Goodfella's Staten Island-Thank you Staten Island for Allowing us to Serve You for 22 Years

3 Time World Champion Pizza Men thank the Staten Island New York community for allowing them to be of Service for 22 Years

Goodfella’s Brick Oven Pizza of Staten New York is celebrating 22 year of service to the people of New York at their original location on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island. Founded by former NYPD sergeant Marc Cosentino and his brother Scot with native Staten Islander Andrew Scudera an Eagle Scout and partner, the men have put the amazing amount of press, news articles, TV, magazine and radio interviews to good use with the unyielding support of a loyal customers. “ Our philosophy of treating everyone like family and helping whenever possible has helped form an army of volunteers and moreover helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for people in need and community groups” said Andrew Scudera. One of the more recent events was Hurricane Sandy and their response despite suffering tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and supply losses. “We were flooded and without power for over a week but we got it under control, began the clean with help from our friends and started using our wood fired brick oven to cook for our neighbors while we recovered ourselves”. What did that equate to? Facebook requests and calls for donations to get a tractor trailer set up in the parking lot with supplies, volunteers flooding in from around the country, NYPD and NYFD first responders, teachers, housewives, contractors, students, religious groups, veterans and family members amounting to hundreds strong including the former head of the NYC Detectives Union and a Marine Captain just back from Afghanistan running logistics. “Seeing the desperate state of my friends and customers who were literally left with the shirt on their backs was motivation to work for up to 18 hours a day for months coordinating and aligning efforts between the Mayors office, Red Cross, Churches, VFW, Bikers, Occupy Wall Street( changed to Occupy Sandy), NYPD, Tunnel to Towers, Gyon Rescue, The Marine Corp League and countless people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes despite personal hardships” said Marc Cosentino. “Us Foods dropped off a trailer of ingredients to get things rolling when supply lines were cut, local cops and business men brought food and supplies to donate, the International Association of Scientologists gave us a $30,000 dollar donation to help feed and house the out of town volunteers and provide supplies, the Pentecostal church run by a former New York City Transit Captain became another storage and distribution center along with setting up sleeping quarters for the ever growing group of out of state volunteers, housewives with their infants in car seats were preparing meals and going house to house in the cold and dark to feed the hungry. The Marine Corp League brought out a monster truck and set up a huge supply tent to receive and distribute food and supplies. The volunteers were working without complaint under very tough conditions gutting houses and running supplies day and night. Many times the overwhelming humanity of it all was hard to bear” added Scot. But they were no strangers to making it go right despite the horrendous situation. 911 was a big wake up call, the country was attacked and Goodfella’s went to work 24 hours a day the first weeks running food up to ground zero and supplying food daily to workers at the Staten Island dump going through the debris, despite a drastic cut in business and no financial support resulting in tremendous financial stress later on down the line for months to come. “The money didn’t matter when your friends and co-workers have been murdered and the only way you can help is cook. We started to see the return from our customers and friends that would stop by to thank us and just be part of the effort. It takes a lot of people to coordinate and deliver that amount of food besides the time involved to get to these locations” said Marc. Goodfella’s provided a place to “arrest people” and hold the customers hostage handcuffed to the chairs to raise $10,000 for the Jerry Lewis Muscular dystrophy foundation. They catered the Presidential Yacht in DC to help raise money for the 911 fund. Not only that but Goodfella’s has done fund raising for dine out for hunger, toy drives with United States Marines, hosted autistic children each week making pizza boxes for therapy, donated to bazaars, charity drives, local churches, schools, bowling teams, little league and even arranged to give away 1000 slices of pizza and 1000 cokes at the Staten Island Ferry as a thank you to the people of Staten Island-sadly after all the TV, radio and newspaper coverage announcing the free pizza the ferry crashed with catastrophic results. Goodfella’s gave all the food to rescue workers responding to the scene. The care and help they provide is evident in any one act but when you add up the week in and week out donations to local events, food prep for charities and kids over the last 22 years, the amount of help is staggering. “The message is thank you to all our customers who have been unsung heroes behind the scenes, none of this could happen without you and every little act ads up and helps someone.” Andrew said with a note of encouragement. Please share this be sure to stop by the original Goodfella’s on Hylan Boulevard when you are in town.

