Mama’s Meatballs has reopened at 2673 Haddonfield Road in Pennsauken under new ownership. The take-out & delivery brick & mortar restaurant and the popular food truck were sold to Joseph and Katherine Argento in June and reopened on July 31 adding pizza and hoagies to the menu.
“I’ve been in the pizza business my whole life,” said Joseph Argento, 34, of Marlton told South Jersey Food Scene. “I started working in my grandparent’s pizzeria when I was 8 years old and started making pizza when I was 13. They owned many pizza shops going back for 40 years when they emigrated from Sicily. Pizza is my passion because it’s always been my family’s business.” Some locations owned by other family members in Pottstown, PA, and Boyertown, PA remain in business.
Katherine and Joseph, both originally from PA, had been in living in South Jersey when they married in 2016. In 2017, they moved to Wyomissing, PA in Berks County, and opened Argento’s Pizza Palace in rural Richland, PA in Lebanon County. Earlier this year, they made the decision to sell the restaurant and move back to South Jersey.
“Katherine wanted to get back into the business and initially wanted to open a food truck. I wanted to open a storefront in Marlton, but that fell through. So, when we heard that Mama’s Meatballs was for sale, we felt it was exactly what we were both looking for,” Argento said.
As parents to five children, they are putting down roots in South Jersey and have big plans for Mama’s Meatballs & Pizzeria. In addition to adding pizza and hoagies to the menu, there are many new items in the research and development stage, including brand-new meatballs. They are keeping the exact details close to the chest for now, but promise not to change the originals that made Mama’s gourmet meatballs so famous.
“We plan to introduce some new meatball recipes, styles of topping them, and sauces to offer a variety of options for people,” Argento noted.
Joseph is also looking to perfect his pizza-making skills and learning better methods of dough fermentation. He is seeking to become certified in the Neapolitan technique of making pizza by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the official professional organization of Naples-style pizza.
“I am working towards becoming part of the USA pizza team and competing on a national level with my recipes and creations,” Argento proudly stated.
The pizza menu features a large selection of gourmet 16″ New York pies, and 16″x16″ Sicilian and Grandma-style pizzas. (Editor’s note: we tried the “Jumpin Juju” which is a tomato pie featuring a savory tomato sauce and chewy crust and it was delicious!)
Each meatball order features four balls served in a bowl with sauce, arugula, and shaved parmesan along with a salad or it can be ordered as a regular meatball sandwich with sauce, arugula, and parm (“Big Mama”) or Parm-style with sauce, shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan served on a rustic, seeded roll.
There are seven hoagies from “Mama’s Deli” to choose from or you can build your own.
A few salads and sides such as arancini, garlic knots, stuffed long hots, pepper shooters, Sicilian potato salad, tortellini salad, chicken tenders, and fries round out the menu.
The food truck is booked for a few socially distant events until the winter, and they have high hopes for the food truck, too.
“We have a grand vision for Mama’s Meatballs & Pizzeria. We don’t only want to be known as the best pizza in Pennsauken, but in the nation.”
2673 Haddonfield Road
Pennsauken, NJ 08110
856-488-5253
Monday-Saturday 11AM – 8 PM
Closed Sunday for Church & Family Dinner
Marilyn is a freelance writer covering the food and drink scene of South Jersey. You can find more of her writing on Philly Grub and NewsBreak.