Brooklyn is Pizza Heaven

Dom DiMarco, for me, was like a huge inspiration. Like, as a young cook, I used to go in there and just watch him. I could just stand there for hours and watch him. Dom raised the bar. I said, if I ever made pizza, this is how I'm going to make it. Dom's the Joe DiMaggio of pizza. You're Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter? Derek Jeter. I don't know if I'm handsome enough to be Derek Jeter. You're better looking than me. You're Derek Jeter. That makes you Mickey Mantle then. I'll take Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle. All right. Beautiful. Mickey Mantle. Pizza is the world's favorite food. I'm a pizza man, so you can imagine, I eat a lot of pizza. This is the best breakfast I've had all week. But there are still so many styles I don't know about, in so many cities that I haven't been to. Is this too much to ask for a New Yorker to eat it with a knife and fork? Pizza toast. Salud. You could really find great pizza all over the world. Seoul, Korea, making pizza with Mr. Pizza. Who the hell would have thought? While eating great pizza is definitely a perk, it's the people that make a great pizzeria. He's been eating too much pizza, he's starting to slouch. I'm content. I found my niche. It seems like the American dream to me. Or American nightmare. I mean, you know, it's all perspective. Honestly, there's so many great pizza cities in the world that I haven't been to, but first I'm starting in my backyard. Brooklyn. When you think about a neighborhood pizzeria, you think about grabbing a slice on your way home from work, after school, in and out. The kind of place that's so ingrained in the community, it feels like it's been there for a hundred years. Then there's Roberta's, a pizzeria that just isn't part of the neighborhood. It literally created one. What I love about Roberta's is that they don't play by the rules. Their style's in the vein of Neapolitan pizza, but it's also totally different. These guys will throw anything on top of a pizza, but at the end of the day, it tastes great. One of the guys responsible for creating Roberta's pizza is Anthony Falco, their official pizza czar. Gotta get inside the mind of the dough. He's been there since the beginning, we used to work together, and it's always great to catch up. I stopped working in the pizza kitchen every day. I want to make pizza as often as I can, but really, I also don't want to get in the way of the really talented crew that we have. Where it all began, man, huh? Yeah, this is it, right here. Being in this section, looking at the wood fire ovens, it's something really relaxing about looking at the flame. It's awesome, really, in the true sense of the word. It's awe-inspiring to cook with fire. Yeah, it's amazing. It's like the light of the sun that was stored by the wood, and then it's released through chemical reactions. It's super ******* rad. I remember when Roberta's first opened, I came here, and we walked into Roberta's, and from the outside, you know, you can't really tell what's inside. It looks like a shithole. And then you walk inside, and it's just this wonderful place. Yeah, I mean, this was all just a wrecked car lot. There's this guy, Asha. This was his mechanic shop. And then, when we took it over, the cars came out, and we just put a bunch of dirt down there. Started throwing parties in the beginning, because we were all bartenders from before, and that's how we attract business, is by throwing a party. And there wasn't really anybody in Roberta's in the early days, you know? It was pretty slow. Right, right. Just to see what's happened around the neighborhood, it's been really wild. And this restaurant is iconic, in my opinion, because it came here, and it changed the neighborhood. Like, people moved to Bushwick, and moved to this neighborhood, specifically, because Roberta's was here. Yeah, like, the real estate agents love to say, like, it's right around the corner from Roberta. There was no master plan of, like, first we're gonna take over this building, then we're gonna move, and then everyone's gonna move to the neighborhood, and it's gonna be, like, the next big thing. I mean, I don't know. It was a lot of luck, you know? Yeah. It's, like, controlled chaos, at best, and... All right, we gotta go check this out, see what's going on out here. Oh, that's Yankle. Yeah. He's our wood delivery guy. Yankle! Walk out. Can you go in front? So, what do you want to do now? I know. Let's do the delivery. But can you go in front of their gate? Yankle, man. I gotta get this guy's number. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'll hook you up with Yankle. I do love my wood guys, though. You know, it's important to have a good wood guy. It's a key ingredient, right? Just, like, the water, or the flour, or the dough. I mean, we had the same wood guy forever, and it would come in big blocks, and we would chop it ourselves. This guy's, like, boom. As you can see, he's a professional. In and out. It's no joke. Nice, though. It's cut nice. Dude, yeah. Triple cut. Yeah, we don't have to do ---- to it. We just use it straight up like that. How long have you been delivering wood for, Yankle? Wood? For about 20 years. 