August 21, 2023 • 41 mins
Join host Jim Serpico in this captivating episode as he sits down with the incredible Eamonn Murphy, famously known as @themayorofpizza on Instagram. Eamonn shares his extraordinary story of being a semi-pro pizza maker, music aficionado, and triumphant cancer survivor.
Prepare to dive deep into their conversation, where Jim and Eamonn explore the fascinating realms of music and their shared love for the iconic Grateful Dead. They also delve into the creative use of music on Instagram reels, offering insights and tips for fellow content creators. As the conversation unfolds, Eamonn generously imparts his wisdom on the art of mastering homemade pizza, sharing the secrets to achieving a perfect pie using pizza steels. Drawing from his extensive experience working in restaurants, they touch on the unmatched charm of New Haven Pizza and the vibrant Connecticut Pizza Culture.
But the exploration of pizza doesn't stop there! Jim and Eamonn shed light on the beloved New England Bar Pies and the intriguing world of Greek-style pizza. Plus, they even find room to appreciate the mouthwatering wonders of Connecticut Bagels. However, what makes this episode truly special is the inspiring account of Eamonn's battle with cancer. Having emerged victorious, Eamonn's perspective on life has transformed, and he enthusiastically looks forward to getting back into the pizza game.
Tune in for an unforgettable journey filled with resilience, passion, and a renewed appreciation for the joy of pizza. This episode will leave you inspired, craving a slice, and eager to take on new adventures.
Follow Jim Serpico on Instagram: @sidehustlebread and @jimserpico
Follow Eamonn Murphy on Instagram: @themayorofpizza
Special Mentions in this episode
Brookside Bagels in Simsbury on Facebook @BrooksideBagelsCT
Notorious PIE on Instagram at @notorious_p.i.e
Lloyd Pans on Instagram @lloydpans
Little City Pizza on Instagram @littlecitypizzaco
The Big Green Truck on Instagram @biggreentruckpizza
Poopsie's on Facebook @BestBarPizza
Cape Cod Cafe Pizza on Instagram @capecodcafepizza
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jim-serpico-bread-for-the-people-sourdough-pizza-life--5704379/support.
Prepare to dive deep into their conversation, where Jim and Eamonn explore the fascinating realms of music and their shared love for the iconic Grateful Dead. They also delve into the creative use of music on Instagram reels, offering insights and tips for fellow content creators. As the conversation unfolds, Eamonn generously imparts his wisdom on the art of mastering homemade pizza, sharing the secrets to achieving a perfect pie using pizza steels. Drawing from his extensive experience working in restaurants, they touch on the unmatched charm of New Haven Pizza and the vibrant Connecticut Pizza Culture.
But the exploration of pizza doesn't stop there! Jim and Eamonn shed light on the beloved New England Bar Pies and the intriguing world of Greek-style pizza. Plus, they even find room to appreciate the mouthwatering wonders of Connecticut Bagels. However, what makes this episode truly special is the inspiring account of Eamonn's battle with cancer. Having emerged victorious, Eamonn's perspective on life has transformed, and he enthusiastically looks forward to getting back into the pizza game.
Tune in for an unforgettable journey filled with resilience, passion, and a renewed appreciation for the joy of pizza. This episode will leave you inspired, craving a slice, and eager to take on new adventures.
Follow Jim Serpico on Instagram: @sidehustlebread and @jimserpico
Follow Eamonn Murphy on Instagram: @themayorofpizza
Special Mentions in this episode
Brookside Bagels in Simsbury on Facebook @BrooksideBagelsCT
Notorious PIE on Instagram at @notorious_p.i.e
Lloyd Pans on Instagram @lloydpans
Little City Pizza on Instagram @littlecitypizzaco
The Big Green Truck on Instagram @biggreentruckpizza
Poopsie's on Facebook @BestBarPizza
Cape Cod Cafe Pizza on Instagram @capecodcafepizza
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jim-serpico-bread-for-the-people-sourdough-pizza-life--5704379/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
My name's Jim Serpico. And thisshould I start with my name? What
should I start with? This isbread for the people? Do you like
it like this? Welcome to bread? What do you like it like this?
Welcome Retty, Welcome to bread forthe people? Mine? Is there
a script? Welcome to Bread forthe people. I'm Jim Serpico. My
(00:33):
next guest is a pizza maker who'sknown as the Mayor of Pizza. He's
proud of his Connecticut roots. Hispassion for pizzas helped him amass a lodge
social media following and make friends andacquaintances around the world. He also happens
to be a cancer survivor, andwe're happy to announce that today he's cancer
(00:56):
free. Emon Murphy. Welcome toBread for the people. Man, Man,
how the heck am I gonna freakingdo an interview after that intro?
That that is special? Jim,Thank you so much, man, it's
a pleasure to have you here.Yeah. I'm digging your shirt. Yeah,
big head? Are you? Yeah? Big dead head? You went
(01:17):
to some of the other jam musicor is it mostly dead? No?
So I mean it's you know,dead fish. I mean I guess it
kind of stays at that. Youknow, I tried getting into Goose a
little bit. They're kind of likethe new school one. Yeah, but
you know, as far as likeyou know, I mean, there's nothing
better than than the OG I mean, yeah, I guess I respect it.
(01:38):
Yeah, I respect it. Ilove Dead and Company. Yeah.
I just got back from Red Rocks, my first time over at Red Rocks
in Colorado to see Tedesky trucks.Oh yeah, I was exciting Susan Rips
on that guitar huh. And she'san fantastic singer, unbelievable Yeah, great
singer, unbelievable guitar player. Yeah, really impressive, And it was I
(02:00):
mean, Jim, we could talkmusic all day long because in my Instagram
bio, I actually say music aficionadoand music I tell everyone all the time
because I put music to my reelsand this and that. Music was my
first love. My dad got meinto music when I was a really young,
you know, young kid. Andyou know the pizza thing obviously,
(02:21):
who doesn't love pizza, but thepizza making thing came down the road.
But I always will admit music ismy first love. So mine too.
Yeah, my dad was a musicianand I went to music school, but
it's it's always played. Even thoughI never went into professional music, it's
been in my life just as afan. I was able to get into
and use it professionally, not asa professional musician, but as a TV
(02:44):
and filmmaker. My music knowledge reallyhelped me. And one of my favorite
parts of making television was working onthe edits and putting the music into shows.
Man, Yeah, yeah, socool. I get such a kick
out of doing the you know,the reels, and they don't get the
life that you know, the trendingmusic gets gives. I'll I'll throw like
(03:05):
talking heads in there. I'll throwyou know, you name it beach boys.
I mean it's like across the map, you know, little known bands
that are out there, just tryingto give them like a little air time.
But I do the same. Yeah, And I feel like the Instagram
for me is my creative outlet.Now that's the part of the breadmaking that
still allows me to shoot stuff evenif it's on my phone. But lay
(03:29):
the music and listen. Sometimes I'mchasing the likes and the trending music,
and I'll try it. But yeah, just as much I'll put shit that
I like that people should know anddon't know. Yah, you know,
yeah, I love introducing. Allright, let's I digress, I digress.
It's all good man. So youI think, like me, somehow,
(03:52):
I don't know how ended up withsome time during the pandemic, because
that's when you really started going fullforce into pizza making, right Yeah.
Yeah, I mean it's like everybody, you know, we were forced in
our homes. We literally were like, what the heck do we do?
You know, we can't go outand do our favorite things. You know,
I'm an avid golfer. I meanthe golf courses at the time were
(04:13):
shut down. I mean, I'man ad Avid, you know, just
kind of social butterfly, so youknow, going to the bars and restaurants
that I love in my town andsims very Connecticut, Like I just couldn't
do it. So you know,in here at the Murphy House, we
we do pizza Fridays. I feellike that's like pretty common everywhere, and
(04:33):
it was it was a pain inthe ass to get pizza, and so
I figured I was like, there'sgotta be a better way to do this.
