The Hot Slice

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The Hot Slice episodes

July 27, 2023 163. Adapting to Extreme Heat
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Thiago Vasconcelos and Alissa Gibson, owners of Pedroso’s Pizza in Austin, Texas, on The Hot Slice Podcast. Pedroso consists of a permanently placed trailer and a commissary kitchen.
The couple opened Pedroso’s in the middle of the pandemic in a much smaller food trailer than their current trailer.
Thiago spent a decade working as a pizza maker for Tony Gemignani in San Francisco. Thiago was recently named a Rising Star in the Pizza Industry by Pizza Today. Alissa spent her career in the front of the house. Thiago and Alissa’s backgrounds complement each other in their own venture. Their concept became the buzz of Austin and the little food trailer began making local pizza lists and garnering the attention of local influencers. That helped elevate the business and the couple looked to grow. They upgraded to an 8-foot by 20-foot trailer and increased its oven capacity.
The business was flourishing. Then the Texas heat wave struck, a troubling situation for a food trailer dependent on customers to stand in line in 110 F-plus temperatures. The couple set a policy to close the trailer when temperatures reach above 100 F. Instead, they run carrout and delivery out of their commissary kitchen. It’s a move that takes the stress off Thiago, Alissa, their team and their customers.
Listen to more of their story.
Follow Pedroso’s Pizza at https://www.pedrosospizza.com/
and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/pedrosospizza/
36 min
July 20, 2023 162. Growing from a Ghost Kitchen
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This week on The Hot Slice Podcast, our guest is Anthony Petralia. We last caught up with Anthony over a year ago to talk ghost kitchens for a Pizza Today Magazine article Going Ghost: A Look at Ghost Kitchen Operations and Setup (https://pizzatoday.com/topics/finance-growth/a-look-at-ghost-kitchen-operations-and-setup/ ). His dad Don reached out to us to share that Anthony has grown his ghost kitchen into a brick-and-mortar restaurant, Tralia, in Sarasota, Florida.
Getting there has taken persistence and strategic expansion. Anthony, like many executive chefs, was furloughed during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic birthed a new class of business owners, already battle tested.
As the ghost kitchen operation grew, Anthony looked for ways to expand into more. His current ghost kitchen location in Your Culinary Place, a shared commercial commissary kitchen (https://yourculinaryplace.com/ ), allowed him to gradually expand into a 20-seat restaurant in its facility. Anthony shares how the ghost op helped him transition into a full-service pizzeria.
With an extensive culinary background, Anthony likes the challenge of offering multiple styles. Find out his approach to doing an artisan pizza and a Detroit-style pizza without overwhelming the kitchen operations.
Now that Anthony has streamlined the business for dine-in and carryout, He’s focused on the pizzeria and even what’s next. Listen as Anthony shares his pizzeria story.
Show Notes:
Learn more about Tralia at https://www.traliasrq.com/
Follow Tralia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traliasrq/
40 min
July 13, 2023 161. Pizza Fusion
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Neel and Palak Vaidya, Troy’s Italian Kitchen on The Hot Slice Podcast

On this week’s The Hot Slice Podcast, Executive Editor Denise Greer and Senior Creative Director Josh Keown chat with Neel and Palak Vaidya, co-owners of Troy’s Italian Kitchen in Arlington, Virginia. Neel was recently named a Rising Star of the Pizza Industry by Pizza Today.

Neel and Palak’s journey to pizza was a unique one. They capitalized on the sale of an existing pizzeria. Though they kept the name, Troy’s Italian Kitchen, the couple overhauled the business and its menu to create the successful business they have today. Learn about how their interest in pizza sparked the flourishing business.

Troy’s Italian Kitchen was never meant to be a vegan-focused pizzeria. But the couple developed plant-based pizzas that pulled a fusion of other cuisine such as Indian, Mexican and BBQ. The vegan pizzas became a hit amongst the local plant-based community and drove huge vegan pizza sales during the pandemic. That demand has persisted, and vegan pies make up 60 percent of Troy’s sales.

Neel and Palak also jumped on offering catering and expanded their pasta menu to diversify catering. They have three team members dedicated to private catering.

Listen on as Neel and Palak share the story of Troy’s Italian Kitchen and its fusion pizza menu.

