This week I had my first cover story published in the Seacoast Scene newspaper. It is about the history of beach pizza and the rivalry that it started. Check it out in the July 3, 2025 edition of the Seacoast Scene.
If you are unfamiliar with beach pizza, it is a square, thin-crust pizza with sweet tomato sauce and a very light sprinkling of cheese. It is also known sometimes as New England-style pizza.
Beach pizza was invented by Tripoli Bakery in Lawrence in 1944 and then introduced to Salisbury Beach in the summer of 1945 when they opened a small pizza stand there.
The pizza quickly became popular, earning it the nickname “beach pizza.” Another pizza shop called Cristy’s opened at Salisbury Beach in 1946, and a friendly rivalry soon began.
If you ask anyone familiar with beach pizza, they have a preference. It’s either Cristy’s or Tripoli. For me, I’m a Tripoli fan because I like the sweet sauce, but after writing this article, I might try Cristy’s again just to compare the two, since I haven’t had Cristy’s in years.
In researching the history of these pizza shops, I also discovered an old newspaper article in the Lewiston Sun Journal about a gas explosion at the Tripoli shop in 1957 that blew up the pizza stand, damaged the entire block, injured 12 people, and flung them 25 feet into the street. It also heavily damaged nearby businesses like Foote’s fried food stand and Joe’s Playland.
I grew up in Salisbury and never heard this story, so it was news to me. I might write it up as a story for my Salisbury Beach website or for the Seacoast Scene if they are interested in it.
Another funny thing I learned while writing this story is that another company, NH Beach Pizza, was born out of the rivalry between Cristy’s and Tripoli. I first discovered the NH Beach Pizza’s frozen pizza in my local grocery store about a year ago and was thrilled that someone was selling frozen beach pizza that I could make at home.
So when it came time to write the article, I looked up the company and found out that it was started in 2013 by a husband and wife team who were on different sides of the beach pizza rivalry; one preferred Cristy’s and the other preferred Tripoli’s.
They had decided to settle the matter by making a beach pizza that is similar to both so fans don’t have to choose between the two. It was a funny little twist to the story that I never knew and was not expecting at all.
If you are a New Englander who is familiar with beach pizza, leave a comment below and let me know if you are a Cristy’s fan or a Tripoli’s fan. If you’ve never had it, head to Salisbury Beach or Hampton Beach sometime this summer and try it out!
Grew up on Tripoli’s pizza in Lawrence. Every Friday night growing up. Remember going with my father to what was a pizza shop on the first floor of a tenement building on Common street in Lawrence. I’m now 80 and just picked up a “box of eight” on the way home to Winnipesaukee after visiting with family in Andover.