Has Ocean City pizza lost its soul? The town’s pizza patriarchy will be tested with the arrival of Bakeria 1010.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Mike Fitzick knows his way around a sauce hose: the old Mack & Manco’s on the Ocean City boardwalk was where the acclaimed 38-year-old pizza maker first got his hands into dough.

Now, as he brings his exquisitely artisan Bakeria 1010 back to the chaos of the Shore, Fitzick says he is beginning to understand why the iconic Manco’s sauce hose even exists.

Famously, and for better or worse, Manco’s pizza makers use a central hose line to apply a spiral of tomato sauce on their pies. Meanwhile, Fitzick’s craft involves lovingly tending to his sourdough at 3 a.m.

“I see now why they do that,” Fitzick said, just a few days before his Thursday before Memorial Day weekend soft opening of Bakeria 1010, contemplating the coming onslaught. “I can’t get too much into the whole assembly line.”

Fitzick believes Manco’s has become “kind of soulless.”

After a stint at Bar 1010 in Northern Liberties, which involved frequent trips up and down the Atlantic City Expressway, Fitzick has returned to his roots with a new shop. (In between, he spent some time slinging pies at Express Pizza on Battersea Ave.) The storefront, painted deep blue with wood trim, is home to Bakeria 1010 at 955 Asbury Ave.

He’s putting his sourdough pies, both the array of thick square ones that blew people’s minds at his tiny stand in the now-defunct Exchange in Linwood, N.J., and the round, New York-style ones favored in Philly, up against the entrenched Manco’s and the rest of the pizza patriarchy of Ocean City.

To cater to the diverse crowd in Ocean City, he’s also expanding his offerings into cheesesteaks and other sandwiches, has an array of homemade Italian desserts, and is offering round sourdough boules and also baguettes.

His concession to the need for quantity at a pizza place down the Shore is that he’ll be making the cheesesteaks on seeded rolls from Rando’s in Atlantic City instead of baking them himself.

“It’s just going to be a game of quality and then volume,” he said. “I split the kitchen down the middle: 50% pizza. 50% sandwiches. My old bakery was literally just pizza. Now I’m trying to shoot for sandwiches, cheesesteaks, salads.

“I want to get more people to want to come,” he said. “I can see not having certain things will make you lose an order.”

Still, he says, “My passion for salad can only get so big.”

A product of the Shore, with roots in Ocean City dating back generations, he describes himself as “nervous and confident.”

“It goes from 60,000 people to 400,000 people in a matter of weeks,” he said. “There’s two different games you’re playing. The winter game is all conservation. Summer is just bedlam.”

As for the competition, he says, “Some of these guys are here for the season to take your cash and that’s fine. I respect the hustle.”

Although it is daunting to arrive just in time for summer in a place where boardwalk pizza is a huge tourist commodity, Fitzick has no problem putting the town’s pizza patriarchy in its place.

“It’s a weird situation because my competition is not so much quality, it’s going to be availability. My model isn’t going to be as powerful as a Mack & Manco’s. They’re just churning and burning. They have a formulated system. We still have this essence of mom and pop.”

In recovery for 12 years, he says he’s not sorry to leave the bar scene of Bar 1010 behind. In Ocean City, he can focus on the dough and all the specially sourced ingredients, like rib eye and halal chicken. He hopes people will appreciate the love and creativity he brings to every pie, and that the sun-drenched people coming off the beach dripping salt water will know the difference.

“Everything is in house, everything from scratch,” he said. (Other than the Rando’s rolls.)

As for Philly, he says, “I had fun. I made money. I’ve always been wary about working for someone else. That whole situation confirmed my suspicions. I’m only as good as myself.”

Favorite beach: The gardens beaches, by the Longport Bridge.

Favorite breakfast: I had the spiciest big breast of chicken curry, and I wrapped it up and cracked an egg inside. The heat from the chicken cooks the egg. But mostly, I’m cold brews until lunch.

Perfect beach day: Get out of the shop at 2, then you’re at the beach until it’s dark. You put in your morning shift; it’s so much more satisfactory.

Perfect night: Home with the family. I’m 40 years old with two baby girls, 2 and 6.

Best sandwich:, Oh dude, it’s gone. Voltaco’s Italian with everything on it.

When MDW approaches, I feel: Nervous.

Best thing for kids: Jilly’s Arcade. The new arcade games know if there’s a toddler or kid playing and it just adjusts.

Surfing or fishing? Surfing. I hate fishing.

Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise.

Shore pet peeves? Oh my God. The people walking in the crosswalk when it’s a red light.

Any local knowledge? We get all our stuff in [during] April and May and September, before the crowds. The rest is kind of up in the air.

The Shore could be improved if: We all just … got along.