SOMERS POINT – Want to start a war at the shore? At the next gathering you attend, speak up and declare that Mack & Manco has the best pizza. You’ll get something started.

“It’s too thin” and “I like chewy pizza” are the weak arguments you’ll get from those who prefer the other variations of the doughy disc first served in its modern form in Naples, Italy.

According to the company website, mackandmancopizzatoo.com, the Mack & Manco version hit the area in 1956, when Anthony Mack and Vincent Manco came to Ocean City from Trenton with their "tomato pie."

Mack and Manco opened their first pizza parlor at Ninth Street and the Boardwalk that year, followed by their location at Seventh Street and the Boardwalk.

Vincent Manco's son Frank and his wife, Kay, now operate the original Ocean City locations, along with a third at 12th Street.

One of the great delights of visitors to the Ocean City Boardwalk has been watching the pie men at Mack & Manco's making the pizza in an open-air kitchen.

Building a Mack & Manco pizza follows a distinct order: Twirling the pizza dough in the air to properly stretch it, followed by the hosing of the sauce on top of the cheese. Most pizza places do sauce, then cheese.

The pies are then slid into a revolving oven that has glass all around so diners can watch the pizza slowly spinning by.

The pizza making process remains the same, but Mack & Manco has expanded its menu and reach by adding new food items and an offshore location in Somers Point, called Mack & Manco Pizza Too in the Ocean Heights Shopping Plaza.

The new location is owned by the children of Anthony Mack and Vincent Manco, according to Dave Kane, manager of the Somers Point pizzeria.

Kane started in the pizza business at the Boardwalk location 10 years after selling his Italian restaurant, Rick’s, in Rio Grande.

Kane said the new spot offered an opportunity for Mack & Manco’s to try some new things.

“We added some specialty pies and chicken wings and tenders. The customer off the Boardwalk is not as much in a hurry; it’s not as fast paced,” explained Kane.

“Everything is the same as far as the recipes for the pies, and we still make our own dough.”

Well, not everything is exactly the same as the Boardwalk location. At Mack & Manco Pizza Too, you don’t have to worry about a seagull stealing your slice.