(dramatic orchestral music)
- I try to serve what the people want,
like, a good version of a New York-style.
And the beauty of it, it's not bad for you.
That's my favorite component of the pizza.
See, look!
New York Slice is by the slice, affordable, it tastes great.
(jazzy music)
Pizza was the best in the city when we were kids.
Those spots that I grew up eating at are mostly gone.
The original concept of a slice shop
is for people to come in and being able to afford to go eat.
There's a lot of the shops aren't owned
from people from New York anymore.
They can't really connect and relate to what New York pizza
really is, you know what I'm sayin'?
I worked in pizzerias for, like, 10 years.
No one else was doing something by the slice
that was actually healthy,
actually not made with chemicals.
Our pizza's organic.
I wanted to create something like that,
and no one else does.
First step we do is we mill our wheat berries
that we prep for the dough.
A lot of the wheat we have here in the States
is banned in Europe.
I mean, that was like, you know what,
a lot of the general public, they don't understand
that wheat's healthy.
I can go to Europe.
Everyone's eating bread all day.
They eat croissants, they eat baguettes,
they walk down the street eating baguettes.
They're eating it all day and they're not obese.
Obesity isn't a problem in Europe
and they're always eating wheat.
There's a correlation between how the wheat is here
compared with the wheat that's overseas.
So I did a lot of research in that, and I was like,
"You know what, let's do something that's nutritious."
You can only grind to a certain extent.
Once you reach that certain temperature,
then you start killing nutrients in the flour.
At first, it was hard for all of us
because we'd never really done it before,
but then we were like, "Okay, that's how we do it."
Woo, right.
This is our great sifter. (laughs)
Before we used to be able to sift everything.
But then we got way too busy.
And then I got lucky and I found a grower
in upstate New York that mills flour fresh.
I really did get lucky, I was like, "Oh man!"
Sifter's to separate the bran from the actual wheat,
'cause the thing is with the extra bran,
even though it's healthy, the flavor profile
is a little too strong.
It's not a classic New York slice of pizza.
And after we sift the bran out,
we allow it to ferment naturally.
This is cake yeast.
The yeast we use is all natural.
There's nothing wrong with using cake yeast.
I like the flavor profile 'cause
it's the flavor profile of pizza from my youth.
This now, we just allow it to sit
and work its magic for a little while.
We normally let it sit for about a couple hours
to make it dissolve.
And then, after that, add the fresh flour
with the fresh flour that somebody milled for us
from upstate New York.
Then we add our flour.
This is a mix of three flours, and off we go.
So, that's all by look and feel.
Most of the time it's really precise,
but sometimes, you never know.
And we add salt, more salt. (laughs)
It looks like a lot, but it really isn't.
This is for a hundred pizzas, yeah, exactly.
And the last, the piece de resistance, is the olive oil.
And that should come together in about 10 minutes.
It was a tough learning curve. (laughs)
It was a lot of frustration.
You know, I'm a fighter, I grew up with nothing.
When you grow up with nothing, you learn how to fight.
See how the whole thing moves?
Elasticity, moves around.
That means it's all formed good.
You let it ferment for around four or five hours
before we touch it.
(machine rattles)
(slow jazzy music)
Take it out in bulk and start sectioning it off
into dough balls.
I like using oil, 'cause the oil sticks to the dough.
I don't like using flour 'cause it changes the dough.
Put these guys in there.
Get all the sides to it, and whoop.
They got machines that can do this for you.
You add machines, too many machines to the process
and it kills the delicacy of the dough.
I'm closing the seam, basically,
to suck out all the air so when it starts fermenting,
it's not rising in the tins.
What happens is if you get the air inside
when it's rising, it thins out the middle,
so when you're opening up the pizza,
you'll get a thin spot right in the middle,
so you try to avoid the thin spot.
So, there's like a two, three-day ferment period.
So it's all a rotating process,
we got dough everywhere.
We gotta let it ferment another two or three hours
before we use it, and then we use 'em.
That's it, voila, you got dough.
Wow, this stuff's beautiful.
(slow jazz music)
My first experience with making pizza
was at Lombardi's about 18 years ago.
I was working as a server and I just,
I don't know what it is, I just saw it.
The guy making it, he was always nice to me,
the pizza maker.
They don't show anyone, I just started watching him make it.
I was like, "Oh, do you mind if I give it a shot?"
"Well, yeah."
Always topside up.
Then the cheese.
Practiced at home, then I practiced with them,
and they would teach me all the different nuances, you know?
And just pick up, repetition, and dealing with them,
then might be telling you,
"No, you gotta do it this way, no."
Time for the squares.
We run out of these quick
'cause they're more laborious to make.
It's just a balancing act, really, all that.
That's it.
Pepperoni coming up, just one?
(upbeat jazz music)
At the end of the day, I just wanted something
that was part of my childhood
in terms of flavor, texture, something that's by the slice,
where everyone can have it.
For me, pizza's a way to cater to the people I grew up.
I didn't grow up in the best neighborhood,
so for me, it was like, wanted to make sure that
people that come from my background could also eat.
Anyone can come in.
I mean, who can eat anywhere from three to 10 bucks,
you know?
Have a good meal and drink.
We get everything, we get tourists, we get locals still.
Every race, every color,
the way I wanted it to be.
I wouldn't want to serve people
something that I wouldn't eat.
You can't believe it's made with good organic s***, right?
People are like, "Oh, organic, that's, you know."
It's actually good for you.
Believe me when I tell you that.
You wanna actually reach the top of the peak
or challenge to be at the top.
And then you need to actually pay the dues,
work with people that you admire and respect.
I do it for a reason.
I do it 'cause I want people to eat better.
Like, I figure, you know, I'll make money regardless.
I'm not in a rush to make money.
I never had it before, (chuckles)
so it's nice.
(jazzy musical flourish)