Declining Pizza Chain Closes Its Last-Remaining NJ Restaurant

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ — It's the end of an era for a once-booming pizzeria's New Jersey presence. The state's last-standing Bertucci's eatery, which operated in Mount Laurel, has shuttered.

Bertucci's Oven Pizza & Pasta closed several New Jersey stores in recent months and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last December. 42 Freeway reported the Sicklerville location's closure in October, while the Marlton restaurant shuttered in December.

The Mount Laurel eatery was in the East Gate Square shopping complex on Nixon Drive, which includes Home Depot and ShopRite.

The chain of sit-down Italian eateries launched in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1981 and rapidly expanded in the 1990s. But Bertucci's has fallen from nearly 100 locations to 26 — only eight of which are outside of Massachusetts.

Bertucci's first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2018, with plans to close about half of its restaurants and auction off the remainder of the company. The company found a new owner the following June, agreeing on a $20 million acquisition from Earl Enterprises, which owns Planet Hollywood.

The chain still has a few eateries within driving distance of South Jersey — in Springfield and Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania, and Newark, Delaware.