20 years? So, you know the business well, huh? He's the best. Let's make some pizza. Yeah, let's go make some pizza. When I think about Roberta's, one of the pizzas that comes to mind, of course, is the Millennium Falco. That was, like, the second pizza that I got on the menu. I mean, and the story goes back to my Sicilian grandmother and the pizza that she used to make. And breadcrumbs are, like, a crucial part of Sicilian cuisine. Do you remember the first time that you made this pie? Uh, I remember, no. I don't remember much from the early days. I was, a lot of drugs and drinking, and it just kind of happened out of the ether. But I mean, look at the beautiful leoparding on the side of these pizzas, I think is what Roberta's is sort of known for. Like, so the Falco is what, what it's all about is this middle action here. It's not sauce, it's not breadcrumbs, it's like everything all come together. Right, it smells delicious. And a little more parm on the finish. The sausage is so good, and the breadcrumbs, a little bit of heat from the pepper. I mean, it has all the things you want pizza to have. Pizza sets the table, and then everyone else is welcome to come and bring their part into it. Roberta's not like a little cathedral to pizza where there's one person doing their thing and you enter that place. I love to see people like Mark Iacono doing his thing. I gotta take a pilgrimage to DeFara's, but we're out there trying to blaze new territory. Cheers. Cheers, bro. Yeah, man. Thanks for, thanks for coming out. So there's New Brooklyn, like Bushwick, and then there's Old Brooklyn. And these days, Old Brooklyn, it's just harder to find. But there's one guy that's working really hard to keep it alive. That's Mark Iacono. Mark is like the unofficial mayor of Carroll Gardens. Hey, Joe. You going up to the park? I'm gonna go grab some sandwiches. Oh, okay. All right. People like Mark is truly why I love Brooklyn. I'll see you later. He grew up here. Everybody on the block knows him, and he opened up one of the best pizzerias with basically no pizza-making experience. And if you're lucky, you'll get a ride in his Chevy Impala. You do look like Junior. Uncle Junior. Should I put on the fedora? Got the leaf blower on? My leaf blower. Oh, man. It's like water in the concrete in the morning. That's my favorite thing to do. Oh, ----. This thing is sick. This is amazing. It's like therapy for me. It's my favorite thing to do. Beautiful. This is a beautiful little escape back here, man. I love it back here. You love to build. I love to build. I built this restaurant. You built the whole restaurant? The whole restaurant. I had no intentions of doing a pizzeria. I just wanted to grab the space and maybe keep it going. You know, I got the keys. I came in here, and I just started looking around and thinking, what do I do? This used to be a candy store. I'm going to keep it the candy store, you know. There used to be a great pizzeria over here on President Street, and I remember that place being packed every day, you know, and it was on a little side street. I said, you know what? Pizza. It took me two and a half years to build a space. I finally finished, and I says, all right, I got to, you know, teach myself to make pizza. How did it all come about? Did you read books? Did you watch people? You know, like I says, how hard could it be to make a pizza? So I started making pies, practicing, handing them out to people, and I'm standing in here by myself, and I says, you know, I got to open. Growing up in pizzerias, did they ever have wine? No. Did they ever have waitresses? No. I says, it's me. I remember going to the pizzeria. It was Angelo, the old man. And that was it. But I take the paper down. I call up Anthony, my landlord, and his mother, Ro, and I says, come downstairs, sit in the place, make it look like we're open, and then I serve them a pizza. A half hour later, someone comes in. An hour later, two and a half hours, every table was full. And I'm running around. I take their order. I make them a pizza. I bring it to the table. And that's how it started. Then it was just like chaos. It just spread word of mouth. Word spread like wildfire. Word of mouth. That was it. Now if you watch this, you're going to see, it's going to, and there you see it's up right up. Yeah, it's like a balloon. And then we finish it off with some Reggiano, some basil. And basil. Beautiful. And that's it. That's it. That's a classic Lucali pizza right there. You're going to shake my hand? