Meet the Makers: A&M Pizzeria
From Family Roots to Fresh Market: The A&M Pizzeria Story
Some businesses are built on a great idea. Others are built on something deeper: on family, on pride, and on a commitment to doing things right, every single time. A&M Pizzeria is the latter.
The name itself tells the story. A&M stands for two families, the Amatos and the Manninos, whose combined passion for great food laid the foundation for everything the business has become. When Vito Amato, Salvatore Amato, Giovanni Amato, and Salvatore Mannino came together to build something, they did it the way families do: with shared values, shared work, and a shared belief that quality isn't something you compromise on.
That belief has guided A&M Pizzeria since 1980, when the business first began serving Lancaster and Lebanon County with one simple mission: quality above everything.
It All Starts with the Bread
Ask anyone who's grown up in Lebanon County about A&M, and chances are the first thing they'll mention isn't the pizza. It's the bread.
Crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and made the same way it's always been made: from scratch, using traditional methods passed down through generations. The recipe has remained essentially unchanged for over 40 years, and that's entirely intentional. Salvatore Amato, one of the original founders, learned the art of bread-making in Italy and brought that knowledge and that standard with him. His philosophy is simple: good food starts with good bread, especially in Italian cuisine.
The right flour. The right rise. Consistency across seasons and decades. These aren't details A&M overlooks; they're the whole point.
That bread serves as the foundation for everything on the menu: the pizzas, the sandwiches, the dinners. It's become so woven into the fabric of local dining that it's credited with inspiring an entire culture of Italian food in the Lebanon County area. When a restaurant's bread becomes a landmark in its own right, you know they're doing something right.
A Second Generation Steps In
Anthony Amato didn't just inherit the family business. He earned his place in it. Starting in 1994, he worked his way through every part of the operation, learning the craft from the ground up the way it's meant to be learned: hands-on, day by day, alongside the people who built it.
That kind of experience leaves its mark. When Anthony purchased his first location in Manheim in 2021, he carried with him more than two decades of know-how and a deep respect for what the A&M name represents. From there, he expanded the business to Palmyra, Ephrata, and now Hershey, each new location a reflection of the same standards the founding families established more than four decades ago.
Growth, for Anthony, has never meant cutting corners. It's meant bringing the same quality to more people.
The Name of Quality
A&M Pizzeria has a tagline that's stood the test of time: "The Name of Quality, then, now, and always." It's a simple phrase, but it carries real weight when you consider the story behind it.
Four decades of serving the same communities. A second generation carrying the torch. A bread recipe that hasn't needed to change because it was right from the beginning.
That's what guests experience when they stop by A&M Pizzeria here at Fresh Market at Hershey Towne Square. Not just a slice, but a piece of something that's been built carefully, over many years, by people who genuinely care.
Come taste the tradition for yourself.