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.
The five-year runway between that initial announcement and the planned October debut reflects more than just slow construction. It tracks with the extensive equipment customization, building acquisition, and recipe testing the Cusumano family undertook, according to the Inquirer's reporting. Real estate records reviewed by Redfin show the 1,794-square-foot building at 872 Haddon Ave., constructed in 1910, was purchased in May 2022 for $135,000 — the permanent brick-and-mortar footprint Cusumano and his father sought in Collingswood.
Joining a Crowded Pizza Corridor
Pizzeria Cusumano is entering one of Camden County's most competitive dining strips. Haddon Avenue already hosts a dense cluster of established pizza destinations including Bricco Coal-Fired, Stella, Cafe Antonio II, Treno, and Finizio's Italian Eatery, spanning Collingswood, Haddon Township, and Haddonfield, per the Inquirer. In February 2023, the Tacconelli family added to that lineup by opening a second location of Tacconelli's Pizzeria at 164 N. Haddon Ave. in neighboring Haddon Township, expanding their multi-generational pizza legacy just minutes from Collingswood.
The corridor's identity is also shaped by Collingswood's unusual liquor rules. The borough has enforced a prohibition on retail alcohol sales for more than a century, rooted in its Quaker origins, which has produced the town's signature BYOB dining culture where patrons bring their own drinks. That could be changing: in June 2026, borough commissioners began evaluating a potential ballot referendum to repeal the dry-town status.
Economic Pressures Along Haddon Avenue
Any shift in alcohol rules would land amid real financial strain for restaurants in town. Local operators along Haddon Avenue reported this summer that rising labor, ingredient, and packaging costs, combined with reduced weekday evening foot traffic, have severely tightened profit margins across the corridor, according to Hoodline. That squeeze recently pushed one nearby restaurant, Kitchen Consigliere, into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Against that backdrop, Pizzeria Cusumano is betting on differentiation rather than volume — a single-focus pizza concept built around imported equipment and years of dough research, rather than the broad menus common along the strip. With the neon sign already lit and the ovens being prepped, Collingswood diners should have a clearer sense of when they can finally taste the results once Cusumano locks in a firm opening date this fall.
