Trenton-style pizza has come to New Hope.
Steven Calozzi, owner of the recently opened Russo’s Pizza in New Hope, grew up in Bristol and spent time with relatives in Hamilton, N.J. It was then that he fell in love with Trenton-style thin-crust pizza.
“I spent a lot of time in Chambersburg and Hamilton,” eating pizzas and watching them being made at the famous DeLorenzo’s Pizza restaurants. “They made it look so easy,” he said.
Before he opened his own pizza restaurants, first in Seattle and now Russo’s, he worked hard to create his own version with a perfect crust that would be crunchy on the outside and more pliable toward the center.
He succeeded, and uses that crust for all of his pies except for his thick-crust Sicilian. His pizzas include plain cheese pie; tomato pie; white pie with mozzarella and ricotta; meatball pie topped with homemade meatballs, margherita pie with fresh mozzarella and basil; New Yorker pie with sausage, hot peppers and ricotta; and Italiano with genoa salami and soppressata. All have sauce except the white pie, while the Sicilian gets mozzarella and sauce.
A variety of toppings are available including sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, fresh green peppers, roasted red peppers, onions, hot peppers, black olives, garlic, anchovies and clams.
Calozzi’s pizzas are typically Trenton-style with the cheese spread on the crust first, followed by his sauce, and baked so they have spots of charring on the crusts.
In addition to pizza he serves house salad, lasagna and homemade meatballs made using his family recipes. For dessert there are cannoli, which Calozzi makes using his personal recipe.
Calozzi and his wife, Jennifer, owned three restaurants in Seattle, but opted to return to their home turf after their son was accepted to a university on the East Coast. A pizzeria owner for many years, Calozzi learned how to cook from his mother and grandmother. He named his restaurant Russo’s in honor of his mother’s family.
The restaurant is easy to find, located in the circa 1900 former New Hope Town Hall. The Calozzis chose handmade Amish furniture for the restaurant to complement the building’s brick interior.
Eventually Calozzi hopes to be able to offer beer and wine, but in the meantime the restaurant is BYOB.
Calozzi has always practiced cleanliness in the workplace, but to reassure those who are concerned about the current national crisis regarding COVID-19 he washes his hands frequently in bleach water and has all work areas and tabletops cleaned frequently.
The restaurant will be serving takeout during the state-mandated closures designed to curtail COVID-19, and will resume table service when the preventive measures end.
RUSSO’S PIZZA
41 N. Main St., New Hope
267-740-2344, Facebook
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Fri., noon-9 p.m. Sat.-Sun.
Cost:
Pizzas $12-$36, salads $9, stromboli $13, calzone $14, lasagna $17.50.
Pizzas:
cheese, tomato, white meatball, Sicilian, margherita, New Yorker and Italiano.
BYOB for now
susan.yeske@gmail.com
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
