New York Has The #1 Pizza In The World! -With Anthony Mangieri

0:00This episode of the New Yorkers podcast is brought to you by NewYork100.org, recognizing excellence across New York City's five boroughs. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the New Yorkers, a podcast by New York City Copp. I'm your host, Kelly Copp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, real estate content creator, podcaster, and above all else, a New Yorker. Ladies and gentlemen, the next book was about Trace and Elkire. Stand clear of the closing doors, please.

0:45This is Times Square.

1:04With me today, I have Anthony Mangieri. He is a chef, businessman, and pizza connoisseur. But of all else, he is a New Yorker. Hey, Anthony, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? Great. Thank you so much. What an honor to have you here. I'm excited for people to learn about you and what you do as well. So, Anthony, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where are you from? Tell us a little about your family too. Sure. And what you do. Well, I'm born and raised in New Jersey. So originally I'm not a New Yorker. Don't hold it against me. Close enough though. Yeah. And I've been in New York, you know, since I've been coming to New York my whole life, I started coming up here.

1:51when I was in high school to go to CBGB's I would skip school and take the train up from where I lived um and yeah and I'm I'm a pizza maker I opened uh the first restaurant in 1996 in New Jersey right uh 2026 is going to be our 30th anniversary so yeah it's crazy um and I have made every single pizza we've served for now coming on 30 years. You make every single pizza yourself? Every single piece of dough that we've served for 30 years I've made. That's amazing. And what is the reason that you do that? Like, you know, a lot of people have a staff to do that. I do. Yeah. No, I have a great staff.

2:35Mostly it's honestly selfish reasons because I really want to be better at what I do. So as crazy as I think some people think that is, I really do come in every day kind of like thinking like today I'm going to figure something out, be better at it. So I'm still excited every day when I go into work. So that's really the reason I have a great team and my wife, Christine, is a part of the restaurant. And, you know, I'm very blessed in many ways, but I'm also just kind of still searching to make a better product. So that's why I do that. And you've been doing this for how many years you said? We're going to be coming on our 30th anniversary, but I've been doing it since I'm 15 years old and I'm 53.

3:21So a long time. I love how you said you, you know, just a moment ago, you said you're, you know, just to be, you want to continue to be, I forget how you worded it, but you know, better or something. And it's 30 years later and you strive every single day to be better. That's fascinating. So how did you get into the pizza business? Like, where did you start? what was your you know interest well I grew up as I said New Jersey I spent a lot of time with my grandmother um she lived right down the street from us my family is originally from Campania in Italy um nice and I just kind of grew up like I've always been into history and family history and old school places like and I just kind of fell in love with you know Naples and that part of the world and the italian-american culture that i was growing up in and i just i was balancing um those interests at that young age of like at this point we're talking probably like 10 or 11 with skateboarding bmx racing punk rock music rock heavy metal yeah and just kind of being a normal kid in the suburbs in the 70s and uh little by little the food side of things started to get a stronger hold on me and so when i got out of high school i eventually opened up a little bread bakery in new jersey where i made hand mixed dough wood fire baked uh but with the dream to open a pizzeria but at the time i didn't have the money to open like a sit-down restaurant with like a nice bathroom and all that stuff so i opened like a little storefront with just a counter and made bread and that was really the beginnings and that was probably in 1993 maybe wow yeah and how did that business do with the bread it was a little bit ahead of its time where i was you know there were some great bakers around the u.s but it was definitely before the artisan bread movement yes i know exactly what you mean yeah and so most and i didn't really know what i was doing either i was like it was a lot of trial and error and i was figuring you didn't know what you were doing but You opened your own business.

5:31So my point is that's inspirational right there. You just right there. I'm just very entrepreneurial. Right. Right there. In general, I'm kind of like, yeah, so figuring stuff out and finding my way around stuff. I think that's fascinating because you're like, I'm going to open a business and with no trepidation. Yeah. That's right. Where do you just did it? Yeah. At a young age, what early twenties, I'm assuming. I was probably 21 at the old, at the most, you know, that's fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. that's really cool i mean i you truly didn't know what i was doing and i mean also though you know the the probably one of the benefits to doing it back then as opposed to now was you didn't have the instant kind of feedback because there was no social media there was no internet there was no right i'm not even i don't even think we had cell phone i didn't have a cell phone back then yeah i think we're the same age yeah how old are you i am 57 i'm 50 so we're almost i'm 53 oh yeah you're young oh you're way younger than no no no i'm like i'm aging by the second um as we all are i guess um yeah but yeah so it was kind of cool because you could do stuff back then it was harder to find information out obviously you had to really want to know something and want to learn something but when you did things you also could kind of do things and not be great at it and it wouldn't be like posted on the internet right this place is terrible this guy sucks and you're out of business so you could kind of like have a bad day and the 10 people that came in knew what no one else did so it was it was kind of cool like in that era to like figuring things out.