Everybody Knows Cooking on a Stone Hearth is the Only way to Make Great Pizza

Yes that is so true that even conventional metal ovens have a "brick lining". Imagine if you could have a brick oven with a revolving stone hearth? Well you can. The guys at New York Brick Oven Company have several sizes available and recently set a world record at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas with Brad Kent,  the head chef from Blaze Pizza stepping up to the oven and putting out 201 pies in a blistering 52 minutes.

World Famous Goodfella's Pizza School of New York

Marc Cosentino of the New York Brick Oven Co.

Revolving Brick Oven at Blue Planet Grill-Ground Zero

Andy Scudera Lead instructor Pizza School NY

From the Goodfella's Pizza School of New York to the Oldest pizza place in Brooklyn-Totono's and all the new fast casual pizza places up and coming, anybody can tell you, "you can't beat a stone hearth for making pizza" .Just ask a pizza lover.

Totono's Pizza Coney Island New York

Pizza-a Neighborhood Institution

On the way from the church to the reception, a young couple "had to stop for pie"at Goodfella's Pizza Staten Island.

Growing up in Brooklyn there was a pizza place in every neighborhood, and it seemed like every other block had one.  Our local pizza man's name was Frank. Frank was there all through my childhood and teens and I just took it for granted, like he was part of the scenery. Pizza has always been part of my life, from celebrating little occasions to first dates and quick slices. Any pizza is better than no pizza. When I run into Old timers and talk pizza I get a little nostalgic, especially when I try a place far from the old neighborhood and get a pleasant surprise of an authentic Brooklyn style pie. I had just such an experience the other night when I met Lou of Keyport Pizza and found out he learned his craft as an apprentice, and has been true to the recipe for over 30 years.

Big Lou-Keyport Pizza NJ

We talked of the good old days and "banging out" 500 pies in a night and how these young kids are in awe to this day when Lou takes over during a rush and spreads that dough at a mind boggling pace. As most place are doing now he asked me about Brick Ovens and what is involved in switching over to one to keep up with changing tastes. Although I have been in the brick oven game for decades and swear by them I still love that occasional Old School Slice of New York Style Pizza, Brooklyn Style to be specific.

Bad Pizza?

Well if your not using a revolving brick oven I can give you a scenario:
It's Friday night and you have a line out the door, deliveries off the hook and you are short staffed. You have an a guy working your oven who is not your best. He miss calculates moving a pizza and one burns. He has to handle that and delay the guy making pies, the guy making pies has to remake that pizza, then he lets the oven cool cause it is too hot and now the pies are not cooking on the bottom but burning on top, remake the pies, line gets longer deliveries now delayed upsets customers. This is an all too common scene across the country with a traditional brick oven. Can you afford to lose even 3 customers a night, have them spread the word? If they only spent $35 a week each over the course of a year and stopped 10 customers from walking in with bad word of mouth, well do the math. This easily becomes thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Eliminating hot and cold spots, having to regulate the temperature, not needing a skilled oven man-that's what a revolving brick oven saves you. Ease of operation, perfect product, money saving with not needing the skilled labor. This adds up quick. Your oven is your single most important piece of equipment when you make pizza. Make it a smart choice. Make it a show piece. Be proud of your pizza and enjoy working your oven. Order your New York Revolving  Brick Oven Today! 1-800-OVEN-053

The Original Fast Casual Pizza: Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza Staten Island New Yok