Read a Q&A with Neel.

https://pizzatoday.com/topics/people-pizzerias/neel-vaidya-troys-italian-kitchen-arlington-virginia-rising-star-2023/

Learn more about Troy’s Italian Kitchen.

https://www.troysitaliankitchen.com/

Follow Troy’s Italian Kitchen on social.

https://www.instagram.com/troysitaliankitchen/

https://www.tiktok.com/@troysitaliankitchen?lang=en

40 min
July 06, 2023160. More than a Bakery
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This week, we have Steve Carcarey co-owner of Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napoletana in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Collegeville first opened as a bakery. Steve and his wife Patrizia took over the business from her parents. Since then, the couple has added on a dining room, full menu, catering and a thriving packaged goods business.
According to its “About Us”, Patrizia says, “My family is from Nusco, Italy in la Campagnia (mountain region) south of Rome. In 1970, my parents, Giovanni and Caterine moved to America. 24 years later they started Collegeville Italian Bakery and have been baking fresh bread from scratch ever since. My husband, Steve, and I are happy to run our retail store and carry on all of our family traditions.
With its slogan “we’re more than just a bakery!”, the couple have worked to create a diversified business. In a previous Conversation with Pizza Today, Steve said, “When they hear, “bakery,” most people instinctively think sweets — cakes, pastries, cookies, etc. While we offer all of those items, there’s so much more to our business. We have such a rich history, authentic culture and unique offerings that we want people to know about, so it’s just getting past those initial assumptions to show customers what we’re all about.
Collegeville has captured a diverse market in its small college town. Steve shares the unique interior flow system that encourages diners to purchase its packaged goods such as donuts and desserts.
Listen as Executive Editor chats one-on-one with Steve on the following topics:
The business’s rich history
Maintaining a bakery and pizzeria operation
Collegeville’s pizza style
Focused catering
Dining flow
Grab-and-go goods
Future growth
31 min
June 29, 2023159. A Product of the Pandemic
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This week, we hear the story of Futuro in Indianapolis, Indiana. Owners Luke Tobias’ and Sarah St. Aubin’s incomes halted during the COVID-19 Pandemic. With a newborn, the two looked for direction. With Luke restaurant experience and Sarah’s business and customer contact savvy, they started a popup pizzeria from their home. They specialized in multiple pizza styles and made up to 50 pies a day from a home oven through a preordering process.
Fast forward nearly three years, they have a growing brick-and-mortar pizzeria in the Holy Cross neighborhood of the Motor City. We talk to Luke about how the home popup evolved into the thriving restaurant it is today.
Learn more about Futuro on this week’s episode, including:
The home popup start-up
Transition to a brick-and-mortar restaurant
Pizza styles
Luke and Sarah’s backgrounds
Financing and building out Futuro
Operations
Future Growth
Show Notes:
Explore more about Futura at https://futuroindy.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/futuroindy
Pizza & Pasta Northeast Registration is NOW OPEN!
Registration for the 5th annual Pizza & Pasta Northeast is now open! Don’t miss out on one of the biggest pizza trade shows taking place on October 1-2, 2023 at the Atlantic City Convention Center. Register online now before prices increase! Special note to COMPETITORS: Sign up now before spots fill up. Learn more at https://pizzatoday.com/topics/industry-news/pizza-and-pasta-northeast-registration-now-open/
41 min
June 22, 2023 158. Pizza Today Mail Bag
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Pizza Today talk Letters to the Editor
This week on The Hot Slice Podcast Editor In Chief Jeremy White and Executive Editor Denise Greer talk Letters to the Editor. We touch on some big industry topics, including Pizza Expo, education, entering the pizza industry, pizzeria valuation, our pizzeria operator survey and more.
Here are some excerpts from a few of our Letters to the Editor:

Drew Butler, Market Pizza by Drew Butler:
For the last six months I have operated Market Pizza by Drew Butler and it has been life changing. As a longtime excellent home cook, I never wanted to make my passion into a profession for fear of it turning into “work.” And Im sure we all know the saying, “if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.” Its absolutely true. I’m doing what I love, and my customers are loving my pizza. The plethora of positive feedback has filled my tank abundantly, more than anything else I’ve ever done. I now live for it and it has made me very happy.
Of course any business owner knows, it is hard work with long hours that you wouldn’t trade for anything. I am now training my son and he is improving rapidly. To work beside him is a highlight of parenting, really my life. Truly. The pizza world has amazing people, community and consumers. It’s a fantastic industry that I’m blessed to part of.

Brenda's Pizzeria:
There were so many great seminars but a few of the really good ones were on at the same time. I think the seminars I attended were some of the best ones. There was one day we almost didn't get to finish seeing everything on the show floor, we were running out of time because of the seminars.
Tyler Carlson:
Our experience at the Pizza Expo was excellent; our team found both the expo floor and seminars very educational, well-organized and full of great networking/partnership building opportunities.