7:12Now it's in a way, I think, you know, more pressure because, you know, people, people can post about it and know about it pretty quickly. And, you know, you don't have time to figure things out the same way. That's so true. Yeah. That's so true. So then from the, the bread, you know, the artist and bread shop you were doing, then what happened? Then where'd that, where'd you go from there? Right. So, so I did that and it was really a lot of work. Um, people didn't really get it um you know i was making like wood fire baked breads the crust was like kind of burnt on the bottom right thick crusted people would buy it and squeeze it be like oh it's not fresh i'm like no it's like hard crusted and i did that and i like you know didn't have a car didn't have a girlfriend didn't wasn't making any money and i kind of was seeing my friends kind of going to college and like getting girlfriends and like having a good life.

8:08And I was like, maybe this isn't what I should do with my life, you know? And I started to really question it. And, but that spark of opening a pizzeria was still there. And I did manage to save a little bit of money over those three years. And I found this spot that was available for rent. It was really basic, but it was all tiled and everything. It used to be an ice cream shop and it was a little closer to where I grew up from where I had opened the bakery and New Jersey still. Yeah. And I, and I, the, the bakery was in Red Bank, New Jersey and the pizzeria was in Point Pleasant beach. Oh wow.

8:45Okay. And I grew up in like Ocean County, Tom's river, um, right near the beach. So I was like, you know what, let me take a shot. My mom was very, very supportive emotionally always of everything I did in my life, which was a big deal because you know as you mentioned i didn't know what i was doing and you know i was seeing all my friends go on in life and stuff and i she just was very supportive um so that gave me a lot of like inner strength to keep going and i was like you know what the heck let me try it opened up the pizzeria very bare bones no employees me doing everything and um there was a woman that uh had written an article about the bread and it got a little bit of press um and she was on the james beard foundation oh nice yeah she had found me when i opened the pizzeria and wrote another article and was like really complimentary of the pizza and that was just really the beginnings then and i kind of it was easier to do it was less you know it was very tough baking bread because the money was very small and I was working from like 10 at night until like two in the afternoon, seven days a week.

9:56Wow. And what age are you now here at doing this? Uh, now we're probably like, I'm still in my early twenties when I opened the pizzeria. That's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. So then I opened the pizzeria and you know, it was near the beach. It was still tough because people didn't really know Neapolitan pizza at the time. And I think we were probably one of the first, if not the first in the United States to do this. And what is Neapolitan pizza? Did I say it right? Yeah, Neapolitan or Pizza Napolitana. I mean, it's kind of evolved, but let's just say back then it was a 12-inch pizza. It was an individual pizza.

10:33It was meant to be eaten as a whole. It usually wasn't sliced, so you'd get a knife and fork and have to cut it. It was cooked in a wood-fired oven it was usually soft a little wet it was usually lightly topped so it didn't fit like what we know of as like italian-american pizza right or what people were used to so it was tough it was a tough like thing for people to understand at the time especially being in new jersey where you know there's a big italian-american culture and they were kind of like they like pizza the way that they like it italian american style and and it was tough near the beach and all this stuff right so there's one question i have too here anthony is i read that um you'd like to keep the menu small too is that true like for instance a few perfect pizzas small starters things like that in general with your pizza joy at your pizza places yeah yeah i mean it evolved from the first place i mean the very first one in 96 had two kinds of pizza margarita which is tomato sauce and cheese and marinara which is tomato sauce garlic oregano and no cheese yeah um it's evolved from that uh you know to where we are now but still everything on the menu is very purposeful um and everything complements each other and and i am a very strong believer that everything on the menu needs to be there for a reason just like in the dish itself i i really love food that like when you eat it everything in the dish makes sense there's not when you're eating it there's like one ingredient where you're like that didn't really need to be in there but the chef wanted to show off right this thing that makes no sense right so i'm just like for at least it makes sense to me it does it represents me and is true to what i think tastes good so and it definitely still a small man yeah i mean we'll talk about where it's brought you so how many so you've had a few restaurants can you tell us about those so sure you started in new jersey right like the bread rest you know like the artisan bread yeah yep bakery and then this first pizza joint that you have had and then what happened so i had that place point pleasant peach new jersey in 96 i opened it and then you know i did that for about i'm i'm not great with dates and numbers but i'm rough, rough estimating.

