Salvatore Mandreucci has gone viral for his videos that some might call saucy, and perhaps a little cheesy. But it's his words of inspiration that have everyone coming to Hamilton Square to try the pie.
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Fans of Sally Slices are flying in from all over to visit Marcello's Pizza Grill to sample their signature 'corleone' pizza, but they're mostly flocking in to meet the social media sensation.
"My whole life everybody always told me I can entertain, I can make a crowd laugh," Salvatore said. "I said to myself, 'Let me follow up on TikTok. Let me start making videos. Maybe it will go somewhere, right?'"
A year later, Sally Slices is closing in on three million followers. They come for the pizza guy's words of wisdom.
"I have one that says, 'People know the price of everything, but the value of nothing,'" he said. "That resonated with me. I've had a lot of struggles growing up. That video got 10 million views. That's when I knew these inspirational quotes were a part of me that I could give to everybody."
Since adding TikTok to his saucing, cheesing and dough flipping, the pizzaiola is now world-famous for being the 'CEO of Inspiration.'
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Explaining all of this to his Sicilian-born father Marcello took a second.
"At first I thought he was wasting his time," Marcello said. "But then he became so famous overnight, we can't go anywhere. Everybody knows him!"
Fans also call the pizzeria, hoping to get Salvatore on the phone.
"It gets annoying on a busy night because people want to talk to Sal and I'm like, 'No!,'" laughs his sister, Gabriella, who also works at the family pizzeria.
'Sally Slices' now has merchandise like t-shirts, and they're shipping their Sicilian cannoli across the country.
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Salvatore is also a musician and just released his first single on Spotify.
Next stop? The big screen.
"That's my big dream, that's the big thing," Salvatore said. "Right now, I'm just spreading motivation and spreading good vibes, which I love to do. But down the road, it's going to happen. I will be on TV. I will be in Hollywood one day."
Marcello doesn't doubt that, but for now, he's telling Salvatore to keep making the pizza!
Salvatore also helps run the second family shop in the city's Bustleton section.
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