Joe's Pizza III Offers A Slice of Something Unique in West Long Branch

By Christopher Sheldon

Whenever you walk into Joe's Pizza III, you're bound to find something you didn't see their the last time.

The West Long Branch pizzeria, located at 230 Wall St., features traditional and unique types of pizza ranging from plain and sicilian to meatball parmigiana and buffalo chicken pizza.

"If you drive three miles, you pass up to five pizzerias," Anthony Mercatante, son of owner Joe Mercatante, said. "You have to do something that will set yourself apart from them."

Anthony said he and his co-workers come up with the ideas for many of the unique pizzas.

"Once you start thinking, the ideas just come to you," he said. "You'll make something for yourself for lunch and then you'll say to yourself 'this will be great on pizza'."

Joe's Pizza III also serves traditional Italian dinners, salads and sandwiches. It also has some non-traditional sandwiches such as garlic knot sandwiches that are filled with everything from pulled pork to friend chicken cutlets.

"We're a little underrated as far as a restaurant goes because of our limited seating, but we have a great chef," Anthony said. "We do seafood dinners, we make our own bread, which is a staple of ours. We bake our bread daily, a couple times a day so it's always fresh."

Joe's Pizza III is the third restaurant opened by Joe. He opened Joe's Pizza in Flemington in 1992 (and recently sold it to family friends), Joe's Pizza II in Wall in 2004 and Joe's Pizza III in 2008.

Joe said he has been using fresh ingredients and the same recipes for years.

"A lot of people try to cut corners and use cheaper ingredients, but we don't and we've used the same ingredients since day 1," Joe said. "We take a lot of pride in our quality of ingredients."

Joe moved to the United States from Calabria Italy when he was 18 and started working in restaurants.

"I immediately developed a passion for food and since then I've been in the business," Joe said. "I've brought back all my favorite recipes from Calabria."

Joe's wife Christine Mercatante also helps come up with some of the recipes. Anthony said she cooks many of the same things for the restaurant that she does at home such as lasagna. 

"She cooks here like she cooks at home," Anthony said. "Our sauce, all the Italian staples such as lasagna, meatballs, those are all her recipes which of course comes from grandma."

Joe's Pizza III is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday-Sunday. They also offer delivery and catering.

Check out their website at www.myjoespizza.com to see more of their dishes, directions and information about their business.