In 1918, Giovanni Tacconelli traveled from his hometown of Chieti, Italy to Philadelphia. After a few years working as a laborer, he decided to do what he’d done in his native land – bake bread. The best and only way to do so, he said, was to bake it in a brick oven. So, along with a few of his friends, he built a 20′ x 20′ brick oven. The bread business went well until the outbreak of WWII, at which time his sons all of whom had helped him run the family business were drafted into military service. With no one around to help him, Giovanni had no choice but stop baking bread.

In 1946, with everyone home from the war, Giovanni had an idea! rather than simply make bread, he decided to use his massive brick oven to make Old World “tomato pies”, a skill his mother had taught him many years before. A skill that in time he would pass on to his own son, Anthony.

In 1998, after decades of operating an award-winning restaurant, Anthony and Sylvia’s son, Vince and his wife Barbara Tacconelli decided to retire. They entrusted their business, which by now had become a Philadelphia institution, to their younger son, Vince, Jr. Vince and his wife Doris would successfully operate the pizzeria for the next five years, from 1998 – 2002.

In 2003, Vince decided it was time to take Tacconelli’s to the next level. That’s when he and Doris opened a second Tacconelli’s Pizzeria closer to their home in Maple Shade, NJ.  In 2023, the Tacconelli’s opened their 2nd location in Haddon Twp. with Vince Jr. at the helm.

Some things, though, never change: at Tacconelli’s you’ll find Vince Jr. making the same freshly baked, award-winning pizzas he made at Tacconelli’s Philadelphia. The ingredients, and even most of the cooks, are the same.