And then you know, it justkind of it happened where I'm scrolling
through Instagram and I come across aprofile notorious Pie, this guy named Luke
(04:54):
and he's out in the middle ofnowhere America, you know, apologize Luke.
I think he's in Missouri, right, Missouri. Yeah, yeah.
But he's like the coolest laid backdude ever. And he's, you know,
cooking these amazing pizzas out of abase model home oven. And he
put together this cookbook and I waslike, you know what, I'm going
(05:16):
all in on this. So Ibought every single thing that he said in
his little cookbooks that he sells onhis page. I'll give him a plug.
And I just learned and it wasawesome. And I you know,
and I have a little bit ofrestaurant background. I spent fifteen years in
the restaurant business, so cooking wassomething that came natural to me, but
I never had baked. So,you know, here I am, I'm
(05:39):
learning how to do this on thefly, and I'm adapting things. I'm
changing, you know, changing thingsup to kind of the way I like
to do, you know, orhow I like pizza. So before you
go any further, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, you just
and I think the way he teaches, is using whatever oven you have at
home, not necessarily going outside,not necessarily purchasing an Uni or a Goseny
(06:00):
or anything like that. Yeah,so you started baking the pizza right in
the oven you had. Yeah,yep. I've got a pretty base model
ge electric oven myself, and Iuse a pizza steel And it's literally like
a half inch thick steel plate thatsits on your in your oven, and
(06:23):
it almost kind of makes your homeoven turn into like almost like a deck
oven. You know that you wouldgo in like a slice shop in New
York City. Really, so,I've never used one. Does the steel
you have, like how wide isit? It's about let's see, because
I know I can do it witha sixteen inch I mean, I'm I'm
(06:43):
guessing it's probably like eighteen inches wideby like whatever the deep the depth of
the oven, it's like sixteen inches, I think. Yeah. Does it
sit on the floor of the ovenor does it slide in on a rack?
So it sits right on the rackran and I have it positioned kind
of a little higher up so whenI hit the broiler at the end,
it really it gives a nice likebrowning on the top, which I like,
(07:08):
Okay, yeah, oh it's it'sawesome, man, you gotta get
one. Have you moved on?And I want to get to a lot
more about right after this, Buthave you moved on to these other ovens
like the Gosnis and the Unis?Yeah? So my girlfriend she got me,
let's see. So that was twentytwenty one, when I first started.
(07:30):
Christmas of twenty one, she literallywent out and gave me like the
craziest Christmas gift ever. It wasan Uni CAREW sixteen. It was basically
the top line Uni oven that thatUni makes, and and that got me
like really fired up, like reallyreally fired up into making pizza. Do
(07:54):
you see? Yeah, that's allright, it's all good. Do you
see a big difference between the outcomeof the pizzas from a pizza oven like
that versus using your your pizza steel? You know, it's funny, It's
like there's a there's differences. Idefinitely like a little extra jar on my
pizza, kind of that New Havenstyle they open flame, you know,
(08:16):
or even using wood or coal thatdefinitely achieves a little darker color, where
like the home oven, it's stillI mean, you can get it pretty
dark, but it's not It's justnot the same. It doesn't have that
same kind of smokiness to it thatthat you that you know, I crave.
I guess you know. I'm Ilove those like coal fired pizzas and
(08:37):
stuff like that. So but butI mean it's close, I tell you.
And it's really consistent though, withthe whole oven and on the on
the steel. It's very awesome.Man. Yeah, So tell me about
your restaurant experience. What led youto work in a restaurant? You know,
at the time I was told why. I had a friend's dad that
(08:58):
owned a restaurant in town. Iwas fifteen years old and at the time,
you know, fifteen year olds couldwork in restaurants. And he was
just like, look, you canmake five bucks an hour washing dishes and
prepping, you know, and doingprep cook and so got in learned that,
you know, learned stuff. Iwas always interested in doing more and
more and more. I was like, well, who runs that thing and
(09:18):
who does that and what? Youknow? So I I kind of moved
up the ranks. I spent alot of time, you know, just
like staying later and talking and workedin a bunch of different restaurants, every
position you could think of. Iwanted to do everything, and I wanted
to learn it and I wanted tomaster it, and went off to college,
(09:39):
still worked in restaurants, and youknow, bartended through college to kind
of get me through. But butreally, I mean, I think ultimately
at the end of my restaurant career, I had owned a restaurant in town
here in Simsbury. And what kindof restaurant it was. It's kind of
like New England Fair, you know, you have your steaks and your seafood
and stuff like that. It's gota real colonial cool vibe to it.
(10:03):
We just it was a lot offun. It was in a haunted building,
so I always take people on ghosttours and stuff, and I tell
you, I wasn't a believer ofghosts until I started working there, and
legit, it was definitely there wassomething up. But how long did you
have the restaurant? So I hadit for about two and a half years
and then we had a fire unfortunately, and my my big majority owner,
(10:28):
he was kind of like the youknow, the piggy bank, the silent
owner. He was like, lookgame, and I don't want to do
this. Anymore. Like I justyou know, it wasn't restaurants, wasn't
his thing. He he's a taxattorney. He's like, I don't,
I don't feel like doing this anymore. So I moved on and now I'm
in it sales and make it.Okay. Yeah, man, yeah,
(10:48):
okay. But that's that's cool thatyou you followed that journey and it's kind
of related, I think, towhat you're doing now. Yeah, I
agree. And you know, cookingis always been something that I've been passionate
about. I mean, you know, even at like a young age with
my mom and she was showing mehow to cook stuff it or an early
(11:09):
age my grandmother too, same deal. And I mean, you know,
I was nine ten years old,like satan stuff on the stove, like
you know, doing stuff that likenormal littler kids wouldn't want to do.
But yes, cook there's always ahuge passion of mine. Now I'm interested
in diving into the Connecticut pizza culture. Yeah. And you you mentioned to
(11:31):
me by email, yep, thatyou have a sort of a hybrid style.
Yeah, like a cross between ConnecticutNew Haven style pizza and I believe
you said New England style bar pies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
let's break this all down. AndI want to go real deep here because
I love Connecticut pizza. Yeah,I'm not one of these guys I think
(11:54):
one genre of pizza is better thanthe other. Right, I appreciate all
genres of pizza, and I personallyam trying to learn all of it.
Yeah, and I think there's atime and place for all of it.
But I do really fucking love Connecticutpizza. Man. There's something about the
(12:15):
crispiness and the chewiness of the dough, you know, the crust it's a
little more like well done. Youdon't get that fat like corner shone around
the edge, that big like crust. It's more just kind of matted down.
And now, how do you achievethat? In some of the videos
I was watching recently, and Idon't know what I'm talking about because I've
(12:37):
never really attempted to make my ownConnecticut style yep, But I did read
something about people really flatten it outand take the air out and use rolling
pins. Yeah right, yeah,you can use a rolling pin. Some
places do that. I mean,I've gotten to the point now where I'm
just good with my hands and Ijust go around and around and around and
around circles, and I press outall the gas and then you know,
(13:00):
to flip it a little bit,just kind of stretch it out, use
gravity, you know, do thesteering wheel technique, let it hang down
and and honestly, I mean it'sI just love that that sort of thin
crust. I'm not a big breadguy. I like it crucified here at
home with my girls. They lovebread, but I'm not a bread person.
So I want like a thin crust, very chewy, not a huge
(13:22):
amount of like cheese and toppings that'sgonna weigh it all down, you know.
But I do like the sauce,you know, sauce on the top,
like real pretty just I mean alittle extra well done. I like
the cheese when it has some likeburnt edges or a little free too edge.
