The Authentic Goodfella’s introduced wood-fired pizza to Staten Island 30 years in the past. With a brand new location and a well-constructed tradition, the award-winning pizzeria is headed for its subsequent act.
With a reputation like The Authentic Goodfella’s, you realize the pizza needs to be good. And co-Proprietor Andrew Scudera Jr. makes positive it’s at his wood-fired Staten Island pizzeria. It is the end result of years of learning pizzas, exhausting work and a little bit of willpower.
The Authentic Goodfella’s began in 1992 when associate Scot Cosentino opened the primary wood-fired brick oven pizzeria on Staten Island. It gained consideration from the beginning because it was distinctive from what most native pizzerias had been doing.
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Andrew Scudera Jr. is a associate at The Authentic Goodfella’s in Staten Island. Photograph: The Authentic Goodfella’s |
On the age of 15, Scudera had a paper route that ended throughout the road from the pizzeria and would see the strains of individuals forming outdoors the restaurant. He used to stroll in there each Friday and ask for a job. “I in all probability received thrown out 20 or 30 occasions,” Scudera recalled in a cellphone interview, “till they lastly wanted somebody.”
Scudera mentioned he fell in love with the model from the start and knew he would make it a profession. Just a few years in, he was managing the place and ultimately partnered with Cosentino with a smaller place that had opened on Staten Island, which started his profession as an proprietor/operator.
The model has one unit on Staten Island, runs a residential pizza firm and operates a pizza faculty for fledgling pizzaiolos. It moved from its authentic location to its present location, 5 miles away, a couple of yr in the past, which afforded an even bigger area. Although the area is in a residential space, the demographic has modified. The unique location was near the bridge and had a melting pot of diners. The areas they’re in now has a extra Italian fan base.
On the menu
“We form of began from scratch” with the menu when the restaurant moved to its new location, Scudera mentioned. “We stored the core nice sellers — the staples — after which wiped every thing else out and simply constructed (the menu) from the bottom up. It is undoubtedly loads smaller from what we had for years.”
Scudera mentioned a plain pie is at all times going to be the most important vendor in New York, however the restaurant’s award-winning Pizza alla Vodka, with a vodka cream sauce, mushrooms, peas and prosciutto is a high vendor as nicely.
The Smokin Goodfella, with smoked mozzarella, a roasted pepper cream sauce, sausage, peppers, onion and basil can be a giant mover, as is the Tequila Dawn that has a tequila cream sauce, shrimp, recent mozzarella, prosciutto, and a mango salsa.
The dough has a protracted fermentation. “We use a natural-derived starter with no industrial yeast,” Scudera mentioned. “We truly began with fermented fruit water and constructed a ‘mom dough.’ It consists of semolina as a result of we do high-temp cooking in a wood-fired oven. It is a mix of high-gluten flour, semolina which is of course fermented with fruit water for 3 days. There’s not tremendous excessive hydration — in all probability round 60%. It is lovely.”
Breads, croutons and pita breads are made in-house, as are recent pastas. All the pieces is made in home aside from a gluten-free crust (to keep away from cross contamination). The menu is modified each three months.
“We felt an actual want for optimum high quality, and I really feel that you’ve got whole management while you’re bringing in additional substances and doing all of it and controlling it in home,” Scudera mentioned.
Pizza accounts for 65%-70% of gross sales. With recent pastas, steak and chops, seafood and a protracted record of appetizers like Curly Fried Zucchini and Octopus Carpaccio, Scudera and Cosentino are attempting to point out prospects The Authentic Goodfella’s is definitely extra than simply pizza.
The Italian-based oven burns oak, cherry and different exhausting woods and rotate as a wooden/fuel combo. The oven bakes at 800 levels with 650 levels on the ground. It locks within the temperature and makes for a good bake. That helps with labor as a result of coaching on the rotating deck is simpler because the oven temps do not fluctuate as a standard deck oven would.
“What units us aside is that folks do do not forget that we had been the primary wood-fired brick oven pizza on the Island,” Scudera mentioned, “and though there are tons of pizzerias, and there are a variety of wood-fired locations now … most of it’s traditional New York-style deck oven pizza.”
All of the pizzas at The Authentic Goodfella’s are made with recent mozzarella, “so it is extra like the unique pizzerias opened up within the 1900s,” Scudera added.
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Photograph: The Authentic Goodfella’s |
Operations
The model has almost 40 employees members, and the youngest has been with the corporate for 13 years. Some staff have been there for 20 years or longer. When The Authentic Goodfella’s moved to its new location, it was armed with a gaggle of veterans who knew how the enterprise must be run. It was pretty simple to rent the remainder wanted for the bigger restaurant, Scudera mentioned.
He mentioned the restaurant’s largest problem is discovering efficient methods to market “as a result of I nonetheless have individuals strolling in day by day who wound up on the outdated location first,” Scudera mentioned. “We have blasted this factor throughout social media and we have executed some conventional print advertising and marketing. We have put it on the market large time however I nonetheless have a number of tables a day who went to the outdated place first.”
Tradition is a vital a part of The Authentic Goodfella’s operations. Setting precedent helps the staff perceive the demand for high quality and good service that makes up fashionable eating in the present day. Employees greets prospects after they stroll within the door, and that is a transfer imparted on everybody proper now to the teenage bussers.
“Everybody who walks in that door is like your grandmother coming over for Christmas dinner,” Scudera mentioned. “You need to make them really feel welcome.”
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the positioning editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise masking meals, individuals and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent almost twenty years masking the pizza trade, from unbiased pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each dimension enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has gained quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant trade. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and may inform you the place to search out one of the best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a residing.
