(funky music)
Today, we're checking out one of the fastest,
friendliest food trucks around.
If we have 30 minutes for lunch,
Theresa said we had to meet Da Dude.
- I'm The Dude.
- Not that Dude, but Da Dude.
Da Pizza Dude, to be precise.
(funky music)
So you're Da Pizza Dude?
- Yes.
- Yes? - Yes, I am.
- Do you ever go by?
- His Dudeness, or Duder, or El Duderino.
- Maybe Duderino, I'll take that.
- Maybe Duderino? - Yeah.
- Okay, that one's kind of Italian.
- That one's good.
- The other one's too Big Lebowski?
- Yeah.
- [Marley] How did you come up with the name Da Pizza Dude
for your truck?
- I got started with this with movie sets and stuff.
And so every time I would pull up to the set,
everybody would be like, "Aww, the pizza dude's here."
I was afraid that if I named the truck something else.
- [Marley] People wouldn't know it was you.
- [Frankie] Yeah.
- Because you're Da Pizza Dude.
- Down here in this neck of the woods,
there's a lot of trucks to choose from,
but when I see Pizza Dude, I head over here.
- "Pepperoni, extra cheese, cut in four."
My grandpa's from Naples, Italy.
So I went down there for about a month,
and I learned how to make pizza with a chef there.
- When Frankie was 17 years old,
he made his first pizza for me.
- And we're doing your favorite today,
we're making Margherita pizza.
- [Frankie] Yeah, Margherita's my favorite.
- A true traditional.
- Yeah, if you're gonna go to a pizza place, get Margherita.
- [Marley] What do you think
makes your pizza Chicago's Best?
- I would say the freshness of the product.
The fact that we are geared only to make pizza.
It's one product done right, five different ways, yeah.
- I feel like we should make a pizza.
- You wanna make a pizza? - Yeah, I wanna make a pizza.
It's what we're here for.
- All right.
- All right, let's make a pizza.
- Let's do it.
- The Dude abides.
Walk me through how to make da perfect pizza.
- We have the dough right here.
- [Marley] All right.
How many of these do you go through in a day?
- We load about 120 for lunch. - Wow.
- So, we start with flattening the dough with your hands.
- Okay.
- Hey Frankie, when do I get to touch the pizza?
- The next one, you're gonna start right there.
- He's like never, you're not touching my pizza.
- Grab yours like this, side to side.
- Okay. - Pull it.
- [Marley] Oh!
- So, take it like this. - Still smaller.
- Don't worry about it. - Okay.
- Don't worry about it. - Don't worry about it.
You're gonna go like this, bam, put it down.
- Oh wait, it's only a halfie.
- Exactly, these are two halves.
(laughing)
- You're perfect. - Sort of?
- [Frankie] I might have to hire you.
-[sfx] Really?
- [Frankie] One, two, don't be shy.
- Shy is something I've never been accused of being.
Okay, over to the table, here we come.
We've got basil.
- First off, the reason why we never cut basil,
is because the second you cut it, you start anodizing it.
You're changing the product right away.
- [Marley] Oh, we don't want to do that.
- The best thing to do with herbs is--
- To rip them. - By hand, yeah.
There you go. - Is this too much?
- You could always put it back.
- Or I can always put it on the pizza, I love cheese.
- [Frankie] So we're always using the best cheese.
This is grande.
So now, this is ready.
So, we're gonna pop it in the oven.
This takes about three minute for every two pizzas.
We're gonna cut this pizza down the middle
and split it in half.
- All right.
- [Frankie] Bam, go through it.
There you go. - You winced a little.
- We cut our pizzas in half.
- Oh, okay this way too.
- I'm gonna cut mine.
- Oh wow, okay.
Watch, get in there.
- [Frankie] Done, and voila.
- Voila, my producer looks hungry.
Here, Tans. - Mine.
(laughing)
- [Marley] Do you eat at food trucks a lot,
or just Da Pizza Dude?
- Mostly just Da Pizza Dude.
- I would eat at a food truck once a month,
always Da Pizza Dude, yeah.
- I will defer to you on how to properly eat the pizza.
- Of course.
Without further ado, we have instructions on the truck.
- [Marley] That's very smart.
- You pinch.
- (laughs) I was gonna pinch the whole thing.
- No.
You pinch. - You pinch.
- Fold, and eat.
- This is a really, really great pizza.
- Thank you.
- That basil, we didn't put that much on,
but you can just taste the quality.
- [Frankie] Yeah.
- And your sauce mix is perfect, it's just sweet enough.
So if people want to find you,
how do they know where you're gonna be on any given day?
- We try to post on Facebook, Twitter.
- [Marley] And you guys have more than one truck?
- [Frankie] Yes, we have three.
- [Marley] What do you like about owning a food truck?
- I like being able to eat pizza on a sidewalk
in front of skyscrapers, or go to the beach.
You know, we were at Indiana Dunes.
We were in front of the sand,
and so our view changes everyday.
- That's kind of brilliant. - Unbeatable.
- Come check out Da Pizza Dude.
-[Marley] Mmmmm!