Show Notes:
We mentioned several topics, so we are taking time to share some of the article and recipe references:
Pizzeria Valuation:
https://pizzatoday.com/topics/employee-management/valuation-whats-pizzeria-worth/
First Steps to Selling a Pizzeria:
https://pizzatoday.com/topics/employee-management/first-steps-selling/
Deep Dive into Restaurant Lawsuits in the News with Thomas Reinhard
https://pizzatoday.com/podcasts/the-hot-slice/154-deep-dive-into-restaurant-lawsuits-in-the-news-with-thomas-reinhard/
John Gutekanst’s Dough Articles:
A Better Pizza Crumb Structure: The Guts
https://pizzatoday.com/topics/dough-production-development/a-better-pizza-crumb-structure-the-guts/
Knead to Know: Making Pizza with Sourdough — Beauty and the Yeast
https://pizzatoday.com/topics/dough-production-development/knead-to-know-making-pizza-with-sourdough/
The Rise of Italian Pizza in Teglia is Upon Us
https://pizzatoday.com/topics/dough-production-development/the-rise-of-italian-pizza-in-teglia-is-upon-us/
And finally recipes on the two Upside Down Pizzas we dream about:
Tony’s Trending Recipe: Upside Down Pizza
https://pizzatoday.com/recipes/pizzas/tonys-trending-re
35 min
June 15, 2023 157. The Vinnie’s Pan Pizza Brand
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On this week’s The Hot Slice Podcast, Executive Editor Denise Greer chats with Peter Falzo, owner of Vinnie’s Pan Pizza in Millburn, New Jersey. Peter created Vinnie’s to honor his uncle who owned a successful pizza restaurant for decades.
Peter shares his story of transforming his Italian restaurant into a high-demand carryout pizzeria. He details how he created Vinnie’s Pan Pizza brand and vital tenants to allow it to thrive.
Vinnie’s has received high marks local and nationally for its unique take on pan/bar pie. The pizza garnered such a reputation that Dave Portnoy gave it 8.3 score out of 10 on his Barstools Pizza Review. The review sparked an infusion of new interest in the pizzeria. Peter reveals what happened at the restaurant after the review and tips for other restaurants who receive a visit from Portnoy.
Learn more about Vinnie’s Pan Pizza at https://www.vinniespanpizza.com/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/vinniespanpizza/ and on TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/discover/vinnies-pan-pizza-nj.
Thanks to our sound engineer and designer Katie Wilson.
45 min
June 08, 2023 156. From Chef to Food Truck top Brick and Mortar Pizzeria
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This week, we hear the pizza journey of Evan Eriksen, who owns Pie 95 Pizza in Jacksonville, Florida, an artisan style, neighborhood pizzeria. His path to owning a pizza shop wasn’t a direct route and took him to some far-off places. After culinary school Evan worked with leading chefs in New York City, San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. But it was a pizza trailer that sparked his passion for pizza. Listen to Evan’s episode now.

Evan reached out to us on social wanting to share his journey to pizza. He sent us such a great story that we asked if we could share that with our followers. Here’s his story in his own words:

“As a young child I always was interested in food. Family gatherings and the group gatherings where everyone would partake in the dinner. So, this caused me to start cooking at a young age.

After graduating high school, I had no idea what to do even though I worked in restaurants dish washing, bussing tables, and prepping. I thought of what was my childhood dream to be. I then recalled watching a series “Great Chefs” as a young boy and praised these chefs.

I decided to move to south Florida and go to culinary school. “Florida Culinary Institute” was the name at the time. All through college I paid rent, bills and tuition cooking around West Palm Beach. After graduating I realized to be great, I had to train with the best. Then moved to NYC. Sent my resume out to over 25 places and only heard back from 1. Gotham Bar and Grill. I set up an Interview and bought my plane ticket. Within 2 weeks I was working as veggie cook for an amazing 3-star New York time restaurant.

It was incredible for a 21 yr old. After many years of working in NYC for great chefs like Alfred Portale, Eric Ripert, Gabriel Kruenther and Ben Pollinger I had to go overseas. On a whim got my visa and was headed down under to Sydney, Australia. There I staged at Quay and briefly worked at Tetsuyas. While sitting in Manly work I had a pizza and beer. Realized life was about the simple things and not overly fancy food.

After coming back to the States I headed west to good old San Francisco. Became Executive Sous at Ame restaurant in the St. Regis Hotel. Something was not right in my career. Some passion was gone I wanted to learn something. Then something happened. I saw this adorable concession trailer in Fishermans Wharf. Carmel Pizza Company. It was a 18ft concession trailer with a 120 Mugniani wood fired oven on the back. They were hiring! I said get the job and learn pizza in a few weeks then quit! Well, I got the “cook” position and absolutely fell in love. Knew that pizza was in my life forever.

After working there for almost 1.5 yrs I knew it was my moment. The moment I had to open my own pizzeria. Decided to come back east to Jacksonville Florida. The food truck scene was booming here. So built a concession trailer almost exactly like “Carmel” had across country sight unseen and spontaneously. Yeah, I know it was crazy.

