Franconi's fridge Friday, Aug. 8

By Cecilia Levine From Daily Voice

The Wildwood boardwalk pizzeria at the center of a firestorm over alleged white supremacist imagery appeared to have removed the offensive stickers, photos obtained by Daily Voice show.

Earlier this week, a viral Reddit post titled “F— Franconi’s” showed the inside of the pizza shop’s kitchen, where dozens of stickers covered the fridge, including ones that appeared to depict SS bolts and a Totenkopf skull.

The Totenkopf, German for "death’s head," refers to a skull-and-crossbones symbol that was adopted by Hitler’s SS during the Nazi era, the ADL explains. It became the emblem of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, the branch responsible for guarding concentration camps, the ADL said.

“Lots of White supremacy/Nazi stickers in their kitchen,” the post read. “Please spread the word.”

A Franconi's employee said that he was not authorized to comment when Daily Voice called Friday, Aug. 8 at 12:30 p.m.

The photos circulated widely on social media, prompting strong reactions. One commenter wrote, “Not that I'm down there but will mentally file away to never eat there and spit in their general direction.”

Another said their family was planning to visit Wildwood next week and had been told Franconi’s had the best pizza on the boardwalk — but decided to go elsewhere: “We’ll just stick to Tony’s New York Pizza on Pacific, I think it is.”

As of Friday, Aug. 8, photos obtained by Daily Voice show that the SS and Totenkopf stickers appeared to have been removed. Stickers of President Trump and a sticker that said F— Biden, seen in the Reddit post, also appeared to have been removed.

People angry about the white supremacist imagery took to Yelp to review bomb the site. 

"Shop displays multiple Nazi and SS stickers on their walls," one reviewer wrote. "Antisemitism is not acceptable. And the food stinks."

"Crappy boardwalk pizza," another reviewer wrote. "Soggy cardboard crust, rubbery cheese and ketchup for sauce. On top of that, a side of nazi racism to go with the dirty environment."

In a statement, Yelp said it was temporarily disabling the ability to post new reviews.

"This business recently received increased public attention resulting in an influx of people posting their views to this page, so we have temporarily disabled the ability to post here as we work to investigate the content," Yelp wrote. "While racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in any form, all reviews on Yelp must reflect an actual first-hand consumer experience (even if that means disabling the ability for users to express points of view we might agree with)."