(13:43):
So all of these like things thatI like. I basically was like,
you know what, I want tocombine this into a pizza that's kind
of like my own Frankenstein Mayer stylehybrid. Okay, before we go first,
well, because we'll get to yourpizza in a second. I'm still
trying to stand in Connecticut. Yeah, the difference in the dough between New
(14:03):
York style or Neapolitan, which iswhat I'm more used to making. Yeah,
like I'm fermenting the dough maybe fortwenty four hours, which allows it
to get those air pockets. What'sthe deal with Connecticut pizza? Is that
being fermented or is it not?Is it a quicker process? So,
and this is like, this iskind of what I do. But I
(14:24):
think i've you know, from talkingto some of my other favorite pizza places.
It's less yeast. It's bread flourand it's a long proof, cold
proof, and basically that's like that'skind of the secret sauce when you get
that that like chewy, thin crustpizza. So it must be the less
(14:46):
yeast because we use bread flour forNeapolitan. Yeah, or I do at
least, so you do, Okay, I know that like a lot of
people are like double zero or whatever. I mean. I also hear a
lot of people too in Connecticut they'reusing all purpose. They don't, you
know, they get the same typeof like crispy texture, but it's got
a little bit of airiness to it, you know. So but all purpose,
(15:07):
depending on what brand you're using,makes great pizza, great pizza.
Yeah, yeah, I mean I'ma I'm a King Arthur guy, So
I know that, you know,there's I mean there's other brands out there,
like the Central Mill Milling that likeyou know, I hear they crush
it. So but so that's interesting. So it's less yeast, which is
probably why it's not really blowing upye And then so you talk to other
(15:33):
pizza makers in Connecticut, like,do you know some of these restaurant owners
personally? Yeah? I do,yep, So like the New Haven types,
Yeah, you know, a couple, a couple I've talked to a
couple of people in New Haven.There's actually a guy that was in New
Haven that moved out to Chicago andopened a place called Peace. And he
is an awesome dude. You know, we talk all the time and and
(15:56):
he just is like an open book. He'll tell me, you know,
I'm like, what's the proof I'mon that, what's the you know,
what's the what's the hydration? Youknow what? Like you know, and
I just want to know everything.And we got a great place in town
right down the street called Little CityPizza and they it same deal. The
guy's like he's you know, he'snot going to hide anything. He's just
like, I'll tell you whatever,whatever you want. So and it's pretty
(16:18):
cool. It's cool to have thoserelationships. Did he has he been making
pizza in your town for a longtime or did he learn somewhere else A
long time? Yeah? Yeah,a long time. He's been in business
for probably I don't know, twentyfive years. I went to high school
with him, and I mean Iwent to I graduated with his younger brother.
And yeah, I mean it wascrazy when he opened his place.
It blew people's minds around here becauseat the time everyone was eating that New
(16:42):
England style Greek pizza, you know, at the party cut squares, and
it's got like the you know,it's it's pan fried on the bottom and
kind of little puffier. And that'sactually another style pizza that I've adapted into
my like hybrid frank Stein that Idon't talk about too much, but I
do like to start with a panbecause I love that pan fried bottom.
(17:06):
Really I can't explain it. Yeah, well we're gonna have to explain it,
all right, all right, allright, you're gonna you oil your
pen. Yeah, So I lightlylike Olive oil the pan, and I'll
put the dough in there, youknow, nice and snug, and I'll
do like seventy five percent of thebake in that pan and then transfer it
(17:27):
out like to really crisp it upat the at the end on the bottom.
It dressed at this point. Ohit's so yeah. Yeah, No,
it's all dressed fully. It's fullydressed, Okay, fully put together.
And you know, I have videosand stuff and pictures, and a
lot of times when I do poston Instagram, I'll do it in chronological
(17:48):
order so everyone at home can kindof see like steps of like how I
achieve this. But and I'm superlong winded in my my captions, so
and I try and give his muchdetail as possible to let everyone else know
exactly you know, what I'm doing, how I'm doing it. So got
it? Yeah, I know,like a lot of New York pizza makers
(18:10):
who are making Sicilian pies do that. Yeah, but it's not dressed.
Yeah, those are little thicker.Yeah, they'll they'll par bake it and
get it ready and then dress itlater because you know, it's so thick
that though for a Sicilian that ittakes a little bit. Yeah, this
is thin, and honestly, afterlike six minutes, maybe seven minutes,
it's it's said enough to where Ican just slide it right out of the
(18:33):
pan and then it hits the youknow, hits the steel or hits the
oven and a couple of minutes crispit up, you know, get the
top the way I like it.It's awesome, you know. Can you
stop the process in the pan?Ye? And put it in the fridge
and bake it. I like ifyou had to do twenty five of those
(18:53):
pies, yeah, or do iton a food truck. Can you do
that? I probably could? Yeah, you probably could just par bay,
you know, par bake the pizzain the pan and then transferred off to
whatever and you know, put iton parchment or something like that to sit
in another pan, wait to youknow, fire it again. I'm guessing
that would work. All right.We might have to do a video.
(19:14):
I think we should. We should, yeah, do a test. Yeah.
So what's the deal with these NewEngland bar pies? Okay, so
the pure part before we get togo off Frankenstein version? Yeah, yeah,
what what is this pizza? So? A South Shore bar pie?
It's in South It was created insouth Shore, mass Massachusetts. And what
it is is basically another pant.Like it starts in the pan. You
(19:37):
put the dough around and you justfill it the pan. It's a it's
a ninety degree pan, so it'sgot the edges. You fill the pan
around the edge and across it withthe cheese and toppings and you name it.
And what it ends up happening ison the edges, the cheese kind
of melts down the side and youget this like che easy crust, which
(20:02):
is they call it a laced edgein Massachusetts, but everyone else in the
pizza world knows it as freako.You know that that kind of burnt cheese.
So so that bite right there islike the too dive for bite.
You know. You eat this smalllittle slice of pizza. They're usually small.
You have them at a bar whileyou're like watching the game. It's
(20:23):
something salty and you know, easyto eat while like while you're throwing back
beers and super thin, crusted likenot too heavy, not a lot of
sauce, not not a lot ofcheese, but it's just enough. And
I tell you they are like alot of people are like, wow,
that looks like a frozen pizza.It's like, well it kind of not
(20:45):
really, but you know, butit's I think it's just all about that
thin crust and that freako laced edgebite at the end. Killer. That's
great. Man. Now are someof the bars, I guess many of
the bars have these pies. Youknow, some of the bars like really
known like oh my god, yougotta go here because they have bar pies
just off the charts. Yeah,I mean, they're they're a bunch in
(21:07):
mass in the South Shore area.I know. Let's see, there's places
like Poopsies and Cape Cod Pizza andI'm she's I'm blanking on a few of
them, but they're there are alot of like dive bar type places that
you go and you wouldn't even know. It's like hole in the wall type
place and they have like one guyin the back just pumping out these cracker
(21:30):
thins like thin crust pizzas and andthat's it. And it's the same thing
actually out in Chicago with tavern styleand tavern style and bar pizza are basically
the same exact thing. They justcut their pizza and squares and like party
cut and it's they you know,South Was it South Chicago or something like
(21:53):
that. The South Side. Theydo a lot of their like die bars
are known for like amazing Taverne stylepizza. And how did you get exposed
to this? Did you go toschool out there in Massachusetts? So I
went to college in Massachusetts. Iwas actually born in mass Our family had
a house in the Cape, soI think it was it was exposure to
(22:15):
a couple of places in the Cape. It was exposure to like, you
know, a lot of like myfriends where I went to school in Western
mass of Westfield State University. Actuallyit was college back then, but they
all like loved this style of pizza. And there was a couple of places
in Westfield that would make this stylepizza, and I just loved it.
