*Winter Break Re- Air* New York Has The #1 Pizza In The World! -With Anthony Mangieri

0:00Hello, everyone, and welcome to The New Yorkers, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, real estate content creator, podcaster, and above all else, a New Yorker.

0:36This is a time square. This is a time square. With 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 um close enough though yeah 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 when 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.

2:01So 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, every, a lot of people have a staff to do that. I do. Yeah. No, I have a great staff um mostly it's honestly uh selfish reasons because i really want to be better at what i do so as crazy as i think some people think that is uh i really do come in every day kind of like thinking like today i'm gonna 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 as 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 so 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.

3:22And 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 interest? Well, I grew up, as I said, New Jersey. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. She lived right down the street from us. My family is originally from Campania in Italy. Um, 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.

4:03And 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, and just kind of being a normal kid in the suburbs in the seventies. 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 the 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 so my point is that's inspirational right there you just right there's 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 gonna open a business and with no trepidation yeah that's right where you just did it yeah at a young age what early 20s 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 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 place is terrible this guy sucks and you're out of business in a minute 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 yeah now 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 artisan bread right shop you were doing then what happened then where that go 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 and 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 this is new jersey still yeah and i and i city again uh the the bakery was in red bank new jersey and the pizzeria was in point pleasant beach oh wow okay um and i grew up in like ocean county toms 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 the money was very small and i was working from like 10 at night until like 2 in the afternoon seven days a week wow and what age are you now here at doing this uh now we're probably like i'm still in my early 20s wow 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 um 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 it was meant to be eaten as a whole.

10:26It 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 Italian-American pizza or what people were used to. So it was tough. It was a tough thing for people to understand at the time, and especially being in New Jersey where 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 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 joint at your pizza places yeah yeah Yeah.

11:19I 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. 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 compliments each other and and i am a very strong believer that everything on the menu needs to be there for a reason just like right 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.

12:12And it represents me and is true to what I think tastes good. And it definitely works. Yeah, it's still a small man. Yeah, thank you. 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 you started in New Jersey. Right. Like the bread, you know, like the artisan bread. Right, the bread bakery, yeah. Yep, bakery. And then this first pizza joint that you had. Yeah. And then what happened? So I had that place, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey in 96. six, I opened it. And then, you know, I did that for about, I'm not great with dates and numbers, but I'm rough, rough estimating.

12:48Um, 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 hottest 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, Oh, I'm like, I want to like show people it's just good. I don't care where you are. And so I, I really was like planning and thinking about this.

13:26And 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 were you with the one on in the that the uh maybe like another eight years or so 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.

15:02I love that book. So I was super excited to, to meet him. He came down, fortunately loved what I was doing. We hit it off and, and he included me in the book in a very big way. 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, ours was one of them. And it just kind of set us off in the first kind of big steps of like getting some business. Do 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.

15:39What I'm doing is working. 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 flux in it and, 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. Like 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 islands.

16:32And I was going to, I finally got to a place where I'm like, I'm going to 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.

17:09Um, 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 it. 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 cause 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.

18:02Una Pizzenopoli. 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, your family 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 covet 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 the pizzeria and then you know we went out on our first date uh to uh get soft serve i was gonna ask me where'd you go yeah jersey freeze yeah holds yeah that's actually sounds funny great soft serve nice nice yeah i met christina you know i had the honor to speak with her too she's a sweetheart you know i want to tell people too I was the guest at your restaurant and did not get sick or food poisoning.

20:24That's our goal. 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 an honor. And 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 like really like you know in the hospitality side and christine is a big part of that hospitality side and just our guests interfacing and all that stuff um 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 and a 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's 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 it 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 i was 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 it 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 yeah made us feel really at home yeah you know here no attitudes yeah he was really really really kind then here 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 yeah 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 use this word but like feng shui or something do 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 gonna 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 yeah i 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 and 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 i love 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 and people learning about New York city and bringing people from New York city to learn about such as yourself.

25:21Awesome. And, um, no, I just, I just love just feeling, 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. Is that correct? Yes. And why, why is that? What's the reason? Um, you know, the, 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 um 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 into 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 it was amazing ovens about 900 degrees you 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 uh 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 pretty soon we'll have watermelons we have cherries right now are amazing beaches 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 like 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 that what is a sorbet we had yeah yeah oh my gosh yeah we had two sorbets i think yeah uh well we have one with the almond that was it yeah so that's more of an ice cream exactly because that's what we had, almond ice cream.

