Since it opened in mid-September, Joe’s Pizza has been challenging customer loyalty to nearby pizzerias. Here’s why that might be good for everyone.
CAMBRIDGE — When Ron Sullivan organized his bi-annual Trial Advocacy Workshop, an intensive course teaching trial skills at Harvard Law School, pizza wasn’t on his mind. But in January, as the professor scurried around the Sheraton Commander Hotel, where his out-of-town colleagues were staying, he noticed a lot of boxes from Harvard Square’s buzziest restaurant.
“They literally seem addicted to Joe’s [Pizza],” Sullivan said of his colleagues. “They order it to the hotel so they have it late-night as an after-dinner snack.”
Since it opened in mid-September, Joe’s Pizza, which slings New York-style slices and originally hails from Greenwich Village, has been challenging customer loyalty to nearby pizzerias, including Sicilian-style Pinocchio’s Pizza & Subs. Despite Joe’s “wonderful reputation,” Sullivan has yet to try it out of fealty to Pinocchio’s, which has been serving Ivy Leaguers (and everyone else) since 1966.
“I feel like I’d be cheating or something if I tried another pizza,” he said.
Pinocchio’s owner Adam DiCenso, whose family purchased the shop in 1984, said the business has recovered after taking an initial dip when Joe’s opened just a few blocks away.
“When they first opened, we definitely noticed a little bit of a drop in our business. There was so much hype around it,” he said. “But honestly after three weeks or a month, we kind of felt like things went back to normal.”
Joe’s took over the site of &pizza, a Washington D.C.-based pizza chain that shuttered after a three-year run. Mfonsio Andrew, a sophomore at Harvard, said many students trekked to the New York import, which is just steps from the Harvard MBTA stop, during the first few weeks of the school year.
“It was actually insane,” she said. “The lines were out the door for Joe’s Pizza.”
But after the initial hubbub waned, Andrew noticed factions emerging along geographic lines: upperclassmen near the Charles River remained loyal to Pinocchio’s, while freshmen supported Joe’s, which is just steps from their dorms in Harvard Yard. “There’s a large division,” she said. “For convenience purposes, most upperclassmen who are on the river still just go to [Pinocchio’s].”
The new pizzeria also gave freshmen an after-hours hangout spot, according to Harvard freshman Olivia Zhang. Although Zhang believes a majority of first-years prefer Joe’s (herself included), she said students old enough to remember life before Joe’s tend to support Pinocchio’s.
“Upperclassmen were very big on sticking to Pinocchio’s, and they all kind of boycotted Joe’s in a sense,” Zhang said.
Elise Pham, a Harvard sophomore, said Pinocchio’s long-standing ties to the area have given it an edge with undergraduates. “Students just love Pinocchio’s the most, I would say.”
Joe’s Pizza owner Joe Pozzuoli Jr. has taken the brand his father started to cities beyond the Big Apple, including Ann Arbor, Mich., and Miami. The New York-based owner zeroed in on Cambridge when he realized the demographics resembled the shop’s original New York location.
“It just seemed like a logical step because it is a college town, and we always do well with college students. We do very well with NYU students here in New York,” he said. “It almost had a neighborhood feel with college kids.”
Despite entrenched establishments like Pinocchio’s, which sells square slices and subs, Pozzuoli Jr. said he was undaunted about entering the market because of his experience in New York.
“Where we’re located in Greenwich Village, there’s lots of pizza places,” he said. “We find that certain areas become destinations. There’s a certain synergy of having multiple pizza places in the same area because then the area itself becomes known for good pizza.”
Whether Harvard Square will become a pizza destination remains to be seen, but Anthony Allen, the owner of Otto Pizza, located just steps from Joe’s, said it might be happening.
“We were concerned about our sales [but] our sales have actually not gone down,” said Allen, whose shop sells inventive slices, such as one loaded with butternut squash, cranberry, and ricotta. “It seems like people are just eating more pizza.”
Since Pinocchio’s arrived on Winthrop Street over half a century ago, plenty of Harvard Square pizza places have come and gone: Tommy’s House of Pizza, Uno Pizzeria, Cafe Aventura, Upper Crust Pizzeria, and The Just Crust, to name a few. Kevin O’Leary, the investor and Shark Tank panelist, has visited Joe’s and believes their prime location should help the store persevere.
“I think they’re turning so much,” said O’Leary, who used to live in Boston. “That’s what you want. You want every square foot active, turning that register.”
Joe’s, whose slim menu includes $4 cheese slices and $5 white slices, stays open later than Pinocchio’s, closing at 3 a.m. on the weekends. But Pozzuoli Jr. insisted the decision to keep serving into the wee hours wasn’t a chess move against the competition.
“We gained a reputation here in New York by being open later than most pizza businesses,” he said. “So it’s just part of our model. We tend to go a little bit later.”
It’ll take more than extended business hours to peel off regulars in the community beyond freshmen and tourists. Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman remains loyal to Pinocchio’s and wrote in an email that he hasn’t “broken ranks.” Others, like Moderna cofounder Robert Langer, who has eaten at Pinocchio’s for 50 years, are buoyed by the pizzeria’s enduring appeal.
“Nothing in the Boston area lasts for very long,” he said. “Pizza is even harder in my opinion.”
Despite a splintered customer base, Harvard Square’s pizza proprietors welcome the competition and refuse to disparage rival shops. DiCenso believes his store’s family-run ethos keeps customers piling inside the cramped, white-brick building.
“I’ve always felt that part of the magic, if you will, is those bonds that we formed with individual students,” he said. “We know their names, we know what they order. In recent years, I feel like that’s something that’s kind of lost in the whole thing here.”