Marc and Scot Cosentino with Goodfella's Captain America Mustang

Marc's Previous Job and Cover of his Book

Back in 1992 the Cosentino brothers opened what many industry experts consider to be the first fast casual brick oven pizza restaurant in America taking New York Pizza to a new level. New York had a handful of brick ovens pizza places at the time with fresh mozzarella but none were featuring fresh gourmet toppings cooked at blazing speed in a wood burning brick oven. Within the first year of operation they were winning titles in New York and across the country while garnering unheard of press coverage for the new kids on the block. The "Vodka Pie" which won the World's Best Pizza title soon became a national trend and their signature pie. With high aspirations and incredible drive they soon had 8 locations in the tri-state area and eventually were opening  locations across the country as far away as Puerto Rico. For most this would have been enough but they then added the Pizza School of New York  which has taught pizza students from all corners of the world, including New Zealand, the art of making great pizza. As they opened pizza shops and taught pizza makers, the demand for ovens grew so they soon took over the choirs of building their own custom brick ovens to ensure quality, which lead to them founding the New York Brick Oven Company. The Inferno Series Revolving Brick Ovens are becoming the Industry Standard for fast casual concepts due to the consistent cooking temperature, product and ease of use. The boys are never ones to rest and recently swept the media with FORKGATE which is the first international pizza scandal for the new Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio who made the fatal error of using a fork to eat his pizza. "We only started this business because we love pizza and wanted to work together, who knew it get this crazy" said Scot Cosentino who added "only in America".

The Infamous Fork to be auctioned for charity.

Andrew Scudera Winning International Pizza Expo

Scot Cosentino with the "Vodka Pie"

Fast Casual Gourmet Pizza Revolution

20 years ago a little place in Staten called Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza was pioneering it's gourmet pizza chain and became the David to many a Giant Chain by winning national and then international acclaim with it's award winning Vodka Pie that soon became a national trend. Never waiting for something to happen the Cosentino brothers opened restaurants across the country and started the top pizza school now training the latest generation of pizza makers from around the world. The passion for pizza runs deep and the Italian desire to build things of stone and mortar got the best of them as they began filling orders for hand built brick ovens. From their orginal 8ft. cooking surface oven(one of the biggest if not the biggest in NYC) to adding a second 5ft. oven in the original store on Hylan Blvd. they continually looked for faster and better production to keep up with the demand. They even built a brick oven in the basement of one of their places just to handle delivery and a huge double opening oven in their Brooklyn restaurant to have 2 men dedicated to working the oven at all times. The latest advancement they are bring to the table is the first revolving deck brick oven with a patented  heated floor that burns both wood and gas cooking pizza at an easily  controllable and constant temperature. This is the ideal oven for Fast Gourmet Casual Pizza which is about to take the industry by storm. The idea is to prepare an incredibly delicious gourmet pizza in couple minutes made to order with some places already having customers design their own and even assemble the pie for cooking. With many places trowing their hat into the ring it will be interesting to see who the dominant players will be in the next couple of years.  This sure to be a huge segmant in the gigantic pizza segemnet.

Fast gourmet pizza is similar to having your cake and eating it too. Best of luck to the men in the arena and let the pizza games begin.

Presidential Pizza

From Staten Island NY to the Presidential Yacht to prepare dinner, wow! Looking back at some of the places and people we have cooked pizza for and delivered to it seems pretty amazing. From jumping in to help cook at Gracie Mansion during an event for Mayor Giuliani, delivering a Vodka pizza to President Bush at the republican convention, delivering pizza's to the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, Tom Cruise, Z100,  having Govenor Pataki cooking in our oven, rescue workers, children and all our friends this has been wild. The thing I love about pizza is that EVERYBODY LOVES PIZZA.  Goodfella's brick oven pizza is famliy and fun and pride in cooking, come on by and happy pizza to you!

Rotating Brick Ovens For True Italian American Pizza

News

brick ovensHaving cooked pizza for decades in a traditional brick oven it took a little getting used to the idea of a revolving deck brick oven but all I can say is "where have you been all my life". Imagine getting a perfect pizza every time with about 1/10 the work. Not only that but every pie is perfect and you don't have to "work" the oven. Hard to believe? Well come on down to the original Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza on Hylan Blvd. in Staten Island and see for yourself. You just put the pizza in the wood and gas fired oven, the rotating deck spins at the perfect pace and then you use a short pizza peel to take it out right where you put it in a couple minutes ago. No turning the pizza every minute, no looking out for hot spots on the oven cooking surface, no more cold spots-wow! Visit www.goodfellas.com and www.brickovensforsale.com for more info and happy pizza making.

