Monthly Archives: March 2012

9 Simple Secrets to Boost Your Pizzeria Presence On-line

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If you own a pizzeria or restaurant, this post is for you.
If you know someone who owns a pizzeria or restaurant, please share the following:
I’ve been hard at work on my latest project and I wanted to let you know about it.
If you are in a hurry, you can check it out here:
As you may know, I’ve been on-line for a number of years. I’ve been featured in 3 books, television, radio, national magazines, newspapers and of course the Internet.
This did not happen by accident. I work hard to continue to create an Internet presence.
Over the years I have discovered a number of techniques and inside information which has allowed me to create a huge Internet presence. As a matter of fact I was recently contacted by a National Pizza Chain. You can find out what I told them here:
I want to share my best Internet Marketing tips and tricks with you with my new e-book;
 9 Internet Secrets to Explode Your Pizza Business.
This is a step by step report which explains how you can easily create an Internet presence which will help you get more customers coming in your door.
I don’t use complicated language or terms. This is a very common sense approach to helping your pizza business dominate your local market.
As a matter of fact the first Secret explains 5 different places, totally targeted to your area, that you can list your business. And there is zero cost for this.
Everything contained in this report is based on sound business practices. I use a very common sense approach.
But I will tell you this: 99% of the pizza businesses have never heard of most of the information, I will be sharing with you.
Here is the link again:
I am sharing the absolute best information that will work for you and your pizza business.
(Of course, this will work for any restaurant as well)
Make sure you check out the bonuses, I am offering. I have never offered anything like this before.
I have shared the report with a few pizzeria owners and they have been very enthusiastic about it.
So please check it out and let me know what you think.
I am offering it at a very low price to start out. The price may increase at any time.
 Listen: in the last 6 months, 3 pizzerias in my town totally went out of business. I explain the fatal mistake they each made on this page:
 
Don’t let this happen to you!
 
You will discover inside tips and angles that will blow your competition out of the water.
 
You will learn to totally dominate the Internet in your area.
 
Please have a look and let me know what you think:
 
To your continued pizzeria success,
 
Albert Grande
The Pizza Promoter
 
P.S. Wayne Gretzky says: “100% of the shots you never take, don’t go in!”
So take some shots go here right now:
 

Fire Within Interview With Joseph Pergolizzi

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The Fire Within

Joe Pergolizzi is a pizzaiolo, who founded “The Fire Within”.   The company, located in Boulder, Colorado,  creates Mobile Pizza Ovens, and offers a total support system for those interested in succeeeding in the the pizza business. For Joseph this is a sacred mission. The Fire Within also offers classes, workshops, encouragement and assistance. This is an entire organization dedicated to pizza success through artisan pizza creation.

On their website, Joseph explains:

“We took the age old concept of a wood fired oven on a trailer and modernized it for today’s use. In addition to manufacturing a practical line-up of mobile pizza ovens and we created the tools you need to be set up for success.

After a fiery debate, our 100+ customers across North America agreed upon a collective mission. It is the intention of the Fire Within mobile pizza caterers to save the world from common, cardboard-box-pizza one wood-fired pizza at a time. Taste testers welcome.”

For the record: Pizza Therapy, and Legends of Pizza, whole heratedly supports the mission of The Fire Within.

I was lucky enough to snag an interview with Joseph. I totally raked him over the coals and asked him the tough questions!

He was always gracious and very forthcoming.

Albert: It seems to me that your company has lots of different hats…

Please tell me what exactly is “Fire Within”?

Joseph: Simply, Fire Within offers a turnkey mobile wood fired oven business. In addition to manufacturing almost a dozen custom mobile wood fired oven designs we offer entrepreneurs the necessary tools to succeed and welcome them into a community where they can thrive. For those that need a business plan we’ve written a comprehensive 200 page business manual called Rolling In The Dough that has over 6 years of professional advice on running your own business.  For those that would like hands on training and a business intensive our hands on Getting Started workshops are designed for the first timer as well as the accomplished chef. We started our own mobile pizza oven business over 6 years ago which we still do some select catering events and concerts here in Boulder.

Albert: Do you remember your first pizza? How did you get interested in making pizza?

Joseph: I actually do remember my first pizza. My parents have this photo of me in my high chair eating a slice of pizza from Denino’s with a bottle of beer on my table.