12:57Um, I did that for about eight years and then I had really, you know, I was coming up to New York then a lot, like on my days off and I would eat out all the time and go to all the bodice restaurants. And, and I just was like, man, like I want to be up here and I want to show people what I'm doing. And, you know, and I, and I used to get upset cause like I'd be in New Jersey and people would eat the pizza and they'd be like, Oh, it's good for New Jersey. And I'm like, ah I'm like I want to like show people it's just good I don't care where you are right exactly so I I really was like planning and thinking about this and so I eventually after eight years got to a place where I could try to open a place and I was toying with going to California and opening a place because I had been going out there for mountain biking because I'm a big cyclist but I just was like you know New York is where I need to be it's like my home it's where I always go it's like close to where I grew up it's just it made sense to me so that was what I ended up doing so I I found a little spot on 12th street in East Village and you know signed a lease and signed my life away and here we are oh nice 30 years later so the spot that well no no then evolved so then i opened that one how long are you with the one on in the the maybe like another eight years or so the timing on that was beautiful because there was a really and still is an amazing food writer uh ed levine who that first woman uh that i had mentioned who was in the james beard foundation stuff he was working on a book about pizza and she had said to him i think at a james beard uh thing you got to come down and meet this guy that's making pizza and he was like the book's finished like i'm not you know i have no i'm not adding anybody else and she was like must come she forced him to come down he took the train down i was a big fan because i had read this book for anyone listening called new york eats which was like you know back then it was like the bible of like places to go in new york and i would have my mom drive me around like every bagel shop and bakery and anything else that was in that book i love that book so i was super excited to to meet him he came down fortunately he loved what i was doing he hit it off and and he included me in the book in a very big way nice and timing wise when i was ready to open the one in new york the book came out and he was on a bunch of tv shows and stuff talking about the book and what are his favorite places and you know what ours very one of them and it just kind of set us off in the first kind of big steps of like getting some business.

15:41Do you remember a moment when you were like, you know what, what I'm doing is working. What I love, what I'm doing, I love obviously what I'm doing is working. Do you ever? No, not really. I'm still waiting for that moment. Really? Yeah. I mean, I say that kind of joking partially, but not totally either because you know, it's constant, like business is such a, like there's so much flocks in it. Correct. You know, you, you, you feel like you're killing it and then all of a sudden you're not, it's just like, I don't take anything for granted, uh, with work and with the restaurant. And like, I truly go in there.

16:18Like my life depends on it every day. With that being said, how about the pandemic? You know, that had to be rough. It was scary. I mean, again, like I feel like I've been so fortunate, like we, you know, so that's an interesting situation because right before the pandemic, I was I built out this restaurant in New Jersey in the Atlantic Highlands and I was gonna I finally got to a place where I'm like I'm gonna do two restaurants which I had never had right and I'm like all right I'm gonna open two restaurants and so I ended up finishing that one down there I opened it I had two restaurants running at the same time so I would be going back and forth and I'd make dough in the morning up here and go down there and run that one whatever I did it for two weeks and then the pandemic hit oh my gosh and i was like okay that's signed to me like i shouldn't have two restaurants so i shut the one in new york um and it wasn't the one in new york at the time was not doing that great either um and it didn't look like it does now and i had some investors and stuff and i kept the one open in new jersey all through the pandemic we crushed we sold out of dough every single day rain snow whatever um yeah doing takeout and it was cool and it also allowed me to really just even go deeper and like making dough and like just because we didn't have customers in the restaurant so there wasn't a lot of right interaction so it was really just about like all right i'm just gonna like really like geek out on pizza making even more than i had and i did that for about three years and during that three-year time bought out all the investors at the place in new york it had been shut all that time and i started rebuilding it and i made it look like it does now to be more true to me and this is the one i've been the one that you've been to yeah and the name specifically una pizza napoli ton i mean it's always been una since day one i'm pronouncing it correctly and so uh and then i finally knew like all right i gotta come back up and open in the city and be where i need to be and do it so and i did that about three a little over three years ago I opened reopened at the spot that I'm in now well now tell us about Christina and your your new your family sure and what's going on and how do you fit that and everything into your family now yeah you know you got a lot on your plate I do know I I do have a lot a lot of good stuff I should a lot of good stuff yeah so I met Christina um during the pandemic she had moved back to new jersey where she's from and again this woman uh her name is andrea clarefeld she lived in the town where i had opened this place in new jersey during the pandemic this is the woman who originally wrote the story about the bread wrote the story about the pizza got ed levine to come down and she was coming in then all the time it was covid but nothing to do she'd come in and see me and i'd be making dough or whatever and she's like i met this girl she's amazing i met her at the farm market she works for danny meyer's restaurant group oh nice and she's never been to una when you know when she lives in the city but she's back here during a pandemic and i'm gonna bring her in we're gonna get pizzas to go and we're gonna sit in my backyard and eat it like cool whatever so she brings her in and just wouldn't i mean you know nothing nothing uh happened in that moment but over the course of a few months christina would come in and pick up pizzas to go and ended up working with uh this woman uh on a project that she was working on about food and little by little like you know we just she was into baking bread and like i gave her some flour from from the pizzeria and then you know we went out on our first date uh to uh get soft serve i was gonna ask you where'd you go yeah jersey freeze yeah holds yeah i think yeah that's funny i love it great soft serve nice nice yeah i met christina you know i had the uh honor to speak with her too she's a sweetheart you know i want to tell people too i um was the guest at your restaurant and did not get sick or food poisoning oh that's our goal yeah not at all but first of all i you know what's really amazing and i want you to tell us because you have been awarded the best pizzeria in the world twice correct yeah how did that work that's amazing that's such such an honor and um that's how i met you through marco and you know our audience knows marco really well mostly he's a great guy so marco and i and dora went in there to see you yeah but um yeah tell us how that how that happened or came to be yeah well uh i don't know um yeah i guess you know we're just people people like what we're doing and you know i think there's a lot of great pizzerias in the u.s and pizza makers i you know i i i think it's awesome that we have been you know acknowledged like this so long into our career one because usually people that have been in something for so long are kind of like kind of sliding down or coasting or not at the restaurant or it's kind of like right worn out you know feeling and i think that's pretty awesome and i and i think it helps to keep us even more where we push and want to be better at what we do and really like you know in the hospitality side christine is a big part of that the hospitality side and just our guests interfacing and all that stuff.