I mean, I just thought itwas so unique to anything that I've ever
(22:37):
had before. So here I amtaking piece of this style that I love,
a piece of Connecticut, a pieceof this New England Greek style pizza
that's pan fried and delicious, youknow, and I just was like,
I want to do a pizza thatthat combines literally everything. So and that
was really kind of like where itall started. Now, these pans that
(23:02):
you're talking about it. They designedto go in five hundred to nine hundred
to repeats ovens. Are they pansfor the regular oven? So I did.
I did experiment a little bit withthat and I found a killer pan
by accident when I was traveling.I was down in Florida and I was
staying it at an Airbnb and I'mlike, oh, shoot, I forgot
(23:22):
a pan, Like you know,I brought a couple of other pizza utensils.
So I found this pan at Target. It was five bucks, and
I'm using it like crazy because it'sworking awesome. I was like, I'm
in love with this pan. It'sfreaking amazing. And somebody's like, you
know, I'm getting pinged left andright from people being like, ah,
that that's not heat rated for youknow, for an uney oven, buddy,
(23:44):
Like that's like heat rated for likefour and fifty degrees fahrenheit. So
I ditched that, you know,trial and error, just kind of going
through some other pans, and nowI'm I think I'm on board with just
Lloyd pans. There. They're thego, and they really, I mean
I'm not sponsored by them. I'myou know, free plug, so they
(24:04):
really they have heat I think they'reheat rated up to like seven fifty eight
hundred. I usually slow cook mypizzas they're they're like I'll launch them at
like seven hundred and twenty five,so it's like right the cost, But
I'm cooking normally at like around fivefifty five twenty five, you know,
in that in that region, andI just like a slow and low bake
(24:27):
where you know, the top getsnice and brown and the bottom is super
crisp. And uh yeah, yeah, Now aren't the Connecticut pieces I cut
square? Aren't they cut? Someparty style? Some are that that Greek
style is definitely I felt like Frankat Peppi's and Sally's, they're doing it.
(24:48):
They're doing it like they're they're cuttingit in half and then they just
kind of willy nilly cut you know, these little like triangle pieces or not
even they're they're not like uniform all. They're just cutting it up. Like
however, I mean, for me, I'm so anal attentive everything has to
be perfect that I'm like cutting intolike perfect little triangles and this and that.
(25:11):
But yeah, I mean, it'sit just depends. It depends on
the style, depends on the place. You know, there's a few places
around here that are like New Yorkinfluenced places that will just do straight up
you know, the six six likeslice cut or the eight slice cut,
and it's it's all uniform. SoI don't know, are those places any
good? Yeah? I mean there'sa there's a place a town over from
(25:36):
me E and D Pizza Company,and they are the guys like a world
class pizza you know, pizziolo,I guess, and he's uh from New
York, New York style pizza,you know, but he still has like
Connecticut influences on his pizza where it'slike, you know, you look at
(25:56):
it and you're like, oh,that looks like Connecticut pizza. But but
I think if anyone came from NewYork and looked at it, they'd be
like, oh man, that's agreat slice. You know. So I
wonder if they're using the all trumpsand doing like the real New York thing
or they do when these other typesof flowers we're talking about, Yeah,
he you know, I mean,I know, for fact, he's like
you know, fjorda latte like youknow, fresh fresh mots. He's the
(26:19):
Grande Mots, you know, solike he's definitely like old school New York
like slice you know, slice shoptype place. I don't know he's flower,
to be honest, I haven't askedhim that, but but he's this
guy's like a decorated world world championpizza you know, pizza chef. I
(26:40):
mean he's a big deal. Yeah. And then I heard it that there's
some cool pizza trucks in Connecticut.Yeah, you aware any of these?
Yeah, there's there's one and it'scalled, oh my god, what is
the name of it? On thegreen truck. I just heard about it
this weekend. Yeah, big greentrucks. So they catered one of my
work events one time, and Ijust was like, holy crap. I
(27:03):
mean they're pumping out these beautiful,thin, crossed, nice sharred pizzas out
of a wood oven in this likeold school farm truck, probably like a
nineteen fifty or forty, you know, whatever it is. But wow,
Yeah, they're great people. They'vegot a few trucks. They actually had
a crazy thing happened too, wherelike some some jerk on the highway literally
(27:26):
cut them off and like they hada big accident. So yeah, but
they were able to nab the guyand they were able to raise money to
build a like for like truck andthey're still kicking ass. So super excited
for them. They're really nice people. And there are in a few other
trucks in the area that you knowthat are like pizza places locally that have
(27:48):
their own trucks and that sort ofthing. And I mean, obviously they
just crush you know, Pizza's pizzaslike our identity in Connecticut after the Hartford
Whalers left. I feel like Pezzais like our new logo. Yeah.
Interesting. Yeah, I don't knowif a lot of people in the country
realize it. I know it isn'tit's you know, well, we're just
like that. I don't think alot of people think of Connecticut. You
(28:11):
know, you think of me atall pizza, Yeah, at all periods
Like you think of New York forpizza. You think of Chicago. I
mean some people will say Philadelphia,but yeah, Connecticut is like just a
hidden gem. I guess, Idon't know. It's crazy, yeah,
crazy. It's gonna go to Bridgeportto that Connecticut Pizza festival. But that
(28:33):
weekend was a washout. That daythat it was it was like last month.
Yeah, they were gonna do it. It seems really cool. I
think that truck and a bunch ofthe guys we're gonna be there. Yeah,
a lot of my were gonna speak. My unie counterparts were there and
and I couldn't make it due to, you know, being sick. But
yeah, yeah, No, theyreally do a nice job there in southern
Connecticut. Huge pizza roots, alot of like very proud people, a
(28:57):
lot of Italians that you know,are like second third generation. They're still
slinging pies down there and probably willdo it for the rest of their life.
Now, why does Connecticut have suchgood pizza but they still can't crack
the bagel? Oh? Man,you know, honestly, I'm not a
(29:19):
bread guy, but we you know. But I have to say, I
don't even want to talk about thewater thing in New York because everyone's like,
oh, you guys don't have thewater. It's like, well,
no, we we can do okaywith pizza, we can sling exactly,
but yeah, when it comes tobagels, I don't know. I mean,
we do have a killer bagel placein Simsbury called Brookside Bagels, and
(29:42):
they're phenomenal, but it's fine.We'll see I'll be at the judge.
I'm gonna come out. We'll goget some bagels, a couple of slices
with some beers. You know,I would love that. Yeah, I
don't know. Man, Honestly,the whole bagel thing is kind of it's
just not my forte. I'm justlike, yeah, fair enough, fair
enough. So you start this Instagramaccount. I think you started on Instagram
(30:07):
first, right, Yeah, youknow, you're you're really in your passion
and you're loving it and things aregoing well and you're getting through the pandemic
and then all of a sudden youstart feeling pain. Yeah, yeah,
tell us about this. So,I mean, you know, as you
as you're like starting out with anythingInstagram, you know, pizza, You're
(30:30):
I was making pizza like three fourtimes a week, and I was eating
it like crazy, and I'm postingevery single day and I just had content
galore and so but like it wasfall of like twenty two and I you
know, here I am. I'mI've been in the pizza game for about
(30:51):
a year and a half and thingsare looking really great. You know,
followers are going like crazy. I'mmaking like great inroads, I've got sponsors,
you name it. But I'm startingto feel these awful intestinal pains,
and I'm thinking, man, isit gluten? Is it? Like?
Am I having a couple of extrabeers on the weekend where I shouldn't be,
(31:12):
you know, since I'm in mymid forties now and I had an
emergency appendectomy on Thanksgiving, And Ithought, okay, well that must have
been it, you know, butpain still help, I know, I
hope and pains still can you know? We're persisting? And I'm like,
(31:33):
oh no, man, I reallydon't hope. It's like I hope it's
I'm not a gluten allergy, so, you know, go through the holidays,
tons of pain. Finally, January, I go get another opinion,
They do all sorts of tests.They send me over to do a colonoscopy.