As a young kid I remember looking over the counter at pizzaeria’s and I would stare at the guys making pizza. I was so curious about the dough I couldn’t quite figure out what the texture was of dough – was it wet? soft? fragile?….

Albert: Where are you from Joseph? Where did you grow up?

Joseph: I was born in Brooklyn hours after my parents had pizza at Spumoni Gardens. (True story) They raised us in Staten Island.

Albert: Can you share some early memories of pizza?

Joseph: There are so many. One was a constant occurrence as a teenager. I would scrounged up change from everywhere across the house to get a slice of pizza at the pizzeria in front of the bus stop. Another funny one was eating an entire pie with my best friend on the curb in front of Gino’s pizzeria on Staten Island. We somehow thought it was going to be an impossible task to eat an entire 18’’ pie. After we both had 4 slices we both thought we would be stuffed. We weren’t. We ordered 2 more slices, each.

Albert: Can you explain some of your influences for your pizza?

Joseph: My influences may not be your ordinary influences as other people in the pizza community. Art, a great painting as Color and not too many flavors all at once. The sauce should be as pure as possible.

Albert: What is the most important the crust or the toppings?

Joseph: Ouch, tough question. A good pizza can not have a lacking crust. Toppings you can take off.

Albert: What is your favorite pizza? Why?

Joseph: This is a strange answer.

Peter Reinhart says, there are 2 kinds of pizza. The one that you share with a friend and then there is the one that has carefully selected ingredients. The first kind is my favorite pizza. Interestingly enough my favorite pizza changes every few years. For the past 2 years it’s been a white pizza with kalamata olives, rosemary, with parmigiana and either ricotta cheese or another kind of cheese.

Albert: What is the best pizza in Colorado?

Joseph: Tough call, I have a few friends who own pizzeria’s. In Boulder, Pizzeria Basta and Pizzeria da Lupo. In Denver, Dave Bravdica and Tom Garnick at Brava Pizzeria Della Strada.

Albert: The U.S???

Joseph: The Sicilian slice at Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn is hands down the best Sicilian you will ever eat. No disrespect to those that like to make it, but it’s futile. They figured it out. I don’t make a Sicilian pie out of respect. They achieved perfection. There is one one Sicilian pie. Everything else falls somewhere between Chicago pizza and Focaccia.

Thin crust pizza is either Joe and Pat’s in Staten Island (they won best pizza in NYC) or Denino’s. It’s the subtleties in NY pizzerias. The napkins, the grenade chilli flake dispensers. Whether it’s the table cloths or the tables that make you feel like your back in Junior High. Some say it’s all about the water. Ok. Sure. Whatever makes sense to people.  If it’s not from NY it’s Neo-american pizza. I stand with the rest of the NY loyalists who speak the truth 😉

Respect needs to be given to Crust, Tony G’s in SF, Tony Calzone at Rebbecca’s, Jay Jerrier of Cane Rosso in Dallas, Chris Bianco in AZ, Matt Tierney at Pele’s in FL. For each of their own credit they have done our craft good.

Albert: Favorite pizzaioli?

Joseph: Honestly and I may have touched on this here or in other places and I truly don’t mind sticking my neck out on this…. it’s about the passion, it’s about the love of wanting to make someone happy, it’s all the simplicity that comes along with pizza. how easy it is to eat, how easy it is to make. my favorite pizzaioli is the one that never stops learning, holds no secrets, welcomes everyone over to the table to eat and makes pizza regardless if they got paid or not.

The joy of cooking with wood.

Albert: What are your best tips for making pizza?

Joseph: Depending on your comfort level, years making pizza —For starters, focus on Color, Pizza is simple. leave space to where you can see the crust through the sauce. less is more. most of the time it;s one main ingredient takes the center stage, then it has one or 2 back up singers and then a little bit of flair with some spices.

Albert: What type of flour do you use?

Joseph: Gusto’s

Albert: Do you feel using great flour is critical for great pizza?

Joseph: Absolutely, but you can have a great flour but still make a lousy pizza.

Albert: It seems that The fire With-in has created a type of pizza community.
How do you stay in touch?

Joseph: The people I’ve been lucky to meet and speak with over the years are truly special. They are following their passion, leaving career’s, mortgaging their house, building their own pizza empires.

