Pizzeria Manninos- Pitman, NJ

Having grown up in Pitman, NJ, I have long been accustomed to eateries and businesses opening and closing in Pitman’s famous and ‘historic’ downtown.  The turnover of restaurants in this town seem to be like the changing a calendar each year.  There was little room for success in this conservative dry town notorious for “rolling up the sidewalk” and ending business hours prior to 8PM.  Then, earlier this year the borough counsel approves for Pitman’s first Brewery, Kelly Green, due to a loophole in state laws.  Pitman was able to legally sell alcohol for the first time in its history and the brewery has so far taken off in popularity.  Subsequently a second brewery will open its doors about 30 feet up Broadway from Kelly Green.  To add to the sustenance and libation trends in the region, Pitman witnessed the opening of Pizzeria Manninos in a decades-old corner building on the edge of Broadway. They are piggy-backing on the success of the brewery, staying open on the weekends an hour later than the brewery.

Pizzeria Manninos utilized a wood-fire oven and ages its dough is a style very similar to accomplished and authentic pizzerias in Philadelphia and New York.  On our first visit to Manninos we opted for three selections on the menu:  pesto, boardwalk and rustica. The boardwalk seemed to be the group favorite, being a standard cheese pizza with the exception of cheddar cheese as well as mozzarella. The cheddar didn’t seem overly noticeable, but more of a texture thing. The sauce is the standout of this pizza being the perfect amount of sweet (I hate when a sauce is too sweet but also hate it when its too acidic). The pesto was a nice white pizza  with oven roasted tomatoes. The pesto was plentiful but didn’t take away from the cheese. The over roasted tomatoes had a nice meaty flavor to them that was surprising. The rustica was still good but the least favored of the 3. The ricotta was amazing but the italian sausage didn’t’ seem to mesh as well with the cheeses as the other pizzas did.

Top to bottom:  Pesto, Boardwalk, Rustica

The last thing worth mentioning is a nice gelato selection, including affegato, a combo of vanilla gelato and espresso (also known as dessert heaven). They have multiple selections of homemade flavors worth trying, including a pretty awesome hazelnut.

Overall, this is a great spot for Pitman. Good pizza with even better hours of business in a place where business fails because of poor hours. More importantly, gourmet pizza is not a thing renown to South Jersey, so this is a place to be proud of.