How to make the best pizza

Simple as it may sound, you have to use the best ingredients. That is why Poppa John' s was so successful and they only used "better" ingredients not the best. The Original Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza located on Hylan Blvd. in Staten Island NY  only uses the  best ingredients so it no surprise they won the Worlds Best Pizza title three different times. You get what you pay for. Pride in preparation of the fresh mozzarella, roasting the sweet red peppers daily in the revolving deck wood burning brick oven and making the sauce  with grandma's(nanny's) recipe. It takes a lot to be the best but if you actually start off with the freshest ingredients, prepare them daily with care, without taking shortcuts, you are halfway there. Pizza has become as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet but the true Italians will always have an edge because they are familiar with the Italian basics of cheese, sauce and yes even the dough. I wish you all happy pizza making and be sure to visit www.goodfelas.com and www.brickovensforsale.com for more information.
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Back yard brick oven

The ultimate back yard accessory. Grills. BBQs and smokers are gear but nothing tops having your own brick oven. From pizza to steak, baking bread and smoking your favorite cut of meat, the versatility and results  of using a brick oven are unrivaled. There just seems to be an innate satisfaction of controlling fire and working an oven. Not only that but everyone wants get in on the action  from the kids to grandpa. Getting started is easy but for those of you who want to take your pizza making skills to a whole new level:  Goodfella's Pizza School of New York is the ticket. It's taught by 3x World Pizza Champions and covers all aspects of pizza from making the dough to cooking in an authentic wood fired brick oven. The week long class is on the perfect gradient and the guys make sure you understand every aspect from the terminology  to the baking. Students come from around the world to study with the masters and have an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. Graduates are only given a certificate after they are expert in making pizza and can make pizza with  confidence for actual customers. If only grade school was like this. You can visit the Goodfellas Pizza School at www.pizzaschoolnewyork.com and start your new career or hobby right away. Also if you are interested in purchasing the Cadillac of brick ovens visit www.brickovensforsale.com

brick oven

PIZZA FOR DESSERT, NY STYLE

Cooking in a wood fired brick oven is fun, especially when it's in your own yard. Just about anything 

you can cook in a regular oven can be made in a brick oven and anything is up for interpretation. This pizza came from the kids liking Nutella and marshmallow sandwiches for a snack with bananas. All you do is spread your dough, spoon on some Nutella, add some marshmallows, then add some fresh banana and place in oven. Be sure you don't have a flame or the marshmallow will burn before your crust cooks. Rotate often and cook away from the fire till you have a crisp crust and lightly toasted marshmallow topping. Let it cool a few minutes because that hot marshmallow is dangerous, cut serve and enjoy! Stay tuned for more ideas and visit www.brickovensforsale.com and www.goodfellas.com for more pizza info. Happy pizza making to you, Marc

