I lived in NJ for 9 years and met my wife there. You’re right about the pizza. We lived in the then small town of Clinton and Pizza Como was our favorite. We went back for the first time in 24 years a few years ago.
We got our pizza, and unbeknowst to us when we got there, it was our last ever. They were closing down the next day after 40(?) years of being in business.
You weren’t to far from the city. Great pizzas in NJ and NY. Sorry to hear about Pizza Como.
When I was 16, I dated the daughter of a Sicilian, who came out of Jersey. He would drive to NJ and personally select his cheeses.
Made NY style thin crust - excellent, but at 16 a whole pizza was excellent no matter. She and I lasted 2 months when summer was over and she went back to her previous boyfriend. I remained friends with her and her family. She and her husband run a restaurant in far upstate NY that he father started, and her father’s recipe lives on.
His pizza was excellent. But the best pizza I ever had was when I lived in Montreal in late 70s, early 80 - two Italian brothers who could barely speak English or French. They had a thicker crust style.
There’s something about pizzas from NJ and NY. Even when they relocate/expand and open another restaurants in the Carolinas, or Atlanta or Florida ... it doesn’t have the same taste. Some say it’s the the oven, others say it’s the water.