Our Story
From a backyard stand to a Springfield staple—built on family, fire, and plenty of sauce
Since 1889, our family has been serving Springfield, OH.
CATANZARO’S PIZZA & SUBS: OUR STORY
A Family Legacy Since 1887.
In 1887, my grandfather Frank Catanzaro left Italy and came to America with nothing but his heritage, his hands, and the knowledge passed down through generations.
In 1889, his wife Grace arrived, and together they made Springfield, Ohio their home.
Frank opened a small produce stand at the Springfield City Market, beginning a family tradition of hard work, quality, and service that lasted more than a century.
A Family Built on Food & Hard Work
Frank and Grace raised a large family:
Josephine, Joseph, Venicia, Rosaro (Russell), Antonina (Nina), Antonio (Tony), and Cosmas (Coe).
The sons worked beside their father at the market, learning the produce trade through early mornings, long days, and pride in doing things the right way.
From 1889 to 1996, the Catanzaro family operated at the City Market — one of Springfield’s longest‑running family businesses.
After the War: A New Chapter
After returning from World War II, my father Russell, along with my uncles Tony and Coe, opened Catanzaro Bros. at 433 Dayton Avenue.
It was a fruit market — with something new for Springfield something they thought would be something they thought their friends would love:
Pizza.
In 1973, the produce business being stronger at the time, the brothers paused the pizza operation to focus solely on produce. The business flourished.
A Son Steps In
I was born in 1959, and from childhood I worked beside my father.
In January 1977, the day I graduated high school, he made me his business partner.
We worked together until his passing in 1991.
Those years taught me discipline, loyalty, and the responsibility of carrying a family name built on generations of sacrifice.
The World Changes — And So Did We
By the late 1980s, big chain stores began pushing into produce. For decades, they hadn't shown much interest, they focused on meat and employed numerous butchers in-house. Fruit and vegetables were labor intensive and highly perishable, so the chains stayed away, allowing fruit markets like ours to thrive. in the latter part of the 70's they decided to get interested in fresh produce. Small family operations were being squeezed. I saw what was coming, and I knew we had to evolve again.
The Return Of the Food
So I did what my grandfather did in 1887, and what my father did after the war:
I reinvented our family’s future.
Without culinary school or corporate training — just passion, instinct, and heritage — I stepped back into the food business.
My goal was simple:
Create food that means something.
Food that brings back memories — and creates new ones.
Every pizza and every submarine sandwich is made with the same spirit my grandfather brought from Italy and the same pride my father taught me.
The Birth of Today’s Catanzaro’s Pizza & Subs
My father taught me to treat the people that patronize and support our shop as your guests not as customers.
I don’t call the people who walk through our doors “customers.”
They’re friends — friends who have supported me, trusted me, and helped continue a legacy nearly 140 years in the making.
A Legacy Still Growing
Catanzaro’s is more than a Pizza Shop.
It is a story of immigration, family, sacrifice, reinvention, and community.
A story of a family that refused to quit.
A family that adapted, evolved, and kept its heart in the same place — Springfield, Ohio.
Today, every bite of our pizza or submarine sandwich carries that history forward.
It carries heritage.
It carries memory.
It carries the next chapter of a story still being written.
— Joseph Catanzaro