Revolving Deck Pizza Oven Trentino Italy

While visiting wine country in In Trento Italy we were invited to v a local pizza man named Alberto at his place called Albert's. We pull into this small city and are amazed at the architecture with its wonderful old buildings painted in  delightful colors such as Tuscany Yellow, reds and greens. More amazing is the mountain waterfall directly behind his elegant yet comfortable restaurant. We are greeted with smiles,  warm hugs and the familiar "2 cheek kisses" by an impeccably dressed young man in his Italian flag colored chef hat. The efficient style and high tech order of his place is enhanced by his own sharp appearance and as soon as he knows we are Pizza men from NYC the hospitality begins! We are sat at a well set table and notice something immediately-no condiments. That's right, no salt, pepper, oregano, grated cheese or the like because each pizza is complete with its own special flavor and seasoning. We are informed that all the ingredients are freshly prepared and are made locally from the Parmesan cheese, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and smoked prosciutto to wine and beer he will be serving. It doesn't get much better for 2 Italian boys from Brooklyn. Alberto gets busy as we watch the well choreographed pizza making begin. The dough is opened  by hand then his homemade sauce is spread  with a ladle covering the pizza lightly. Next comes the fresh mozzarella grated for even cooking and into the revolving deck brick oven ( available from New York Brick Oven Company). The pizza rotates for a minute or 2 and then is brought to the slicing machine where smoked prosciutto  is sliced and placed fresh on the cooked pizza along with thinly sliced squash and other tasty treats. Alberto serves us himself and stands by proudly as we taste his creation. Unbelievable! Magnificent! We are all smiles and off again he goes to prepare more and more pizzas for us to try. This goes on until we can't eat anymore which is saying allot. But we have to have coffee and desert which is espresso and homemade raspberry and vanilla puddings-wow!! As we told Albert " your pizza and hospitality were overwhelming, you and your family always have a place to eat in America at Goodfella's on Hylan blvd. Staten Island NY. We can't wait to see him again😎🇮🇹🍕🇺🇸 

www.brickovensforsale.com

www.goodfelas.com

Brick Oven Pizza

Brick oven pizza has become a national trend in the last couple of years. When I started in this business 20 years ago with  Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza,  it was very rare indeed with only a couple of old joints even in a big place like New York City. Tortonn'os Pizza in Coney Island on Neptune avenue not far from Nathan's  was just such a place.  Jerry had a hand built oven and used fresh mozzarella which was an alien cheese unless you were Italian and bought it made by hand in your local Italian specialty store. His pizza was made his way and only a certain amount of pies each day then "get out I'm done". When he died the NY post proclaimed " The King of Pizza is Dead". A sad day indeed but he inspired me and my family to build the first brick oven in Staten Island NY. So www.goodfellas.com was born. At first many people wondered what the white stuff (fresh mozzarella) was on the pizza. This required many a conversation and reassurances that if they try it they will like it. With stiff competition all around us we had to make a good pie or fade away like the others that came and went. Staten Island was a small place and word spreads quick so fortunately the word was we had a good pizza so it was off to the races. We still use the fresh mozzarella cooked in a wood burning oven but even that has evolved over the years. Adding gas burners to augment the wood fire to maintain steady temperature was the first innovation. This made the pizza man's job a lot easier controlling the heat on the pies. The next big  change which ended up being the best decision ever was to put in a revolving deck or cooking surface. Now this was something. We no longer had to "spin" the pizza as it cooked which made the pizza consistent every time. Not only that,you didn't need a long training period for the pizza man and the product was always perfect. An added bonus was saving a lot of money by not needing to have a full time pizza spinner who worked the oven while another person made the pies. The $$$ savings were incredible. Now - New York Brick Oven Pizza Co. at www.brickovensforsale.com  provides these amazing cost effective ovens at a reasonable price for anyone. This oven design would have saved so much $$$ and aggregation over the years but as they say " live and learn". Happy pizza to you! 

The joy of pizza!

Where do I begin? Taste, flavor ingredients, dough, prepping, or baking methods? Having been in the pizza business for over 20 years I have a lot to draw on here but it always comes down to my favorite part of the business, the people. I have been extremely fortunate in the pizza world but I realize it is like Thomas Edison said that genius is disguised as hard work, and working hard 7 days a week for years does pay off, if you survive. We started Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza   www.goodfellas.com back in 1993 after my brother and I quit our jobs and went "all in". Serving our customers, hearing their stories and becoming part of their lives over the years is what made it worthwhile for me. From engagements to weddings and births to the first days of school, baseball, communions, graduations, and birthdays, wow! It's like having a gigantic family and the pleasure of sharing all the fun. Yes, there were times of heartbreak too such as 911 and Hurricane Sandy but I remember a customer saying this in the days after the attacks on our country " I'm disgusted and in a daze but I always stop here on my way home because you guys always make me smile and feel better".  What is that worth? Priceless. Next blog will be about cooking in the NY Brick Oven Co. Wood fired brick oven and how it adds to the fun.  www.brickovensforsale.com
brick oven