What's Good Dough?

In an industry largely dominated by white men, it was meaningful for me to hear the perspective of a Black pizza business owner because I myself identify as a person of color. Meet Ray, the owner of Pepperoni Ray’s Cafe serving his local community in New Orleans, Louisiana. I almost didn’t release this episode as I wasn’t happy with the initial quality of the recording, but after lots of editing, Im really proud of the end product. More importantly and most importantly, I’m proud of the story Ray shares with us in this episode. We talk about:

@IG PepperoniRays

#blackownedbusiness #pizza #thebigeasy #nola #pepperonirays #letseat #bigeasy #neworleans

Full Transcript Here

Ray: So I'm looking for people with vision. So I can share that vision with them and give them a piece of that vision. Teach one, share one

Eidref: What's happening? What's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How are y'all doing today? I'm doing great in case any of you were wondering. Today, we have a very special episode with Ray from PepperoniRays cafe in New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm really excited to share this episode with you all today. In my last episode with Craig, we talked about grabbing perspective from people you normally wouldn't hear a perspective from. I truly believe in inclusion and diversity. As someone who identifies as a person of color myself, it's good to hear another person's perspective, because quite frankly, in the pizza industry, it's no lie that there are a lot of white males. But when you hear from someone else who doesn't fit that description, what you can see is that we have a lot more in common. We all want to provide some great pizza. We all want to build community. We also talk about how he impacts his community and how he builds the youth up. And so that's a really, really great topic that we discuss. And last but not least, we also talk about, you know, the current state the world. It would be great if y'all listen and heard what's up. It's a great episode y'all. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what's good though? Trying to start all of my podcast shows like this. The title of the show is called what's good though? There's no right or wrong answers. What's good?

Ray: Good dough is the dough that tastes good. That's it. Yeah, find a recipe you stick to it and don't change anything. People get accustomed to what they like, and if you have them, keep them don't change anything.

Eidref: You have a very strong community following.

Ray: Most definitely. They step up every time, every time. They are here for me, I'm here for them. We're all the hurricanes that come and stuff like this. I'm still the needs of mine. That’s going to be there is pizza, but people like you know, people love it. So I do my part in whatever I can do.

Eidref: Out of all the food in the world that you could have cooked in that basement that you were working at first, why pizza?

As my pizza journey continues, I meet more and more interesting people to learn from. Whether you're thinking about pizza as a business for the first time or you are a serious vet in the game, I really think there is a lot of knowledge that you can learn from Craig. He is the owner of Gracie's Apizza in Portland Oregon and we get into talking about locally sourced flour, amazing vegetables and quality cheese. We also talk a lot about the business side of things and there are some legitimate opinions that he has that you should probably consider as a pizza business owner. This episode is on the longer side, but I enjoyed listening to it multiple times and I have a feeling you will to.

Follow Them on IG @graciesapizza

Address: 8737 N Lombard St, Portland, OR 97203

https://www.graciesapizza.com/

Phone: (971) 512-0007

Full Transcript Here

Craig: We did it super modest. I mean, I opened the restaurant for like, a little bit more than I opened the cart, maybe 50, 60 grand max. It doesn't take tons and tons of money to do that. And that's really what it boils down to. I think is being really realistic but also knowing you got to know what you're doing.

Eidref: What's happening? What's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How y'all doing? How are y'all doing? I'm doing great In case any of you were wondering. Today, we have Craig with Gracies of pizza. Craig is doing some awesome stuff over there in Portland, Oregon, where he has moved from a mobile unit to a storefront. And, he's really killing the game with a unique take on pizza using whole wheat, using some Kraft flour, and really just using quality ingredients. But really the highlight of this podcast isn't just about the pizza, we really dive in deep on lifestyle, business, a lot of the things that, you know, both rookie business owners and seasoned business owners should really consider. This is a great episode so sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what's good dough? How are you?

Craig: I'm pretty good.

Eidref: Awesome, man. So, I want to start these off with this question. And there's no wrong answer. What's good dough?

Craig: What's good dough? What a good question. Well, I guess for me, we'll go super technical about the dough itself. And to me, it's all about the wheat. I like to think that more than human being a pizza person or a dough person or a bread person that it really comes down to being a wheat person, which really goes down to being an agriculture person.

