It’s the Tok of New Jersey.
Every day, 25-year-old Salvatore Mandreucci works hard behind the counter at Marcello’s Pizza-Grill, a 20-year-old institution outside of Trenton.
But on TikTok and Instagram, Mandreucci is better known as SallySlices, where his combined 4 million social media followers could make him America’s most famous pizza maker.
Its content is both impenetrable and sincere. Mandreucci leans his phone against the kitchen wall, recording his daily shifts. A melancholic Spanish anthem plays in the background while a short melancholic caption appears on screen. “Be a good person, but don’t waste your time proving it,” it reads. He has hundreds of videos like this – Italian food and existential good words. Mandreucci’s TikTok bio reads “CEO of Inspiration,” and over the past year, that role has transformed him into a superstar.
“[When I started TikTok] I said to my dad, “Look, I have 6,000 subscribers”. Do you know what he told me? ‘Those are bulls-t.’ But the next week I had 20,000 and saw his behavior change. And once I hit 50,000, he started to understand the value of social media,” Mandreucci told The Post in his Pesci-esque Jersey accent.
“My dad was my biggest supporter. Every day we have people coming from different states,” he continued, noting that his fame on TikTok has been great for Marcello’s, located in a mall in Hamilton Square. “California, Texas, Florida. They’re doing something else in the area and come see us.
The restaurant receives 25 calls a day from fans seeking to speak to him, forcing Mandreucci to avoid the phone altogether. So how did the guy behind the oven at a family pizzeria — Mandreucci’s father is a first-generation Sicilian immigrant — come to share representation with Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk and the lightweight UFC Charles Oliveira?
It certainly helps that Mandreucci is both tall and cute. He evokes a bright-eyed Ray Liotta at the start of “Goodfellas”, or a younger, kinder Nicolas Cage. Mandreucci’s triceps flex as he crushes the dough and drizzles with olive oil, a fact acknowledged by the many thirsty commenters of his uploads – “Sauce my pizza anytime,” it reads.
But other fans seem to be genuinely moved by his nostalgic inscriptions drifting over pepperoni pies — a content strategy that Mandreucci describes as combining “authentic pizzeria” work and “inspiration.” He’s been making deliveries and washing dishes since he was 16, and his father taught him the hard lessons of the old country.
“I’ve always had to deal with mental warfare. I felt left out when I was a kid. And over the years, I’ve gotten wiser,” Mandreucci said, explaining the hook for his videos. “I learned so much from what I went through as a kid. What if other people want to hear it?
While he first considers himself a pizza maker, Mandreucci is already expanding his footprint beyond that of Marcello. He sells products bearing the SallySlices logo on his website and has an acoustic ballad on Spotify called “A Man’s Mind”. (It has around 60,000 plays.)
Eventually, he hopes to turn his TikTok success into a movie career. And while it will certainly take him away from the family business, it’s a dream that his parents support.
“My parents are all for it. They want me to do what I love,” Mandreucci said. “My dad wants me out of the pizzeria, actually. He tells me he doesn’t want me breaking my ass like he has for the past 50 years.