Streak of bad luck appears to be over for the owner of Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza

This has not been a good year for pizza maker Al Santillo.

The bad luck for the owner of Elizabeth's storied Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza , a must-stop for many in New Jersey, started on Jan. 6 when his business burned down.

His luck continued to go downhill from there, until just recently when he finally started to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

The fire destroyed his business on Jan. 6, and the water used by firefighters trying to save it severely damaged his prized brick oven.

In April things got worse when Santillo was hospitalized with an abdominal infection. He said a fish bone likely perforated his small intestine and it became infected. As a U.S. Air Force veteran, Santillo was rushed to the East Orange Veterans Administration Medical Center where he underwent surgery.

Things looked bleak and his prognosis was not good, he said.

"I was out for I don't know how long," Santillo said in a phone interview.

He has been slowly recuperating since the emergency surgery, but has not yet been discharged from the hospital.

It was dicey for a while, Santillo said, adding he has been transferred to the Lyons VA Medical Center in Basking Ridge. He said he expects to make a full recovery.

"They are saying it is miraculous," he said. "I think 50 years of working hard toughened me up."

Santillo said he's hopeful that within a month after he completes the physical therapy regimen, he will be out of the hospital and able to address the rebuilding of his business.

The road to rebuilding Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza

Santillo did not have fire insurance for his business. He said he wasn't able to get the insurance because of the age of the building. He was advised to set money aside for such an emergency. He said he did, but the rebuilding will be very costly.

He has already paid for the demolition of the fire-ravaged parts of the building at 639 South Broad Street, Elizabeth. He now also has to rebuild the brick oven. He said a portion of the old one still stands, but it's not enough.

His luck is not all bad, as he has lots of friends willing to lend a hand.

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A 1,200-member Facebook group called "Santillo's Volunteers" has pledged to help raise money and anything else he needs to get him back in business.

He has also received a pledge for help from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who gave the pizza a high 8.3 review as part of the One Bite pizza review system. On the day of the fire, Portnoy's social media message read: "I'm aware that Al Santillos Brick Oven Pizza had a fire this morning. Al is okay thank god. Barstool will be there for whatever Al needs."

A fundraiser to help Santillo rebuild is in the works and involves the New York Jets and the New Jersey Devils.

"I am going to need all the help I can get," Santillo said.

It's not yet clear how much it will take to rebuild. Santillo said he has yet to get a handle on the number, but it is running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rebuilding the old brick oven, which Santillo refers to as his Sistine Chapel and his pizza-making peers call the cathedral, will cost plenty, he said.

Santillo has been working with Duddy's Construction of Springfield on the repairing and rebuilding of the oven. repairing it,

The bricks are waterlogged, he said. Some need to be replaced and others may be saved by baking the water out.

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There is no timeline for the repairs yet, Santillo said. The hospital stay threw a wrench in the plans.

Santillo's history

Santillo's was founded in 1918 by Lou Santillo, who delivered bread in a horse and buggy, the restaurant's website says. Lou's son Alfred, Al's father, added pizza to the menu in 1944. The family opened the current location in 1957.

That same year, Santillo's father purchased the 100-year-old brick oven with a barrel arch for $10,000. The 16-foot wide 10-foot deep oven can hold up to 30 pizzas, has a shallow roof to keep the heat in, and is heated by a gas jet.

Over the years, Santillo's has made pizza for celebrities including Vincent Vaughn and most famously Jay Leno, who hung around the pizzeria in his youth.

Al Santillo took over the family business in the 1980s, though has almost 60 years of experience, working in the kitchen since he was 5.

Now that his luck has started to change for the better, Santillo said he hopes to gather all the estimates and form a plan to reopen his storied pizzeria.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Streak of bad luck appears to be over for the owner of Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza