Like the sauce circularly spread over the cheese on those doughy shells, Grotto Pizza founder/owner Dominick Pulieri’s success story is certainly sweet. But it didn’t start out that way.

Sixty years ago, Grotto Pizza had a rather humble beginning. Rehoboth Beach had not yet become a huge tourist mecca, and native Delawareans, Mr. Pulieri said, had yet to develop much of a taste for pizza.