27:56Yeah, and we have one that's usually a fruit. And the watermelon sorbet, I was like, in heaven. Yeah, we gotta go there. And made fresh every single morning. Again, that's the secret, I think, to our success. A hundred percent. Truly, we juice, for example, with the watermelon, or last week we did peach. I could tell. We juice the peaches, we make the sorbetto, we serve it, and whatever isn't sold gets discarded, or we all eat it at the end of the night. 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.

28:35Yeah. 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? I mean, not real. 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 a... I honestly don't know the exact temperature. I can tell when it's like cooking too fast. Yeah, yeah, we have no idea. You just look at it and 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.

29:11Or 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. But it was so fast and quick. Yeah. So it was like a delicate dance that I was watching. You can't do anything else when you're doing that. Yeah, it was really interesting. Yeah. Very authentic. Very, very authentic. Yeah, I really, really enjoyed it. So what are your hours at the restaurant? First of all, what's the address?

29:46Sure. Yeah, go ahead. uh 175 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 right we're open uh thursday friday and saturday from 5 p.m until we sell out uh and then we do a lot of private events the other days yeah and it's reservation only no no but mostly mostly it kind of again like that's been a little bit of an evolution um 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 you know influence as well it just has snowballed into the reservations allow people to have a better dining right because you know I I feel terrible if people come down wait online like in the snow or whatever right and then it's like sorry we're done and 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 right And they're taken within like 30 seconds.

31:37Right. We've watched, we watch it go like that. And that line is out the door 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. And so we, 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 are like well just make more pizza i'm like well i know no kidding i thought of that over 30 years but 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 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 if 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.

34:25Cause 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. And 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 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 that 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 because obviously the restaurant business busy or not is not like you know it's not like the safest way to make a living and new york city is not the easiest place in the world to run a restaurant so 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.

35:37Um, 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.

36:25And 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 topped 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.

37:20And it took three years of R and D, uh, to get it to where I was happy enough 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 um 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 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 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 so how do people get it how can i get it it's in whole foods oh it is yeah it's in whole foods in from like maine all the way down through like connecticut phillip you know pennsylvania new york new york yes new jersey um it's not called una pizza it's called genio della 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 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.

39:53So 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 a hundred 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 is truly amazing thanks so other questions 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 and 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 Yeah, we make a Neapolitan style pizza.

41:58I mean, even at the restaurant, though, just to preface this, we generally try to tell people like the name is Una Pizza Napolitano. 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, well, 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 at the hang in american like coal-fired places that were their version of what was made in naples a hundred years ago you know lombardis and patsies and and Totono's and John's on Bleeker and Arturo's on Houston.

43:23Like 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 oven. So you use coal ovens cause 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 twos, which I love. Um, 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 i 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.

45:08Um, 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 and 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.

45:59And 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 Teresa 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 batora in italy i don't know if you guys know who that is i've heard of it yeah Yeah.

46:58Like 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. And 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 having to sleep on the floor of the restaurant 30 years 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 completely i'm so inspired by you right now thanks no it's really i mean it's just i mean your proof i mean you know passion is what when you have a passion and you just keep at it you know it rewards you it does you know it really does i think and 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 No, whoever's listening, whatever it is.

48:23Yeah. 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. Um, but like, it doesn't matter what it is. It's just like the approach. It's the mentality. It's 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 just yeah i don't know like i really love music and i wanted to be a jazz musician when i was young 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 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 good so that that would have not been probably 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 gonna ask you um do you have a favorite restaurant in the city you know a favorite do you have a couple not to be a couple yeah 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 you have received of the best pizzeria in the world.

50:51So 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 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 Donofono. Pina Taro. Yeah, perfectly, perfectly said. And Albert Sapere. Yeah. And then in 2024, Una Pizza Napolitana regained the number one spot in the world at another award ceremony held at Teatro Mercadante in Naples.

51:51Am I 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 with because I am truly impressed. Like I said, I went to your pizzeria and I was blown away. Truly blown away. So 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? I think I want to go there.

52:29Let me know. So Anthony, before we let you go, we here at the New Yorkers podcast want to know what it means to you. Anthony Mangieri to be a New Yorker? Hmm. 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. I 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.

53:22Kentucky 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. So 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.

54:32And 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. You can leave a rating or a comment to let us know how you are enjoying the show. We read through all your comments and DMs, so please, we would love to hear from you. Thank you, Sue Rothwell, Chris Beck, and Lucky for your kind words on the last episode. If you want to be featured at the end of an episode, leave a rating on Apple Podcasts or a comment on Spotify.

55:13And thank you, Jeff Pinson, Carmen Conti, and Georgina Valls for your comments on Facebook. Have a lovely day, and we will see you next time. Goodbye.

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