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. All right. Amazing. I've been dying for this. Mmm. So good. It's what a classic margarita or regular pie should taste like. I like the tomato sauce with like the mixture of like the milky buffalo mozzarella cheese and then hard cheeses. It's like creamy and a little tangy at the same time. It's really delicious. And that's where my dad was born, right above the fish store. I grew up right over here. And you guys grew up over here. You got the church bells ringing. That's perfect. Oh, it's the best. And this is where I played as a kid, this bar. Hey, Rich. How are you? We're hanging with some guys up in the park. Oh, yeah? Yeah, we're going to play some bocce. Who's the crew we got here today that we're hanging with? It's just like generations of friends. Right through, right through. Right. You don't have those straight? Yeah, straight line. Hang with Mark and his friends is like stepping into a time machine. This is literally old Brooklyn. Where else can you smoke a cigar and play bocce? Right. Hey, you got your glasses on. You got one. 8-7 green. Go straight up the middle. That's it. Oh, look at that. No, that ball's dead. That's dead because it hit? No, what are you talking about? Isn't that ball dead when it hits the back? No. No, no. What are you making up your own rules? That's the Sicilian bocce. Go back to the Egyptians, maybe. Call you that. Well, you know, everybody has their house rules. So, one of the guys was a little confused about taking the ball off if it hits the back. I disagree with that. I can tell you. I read it this morning. I looked on the rules this morning. If you hit the back. Because everybody be going for the back. There's no... You just slam it. There was some confusion. But what's a bocce game without arguing, right? If you're not arguing about the rules or about something, then it's not a real bocce game. Every neighborhood argues about everything. That's it. Every neighborhood argues about everything. Wait, wait, wait. There we go. Come on. I don't know. Bocce. What are you arguing about? You got to chill. Right. Get in here, Frankie. Get in here. Forget about it. Sali, I'll see you later. Come on, let's go to Esposito's. Let's go. Mark, like any great pizzaiolo, takes a lot of pride in his ingredients. He shops for them every morning at Esposito's, his favorite neighborhood pork store. It smells great in here. Oh, the sausage is unbelievable in there. And the sandwiches. Pick out a sandwich. You want a sandwich? How many years has this shop been here for? 1922. How many years has this shop been here for? How many generations are you? I'm number three. Three? My nephew's number four. But it's going to die. And Mark's very upset about it. Yeah. I understand. Time goes on. You can't do anything about it. For me, it makes me sad. Right. Because it's like, this is what Brooklyn is about and what makes it special. All right. What do you want? Give me a pound and a half of chop, half a pound of pork, half a pound of veal. You want to make meatballs? Salud, man. Salud. Cheers. I kind of like to make a rustic meatball. So what's the story behind the meatballs? Like, what's the style of them? Is it from your grandmother? Or is it your own style? You know, yeah, it all stems from my grandmother. And like, I was working on a meatball, believe it or not, for three years. I would make it, and then I was just like, you know, so busy making pizza. Then I would go back to the meatballs. Just a work in progress. Yeah. And then I would taste so-and-so's meatball. And I says, that version, it's a great version. And then take all of them and put them together. And, you know, there's a lot of going out to dinners and eating meatballs. Not a lot of restaurants make good meatballs. I know how picky Italians are. But all your friends and all your cousins, when they come in here, do they all, like, love your pizza and love everything? Or do they bust your balls? I have video tape that I could show you. This is him stealing the meatballs. So it's just your prep guy down there. He's snuck downstairs. My guys, they don't say nothing. Yeah, he's looking around. Bam, right inside a cup. Look at him laughing. This is me making him put it back. You don't want to give it up? No. The best thing is, he swears he makes the best meatballs. That is funny, man. That is funny. As someone that wasn't from the food industry, how did you know to use the stuff that you use? That's all dumb. I had already signed a lease here. And, you know, I was building the space out. And I went, and I was like, that's it. This guy has just taken traditional New York pizza to another level. After talking about our idol, it was time to go see the old man. We hopped into Mark's Convertible, hung Dom's present on the mirror, and made our way to the farm. It's time for a visit with the king of Brooklyn pizza at his Midwood Palace. Ready, kid? Let's do it. Dom, we brought you some gifts. Good to see you. Thank you. How's everything? I'm good to see you. You like soup assad, right? Yeah. We brought you some soup assad and some provolone. It looks good. Not bad, right? Put them away because I'm very scared. Yeah. Dom's king of the one-liners. And king of pizza. 