The lady comes out, the doctor, and she's just like sits me
down and and she's like, weweren't able to finish your colonoscopy because you
(31:56):
have a like a four centimeter tumorin your colon that's like bulging out of
it too. And I was like, I mean like in there and shocked
because I still had the the youknow, the Michael Jackson juice whatever you
call it, prof fall still inmy system. So I was like,
oh, thank god, it's notgluten. Then I'm like, wait a
minute, did she just say cancer? You know? So, yeah,
(32:21):
it was tough, you know,it's it's a thing. Until that point,
they didn't they couldn't tell from bloodtests no, so some things looked
wonky. But they did the biopsyafter the colonoscopy and they confirmed it was
cancer, stage three colon cancer.And I learned that at the end of
(32:44):
January, and then in two dayslater, I was able to get surgery
by like one of the best doctorsat Hartford Healthcare through a friend of mine
who is now my guardian angel,and I literally I'm very lucky. They
were able to get ninety nine percentof it out during the surgery, and
(33:07):
then after that I had four anda half months of chemotherapy, which was
the least fun thing I think I'veever done in my life. So but
I'm I'm here, I'm alive,and I'm so lucky. I'm so grateful.
Yeah, man, well, yeah, I'm just so glad that you
(33:27):
were able to get through all that. Yeah, did you stay offline during
that time. No no, Iused whatever content that I had left over,
and I had about twenty five,maybe thirty bakes worth of content and
videos and you name it. SoI was able to stretch some of that
stuff out. I didn't you know, there was maybe a week or so
(33:52):
where I didn't post due to likereally feeling down and out. But no
one knew, and I continued towork my job. My job knew and
they were very supportive, but noone knew in the pizza community except for
a couple of people that I tippedoff, you know, told privately.
And my whole goal was is thatI never want to post anything saying I
(34:14):
have cancer. I wanted to postsomething at the end that said I beat
cancer. And I used that asmotivation to get me through. And pizza
distracted me from feeling down and blue, and you know, so it was
it was a healthy distraction. Andyou know, of course around the house
here there was a lot of positivity. I tried to stay positive, and
(34:37):
of course there were a lot ofdark cancer jokes that I would just bring
upon myself, like can't can't dothat, I have cancer, so sorry,
you know, like I just I'mjust such a that's just me.
I'm just a sick maniac and sobut I very grateful and honestly having a
(34:57):
second chance at life. You know, you look at things a little differently
now and and but I'm just veryexcited to get back into the pizza game.
And I've I've kind of you know, dip the toe into the water.
I'm starting to get there. I'mstarting to get back into baking a
little bit more. But it's stillhard. You know, I still have
some residual side effects and stuff likethat. But you know, it could
(35:20):
be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse. It certainly
could be worse. Yeah, andalso, you know, I guess it's
a cautionary tale. The second opinion. You have to go and and figure
out what was really going on.Yeah, it's if you're couldn't have a
cancer. I guess that's one ofthe ones, right they say that,
they say that's the one. Butyou you need to be proactive, you
(35:42):
need to stay on top of it. People came to me afterwards after I
posted that thing on Instagram where theywere like, that was amazing, Like
you're an inspiration, You're such agood you know, ambassador to you know,
make awareness or bring awareness to havingcolonoscopies and listening to your body.
(36:04):
If you're if you feel something off, go and get it checked out,
don't wait. Yeah, and itsaved my life. That's that's amazing.
Yeah. Yeah. So what's thefuture hold you? Do you go to
do you travel with any of this? Do you go to the pizza expo?
Do you do any of that?Do you have any interest in it?
I haven't. I haven't. I'mjust I'm a real homebody. I
(36:25):
hate to say it. You know, there's times where, like, you
know, I'll get down to NewHaven and you know, do a kind
of a pizza crawl down there.But other than that, I probably should
seeing I am an ambassador with UNEY, I probably should be doing a few
more events with with my my counterpartsand UNI buddies. But yeah, I
(36:46):
really haven't. I haven't thought aboutthat. There's times where, excuse me,
I think about, like possibly doinga pizza pop up in my town.
I know that there's a lot ofpeople begging me to, you know,
to make them pizza, and Ijust don't have a timetable in terms
of like when I'll feel one hundredpercent to do something like that. But
(37:06):
yeah, I think that pizza willalways be a part of my life.
And I do joke around at timeswith my girlfriend where I say, you
know, I want I would loveto soft retire it around fifty five,
you know, move to Florida,open like a pizza joint down there,
blow their minds because they've never seenpizza like mine before, and you know,
(37:30):
and then just kind of like,you know, be like the mayor
down there where you know, I'llsling, you know, sling a couple
of pies. I go out,I shake some hands, I kiss some
babies and and you know, dothat. But it's a very manageable,
small shop, that type of deal. So who knows, man, I
you know, I'm just so psychedto be still bacon, you know.
(37:50):
So yeah, you know you're describingmy life, right, I'm fifty five.
Yeah, I just bought the foodtruck with a pizza oven in it.
Oh and I'm I'm kind of tryingto do what you you you're describing.
Yeah, but I didn't do itin Florida. Yeah, I will
say that it's hard as shit.Oh yeah, yeah, Well that's the
(38:13):
reason why I got out of therestaurant business because I was working ninety hours
a week and when I got toit sales, and my boss is like,
amen, you do realize this islike a fifty hour a week job.
And I was like, buddy,do you know what I just was
working for the last like fifteen yearsof my life? Are you nuts?
(38:34):
So you know, I would thinkthe restaurants somewhat similar. Like if I
do two events, two four hourevents on Saturday and Sunday, that's eight
hours and everyone's like, oh eighthours. Shit, I get it.
It's your side hustle. That's whyyou call it side hustle. Bread.
Yeah, I have to drive there, I have to prep the truck.
I have to have the cold cutsliced. Yeah. I have to make
the sauce. I have to makethe creams, the spreads. It's a
(38:58):
lot, man, and you're doingthat's solo. I'm doing it solo.
Yeah. You know, we wewe have you know, my son helps.
We have a couple of people intown that will come over. But
a lot of it's solo. Yeah, it's uh, but it's different when
it's your passion versus it is ajob. But but you know, what's
really funny is like, and thisis the good thing about doing it the
(39:22):
way we're doing it, in away, we're able to not book events
at certain times. So this weekendwe purposely took off and we went out
to Montalk And then I'm sitting outthis place on the water with my wife,
kid and my family from Connecticut.Actually they met us with their kids.
And there's people like my age andolder that are retired or they're working
(39:45):
but whatever, and they're just sittingon a beach all day. Yeah,
and they're living like what is normalretirement or starting to wind down. And
then I came home and I gota little depressed because now my mind's a
little mess up. Am I AmI stupid? Am I supposed to be
working this hard? Right? No? Yes, you will. Yes.
(40:07):
My grandfather just retired at ninety eight. He was a cell of his company.
And you know what, he's sharperthan most guys and that are retired
in their seventies. Because all right, that gives me hope. He stayed
busy, kept his mind sharp,he stayed busy. I mean, this
dude's like ninety nine. Now he'sstill hoofing up and downstairs. He wants
(40:29):
to jump on his boat on youknow, Candlewood down in New Fairfield.
I mean, this guy is amaniac, you know. All right,
Well, maybe maybe I'll be ninetyfive humping fifty bags of king off the
flower over my shoulder. We'll seesee what happens. Damon. Thank you
for talking to me. Man.Maybe one day we will get to meet
in person. I would love that. Yes, I'm glad to hear your
(40:50):
inspiring story and that you're doing sowell healthwise, and I'm sure it's going
to just keep getting better and betterand you'll get back to it soon.
