For 56 Years, East Windsor's Henry's Pizza Has Remained Blissfully Unchanged

Most businesses survive the test of time by adapting to consumers’ ever-fickle tastes.

In business, it’s not uncommon to hear the cliche, “If you aren’t moving forward, then you are moving backward.”

Not so for East Windsor’s Henry’s Pizza, which has thrived in town since 1957 due nearly solely to the almost blissful manner in which it holds on to the past.

Indeed, outside of the addition of a party room in the 1970s - the 1970s! - virtually nothing has changed at the 3,000 square-foot pizzeria, which was founded the same year that the Frisbee entered the market and Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated for his second term as president.

Everything at the pizzeria, named for its founder, Henry Mas, who co-owned it with his wife Rosita before turning it over to their two sons Henry and Vincent, is the same, right down to the morning routine that Henry and Vincent have in showing up to work and making the meatballs and sauce by hand from scratch.

“We’re very consistent,” Vincent Mas said in a recent interview. “We’re always here. For 50 years, we’ve been doing it the same way. Our philosophy is we’re making our food as if we’re making it for ourselves. So it’s made with love.”

“If you make it for yourself, you take the extra step,” Henry Mas added. “That’s one of the secrets.”

That’s not lip service. While the menu has remained the same for 56 years, no restaurant can remain in business that long if the food weren’t any good.

“We take a lot of pride in what we do,” Henry Mas said. “Many customers have moved out of the area, and they come back 15 or 20 years later and say, ‘It’s exactly the same food as when I left.’”

Henry Mas recalled one former customer who now lives in Florida having a Henry’s Pizza delivered (frozen) all the way down to the Sunshine State for his birthday.

“That pizza cost him $65,” Henry Mas said. “Twenty dollars for the pizza and $45 for the shipping. But that’s what he wanted for his birthday.”

Henry boasted that he recently had five generations of a family sitting at one of his tables recently.

Oh, and Henry’s staff is as consistent as the items of the menu. Laura, a waitress, is considered the rookie there, as she’s only worked at Henry’s for 13 years.

Alas, nothing is forever. Henry is 68 and Vincent is 66, and 60-hour work weeks do take their collective toll.

So Henry and Vincent came up with the idea of passing on what they know as part of a business venture. First, they have a consulting type arrangement in which the Mas brothers will help prospective pizzeria owners learn what they know.

In addition there are Henry’s Pizza franchising opportunities.

But no one is shutting the lights for good just yet. Not when Henry and Vincent still enjoy coming to work every day.

“It’s wonderful and it makes us happy,” Henry said.

Henry’s Pizza (860-623-4020) is located on Route 5 in East Windsor. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday, from noon to 9 p.m.