I was sharing this story with my father the other day – the day after GM laid off 5,000 workers an ex-employee called me and said “ I just lost my job and I’m looking for something new to do. I want to do something I love, something that is for me.” I’ve heard so many stories just like that. To hear people share their dreams of owning their own business or wanting to make a difference in people’s lives through food is very special, it’s changed my life to witness this time and time again. I’m humbled.

Albert: You have a unique pizza philosophy?

Joseph: Pizza presence and meaning is bigger than I fail to realize sometimes.

The product:

I had a student once who was so bent on making authentic Neapolitan pizza. He stressed he wanted to learn the authentic tradition and that it was the best way to make pizza. What he had a difficult time understanding was that he was very far removed from what pizza meant to him. Being genuine comes from within, not from a recipe book. People can tell when you care. The only way you can screw up a pizza is thinking that you know everything there is to know about pizza.

The people:

Pizza promotes conversation. Pizza is an art form to be appreciated. Pizza is comfort food. The only way to ruin a nice meal is to think that you know what good pizza is and the person you are eating it with doesn’t

The experience of eating pizza:

Eating a slice of pizza is unlike eating anything else. Being able to grab a slice of pizza at a deck oven pizzeria fold it in half, walk with it while eating it or sit down and eat it at a small table. It’s a meal, it’s a snack. You don’t just time having a slice around meal time. It’s comfort food. People have a slice as part of their routine in life or they go to a sit down pizzeria every Friday night or call in an order to be picked up.

Wood fired pizza:

Wood fired pizza is it’s own unique pizza experience. It’s like having a third party join you for the meal, in this case it’s the fire. Even though it’s not sitting down with you at the table we are acutely aware that this food was made with fire. It has an impact on the meal, on the conversation.

I’m fortunate enough to be part of something very special with these mobile ovens. Mobile wood fired oven caterers are promoting them and making these 2 pizza experiences available and accessible.

Making Pizza as a profession or a hobby can be very satisfying.

For us pizza fanatics stepping back and looking at how much we get from pizza can be quite a shock.I’m not sure how VPN fits into my philosophy. It has a place in pizza culture but it’s not near my top of ways I relate to pizza.

Albert: Tell me more about the pizza school and how one can enroll….

We host our getting started with your own mobile wood fired oven business 6 times a year. In 2012 we will be adding a few other workshops to our offering, specifically advanced wood fired oven cooking. Peter Reinhart will join us next year for a 3 day workshop. He taught an advanced cooking class for us last year and it was a huge success. We have taught over 200 people how to start their own mobile pizza business. After just the first day the group comes together like a family. A small community is born. People see how similar we all are, we all like fire, we all love pizza, we all are independent souls, we are all searching for something new. I teach people to make their business an extension of themselves. I don’t think enough people were given permission or shown the way on how to do that.

Albert: Where is The Fire Within headed?

Joseph:: We have a number of great projects in the works. Some will be cut from our business plan but I think we’ll have a few really cool things to offer artisan chefs and entrepreneurs in 2012. We are really excited to talk more about it shortly.

Albert: Please add anything else you like.

Joseph: I once spoke with Jim Leahy from Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. I was really impressed by his continuous pursuit to perfect his craft. He’s mastered great dough recipes and he still had the fire to learn more to still be humbled by the knowledge still yet to be learned. Someone so accomplished yet still looking at things from a beginners mind. Artisanship is a pursuit, not an accomplishment. The respectable bakers and chefs are the ones that encourage and make something feel obtainable. I think this type of genuine humility in chefs/teachers is rare.

Thanks so much Joseph. We wish you continued success.