I can't thank you enough for havingme on. I'm super excited to just
be a part of your show.I'm like flattered, beyond flattered. So
thank my pleasure. All Right,we'll be in touch, buddy, be
good, all right, all right. This episode of Bread for the People
(41:15):
was brought to you by Side HustleBread, Long Island's handcrafted, artisanal bread
company. Side Hustle Bread is afamily run business that's bringing the neighborhood field
back to Long Island, one loafat a time. If you like what
you're hearing, don't forget to headon over tie iTunes and rate and review
this episode. Reviewing and rating isthe most effective way to help us grow
our audience. This episode was producedby Milestone TV and Film. I'm your
(41:38):
host Jim Serpico. Less it bethe bread Everyone
My name's Jim Serpico. And thisshould I start with my name? What
should I start with? This isbread for the people? Do you like
it like this? Welcome to bread? What do you like it like this?
Welcome Retty, Welcome to bread forthe people? Mine? Is there
a script? Welcome to Bread forthe people. I'm Jim Serpico. My
(00:33):
next guest is a pizza maker who'sknown as the Mayor of Pizza. He's
proud of his Connecticut roots. Hispassion for pizzas helped him amass a lodge
social media following and make friends andacquaintances around the world. He also happens
to be a cancer survivor, andwe're happy to announce that today he's cancer
(00:56):
free. Emon Murphy. Welcome toBread for the people. Man, Man,
how the heck am I gonna freakingdo an interview after that intro?
That that is special? Jim,Thank you so much, man, it's
a pleasure to have you here.Yeah. I'm digging your shirt. Yeah,
big head? Are you? Yeah? Big dead head? You went
(01:17):
to some of the other jam musicor is it mostly dead? No?
So I mean it's you know,dead fish. I mean I guess it
kind of stays at that. Youknow, I tried getting into Goose a
little bit. They're kind of likethe new school one. Yeah, but
you know, as far as likeyou know, I mean, there's nothing
better than than the OG I mean, yeah, I guess I respect it.
(01:38):
Yeah, I respect it. Ilove Dead and Company. Yeah.
I just got back from Red Rocks, my first time over at Red Rocks
in Colorado to see Tedesky trucks.Oh yeah, I was exciting Susan Rips
on that guitar huh. And she'san fantastic singer, unbelievable Yeah, great
singer, unbelievable guitar player. Yeah, really impressive, And it was I
(02:00):
mean, Jim, we could talkmusic all day long because in my Instagram
bio, I actually say music aficionadoand music I tell everyone all the time
because I put music to my reelsand this and that. Music was my
first love. My dad got meinto music when I was a really young,
you know, young kid. Andyou know the pizza thing obviously,
(02:21):
who doesn't love pizza, but thepizza making thing came down the road.
But I always will admit music ismy first love. So mine too.
Yeah, my dad was a musicianand I went to music school, but
it's it's always played. Even thoughI never went into professional music, it's
been in my life just as afan. I was able to get into
and use it professionally, not asa professional musician, but as a TV
(02:44):
and filmmaker. My music knowledge reallyhelped me. And one of my favorite
parts of making television was working onthe edits and putting the music into shows.
Man, Yeah, yeah, socool. I get such a kick
out of doing the you know,the reels, and they don't get the
life that you know, the trendingmusic gets gives. I'll I'll throw like
(03:05):
talking heads in there. I'll throwyou know, you name it beach boys.
I mean it's like across the map, you know, little known bands
that are out there, just tryingto give them like a little air time.
But I do the same. Yeah, And I feel like the Instagram
for me is my creative outlet.Now that's the part of the breadmaking that
still allows me to shoot stuff evenif it's on my phone. But lay
(03:29):
the music and listen. Sometimes I'mchasing the likes and the trending music,
and I'll try it. But yeah, just as much I'll put shit that
I like that people should know anddon't know. Yah, you know,
yeah, I love introducing. Allright, let's I digress, I digress.
It's all good man. So youI think, like me, somehow,
(03:52):
I don't know how ended up withsome time during the pandemic, because
that's when you really started going fullforce into pizza making, right Yeah.
Yeah, I mean it's like everybody, you know, we were forced in
our homes. We literally were like, what the heck do we do?
You know, we can't go outand do our favorite things. You know,
I'm an avid golfer. I meanthe golf courses at the time were
(04:13):
shut down. I mean, I'man ad Avid, you know, just
kind of social butterfly, so youknow, going to the bars and restaurants
that I love in my town andsims very Connecticut, Like I just couldn't
do it. So you know,in here at the Murphy House, we
we do pizza Fridays. I feellike that's like pretty common everywhere, and
(04:33):
it was it was a pain inthe ass to get pizza, and so
I figured I was like, there'sgotta be a better way to do this.
And then you know, it justkind of it happened where I'm scrolling
through Instagram and I come across aprofile notorious Pie, this guy named Luke
(04:54):
and he's out in the middle ofnowhere America, you know, apologize Luke.
I think he's in Missouri, right, Missouri. Yeah, yeah.
But he's like the coolest laid backdude ever. And he's, you know,
cooking these amazing pizzas out of abase model home oven. And he
put together this cookbook and I waslike, you know what, I'm going
(05:16):
all in on this. So Ibought every single thing that he said in
his little cookbooks that he sells onhis page. I'll give him a plug.
And I just learned and it wasawesome. And I you know,
and I have a little bit ofrestaurant background. I spent fifteen years in
the restaurant business, so cooking wassomething that came natural to me, but
I never had baked. So,you know, here I am, I'm
(05:39):
learning how to do this on thefly, and I'm adapting things. I'm
changing, you know, changing thingsup to kind of the way I like
to do, you know, orhow I like pizza. So before you
go any further, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, you just
and I think the way he teaches, is using whatever oven you have at
home, not necessarily going outside,not necessarily purchasing an Uni or a Goseny
(06:00):
or anything like that. Yeah,so you started baking the pizza right in
the oven you had. Yeah,yep. I've got a pretty base model
ge electric oven myself, and Iuse a pizza steel And it's literally like
a half inch thick steel plate thatsits on your in your oven, and
(06:23):
it almost kind of makes your homeoven turn into like almost like a deck
oven. You know that you wouldgo in like a slice shop in New
York City. Really, so,I've never used one. Does the steel
you have, like how wide isit? It's about let's see, because
I know I can do it witha sixteen inch I mean, I'm I'm
(06:43):
guessing it's probably like eighteen inches wideby like whatever the deep the depth of
the oven, it's like sixteen inches, I think. Yeah. Does it
sit on the floor of the ovenor does it slide in on a rack?
So it sits right on the rackran and I have it positioned kind
of a little higher up so whenI hit the broiler at the end,
it really it gives a nice likebrowning on the top, which I like,
(07:08):
Okay, yeah, oh it's it'sawesome, man, you gotta get
one. Have you moved on?And I want to get to a lot
more about right after this, Buthave you moved on to these other ovens
like the Gosnis and the Unis?Yeah? So my girlfriend she got me,
let's see. So that was twentytwenty one, when I first started.
(07:30):
Christmas of twenty one, she literallywent out and gave me like the
craziest Christmas gift ever. It wasan Uni CAREW sixteen. It was basically
the top line Uni oven that thatUni makes, and and that got me
like really fired up, like reallyreally fired up into making pizza. Do
(07:54):
you see? Yeah, that's allright, it's all good. Do you
see a big difference between the outcomeof the pizzas from a pizza oven like
that versus using your your pizza steel? You know, it's funny, It's
like there's a there's differences. Idefinitely like a little extra jar on my
pizza, kind of that New Havenstyle they open flame, you know,
(08:16):
or even using wood or coal thatdefinitely achieves a little darker color, where
like the home oven, it's stillI mean, you can get it pretty
dark, but it's not It's justnot the same. It doesn't have that
same kind of smokiness to it thatthat you that you know, I crave.
