St. Joe’s alumni run family pizza business.
Two St. Joe’s alumni are carrying on the legacy of their family’s pizza business with a new location they opened in spring 2018 in Roxborough.
Santucci’s Original Square Pizza has a following so loyal, some of its customers won’t eat pizza from anywhere else. Alicia Santucci ’08 and Frank Santucci Jr. ’13 are counting on that loyalty to boost their family’s third venture at 6164 Ridge Ave.
The original Santucci’s dates back to 1959 when the late Joseph and Philomena Santucci opened a pizza joint in Juniata Park.
In 1976, their son, Frank Santucci Sr., took over the business so his parents could retire. Eventually, the original storefront closed and two more locations opened over the years in Philadelphia. Frank Santucci Sr.’s three children, Alicia, Anthony and Frank Jr., are all involved in the family business.
Santucci’s Original Square Pizza is famous for its twist on the classic slice. The signature style is a square pie with cheese on the bottom and the sauce on the top.
The Santucci family believes that when it comes to making pizza, people come back for consistency, which is why their secret family recipe has stayed exactly the same since Joseph Santucci created it.
A marketing major at St. Joe’s, Alicia Santucci worked after graduating from college as an event coordinator for a company in Center City before deciding she wanted to jump into the family business.
Santucci said despite changing her career path, the student loans and the college experience were worth it.
“Some people mock that I went to college and then ended up in the family business,” Santucci said.
Santucci attributes a lot of her success as a business owner to her time at St. Joe’s. She said one of the the most valuable lessons she learned is that you never know how the people you meet will play a role in your future.
“I’ve met people who have happened to sit next to me on the first day of history class and those people have formulated into people who I do business with 10 years later,” Santucci said. “There are still professors who reach out to me who are good customers of ours.”
The decision behind opening the Roxborough location came from Alicia Santucci’s past experiences at St. Joe’s and from living as a college student in the area.
“I lived around here when I moved off campus,” Santucci said. “I knew this was a working class community and we would be able to find good help out here. I didn’t think the pizza in this area was competitive. I felt like there weren’t enough options. So, I knew it would be a good fit.”
For the St. Joe’s students living off campus in the Manayunk area, the convenience of the Roxborough location has made Santucci’s a go-to pizza place.
“When I found out about Santucci’s coming to Roxborough I was extremely happy,” Vince Luciano ’20 said. “Instead of going all the way to Broad Street, where I usually go, now I can easily walk to Santucci’s right up the road. It’s so much more convenient and now I’m able to get Santucci’s once a week.”
In fact, for Luciano, a northeast Philadelphia native, Santucci’s has always been a household name.
“Ever since I was little I remember my mom would always pick up Santucci’s on her way home from work and we would have it almost every Friday,” Luciano said. “I love how the cheese is on the bottom and the sauce is on the top, but the crispy crust is my favorite.”
Kate Branson ’19, a relative newcomer to Santucci’s, said that their style of pizza is unlike anything she has ever had before.
“Ever since my roommates brought me home a slice when the Roxborough location opened, we have it once every two weeks,” Branson said. “It’s basically its own food group in our house now.”
Santucci said her family intends to expand further, heading to the Jersey Shore some time in 2018.