Meet Ross and Leo! Ross is the owner of Oak and Rye Pizza in Los Gatos and Leo is the head pizzaiolo. I was lucky enough to speak with them about their perfectly delicious sourdough wood fired pizza. Their pizzas use the ingredients and it shows. Having tasted it myself, it is a life changing experience. Find out more about them on this weeks show!

Instagram @oakandrye

Address: 303 N Santa Cruz Ave, Los Gatos, CA 95030

Hours:

Open ⋅ Closes 10PM · See more hours

Menu: oakandryepizza.com

Phone: (408) 395-4441

Music: And So it Begins- Artificial Music

Meet Jessica and Justin from Pizza Doughnais, the couple doing sourdough Sicilian pizzas in Portland. Join in on the conversation about their delicious pizzas and the mindset that it takes to run a successful and happy business!

IG @pizzadoughnais

3541 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202

Menu: pizzadoughnais.com

Order: postmates.com, doordash.com

Phone: (503) 232-3434

Love beer with your pizza? Who doesn’t! The episode today is with craft beer and homebrewing enthusiast, Brando, who partnered with his brother to open up Slice Project in the revitalizing neighborhood of downtown Watsonville, CA.

Check them out on IG @sliceproject

sliceprojectpizza.com

Slice Project

300 Main St, Watsonville, CA 95076

(831) 319-4851

Full Transcript Here

Brando: We're on the same bone, pretty much about everything we do honestly is opening up together the dream team that wouldn't want to open up with anyone else.

Eidref: Thank you so much for tuning in to the What's Good Dough podcast. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you share it. If you want to get in touch with me, follow us on Instagram at Whats Good Dough. And remember to always ask, what’s good dough? What's happening? What's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How y'all doing? How are y'all doing? I'm doing great in case any of you are wondering. Today we have a dope episode with Brando from a slice project. We talk about opening up a craft beer and pizza spot in a revitalizing neighborhood with family. This is a great episode. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what's good though? Brando, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you doing?

Brando: Doing good man. How are you?

Eidref: Awesome. Before we started, I found out you and your brother are co-founders of the pizzeria. That's amazing. I always wanted to get into business with my brother. Tell me about how that all started and got into play.

Brando: Yeah, man. I mean, it started about two years ago, maybe. We've always had conversations of opening stuffs together. So my brother's been in the restaurant industry for about, honestly, like 10 years now. A little more maybe. And so he was always hopping around cooking at different restaurants. He's cooked in Los Gatos is cooked in Monterey, cooked in Santa Cruz. And so he finally started doing his own thing more towards the end. So he started making donuts. And so we kind of linked up and we thought, like, you know, let's do something together. And so we started exploring, like different things that we can do. I'm a huge beer guy. And he's like a baker, and sort of like, dude like what's better than pizza and beer.

Eidref: Nothing

We talk about steps to take to start a pizza business and share the struggles of a home cook! Listen in on this awesome episode!

IG @elises_pies

Full Transcript Here

Elise: Food for me? I want to feed the world. Like, that's what I want to do. I want to make people happy. I want to feed them. I love to cook. I love to eat food. I love to try new restaurants. It’s just, I'm one of those people.

Eidref: Thank you so much for tuning in to the What's Good Dough podcast. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you share it. If you want to get in touch with me, follow us on Instagram. Remember to always ask what's happening, what's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How y'all doing? How y'all doing? I'm doing great in case any of you are wondering. Today we have an amazing episode with Elise from Elise's Pies. She's out in Alameda, California and she is a home cook. Cranking some Detroit style pizzas. We met on Instagram. She's doing some amazing things there. And we just talk about her wanting to start her restaurant, some of the steps she's taken now, and we talked about just, you know, being a home cook, and the struggles of it all. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask, What's Good Dough? Thank you very much for joining me today. How are you doing?

Elise: I'm good. Thanks for having me.

Eidref: Awesome. Of course, if you could just go ahead and give the audience a brief introduction about yourself.

Elise: So my name is Elise, I live in the East Bay. I want to open a restaurant. I'm actually working on opening a restaurant but you know, this whole pandemic puts everything on hold. I was starting my business plan. I love pizza. I love to cook. I cook anything everything. But nothing's better than fresh baked pizza.

Eidref: I 100% agree. I mean aside from it being like the best freshly baked, what is it about pizza that made you say I want to start a pizza restaurant?