22:03Um, yeah. And it's a testament to like, not, you know, being like a restaurant group too. You know, I mean, exactly. I'm an independent owner and operator. I have one restaurant, you know, so it's cool that like be free like that and get acknowledged around the world. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very reputable simple menu and all this stuff. It's just good to show that like you stick with what you do and stay focused. You can like achieve a lot. Yeah. The pizza is delicious. I loved it. I mean, I don't consider myself a big foodie. You know, I think I mentioned that earlier in general before the podcast, but, um, the pizza was everything and more than I expected.

22:44It was so good. Absolutely delicious. Absolutely loved everything about it. Thanks. And the appetizers too. We had, we just had a really amazing time at your restaurant, you know? left there very happily full yeah you know so yeah pizza was pizza was incredible i like how the the dough is a little bit thicker and and you mentioned earlier how you like it to be one full pizza and it's not cut or something yeah so that's what you know we were cutting our own pizza and i really liked that about it too i thought that was really really interesting most left there super happy thanks yeah that really is our ultimate goal you know we really want people to leave the restaurant feeling like really inspired right and feeling like whatever like i just want people to feel like excited and pumped and and see the love that we're giving and and i really try to drive home with the staff like to walk around the restaurant with gratitude and like engage with people and be respectful of people and of each other and like really create an environment that's like electric.

23:52It was, you know, our waiter was, well, I wish I could remember his name. Really cool guy. He was incredible. Yeah. Really nice guy. Informative, you know, made us feel really at home. Yeah. You know, here, no attitudes. Yeah. He was really, really, really kind. Then you're right here. I can see you behind the glass making every single pizza. Yeah. And then some, there was a couple other guys there with you too. You know, they were just really nice. Everybody was just, You know, did you, do you have a certain layout of the restaurant that you feel is, you know, I never, I've never used this word, but like feng shui or something.

24:26Do you have a certain way you like your restaurant to feel or something or the layout or is it just how it was? Well, I mean, usually I let each space kind of dictate the way it's going to live and be. And depending on, you know, like in here, like you have these tin ceilings. So like I would leave those if this was my space because they're beautiful. Yeah, they are actually. I never really noticed them. Yeah. but like I always try to go into a space and then kind of build out what makes sense in that space and in the neighborhood and well it works very well and it's all personal you know everything in there like everything you see on the walls in there is personal art from friends I don't buy stuff it's not like a concept restaurant it's like really you know I have little coffee pots from Naples that were my families that are like I love it a hundred years old that are sitting on the bar it's like really everything exposed you know how humble you are and your passion is just amazing you know when i you know i have my passion for my photography and what i do and everything too and showing people new york city yeah and people learning about new york city and bringing people from new york city to learn about such as yourself awesome and um no i just i just love just feeling i i could i can feel your passion while you're at the restaurant yeah it's a beautiful restaurant and you bake only three pizzas at a time.

25:43Is that correct? Yes. And why is that? What's the reason? You know, the dough is so delicate to move from the counter into the oven. It's very hydrated, which means there's a ton of water in it, which results in like this wild, very light, very digestible pizza. But that being said, it makes it difficult to move and work with. and yeah makes sense you know it changes a lot throughout the night it's not refrigerated it's not in a proofer it's at room temp um so you're dealing with a lot of the elements so just getting them in the oven turning them in the oven and cooking them and they cook in about a minute and a half that all that combined three is like our sweet spot i was fascinated by how fast the pizzas yeah i was watching you know watching the pizzas and i was like wow you're just quickly cooking Yeah, the oven's about 900 degrees.

26:36You know what that to me, not knowing much about, you know, pizzas, how to prepare pizzas, so to speak, just told me how fresh it was, too. That's that's what resonated with me. It's so fresh. So you use only imported Italian ingredients, correct, as well? Not every ingredient. It depends. Like right now, you know, for example, the tomatoes for the stuff that we use with fresh tomatoes, the tomatoes are beautiful. new york state so like you know the garlic is amazing we just got through garlic escape season amazing the sorbeto is 99 of the time local stuff delicious yeah cantaloupe right now is in season in new york amazing um pretty soon we'll have watermelons we have cherries right now are amazing peaches are amazing so it's a mix you know there's some ingredients that in my opinion for what i want to achieve from Italy is better.