Then hit the road with my trailer. I was taking every gig I could. Just wanted people to eat and try our pizza. It’s different, it’s unique, it’s artisan, it’s Pie95 Pizza! Food trucking come with a lot of great, but also hard scary times. From weather dangerous driving to blowouts on the trailer. The list can go on forever. Really wanted to showcase more of my skill then just what we served pizza and wings. Of course, for caterings we had more options, but showcase my passion “food”.

After years of looking and saving all my money I found a quaint 950sqft juice bar in historic Riverside. Jacksonville, Florida. Signed the lease and started our build out. You only open your first restaurant once. So let’s enjoy this.

Our menu showcases of course wood fired pizza which we specialize in. It also has a lot of shared plates and starters. I’d like t
38 min
June 01, 2023 155: Let’s talk Pizza Dough with John Gutekanst
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This week on The Hot Slice Podcast, we are chatting with creative pizza genius John Gutekanst about his and our favorite subject, pizza dough. John is a past keynote speaker at Pizza and Pasta Northeast. He owns Avalanche Pizza and Slice House in Athens, Ohio, is a contributor with Pizza Today, Emcee at the International Pizza Challenge and frequent demo and seminar presenter. He is an award-winning pizzaiolo, baker, teacher, speaker and author and has been featured in Gastronomica, Food Arts, National Geographic, Alimentum Food Journal, Food Network and Best Food Writing.

In the latest Knead to Know column, John goes in depth into building a better crumb structure in your pizza crust or what he calls the “guts”. Pizza makers and pizza enthusiasts are captivated by the interlocking web of gluten on sideview photos of pizza on Instagram. The gluten development isn’t magic. It takes continual experimentation. John talks about adjustments you can tweak during the dough-making process that will dramatically impact the pizza’s crumb structure. If you’ve never manipulated your dough formula, John provides where to start to experiment with various results in crumb structure.

Next Big Pizza Movement
We couldn’t help but ask John to share his insights on how pizza is evolving and what’s next. Roman has had a gradual rise and he sees the long pan-style pizza to continue. Learn about why and how it is growing across the U.S.

Another climber is the pizza slice business. He shares his own experience with the serving pizza slices and where it is headed.

This week’s The Hot Slice Podcast hosts are Senior Creative Director Josh Keown and Executive Editor Denise Greer.

Thanks to our sound engineer and designer Katie Wilson.
39 min
May 25, 2023 154: Deep Dive into Restaurant Lawsuits in the News with Thomas Reinhard
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Thomas Reinhard talks Wage Theft Lawsuits and Prevention, Importance of Estate Planning on The Hot Slice Podcast

Lawsuits impacting restaurants have been all over the news. Two dispute issue that we are seeing that you should be aware of are wage theft and estate and will lawsuits. We’ve tapped Thomas Reinhard, practicing attorney and co-owner of Cascadia Pizza Company in Seattle, Washington, to chat about these types of critical restaurant lawsuits in the news.

Wage theft lawsuits can come in the for of misappropriating employee tips and tip pooling issues. Thomas has recently addressed tips, tip pooling and service charges on PizzaToday.com in an article “What’s the difference between Restaurant Tips and Service Charges?” (https://pizzatoday.com/topics/employee-management/whats-the-difference-between-restaurant-tips-and-service-charges/). In the article, he clear classifies employee tips and who can receive tips. “A tip is a discretionary payment made by a customer independently, is calculated on their own, and is not dictated by restaurant policy,” he states.

Tip pooling is another area of contention. Thomas explained, “all tips collected are placed into a collective pool and then divided up among staff members. The pool can include anyone who is in the “chain of service”, including servers, dishwashers, bussers, cooks and other kitchen staff.” Read the article now. https://pizzatoday.com/topics/employee-management/whats-the-difference-between-restaurant-tips-and-service-charges/

Restaurants are also making headlines for lawsuits over ownership. Estate Planning is vital for business owners. It’s important to have everything spelled out to alleviate conflicts after your death. Now is the right time to do estate planning restaurant business owners. Thom shares how part of the process is pizzeria valuation. We’ve covered valuation extensively. TO learn more about business valuation, start with this article, “What’s My Pizzeria Worth?” (https://pizzatoday.com/topics/employee-management/valuation-whats-pizzeria-worth/)

List as we chat with Thomas in lively discussion of the two subjects.

This week’s The Hot Slice Podcast hosts are Senior Creative Director Josh Keown and Executive Editor Denise Greer.

Thanks to our sound engineer and designer Katie Wilson.
26 min

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The Hot Slice brings you inspiring stories, strategies and lessons learned from successful pizzeria professionals and top experts. This podcast is hosted by the team at Pizza Today, the premier…