Any time of day at Mario & Salvo’s Pizza in DeWitt, you can witness a line, that stretches to the door, with athletes, parents, and high-schoolers hungry for an after-school slice.
By the time he reached eighth grade, he already knew what his calling was and wrote it in a school journal.
“I was an eighth grader…I looked at a journal and I said, I’d like to be a pizza maker, and I end up being a pizza maker,” Mario recalled.
That dream stuck.
Mario and Salvo worked at Pavone’s Pizza together before they teamed up and became business partners in 1992.
With guidance from family and friends at Pavone’s, where they both learned the ins and outs of pizza making, they were ready to open their own shop.
Salvo retired just before the pandemic. Today, Mario runs the pizzeria with his brother Gus, while his daughter and longtime employees help tackle the many orders they get per day.
Mario and Salvo used what they knew from working at Pavones and made their mark in the Syracuse food scene by keeping things simple: Neapolitan thin-crust and Sicilian thicker-crust pies made with quality flour, cheese, and more toppings.
In recent years, their “Grandma” pizza, a square-shaped pie, earned awards and became one of their most popular slices in the shop.
“When you start with a good product, you end up with a good product,” Mario said.
The good food is not the only thing that stays consistent at Mario & Salvo’s. It is the people who have made this place a neighborhood hotspot.
Students from nearby schools likeNottingham High School,Manlius Pebble Hill School, and Jamesville-DeWitt High School have been going to Mario and Salvo’s for an after-school bite for decades.
“Kids have been coming here… since they were little, from high school, and then now they continue to come back, Mario said.”
Many of them stuck around as employees, growing older every day behind the counter before bringing in their own children years later.
DiMarco explained that the relationships built over the years are what make the work worthwhile.
“We have a lot of regular people that have been coming here since the beginning…and sometimes they even remind me that they’re one of the first customers…It’s great to see that. Then you build friendships with customers.”