27:32Like I love the San Marzano tomato, the canned tomato for the sauce from Italy, the best in the world. Olive oil. I think the one that we import ourselves is the best in the world. Flour for me from Italy works better for the way we make pizza, but it's a mix. It's a total mix. Well, we, we finished, you know, the, you know, you said watermelon too. Yeah. Yeah. What is a sorbet we had, right? Oh my gosh. Yeah. We had two sorbet yeah uh well we have one with the almond that was it yeah so that's more of an ice cream exactly that's yeah and we have one that's like usually a fruit and the watermelon sorbet i was like yeah in heaven yeah we gotta go there fresh every single morning like i again like that's the secret i think to our success 100 truly like we juice like for example with the watermelon or last week we did i could tell we juice the peaches we make the sorbet though we serve it and whatever isn't sold gets discarded or we all eat it at the end of the night like it never ever gets held over you don't do delivery or takeout is that correct no at all no wow and why is that just because because the pizza tastes better when you eat it hot yeah right out of the oven nice nice nice i love that and no reheating or shortcuts every pizza is made fresh to order and also are you obsessive about oven temperatures like constantly monitoring the wood-fired oven you know what's funny is we don't even have a thermostat on the oven is that like i honestly don't know the exact temperature i can tell when it's like really yeah yeah we have no idea you just look at it you're like it's ready yeah we know wow and you know it's like this throughout the night and if it kind of gets slower and the oven starts getting overheated then we have to be careful or if we're super busy it's difficult to keep the oven up to where it needs to be so it's just always micro adjustments that's really amazing because i was watching one of the gentlemen who was moving the pizzas he's moving them in the oven a little bit and putting it over here and but it was so fast and quick yeah so it was like a delicate dance that was watching you can't with anything yeah it was doing that really interesting yeah very authentic very very authentic yeah i I really, really enjoyed it.

29:49So are you, what are your hours or what are your hours at the restaurant? First of all, what's the address? Sure. Yeah. Go ahead. Uh, one 75 orchard street between Houston and Stanton. Right. It's like a block away from cat's deli. It's right around the corner from one side from cats, one side from Russ and daughters. Nice, nice, nice. And, um, what are the hours again? I'm sorry. Your days are open in your hours. We're open, uh, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. from 5 p.m. until we sell out. And then we do a lot of private events the other days. And it's reservation only? No, no. Oh, it's not.

30:25Mostly. Mostly. It kind of, again, like that's been a little bit of an evolution. It used to be years ago, walk in, 100 % walk in, no reservations, cash only. And, you know, and I had a different attitude towards the way I ran the business. Right. And over the years, I've gotten more into the hospitality side of things. And along that way, and with Christina's influence as well, it just has snowballed into the reservations allow people to have a better dining experience. Because I feel terrible if people come down, wait online, like in the snow or whatever. And then it's like, sorry, we're done.

31:10And it's like, what do you mean? Or like if you're planning to come there and you drove in from like wherever and with your family and then you're going to wait online and we're sold out or whatever. So this is just a better way to be like, all right, I know I have a table at seven for two. Correct. So we try to accommodate with walk-ins a little bit as best we can, but definitely I would recommend your best bet is try to make a reservation. And the reservations are, again, like, thank God we're so busy. But, like, the reservations are usually, they go live normally every two weeks. And they're taken within, like, 30 seconds.

31:46Right. Like, we watch it go like that. And that line is out the door. It's down the block. It's pretty amazing. And so the people in line, they have a chance to get in? Well, a lot of the people in line when we first open have the reservation. Oh, I gotcha. what we try to do is go out before we open and kind of work through the line and be like hey do you have a reservation they're like yeah okay next do you know it's two of us and we're like okay like we think we can do it but like come back at like 5 30 instead of at five and we try to just like do the best we can and be open about it again like it's tricky because a lot of people we're like well just make more pizza i'm like well i know no kidding i thought of that over 30 years that's actually pretty funny but it also like the way we do it and what we do is also why we're busy and what makes the place special why the pizza tastes the way it does so you know i'm always scared to go beyond what makes it beautiful just to get more people in so we try to to balance you know but like we can't do more than we do it's a small restaurant and we're a small team right right it's a family business so you know so you're open what nights again just Wednesday Thursday and Friday yeah just no no no excuse me uh Thursday Friday Saturday you only open three nights three nights a week yeah Thursday Friday Saturday yeah well that's good too because you know can I mention you have a little baby did you mention did we mention that coming up we don't have it yet um you have one yeah we have one could be today wow yeah it's crazy i know the official due date is uh sunday wow yeah but we had a doctor's appointment today yeah it's beautiful do you know it's a boy we don't know i love that yeah yeah look at christina she was at the restaurant when i was there oh she's gonna be there like we're going to dinner tonight that's why i'm dressed up i normally wouldn't get dressed like this this is but i have to go to a dinner and we're going out tonight oh good for you guys yeah yeah she's amazing like such a positive beautiful influence on the restaurant and the team and the way we do business yeah i agree she was uh you know the little bit that i did speak with her and talk with her she was she was just she's a sweetheart yeah you know yeah she really was anthony i read on the website that you started making a frozen pizza i'm curious about like how what was that process how did that come to you and what was it like trying to create uh like recreate your restaurant experience for anyone to buy in the supermarket yeah um well it came about kind of uh with the idea of like was there a way for us to connect to a bigger audience outside of the restaurant without opening more restaurants because again like my idea on the restaurant is you know maybe this is extreme but I feel like if, if I have more than one restaurant, I might as well have a hundred restaurants, which is cool.