1965 is when this pizzeria opened. He actually had another location somewhere, and he was driving by this area, and he saw the crowd. He said, you know what, it should open over here. But back then, it was very mixed. It was kosher, it was Orthodox Jewish, it was Greek, it was Tao. But then as the late 80s were approaching, it was turning fully Orthodox. Everybody was leaving. He said to himself, I'm not going to leave. I'm just going to make the best pizza I can make, which is kind of a crazy business move because everybody's like, what are you doing? Get out of here. And all of a sudden, people started coming in from around the area. And now they come from Japan. There we are 50 years later. Yeah. We just wanted to order a couple sizes, maybe two regular sizes and two squares. So the squares I have ready, I can start you with that. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited right now, man. My mouth. My mouth is watering. Look, this pizza has a nice amount of cheese and sauce on it, but it's still perfect crust on the bottom. This is by far the best square slice anywhere. Do you ever have a square here? I usually just get the regular slice. And every time I come here, I think I make good pizza. Then once I come here, I'm like, okay, I guess not. When you come to eat at the Farrer's, you should expect to wait. Dominic takes his time to make his pizza and it's all about quality. And as a pizza maker, as a cook, that makes me so happy that someone is that dedicated to their craft. Like the commitment to pizza that he has is just unparalleled. Okay, guys, you ready for the regulars? Ready. I was ready 10 minutes ago. Thank you so much. I was ready when I woke up this morning. When I eat pizza, what I also love is like, like all these like little black spots and, you know, the bubbles and the little imperfections. That's his oven. That oven is like an old, it's like an old Impala. Dom, what's your favorite part about making pizza? Something I like to do. Like dealing with the flour, you know, like, look. You like it? I like it because I use my hands, you know? Yeah, yeah. Do you like working with your family, with your son and your daughter? No, I like what you do, not what you don't do, you know what I mean? If you love what you do, you never work. You never work a day in your life. This is what we're up to. French pie, pepperoni, mushroom, two times. Okay. Maggie is Dom's daughter. Like any family-run business, there's a lot of moving parts. Maggie and her siblings are the ones that are keeping this empire running. Did you guys see the pizza project book? Any of you? What I love about this book is how it is regular people who worked so hard and did this, and it's their view of things. That's my dad. That's myself. My dad's doing mostly all the pizzas, but my brothers are good too, though. What my brothers have that my dad doesn't is speed. They're faster. When people ask, did he teach you how to make pizza? Do they really believe that we know nothing? That we are just behind this counter, not paying attention? That we didn't dedicate our time to this business as well? That we know nothing? I don't know what's in the sauce. It's hysterical. I read that, and I thought that that was fascinating, actually. Because you always hear stories about Dom, and Dom is the only guy back there, and he's the only one making pizza. For the most part, he did it up until recently as he's slowing down, which changes have to happen. Even sometimes I have to coach my dad into working because he's not up for it. Right, right, right. Any of us. I'm sure we all, we love and hate what we do. But he seems to me like the type of guy that will never retire, right? No. He comes into work. He pushes himself as best he can. We have a plan. We create the team. When he just walks away from the line of people, which he does, in the summer it happens a lot, when he's just like, I'm tired and sits down, I already have the backup plan. I'm one of seven, and we have families, and so there's a lot of people that dedicate their life to that store. Dom. Can you sign my T-shirt? Yeah? Yeah, no problem. Wait, by the heart. Over the heart. Over here. Me too. I'm gonna frame this and put this on my wall. Yeah, that's hanging in my pizzeria. Thank you, Dom. Thanks, guy. Alright. See you later. Have a great day, Dom. Thank you very much. Ciao. Don't forget the cheese. Enjoy. No, no, no. Try to come by one night, please. He signed our shirts. What the Farrah Groupies. Dom's a rock star. I was gonna make him sign my chest, but I can't hang that in the pizzeria. They should put like a little sign underneath, Avenue J, also known as the Farrah's Boulevard. On the next episode of The Pizza Show, we're going to New Haven, Connecticut. Do you remember going to like Frank Pepe's or Sally's or To The Spot? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what you say to New Haven. Yeah, yeah.