Mario s Pizza opens its third Winston-Salem location
Winston-Salem has gained a third Marioâs Pizza. The latest location opened April 8 at 266 Harvey St.
The restaurant is part of a small local chain that began about 40 years ago when two Italian-Americans decided to move from Brooklyn, N.Y., to North Carolina.
Tony Franzese, a native of Puglia, Italy, came down first, lured to Goldsboro in 1975 by a job with a pizza franchise. By 1982, he had opened his own Tonyâs Pizza in Jacksonville â and started talking to his childhood friend, Mario Alessio, about joining him.
âWe grew up on the same street in Brooklyn,â said Alessio, a native of Calabria, Italy.