34:47And I may do someday, but I don't really see a difference between two restaurants and a hundred restaurants. If I'm not there every time we're open and really giving myself to the restaurant, then why not just go the other direction and find a way to make these amazing restaurants. So you have a ton of and build a beautiful team. So I don't want to do that right now or didn't want to do that. And so the thinking was, is there something that I could do that would be able to connect to people, have a bigger audience, maybe potentially change my life financially? Cause obviously the restaurant business busy or not is not like, you know, it's not like the safest way to make a living in New York city is not the easiest place in the world to run a restaurant.

35:35So you combine all that and you get where I'm going with that. Um, so, you know, it just seemed like frozen pizza would be the thing to do since I make pizza. Um, and that was sort of the catalyst for that. Um, and it was a really, really tough learning experience because, you know, obviously the frozen pizza i don't make them so trying to learn how to do or at least approach it with the same way that i think with what we do at the restaurant um was really tough and there's a lot of hurdles to get over and a lot of ways to change your thinking i think it's made me a better pizza maker at the restaurant too because i've had to learn these things on a bigger scale um and find a partner that could, you know, let me do what I want and would be willing to grow with me and understand the needs that we had as, as a small startup.

36:34And that was, that was the beginnings. And it was just like, I went into this, you know, factory, we make everything in Italy. Um, and it's, yeah, it's all hand stretched, wood fire baked, naturally leavened Italian tomatoes on it, Buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil. Every one of them is like top by hand with fresh basil. like it's amazing i think it's the greatest frozen pizza that's ever existed and that was sort of the goal is there a way to make a frozen pizza that's better than what we grew up eating that i wouldn't feel embarrassed to have my name connected to that people that don't live in new york city where you have all this great you know food to choose from could get something that's like restaurant quality and feel okay giving it to their kids or eating it alone or like people that are professional and single want to have a good dinner at night you know without so that was the goal and it took three years of r &d uh to get it to where i was happy enough to to let it go out into the world and we officially launched it into the world a little over two years ago um and it's still going and building and it's a tough tough world the restaurant or the retail space is really tough there's a lot of people and middle people and people in between me and the you know the end customer and like middle america that's going to buy it in their freezer section so it's so not transparent compared to the restaurant business which is you bring me the mozzarella I cut the mozzarella and put it on the pizza I serve it to a customer they eat it they pay me they leave that's the end of the whole thing this is like you know it's made in another country it's shipped to America it's in a facility it has to get the truck to another facility it goes to another facility it ends up in a food store in the back of the food store hopefully it gets out on the shelf it gets a good shelf spot it's just like you know finally somewhere along the way it ends up in someone's freezer at home and they finally get to eat it.

38:41Um, but it's been amazing and it's been so cool to like have people write us and be like, you know, Oh my God, thank you for this product. It's like been amazing to serve to my family and all this stuff that like, you know, they don't even know me. Most of the people that buy it have never been to Una, never even been to New York city. Don't even know me. And it's cool. Like the, to, to kind of experience that and touch people and be outside of the little bubble that I live in. So that's kind of where it's at right now. It's tough. It's building. We're going to keep going. And, you know, eventually my dream is to see it like really in most food stores, you know, for everyone to be able to access.