Elise: Honestly, I swear it's the dough, like just the smell of fresh baked bread. I feel like draws anyone in. And honestly like I live in Alameda, but I, you know, right next to Oakland. So there's no good place here to get like a thick Detroit style pizza. And so I mean, you can go to like little Caesars, but that's not the same. And I mean, I do go to San Francisco and they do have amazing deep Detroit style pizzas. But…

This is probably one of the craziest conversations I’ve ever had about pizza and I’m so lucky this guy has blessed us pizza “nerd-os” with his time. He is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, has a mobile pizza truck (finally see the theme for this weekend?) and he is almost done building his brick and mortar. Get ready to be wowed by his scientific approach to pizza making!

Follow Derek on IG @miamarcospizza

Address: 15939 I-35, Schertz, TX 78154

Phone: (210) 667-8441

Full Transcript Here

Derek: I just got finished with one. It’s about a six month study on bacteria versus yeast. Right? So there's a competition going on between bacteria and yeast when it comes to ferment and it's a very interesting competition.

Eidref: Thank you so much for tuning in to the What's Good Dough podcast. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you share it. If you want to get in touch with me, follow us on Instagram at What’s Good Dough. Remember to always ask; what’s good dough? What’s happening? What's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How y'all doing? How y'all doing? I'm doing great in case any of you were wondering. Today we have a special episode with Derek from Mia Marcos Pizza, over in Selma, Texas. This dude is fricking awesome. He is a husband, a father, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and is a pizza mad scientist running a food truck and is about to open a brick and mortar spot. We're going to talk about experimenting. We're going to talk about striving for perfection, and just the art of making amazing pizzas. This one's a good one, y'all. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what's good dough?

Derek: Yeah, so I'm a Doctor of Physical Therapy. I have a background in evidence based medicine. And I've been in private practice. I've been in my own practice for right at 14 years now. So pizza, it started out as being fun. I wanted to just make this awesome pizza, right?

This episode is with Ray from Charles Pizzeria. He has some of THE most beautiful pizzas I’ve seen on Instagram. He is sharing love for neo-neapolitan pies with the folks up in Northwest Arizona by starting a food truck of his own! In this episode, we talk about how a self taught pizza maker is rocking the game and why it pays off to believe that you are a lucky person!

Follow Ray on IG

@charliespizzeria

Full Transcript Here

Ray: I want to make the perfect pizza is what I want to do. I want to make the perfect pizza. And sometimes I've tasted a pizza and I said, I'm not sure I can make a better pizza than this, you know, but you just keep progressing. I thought that a year ago and I go back a year, and I'm like, that was awful.

Eidref: Thank you so much for tuning in to the What's Good Dough podcast. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you share it. If you want to get in touch with me, follow us on Instagram. Remember to always ask what’s good dough? What's happening? What's good dough? It's your boy Eidref. How y'all doing? How y'all doing? I'm doing great in case any of you were wondering. Today we have an amazing episode with Ray from Charlie's pizzeria. If you've seen him on Instagram, before, you already know, he's cranking out some picture perfect pizzas that are also the talk of the town. He runs a catering business right now, and is soon to be opening up his mobile pizza food truck. Whoo. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what's good dough? Let's get straight to pizza. How did you get started in it?

Ray: You know, it's a funny story. My woman her name is Jennifer all referred to as Jennifer. About two and a half years ago, she said let's make some homemade pizza for the night. And I said, No, let's not do that we could just order out. I don't want one of those you know, pizzas that are a crockery crust with some spaghetti sauce on it, you know cheddar cheese. I'm gonna wanna just go get a real pizza. And then she made a pizza with some homemade dough from the store or not homemade dough, but from dough from the store. And, it turned out pretty good. And then two weeks later, I watched a video On YouTube it just kind of suggested to me on my phone to watch it. I watched this video on how to make pizza dough. So I did it and it turned out pretty awful first time. And then over time I developed ways on how to progress pizza dough. Pizza dough I think is obviously the base for the pizza so you want it to be great or the best you can make it in my opinion anyway. So I told my woman that Jennifer that it was impossible to make pizza dough or a pizza at home. And over time throughout the couple months following that I got obsessed. I made pizza like every single day and I was trying to learn every technique, every possible way to somehow perfect it or at least just to be edible and able to slide off of appeal and do onto a pizza stone which I started making on a barbecue grill to start off with.

This guy is a straight hustler and is killing it in the mobile pizza game. He has not one, not two, but THREE mobile units including one BADDDDDAASSMOTHATRUCKING Food Truck. Learn more about how he got his start, his tips for success and how it pays to have a great personality. And of course, listen in on all the pizza talk! Visit him in the Sacramento Area- To see where they are at and follow them on Instagram!

