COME SEE CUZ’
Cuzzie
& Lee
Tennessee Avenue and the Orange Loop was born from the dream of Mark Callazzo, a real estate developer, who fell in love with Atlantic City. Executive Chef Kevin Cronin and Mark had already made their mark on the Atlantic City food scene with their Albany Avenue speakeasy, The Iron Room. Known for pushing the limits of food and beverage, The Iron Room effectively drove Atlantic City’s culinary scene forward. Enter Lee J.D. Sanchez, the owner of STW Hospitality and former casino F&B Executive; the mastermind behind countless AC eateries and bars known for creating memorable dining experiences and award-winning beverage programs. The three joined forces to bring you Rhythm & Spirits, Bar 32 Chocolate, and now, Cuzzie’s Pizzeria & Kitchen.
“Cuzzie” or “Cuz,” is a term of endearment for a close friend or family member in Italian-American culture. A term Lee became all too familiar with while opening restaurants in Atlantic City and Las Vegas with Steve Martorano. In 2017, when Lee formed STW Hospitality, a lifestyle hospitality consulting firm, he took to the road with his new Miniature Schnauzer who he aptly named Cuzzie. Cuzzie and Lee have traveled the Northeast together opening and working with restaurants, pizzerias, and bars, to grow their businesses, to improve their service, and to make people smile.
Now, they return home to Tennessee Avenue where they join forces with Chef Kevin to deliver an exceptional quick service Italian-American concept, without the rules. Chef Kevin’s fresh globally inspired flavors will compliment, accentuate, and enhance traditional Italian-American fare. The pizza is thin and crispy with a special blend of mozzarella, manchego, and parmesan. The sauce is slow simmered to build flavor but remains unadulterated and delicious. The signature pies and sandwiches show that the two professionals, who love what they do, refuse to follow traditional rules. Our food is meant to make you happy - whether it be for lunch, sitting at the beach enjoying the sights and sounds, or at the dinner table surrounded by family and friends.
In The AC Weekly
Generally speaking, few things raise less of an eyebrow than a new pizzeria opening up shop in New Jersey. It’s not that we don’t all love the stuff, but there are just so many pizzerias … and most are basically clones of one another, putting out standard pies and subs with not much to speak of in the creativity department.
That’s why Cuzzie’s Pizzeria Kitchen in Atlantic City is so exciting!
Not content to be just another pizza joint, Cuzzie’s joins the ultra-creative lineup of restaurants on Tennessee Avenue in Atlantic City with an exciting menu of pizzas, entrees and sandwiches that nobody saw coming.
“I call it Italian-American with no rules,” says Lee Sanchez, the brains behind much of what you find on the menu at Cuzzie’s.
Sanchez runs STW Hospitality, the consulting group that has been crucial to the management and brand development of many of the most exciting restaurants and bars on Tennessee Avenue. He works hand-in-hand with owner Mark Callazzo and Executive Chef Kevin Cronin, who has made a name for himself at Callazzo’s former restaurant, The Iron Room, as well as at Rhythm & Spirits, located right next to Cuzzie’s.
“We wanted to break down the traditional barriers of what Italian food needs to be,” Sanchez says. “We sort of combined my mother’s approach to Italian-American cooking along with my and Chef Kevin Cronin’s approach to food overall. We worked on some of the things that our other restaurants were known for, such as The Iron Room’s mac ’n’ cheese sauce, which is now the cheese sauce we use on our cheesesteak at Cuzzie’s. So we are blending these ideas together in order to bring some really great food to the table.”
Unlike the other spots on the block, Cuzzie’s is designed mostly for grab -and-go. Those looking for a more refined, sit-down experience can still find many of their items on the menu at Rhythm & Spirits, but at Cuzzie’s the experience is stripped down while the food is dressed up.
“Our biggest challenge at Rhythm & Spirits was that we needed a bigger pizza oven,” Sanchez notes. “We wanted to take the pizza to the next level, but we were really out of room. But we owned the space next door that used to be the Iron Room coffee shop, so we decided to build a massive, custom-made brick oven with an open flame in there. That space became Cuzzie’s, and it allows us to offer our pizza in a grab-and-go fashion. It’s a perfect place to stop if you are walking down the street to the beach and you want a quick slice.”
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