The new Johnny’s Pizza in Strafford Shopping Center near DiBruno Bros. was awaiting a sign earlier this week. (At right) Owner Johnny Bisceglie opened his Bryn Mawr location without a sign either. “Bryn Mawr got way too busy, we were fully staffed with two good managers and I was, like, it’s time to grow,” Bisceglie explains.
It’s an established Main Line quirk: locals rarely cross the Blue Route.
That’s why a second Johnny’s Pizza in Wayne – just 4.4 miles from the bustling Bryn Mawr original – isn’t a self-sabotaging act of cannibalization.
It makes sense.
“At first I thought it was way too close,” confesses owner Johnny Bisceglie. “But I drove it and the traffic gets kind of crazy.”
Plus, Wayne’s a bigger town, he says, filled with hungry families and students who won’t drive 20 minutes for pizza, no matter how stellar.
His instincts were spot-on. Even without a sign, the Wayne location sold out of pizza last weekend.
No surprise, really. Just 30 years young, Bisceglie hasn’t made a bad move yet. (Look out, Margate. He’s eyeing you next.)
While pizza has been his passion, Bisceglie’s cheesesteaks have garnered more laurels. They were crowned Best of the Main Line in 2024 and just made The 76, the Inquirer’s list of 76 eateries that best define the Philly food scene, keeping pace with the likes of Kalaya and Vetri Cucina.
“I wanted to emulate the best: Angelo’s in South Philly and Steve’s Prince of Steaks in the Northeast,” Bisceglie explains.
Johnny’s $17 steaks feature mounds of flavorful shaved rib-eye, Cooper sharp cheese (Whiz is an option), fried onions that are intentionally grilled with the steak, and a seeded artisanal roll, toasted precisely so it never gets soggy.
As for pizza, Bisceglie uses only top-shelf ingredients like hand-crushed tomatoes and hand-ripped basil. Proportions are consistent, technique exacting.
Pies are proofed, thrown, dressed and baked with precision.
Thin-crust rounds and Brooklyn-style square pizzas at Johnny’s Pizza. Top sellers are the plain (bottom), the white pizza with lemon ricotta, caramelized onions and sesame seed crust (at top), and the pepperoni with hot honey. Orders are evenly split between rounds and square pan pizzas.
Johnny Bisceglie started his pizza career as an 18-year-old pie slinger at Santucci’s in Warminster. He didn’t get serious about the biz until his mid-20s when he took a job at Brooklyn’s ballyhooed “Best Pizza” just so he could learn from iconic owner Frank Pinella. For six months, he commuted from Philly because he couldn’t afford a place in NYC.
Three years ago, he was went for it. “Dead broke” and living with his grandmother, he agreed to take over the old Pizzi Pizza in Bryn Mawr. “I didn’t even have a sign out front because I couldn’t afford one.”
Without “knowing a soul on the Main Line,” he signed a lease, painted the walls, and, nauseous with nerves, opened a week later. “I was throwing up the night before,” he offers.
In three years, Johnny’s Pizza at 1025 Lancaster Ave. in Bryn Mawr has become a local institution. About 80 percent of sales are takeout. Dine-in guests are given markers to scroll a few words on the walls.
That first day, Johnny’s sold three pies.
Busceglie remembers coming home to microwaved leftovers and telling his grandmother he’d sold 10 pizzas that day. “That’s better than yesterday, Johnny,” she’d say, to buck him up.
Over time, word got around that Johnny’s humble storefront was pushing out some not-so-humble pies.
“It was a slow, slow climb,” Bisceglie says.
Five pizzas became 10 and ten became 20. Today, the Bryn Mawr store can easily crank out 175 pizzas or more.
Faced with long waits and chronic sellouts, Johnny’s suspended online orders and asked callers to specify a pickup time. Regulars know to call early to snag a coveted weekend slot.
On a recent Thursday night, eight cooks and counter clerks are needed to fulfill scores of pre-orders. A recent rave article by Inquirer food critic Craig LaBan only added to Johnny’s lore.
With new ovens and more space, the new Wayne location should be able to pump out even more pies than Bryn Mawr, Bisceglie says. He might even try a pasta and wine night, perhaps in partnership with neighboring DiBruno Bros. He’s tried out-of-state summer popups and his next stop might just be the Jersey shore.
Go, go, Johnny go. Johnny be good.
Johnny’s, 1025 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, 610-525-4811, is open Tues., Wed., Thurs. 11 a.m – 8:30 p.m; Fri. & Sat., 11 to 9, and Sundays 11 to 8:30. Sandwiches from $16; Pizzas from $24.
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