Carluccio's Makes Tough Decision to Close On-Site Dining

Carluccio's Coal Fire Pizza, one of South Jersey's favorite pizza places, has made the tough decision to close their dining room and outside table service for the foreseeable future, and will concentrate solely on take out and delivery.

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Carluccio's is facing the now-common Covid-19 restaurant dilemma of how to remain safe and profitable while staying within New Jersey's 25% occupancy Covid dining restrictions.

The former Dunkin Donuts store dining room space at Carlucci's, Rt. 9 and Tilton Road in Northfield, is extremely limited. That issue, coupled with October's colder weather, will soon make serving food on-site impractical.

This is an issue many South Jersey restaurants must be struggling with now.

Some local eateries have already begun installing outside heating and tenting systems to extend outdoor dining into the cold weather season. Anyone who has ever been in Carluccio's tiny, diagonal parking lot knows that's not a workable plan for them.

So, Carluccio's, the South Jersey restaurant that Guy Fieri fawned over on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-in's and Dives", and a place I count as one of my three local favorites for pizza (you MUST try their Grandma's Pie), will have rely on takeout and delivery to survive for the time being.

This damn pandemic is starting to get on my nerves.