A Delaware beach institution known for pizzas topped with a distinctive swirl of sauce and cheese has planted its westernmost flag yet in Central Pennsylvania. Grotto Pizza opened its newest restaurant on September 15 at 1515 Lititz Pike in Manheim Township, inside the Shoppes at The Pointe shopping center, bringing the chain's thick-crust pies and sports bar setup closer to Harrisburg-area diners.
The new restaurant occupies a 4,900-square-foot suite and includes a sports bar, according to leasing details from Bennett Williams Commercial, the brokerage that handled the lease. As PennLive reports, the Manheim Township location is the chain's westernmost restaurant to date and its first foothold in Central Pennsylvania, a milestone for a brand that has spent decades building loyalty among Pennsylvania beachgoers who vacation along the Delaware shore.
Getting the doors open required more than a lease signing. A proposed liquor-license transfer to the Lititz Pike address went before the township board at a public hearing, according to records from the Manheim Township Board of Commissioners.
A Brand Built on an Accidental Swirl
Grotto Pizza traces its roots to a stand founded in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in 1960 by Dominick Pulieri along with Mary Jean and Joseph Paglianite, per PennLive's reporting. The chain expanded from Paglianite's pizzeria in Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania, and today it's known for sports bars and thick-crust pizzas topped with the brand's signature sauce-and-cheese swirl. That look wasn't originally intentional — according to Edible Delmarva, early line cooks stopped crosshatching sauce over the cheese, and the swirl simply stuck as the chain's trademark presentation.
Pulieri was 17 when he co-founded the stand, selling whole pizzas for $1.60 and slices for 20 cents, according to historical details reported by PMQ Pizza. He hit his first $100 sales day on July 2, 1960 — his 18th birthday, per the same account. Pulieri taught biology, general science and chemistry in the Smyrna Special School District from 1965 through 1970. For more than a decade the business stayed strictly seasonal, only converting Grotto into a year-round operation in 1974.
New Ownership Fuels the Westward Push
The Manheim Township opening comes on the heels of a major ownership shift. Grotto Pizza announced a change in ownership along with the expansion into southeastern Pennsylvania, and PennLive reports that Jeffrey Gosnear and three partners bought a majority stake in the chain, purchasing 17 Grotto Pizza locations as part of the deal. The Cape Gazette's reporting on the sale describes Gosnear as majority owner and president leading the buyout by four long-serving executives.
PennLive's report confirms that Grotto Pizza PA operates three restaurants in northeastern Pennsylvania as a separate company.
Site Chosen for Its Traffic and Neighbors
The Shoppes at The Pointe, where the new restaurant now sits, is a 70,135-square-foot retail center along Lititz Pike and Oregon Pike, a stretch where combined daily traffic counts exceed 41,000 vehicles, according to Bennett Williams Commercial's leasing materials. Neighboring tenants at the center include Planet Fitness, Pet Supplies Plus, and Chase Bank, the same materials show.
Grotto Pizza now operates restaurants across Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, per PennLive's reporting. The Delaware-based company operates the Lancaster restaurant and 17 other locations, while three northeastern Pennsylvania restaurants are operated by a separate Pennsylvania company, according to the report. The chain operates during both the peak summer tourist season and the off-season.
Hours at the New Manheim Township Location
The Manheim Township restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, according to PennLive. It's closed Mondays. The report comes from PennLive dining reporter Sue Gleiter, who has covered the Central Pennsylvania restaurant scene and beyond for more than 25 years.