Contact:

The Fire Within
PO Box 1563, Boulder, Colorado 80306

Pizza on Earth, Good Will to All!
Albert Grande

The Pizza Therapy Pizza Book: Unlock the Secret of Making Simple, Easy Pizza

The History of Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana

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Pepe's Clam Pizza

Pepe's Clam Pizza

Frank Pepe Sign
The Famous Frank Pepe Sign on Wooster Street

 

From Gary Bimonte, Frank Pepe’s grandson, we are pleased to share the real history of Fank Pepe’s:

 

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana

 

is one of the oldest and best-known pizzerias in the United States. Known locally as Pepe’s, is has its Original Location in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, CT, as well as stores in Fairfield, Manchester and Danbury CT, Yonkers, NY., and Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria was founded in 1925 by Frank Pepe (b. April 15, 1893 d. September 6, 1969). Born in the town of Maiori, on the Amalfi coast, southwest of Naples, Frank Pepe was the quintessential Italian immigrant. Poor and illiterate, he immigrated to the United States in 1909 at age 16 with little more than his health and a strong work ethic. His first job was at a New Haven, CT factory until he returned to fight for his native Italy in World War 1 a few years later.

He married Filomena Volpi, also from Maiori, in 1919. As newly-weds they returned to New Haven, CT in 1920 to begin building their new lives together.

Frank Pepe took a job at a local Wooster Street macaroni manufacturer, Genneroso Muro (the current location of Libby’s Italian Pastry). He then worked for Tony Apicella at his bread bakery, also on Wooster St.

He made his first entrepreneurial move by establishing his own bakery at 163 Wooster Street — in business today as Frank Pepe’s the Spot – baking his bread and delivering to the local community with a cart. Since he had difficulty documenting, because of his illiteracy, to whom he delivered and to the quantity, he soon abandoned his efforts of delivery. Instead, he made the fortuitous decision to start a business where his customers would come to him.

In 1925, with his wife Filomena, who was a pivotal influence on his success (she was literate and learned to speak and write English), they started making a simple and humble product from their homeland, pizza — or as they would say in their Neapolitan dialect, “apizza” (ah-beets). They baked their pizzas offering two types, tomatoes with grated cheese, garlic, oregano and olive oil and the other with anchovy. The Original Tomato Pie is still offered today and anchovy is still available as a topping. Mozzarella and additional ingredients were to follow.

In the formative years 1925 — 1937, he employed a small crew of relatives that included his half brother Alessio Pepe and his son Mac, cousin Tommy Sicignano, nephews Salvatore and Tony Consiglio. Incidentally, Salvatore Consiglio, after learning pizza baking from his uncle Frank, eventually made the decision to establish his own pizzeria on Wooster Street, the well known Sally’s Apizza.

In 1937, Frank Pepe bought the building next door at 157 Wooster Street, and moved his pizzeria to what is historically understood to be the main (although not the original) location. The original location continued as a pizzeria, called The Spot and operated by the Boccamiello family.

Like many business owners of the day, Frank Pepe lived above the pizzeria with his family that now included his daughters Elizabeth and Serafina. Everyone worked downstairs in the pizzeria. Frank Pepe became know as “Old Reliable” for his contributions to community and unwavering love for his growing family.

In the late 1970s, Elizabeth and Serafina, purchased the original bakery (163 Wooster St.) from the Boccamiello’s and re-opened Frank Pepe’s the Spot as an annex to the main building.

Pepe’s reputation as one the country’s premier pizzeria spread through word of mouth. In the early 1990s, Elizabeth and Serafina retired and the business passed to their children – Anthony, Francis, Lisa, Bernadette, Genevieve, Jennifer and Gary — who still operate the business today and have overseen its expansion.

Frank Pepe originated the New Haven-style thin crust pizza which he baked in bread ovens fired by coke. Coke is a byproduct of coal and it was used extensively until the late 1960’s when it became unavailable and hence coal was then put into use to fire the oven.

Pepe’s signature pizza, the White Clam Pizza, was most likely an organic inspiration by Frank Pepe; an idea born from the fact that Pepe’s also served raw little neck clams from Rhode Island, on the half shell, as an appetizer. This development occurred around the mid 1960’s and gradually became popular through the past 40 years. Contrary to what many have heard, Frank Pepe did not have an allergy to cheese and tomatoes and the white clam pizza’s evolution should not be attributed to this false malady.

A lot has happened since Frank Pepe starting baking “ah-beets” 85 years ago. Pizza has gone from an obscure ethnic dish to become a mainstay of the American dining scene. But what hasn’t changed at Pepe’s is the family’s commitment to the tradition of food quality and commitment to the community at large that Frank Pepe envisioned in 1925.

For more info about Pepe’s Visit Pizza Therapy Pepe’s Page

Comments from Pepe’s Pizza Lovers