I guess you know. I'm Ilove those like coal fired pizzas and
(08:37):
stuff like that. So but butI mean it's close, I tell you.
And it's really consistent though, withthe whole oven and on the on
the steel. It's very awesome.Man. Yeah, So tell me about
your restaurant experience. What led youto work in a restaurant? You know,
at the time I was told why. I had a friend's dad that
(08:58):
owned a restaurant in town. Iwas fifteen years old and at the time,
you know, fifteen year olds couldwork in restaurants. And he was
just like, look, you canmake five bucks an hour washing dishes and
prepping, you know, and doingprep cook and so got in learned that,
you know, learned stuff. Iwas always interested in doing more and
more and more. I was like, well, who runs that thing and
(09:18):
who does that and what? Youknow? So I I kind of moved
up the ranks. I spent alot of time, you know, just
like staying later and talking and workedin a bunch of different restaurants, every
position you could think of. Iwanted to do everything, and I wanted
to learn it and I wanted tomaster it, and went off to college,
(09:39):
still worked in restaurants, and youknow, bartended through college to kind
of get me through. But butreally, I mean, I think ultimately
at the end of my restaurant career, I had owned a restaurant in town
here in Simsbury. And what kindof restaurant it was. It's kind of
like New England Fair, you know, you have your steaks and your seafood
and stuff like that. It's gota real colonial cool vibe to it.
(10:03):
We just it was a lot offun. It was in a haunted building,
so I always take people on ghosttours and stuff, and I tell
you, I wasn't a believer ofghosts until I started working there, and
legit, it was definitely there wassomething up. But how long did you
have the restaurant? So I hadit for about two and a half years
and then we had a fire unfortunately, and my my big majority owner,
(10:28):
he was kind of like the youknow, the piggy bank, the silent
owner. He was like, lookgame, and I don't want to do
this. Anymore. Like I justyou know, it wasn't restaurants, wasn't
his thing. He he's a taxattorney. He's like, I don't,
I don't feel like doing this anymore. So I moved on and now I'm
in it sales and make it.Okay. Yeah, man, yeah,
(10:48):
okay. But that's that's cool thatyou you followed that journey and it's kind
of related, I think, towhat you're doing now. Yeah, I
agree. And you know, cookingis always been something that I've been passionate
about. I mean, you know, even at like a young age with
my mom and she was showing mehow to cook stuff it or an early
(11:09):
age my grandmother too, same deal. And I mean, you know,
I was nine ten years old,like satan stuff on the stove, like
you know, doing stuff that likenormal littler kids wouldn't want to do.
But yes, cook there's always ahuge passion of mine. Now I'm interested
in diving into the Connecticut pizza culture. Yeah. And you you mentioned to
(11:31):
me by email, yep, thatyou have a sort of a hybrid style.
Yeah, like a cross between ConnecticutNew Haven style pizza and I believe
you said New England style bar pies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
let's break this all down. AndI want to go real deep here because
I love Connecticut pizza. Yeah,I'm not one of these guys I think
(11:54):
one genre of pizza is better thanthe other. Right, I appreciate all
genres of pizza, and I personallyam trying to learn all of it.
Yeah, and I think there's atime and place for all of it.
But I do really fucking love Connecticutpizza. Man. There's something about the
(12:15):
crispiness and the chewiness of the dough, you know, the crust it's a
little more like well done. Youdon't get that fat like corner shone around
the edge, that big like crust. It's more just kind of matted down.
And now, how do you achievethat? In some of the videos
I was watching recently, and Idon't know what I'm talking about because I've
(12:37):
never really attempted to make my ownConnecticut style yep, But I did read
something about people really flatten it outand take the air out and use rolling
pins. Yeah right, yeah,you can use a rolling pin. Some
places do that. I mean,I've gotten to the point now where I'm
just good with my hands and Ijust go around and around and around and
around circles, and I press outall the gas and then you know,
(13:00):
to flip it a little bit,just kind of stretch it out, use
gravity, you know, do thesteering wheel technique, let it hang down
and and honestly, I mean it'sI just love that that sort of thin
crust. I'm not a big breadguy. I like it crucified here at
home with my girls. They lovebread, but I'm not a bread person.
So I want like a thin crust, very chewy, not a huge
(13:22):
amount of like cheese and toppings that'sgonna weigh it all down, you know.
But I do like the sauce,you know, sauce on the top,
like real pretty just I mean alittle extra well done. I like
the cheese when it has some likeburnt edges or a little free too edge.
(13:43):
So all of these like things thatI like. I basically was like,
you know what, I want tocombine this into a pizza that's kind
of like my own Frankenstein Mayer stylehybrid. Okay, before we go first,
well, because we'll get to yourpizza in a second. I'm still
trying to stand in Connecticut. Yeah, the difference in the dough between New
(14:03):
York style or Neapolitan, which iswhat I'm more used to making. Yeah,
like I'm fermenting the dough maybe fortwenty four hours, which allows it
to get those air pockets. What'sthe deal with Connecticut pizza? Is that
being fermented or is it not?Is it a quicker process? So,
and this is like, this iskind of what I do. But I
(14:24):
think i've you know, from talkingto some of my other favorite pizza places.
It's less yeast. It's bread flourand it's a long proof, cold
proof, and basically that's like that'skind of the secret sauce when you get
that that like chewy, thin crustpizza. So it must be the less
(14:46):
yeast because we use bread flour forNeapolitan. Yeah, or I do at
least, so you do, Okay, I know that like a lot of
people are like double zero or whatever. I mean. I also hear a
lot of people too in Connecticut they'reusing all purpose. They don't, you
know, they get the same typeof like crispy texture, but it's got
a little bit of airiness to it, you know. So but all purpose,
(15:07):
depending on what brand you're using,makes great pizza, great pizza.
Yeah, yeah, I mean I'ma I'm a King Arthur guy, So
I know that, you know,there's I mean there's other brands out there,
like the Central Mill Milling that likeyou know, I hear they crush
it. So but so that's interesting. So it's less yeast, which is
probably why it's not really blowing upye And then so you talk to other
(15:33):
pizza makers in Connecticut, like,do you know some of these restaurant owners
personally? Yeah? I do,yep, So like the New Haven types,
Yeah, you know, a couple, a couple I've talked to a
couple of people in New Haven.There's actually a guy that was in New
Haven that moved out to Chicago andopened a place called Peace. And he
is an awesome dude. You know, we talk all the time and and
(15:56):
he just is like an open book. He'll tell me, you know,
I'm like, what's the proof I'mon that, what's the you know,
what's the what's the hydration? Youknow what? Like you know, and
I just want to know everything.And we got a great place in town
right down the street called Little CityPizza and they it same deal. The
guy's like he's you know, he'snot going to hide anything. He's just
like, I'll tell you whatever,whatever you want. So and it's pretty
(16:18):
cool. It's cool to have thoserelationships. Did he has he been making
pizza in your town for a longtime or did he learn somewhere else A
long time? Yeah? Yeah,a long time. He's been in business
for probably I don't know, twentyfive years. I went to high school
with him, and I mean Iwent to I graduated with his younger brother.
And yeah, I mean it wascrazy when he opened his place.
It blew people's minds around here becauseat the time everyone was eating that New
(16:42):
England style Greek pizza, you know, at the party cut squares, and
it's got like the you know,it's it's pan fried on the bottom and
kind of little puffier. And that'sactually another style pizza that I've adapted into
my like hybrid frank Stein that Idon't talk about too much, but I
do like to start with a panbecause I love that pan fried bottom.