39:22So how do people get it? How can I get it? It's in Whole Foods. Oh, it is in Whole Foods. Yeah, it's in Whole Foods in from like Maine all the way down through like Connecticut, you know, Pennsylvania. New York? New York. New Jersey um it's not called una pizza it's called Jenny Odella Pizza right uh G-E-N-I-O and again the name is purposeful because I didn't want people to buy it thinking that it is the restaurant's pizza and I joke frequently where I'm like look if somebody eats this frozen pizza and they like it better than what I make at the restaurant I got a problem and I'm shutting the restaurant down so it's obviously the best frozen pizza that i can make and that i believe in but it's not me making every pizza every morning and serving it in the restaurant to 100 people so it's a different two completely different businesses but with the same 30 years of experience behind that and approaching it like that and it's crazy thing is most or all frozen pizzas that exist are not really at scale or not from pizza makers like these are just like conglomerates that are making crap that is with a bunch of ingredients that you should not be eating and dough that's like literally mixed risen and baked within like a half an hour and then everyone wonders why they have stomach issues your body cannot assimilate and digest stuff like that it's super unhealthy i read every ingredient and everything i buy yeah yeah and but the sad thing is there's so many ways even around that now where things are hidden within an ingredient you don't know really what is that how is that made it's just like so tough you know and that's one of the beauties at least with producing in italy is that they're a non-gmo country they're starting unfortunately to try to have that changed because they want to be competitive but currently they still are so it's nice to know like ingredients are really clean and straight and there's nothing hidden in there that you don't understand i'm gonna get a pizza on the way home do it yeah i'm gonna tell you what i think of it good but you know i know it's gonna be amazing because you know i've eaten your restaurant and your pizza your pizza is truly amazing thanks so other question for me i'm curious about what are for people who might not be aware you make a neapolitan pizza right what are the other kinds of pizza that are made in new york at other places and then what are your inspirations like what are what other places do you like where do you draw inspiration from that helps you to create your own yeah um yeah we make a neapahalton style pizza i mean even at the restaurant though just to preface this we generally try to tell people like the name is una pizza napolitana we started it 30 years ago it was done in an innocent open-hearted way by a kid from new jersey and there was no one making neapolitan pizza in america at the time it's evolved into its own thing and i would say what we serve at una is our pizza it's very it's got a very specific thing about it when you eat at our restaurant you would see and know that pretty quickly it tastes a certain way it looks a certain way it is ours we own it you can feel it and that's important to me like when you listen to music or anything like you just hear someone you're like that's so and so you just know it it you know it's like otherwise you're a studio musician and then you're like you can play anything this is like very like specific to what we do that being said all the styles in new york gosh i mean new york is like you know the center of the universe in every way and influenced by so many cultures that like i mean you know you have from like the old school Italian American like coal-fired places that were their version of what was made in Naples 100 years ago you know Lombardi's and Patsy's and Totono's and John's on Bleeker and Arturo's on Halston like these places are amazing and a big part of the New York history um and they were actually their version of what was made in Naples but back then no one had wood fried ovens so they used coal ovens because that's what was available in new york and it evolved into this other thing that became the new york pizza and from those pizzas and you have like joe's you know and an amazing slice and all that all that kind of stuff and then now you have all these like younger kind of artisan like elevated slice places like mama which I love.

44:10Um, you know, there's a ton of them. Like there's so many opening like every week, uh, that are using just better ingredients and understand dough more and, you know, leavening times and using like just better ovens and just like really trying to push it, which is beautiful and gives New Yorkers and visitors like such a variety. And then you have like Korean pizza now and like all this stuff where it's just like people are just, because really when you think of pizza really it's just like it's basically like a flat sandwich you can put anything on it there's no rules really if you think about it i mean obviously if you're claiming like this is this or whatever it's neapolitan then you know there are things that are markers to make that neapolitan but if you're just saying it's pizza it's like there's no limits to what you can do.

45:03I mean, I think if you use good ingredients and you understand how to put flavors together, there's no limits. You could do anything like, I mean, it's beautiful pizza inspirations and stuff for me. Um, I mean, I'm not really inspired by food so much. Um, I don't know, you know, I'm, I'm pretty self-motivated, you know, I'm like kind of a self-motivated guy i'm kind of a alone a loner in my work and stuff um if i were to say food i would say like you know in new york one place that like is a big inspiration is 11 madison park which obviously seems like another planet from what we do you know it's super fine dining considered one of the best restaurants in the world 100 vegan um but like their commitment to quality and excellence and their way they run the place and their team.

45:59And just like, if you ever get a chance to go there, like I recommend it. Like it's pretty, pretty special. It's a beautiful experience and it's inspiring. And it's the kind of inspiration that like translates past food, you know, where you could walk out of there and be like, you know, whatever you're doing, you're like, I am going to do what I'm doing and I'm going to kick ass with it. And I'm going to go deep and I'm going to push it. And that's like what we try to do at Una. Like, that's what I want the reaction to be i want people to feel like whatever i'm doing i'm going for it man like there's no limits you know and i think 11 madison is a great example of that um i think teresi is incredible if you guys haven't been there that's a big inspiration to me it's like new york like translated in by an italian american but like super elevated it's amazing it's got like things from all different cultures of new york mixed in to make it still be italian-american but then like there's these like influences from like all the different cultures in new york i love it um i love massimo bittorra in italy i don't know if you guys know that is like yeah like one of the greatest chefs like built you know an empire in modena that the world comes to now and it's amazing like i love when people do things and the world comes to them you know like I think that's awesome, you know, and I think that's the way to approach whatever you do in life is like, to be like, I'm doing what I do and hopefully I can make a living and hopefully I survive and hopefully I don't lose my mind along the way.