IG @bellafamiliawfp

Full Transcript Here

Scott: I love being mobile so much. My scenery is different. You know every day I'm looking at something else and that is also really cool.

Eidref: Thank you so much for tuning in to the what’s Good Dough podcast. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you share it. Want to get in touch with me? Follow us on Instagram; What's good Dough. And remember to always ask what's good dough? What's happening? It's your boy Eidref. How y'all doing? How y'all doing? I'm doing great, in case any of you were wondering. Today, we have an amazing episode with Scott from Bella Familia wood fired pizza in Sacramento, California. Scott has not one, not two, but three mobile units including a beast of a truck. We talk about hustling, and what it takes to remain the top mobile pizza dog in your area. And overall, I just want to say this has been one of my most fun conversations. He is just a great person with a great personality and I'm really excited to share this episode with you all. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to always ask what’s good dough. How are you doing today?

Scott: I'm doing great.

Eidref: Awesome. For those people who don't know who you are, can you give me a brief introduction?

Scott: Yeah. My name is Scott Thorson, I'm with Bella Familia wood fired pizza. I'm about a Rocklin California. I have been doing mobile wood fired pizza for a little over 12 years and that’s a real quick kind of overview. I've got a couple mobile pull behind wood fire trailers and then I have one unique looking food truck.

Eidref: You have a badass food truck. You can follow Scott on Instagram and I’ll make sure to tag his handle on the show notes. But, describe this food truck for people listening.

Scott: We took a 20 foot storage container and put it on the back of a Freightliner truck. Actually, the very first one was called Del Popolo down in San Francisco. They've got a truck and so you know, what is it copying is the best form of flattery or something. I mean, their truck look beautiful. And so we kind of took it as well as some inspiration from a few other trucks around the world that are kind of doing the same thing. And I found a local fabricator, and I've had it on the road about four and a half years now.

Audrey is a huge fan of "mentorship" e.g. someone you can run things by. It doesn't have to be as formal as, OMG DO YOU WANT TO BE MY MENTOR.. Do you actually need a mentor going into the pizza business? Sure you can do it all yourself, but what if your intuition/education sets you up for a less than ideal situation? Or what if it leads you to leasing a terrible location? If you have a person who is as passionate as you are in the business, they may be able to guide you from getting yourself into sticky situations. Who is Audrey's pizza mentor? Want to learn more about sourdough from someone who has been on Diners Drive Ins and Dives? Listen to the show and find out!

@audreyjanespizzagarage

https://www.thepizzagarage.com/

PHONE

(303) 442-2032

LOCATION

2675 13th St.

Boulder, CO 80304

Full Transcript Here

Audrey: I think it's like that support that not only like enables you to have a business because you know, you need support to have it not only from your community, but like your peers. But it also allows you to, like keep wanting to do it. Because there's a lot of days that are hard. And for me at least, it's like my family and the people in the pizza community that you know, like, they're doing the same thing as you and they know what you're going through. And it makes you want to keep doing it.

Eidref: Thank you so much for tuning in to the What's Good Dough Podcast. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you share it. If you want to get in touch with me, follow us on Instagram. What's good and remember to always ask what's good dough? What's happening? What's up Yo, it's your boy, Eidref. Hi, I'm doing today. I'm doing great in case any of you were wondering. Today we have an amazing episode with Audrey from Audrey Jane's pizza garage over in Boulder, Colorado. You may have seen her before, on one of my favorite shows, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It's possible you've seen one of her pizza demonstrations over at Pizza today. Or maybe you were in her class last week. Her pizza making class with Breville, Meet the Makers where she did sourdough. If you missed it, we're gonna do you know a little bit of talking about sourdough. We're gonna talk a lot about mentorship and how this community is just so awesome. We talk about a whole bunch of things. So go ahead and sit back, relax and enjoy the show. And remember to let me know was good dough. Audrey, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?

Audrey: I’m good. Thanks for having me.

Eidref: Awesome. I appreciate it. I read a little bit about you on your website. And I thought, how perfect is it that she already lists kind of her first memories of pizza in a sense, or why she loves it, but I kind of wanted to see if you could just expand a little bit more on those two times that you fell in love with pizza. With, you know, your mother putting sesame seeds on her pizza crust and then falling in love with it. Just sampling it in Italy, right?