There is a building at 1443 Main Street in Hellertown that has been making pizza since Dwight Eisenhower was president. The Crossroads Hotel opened in 1952, when the Matey family fired up the ovens and started serving pies to a town that had no idea it was getting something special.
Seventy plus years later, the Crossroads is still here, still making pizza the same way, and still drawing people from all over the Lehigh Valley who will tell you, without hesitation, that this is the best pizza in the region.
The Crust
What makes Crossroads pizza different starts with the crust. You can order thin and crispy or Sicilian style, which is thick and chewy with a golden bottom. Both are excellent, but the thin crust is the signature. It hits a sweet spot that's hard to describe: crisp enough to hold its toppings without sagging, but not so thin that it cracks. The edges have a slight char that adds a depth of flavor you don't get from conveyor belt ovens.
Local food writers have described the pizza as "tasting like the Lehigh Valley," which is the kind of compliment that only makes sense if you grew up eating it. The crust has a character that comes from decades of the same recipe, the same oven, the same care.
The Sauce
The sauce is the other half of the equation. It's saucy without being soupy, seasoned without being aggressive, and has a sweetness that balances the salt of the cheese and the char of the crust. People who know their tomato sauce will recognize the hallmarks of a recipe that has been tweaked and perfected over generations.
The cheese is applied generously and melts into the sauce in a way that makes every bite a complete experience. You don't get a mouthful of bare crust followed by a pile of cheese. The ratio is consistent from center to edge.
New Owners, Same Soul
In 2016, Nick Hano and Joe Tulio purchased the Crossroads Hotel from the Matey family. The transition could have been a disaster. New owners often try to put their stamp on an established institution, tweaking recipes and changing the vibe. Hano and Tulio were smart enough not to do that.
They kept the recipes. They kept the atmosphere. They made improvements to the building and operations without touching the things that made the Crossroads the Crossroads. The pizza tastes exactly the same as it did under the Mateys, which is all that matters.
Beyond the Pizza
The Crossroads also serves cheesesteaks that have their own following. The menu includes wings, appetizers, and other bar food staples. But nobody drives to Hellertown for the wings. They drive for the pizza, and they always have.
The dining room has that comfortable, lived in feel of a neighborhood place that doesn't need to impress anyone. The bar is a solid spot for a beer and a slice. The service is friendly in the way that small town restaurants tend to be, where the staff remembers your face even if they don't remember your name.
Worth the Drive
Hellertown is a small borough south of Bethlehem, and the Crossroads Hotel is not on the way to anywhere unless you're specifically going there. That's part of the charm. You have to want it. You have to make the trip.
And people do. On Friday and Saturday nights, the parking lot fills up early. Phone orders stack up. The ovens run from open to close. After more than seventy years, the Crossroads Hotel is still the place people think of first when someone asks where to get pizza in the Lehigh Valley.
Some things just don't need to change.
