Family working to rehab, open York pizza shop

York Daily Record

Nathan Shortlidge of Jackson Township and Nathaniel Small of North York work to measure underlayment for their future pizza shop on West Jackson Street in York. The best friends, who are also cousins by marriage, will serve New York-style pizza from their takeout restaurant NJ's Pizza, which they plan to open before the end of the summer.

When he first purchased the retail store on the corner of South Pershing Avenue and West Jackson Street, Nathaniel Small knew the York property was going to need a lot of work — “a complete gut,” he said.

But despite the tall task in front of him, Small isn’t nervous, he's excited. With help from his family, he's been rehabbing the shop with the hopes of opening NJ's Pizza just three months after he bought it.

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“You can own a building, but when you put the time, energy and sweat into making it your own, it’s a whole different experience,” Small said. “It makes it more of our own.”

Small and his cousin Nathan Shortlidge looked to open a shop in the Jackson Street neighborhood after falling in love with it while working at Yorktown Pizzeria, which resided at 161 W. Jackson St. for years.

“I love getting to see all the different faces,” Shortlidge said, adding that he liked building relationships with both neighborhood residents and college students.

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It’s the vibe of the neighborhood — and the atmosphere surrounding the shop — that have Small excited to open.

“It’s a lot of fun when there’s 50 people in the lobby talking and ordering,” Small said. “It’s amazing how busy it is.”

The exterior of NJ's Pizza on West Jackson Street is shown recently in York. Best friends Nathaniel Small and Nathan Shortlidge, who are also cousins by marriage, will serve New York-style pizza from their takeout restaurant NJ's Pizza, which they plan to open before the end of the summer.

Before the shop opens, however, Small and his crew have quite a bit of work to do. Contractors have already been working on the outside siding of the building and will lay down the interior tile floor.

Small, with help from family — including his cousin, a contractor by trade and a guide on the project — will have to put the shop back together including installing new equipment, finishing drywall and painting. They’ve already gotten rid of 15 truckloads of garbage and fixed pipes in the short time Small has owned the building.

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Despite the workload, Small hopes to open the shop by the end of June. For the York native, success would be “getting the doors open and doing what I love.”

“I’m not trying to get rich,” said Small, who hopes to give back to the surrounding community with charity fundraisers. “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day of your life, and I really enjoyed doing this the years that I did it.”

If you go…

What: NJ’s Pizza

Where: 161 W. Jackson St., York

More information: www.facebook.com/njspizza

Anthony J. Machcinski is the food reporter for the York Daily Record. Follow him on Facebook, @ChinskiTweets on Twitter or email him at amachcinski@ydr.com.