Cassano’s Pizza now is in a 5,000-square-foot building on the Main Street side of Wright Station. The new restaurant was built adjacent to the old restaurant so Cassano’s could maintain normal operations during construction, according to city officials.
“Vic” Cassano Sr. and his mother-in-law Caroline “Mom” Dinisi opened their first shop June 4, 1953, in a 20 by 15-foot room in the back of a Kettering grocery store. They sold 400 square-cut, thin-crust pizzas the first day.
Cassano’s Pizza King was one of the first in the nation to franchise its stores in 1955. The company grew to 125 stores and by the 1970s it ranked in the top four pizza chains in the country.
Cassano Sr. retired in 1986 and his son Vic Cassano Jr. bought the company. Today the third generation runs the family business.
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