47:33And you just keep like grinding, you know, and then eventually people come and like, people don't see what went on in the back. They don't see like 30 years of struggle, 30 years of not being able to pay your bills, 30 years of having to sleep on the floor of the restaurant, 30 years of like making a lot of sacrifices. And I think that's the case with sports, with music, with everything. And, you know, that's what I get inspired by when people just grind it and the world comes to them on their terms. I love that. Yeah. Gosh, you're completely, I'm so inspired by you right now. Thanks. No, it's really, I mean, it's, I mean, you're proof.

48:13I mean, you know, passion is what, when you have a passion and you just keep at it, you know, it rewards you, you know, it really does. And I think in consistency and loving what you do and having that passion. I mean, how can you go wrong? You can't, you know, with whatever it is, whoever's listening, whatever it is. Yeah. I mean, I've always said like, it just happens to be pizza. I could have been a plumber and I probably would have been more wealthy if I was, you know, um, but like, it doesn't matter what it is it's just like the approach it's the mentality it's the the idea and the concept behind it on how you work you know well this might be a silly question you know i sometimes ask people questions at the end and to ask you this kind of seems silly because i sometimes i say if you weren't doing what you're doing what else could you see yourself doing or no yeah i don't know like i really love music and i wanted to be a jazz musician when i was but i realized that i suck and you know it just wasn't gonna make like i just don't have have it you know yeah and so you know that that if that was in the cards that probably would have been a dream to like be a jazz musician and just be with a small band and like touring the world playing in little clubs nice would have been cool i can see you doing that yeah except that i'm not the best what instrument the bass oh yeah well you know we have to close up we have to close the show out and i want to keep talking though but um i was going to ask you um do you have a favorite restaurant in the city you know a favorite do you have a we'll say a couple not to be a couple just a couple you know a couple on your when you do have free time yeah yeah you know that you enjoy going totally yeah um yes um i would say my favorite restaurants in the city are abcv love that place um chef neil amazing teresi as i mentioned 11 madison park sema i love that indian food it's amazing um i would say those are my top right now but like i'm always open to like new stuff or what's coming up but those are kind of my my go-tos nice very nice well thanks for chatting i mean thank you for having me really interesting i mean i'm gonna i'm walking out of here you know even more inspired you know to do more of what i do too but you know what i want to do is just you know i want to be clear here for our listeners you know because you know i want to brag about you a little about your awards twice that that you have received of the best pizzeria in the world.

50:59So I just want to just discuss, you know, what it is. According to Food & Wine, 50 Top Pizza, Crown Una Pizza Napolitana. Yeah. Is that correct? The best pizza in the world, 2024. Following years of being the best in the U.S. in 2022 Mangieri's pizzeria Anthony Mangieri pizzeria tied for number one globally globally as well with Menzanielli am I saying it right yeah and Caserta honored at a ceremony in Naples by 50 Top Pizza curated by Barbara Guerra Luciano don't know if I know Pina Taro uh yeah perfectly perfectly said and Albert yeah and then in 2024 una pizza napoletana regained the number one spot in the world at another award ceremony held at teatro mercadante in naples just am i correcting that saying that correctly i think so yeah so that's awesome i think it's important that people know your accolades and you know they're well deserved because you have worked your butt off something to be really impressed though with because i am truly impressed like i said i went to your pizzeria and I was blown away, truly blown away.

52:17So thank you for joining us. And lastly, I have to say the global accolade was granted by 50 Top Pizza via a panel of anonymous inspectors and curated by the Italian Food Publication Team. So that's pretty impressive. Jay, what do you think? Yeah, I think I want to go there. Let me know. So Anthony, before we let you go, we here at the New Yorker's Podcast want to know what it means to you, Anthony Mangieri, to be a New Yorker. I think to be a New Yorker is a big responsibility. That's what it means to me because I think the world looks to New York and I think you should carry yourself with dignity and respect and be inspiring because people come from like, I love a lot of places in America.

53:13I love California. I love like, I love, I love so much of America and I love the outdoors, but I think if you travel the world, most people think of New York as America, you know, like if people are like, I want to come to America, they're not like, I want to come to Kentucky. Kentucky is probably beautiful. I think Corvettes are made there. Bowling Green, Kentucky. Amazing. But like New York is like, you know, it's, it's interesting because New York means that to the world. And then in a way, New York belongs to the world because there's so many people here that are from all over the world. It's almost like its own place.

53:53So I think there's just a lot of responsibility with that, you know to like represent in a way this is like humanity it's like i'm like a little dish of like humanity you know all in one and the world looks at it so i think the better we are and the more beautiful this place is and the more awesome it is the better it trickles around the whole world you know love it nicely said i'm running for mayor i wish you were thank you Anthony for joining us today for this week's episode of the New Yorkers podcast why don't you let everyone know where they can find you on social media thanks for having me my Instagram is Anthony underscore W underscore Mangieri and the restaurants is Una Pizza Napolitana once again I'm your host Kelly Kopp also known as New York City Kopp all across social media Please like and subscribe to the New Yorkers podcast and you can follow the New Yorkers on social media at the New Yorkers podcast.