom, learning to make a pizza on my last night, hanging out in the kitchen on slow nights. I'm hoping to visit again in January if for nothing more than a hug and large cheese pizza!