(17:06):
Really I can't explain it. Yeah, well we're gonna have to explain it,
all right, all right, allright, you're gonna you oil your
pen. Yeah, So I lightlylike Olive oil the pan, and I'll
put the dough in there, youknow, nice and snug, and I'll
do like seventy five percent of thebake in that pan and then transfer it
(17:27):
out like to really crisp it upat the at the end on the bottom.
It dressed at this point. Ohit's so yeah. Yeah, No,
it's all dressed fully. It's fullydressed, Okay, fully put together.
And you know, I have videosand stuff and pictures, and a
lot of times when I do poston Instagram, I'll do it in chronological
(17:48):
order so everyone at home can kindof see like steps of like how I
achieve this. But and I'm superlong winded in my my captions, so
and I try and give his muchdetail as possible to let everyone else know
exactly you know, what I'm doing, how I'm doing it. So got
it? Yeah, I know,like a lot of New York pizza makers
(18:10):
who are making Sicilian pies do that. Yeah, but it's not dressed.
Yeah, those are little thicker.Yeah, they'll they'll par bake it and
get it ready and then dress itlater because you know, it's so thick
that though for a Sicilian that ittakes a little bit. Yeah, this
is thin, and honestly, afterlike six minutes, maybe seven minutes,
it's it's said enough to where Ican just slide it right out of the
(18:33):
pan and then it hits the youknow, hits the steel or hits the
oven and a couple of minutes crispit up, you know, get the
top the way I like it.It's awesome, you know. Can you
stop the process in the pan?Ye? And put it in the fridge
and bake it. I like ifyou had to do twenty five of those
(18:53):
pies, yeah, or do iton a food truck. Can you do
that? I probably could? Yeah, you probably could just par bay,
you know, par bake the pizzain the pan and then transferred off to
whatever and you know, put iton parchment or something like that to sit
in another pan, wait to youknow, fire it again. I'm guessing
that would work. All right.We might have to do a video.
(19:14):
I think we should. We should, yeah, do a test. Yeah.
So what's the deal with these NewEngland bar pies? Okay, so
the pure part before we get togo off Frankenstein version? Yeah, yeah,
what what is this pizza? So? A South Shore bar pie?
It's in South It was created insouth Shore, mass Massachusetts. And what
it is is basically another pant.Like it starts in the pan. You
(19:37):
put the dough around and you justfill it the pan. It's a it's
a ninety degree pan, so it'sgot the edges. You fill the pan
around the edge and across it withthe cheese and toppings and you name it.
And what it ends up happening ison the edges, the cheese kind
of melts down the side and youget this like che easy crust, which
(20:02):
is they call it a laced edgein Massachusetts, but everyone else in the
pizza world knows it as freako.You know that that kind of burnt cheese.
So so that bite right there islike the too dive for bite.
You know. You eat this smalllittle slice of pizza. They're usually small.
You have them at a bar whileyou're like watching the game. It's
(20:23):
something salty and you know, easyto eat while like while you're throwing back
beers and super thin, crusted likenot too heavy, not a lot of
sauce, not not a lot ofcheese, but it's just enough. And
I tell you they are like alot of people are like, wow,
that looks like a frozen pizza.It's like, well it kind of not
(20:45):
really, but you know, butit's I think it's just all about that
thin crust and that freako laced edgebite at the end. Killer. That's
great. Man. Now are someof the bars, I guess many of
the bars have these pies. Youknow, some of the bars like really
known like oh my god, yougotta go here because they have bar pies
just off the charts. Yeah,I mean, they're they're a bunch in
(21:07):
mass in the South Shore area.I know. Let's see, there's places
like Poopsies and Cape Cod Pizza andI'm she's I'm blanking on a few of
them, but they're there are alot of like dive bar type places that
you go and you wouldn't even know. It's like hole in the wall type
place and they have like one guyin the back just pumping out these cracker
(21:30):
thins like thin crust pizzas and andthat's it. And it's the same thing
actually out in Chicago with tavern styleand tavern style and bar pizza are basically
the same exact thing. They justcut their pizza and squares and like party
cut and it's they you know,South Was it South Chicago or something like
(21:53):
that. The South Side. Theydo a lot of their like die bars
are known for like amazing Taverne stylepizza. And how did you get exposed
to this? Did you go toschool out there in Massachusetts? So I
went to college in Massachusetts. Iwas actually born in mass Our family had
a house in the Cape, soI think it was it was exposure to
(22:15):
a couple of places in the Cape. It was exposure to like, you
know, a lot of like myfriends where I went to school in Western
mass of Westfield State University. Actuallyit was college back then, but they
all like loved this style of pizza. And there was a couple of places
in Westfield that would make this stylepizza, and I just loved it.
I mean, I just thought itwas so unique to anything that I've ever
(22:37):
had before. So here I amtaking piece of this style that I love,
a piece of Connecticut, a pieceof this New England Greek style pizza
that's pan fried and delicious, youknow, and I just was like,
I want to do a pizza thatthat combines literally everything. So and that
was really kind of like where itall started. Now, these pans that
(23:02):
you're talking about it. They designedto go in five hundred to nine hundred
to repeats ovens. Are they pansfor the regular oven? So I did.
I did experiment a little bit withthat and I found a killer pan
by accident when I was traveling.I was down in Florida and I was
staying it at an Airbnb and I'mlike, oh, shoot, I forgot
(23:22):
a pan, Like you know,I brought a couple of other pizza utensils.
So I found this pan at Target. It was five bucks, and
I'm using it like crazy because it'sworking awesome. I was like, I'm
in love with this pan. It'sfreaking amazing. And somebody's like, you
know, I'm getting pinged left andright from people being like, ah,
that that's not heat rated for youknow, for an uney oven, buddy,
(23:44):
Like that's like heat rated for likefour and fifty degrees fahrenheit. So
I ditched that, you know,trial and error, just kind of going
through some other pans, and nowI'm I think I'm on board with just
Lloyd pans. There. They're thego, and they really, I mean
I'm not sponsored by them. I'myou know, free plug, so they
(24:04):
really they have heat I think they'reheat rated up to like seven fifty eight
hundred. I usually slow cook mypizzas they're they're like I'll launch them at
like seven hundred and twenty five,so it's like right the cost, But
I'm cooking normally at like around fivefifty five twenty five, you know,
in that in that region, andI just like a slow and low bake
(24:27):
where you know, the top getsnice and brown and the bottom is super
crisp. And uh yeah, yeah, Now aren't the Connecticut pieces I cut
square? Aren't they cut? Someparty style? Some are that that Greek
style is definitely I felt like Frankat Peppi's and Sally's, they're doing it.
(24:48):
They're doing it like they're they're cuttingit in half and then they just
kind of willy nilly cut you know, these little like triangle pieces or not
even they're they're not like uniform all. They're just cutting it up. Like
however, I mean, for me, I'm so anal attentive everything has to
be perfect that I'm like cutting intolike perfect little triangles and this and that.
(25:11):
But yeah, I mean, it'sit just depends. It depends on
the style, depends on the place. You know, there's a few places
around here that are like New Yorkinfluenced places that will just do straight up
you know, the six six likeslice cut or the eight slice cut,
and it's it's all uniform. SoI don't know, are those places any
good? Yeah? I mean there'sa there's a place a town over from
(25:36):
me E and D Pizza Company,and they are the guys like a world
class pizza you know, pizziolo,I guess, and he's uh from New
York, New York style pizza,you know, but he still has like
Connecticut influences on his pizza where it'slike, you know, you look at
(25:56):
it and you're like, oh,that looks like Connecticut pizza. But but
I think if anyone came from NewYork and looked at it, they'd be
like, oh man, that's agreat slice. You know. So I
wonder if they're using the all trumpsand doing like the real New York thing
or they do when these other typesof flowers we're talking about, Yeah,
he you know, I mean,I know, for fact, he's like
you know, fjorda latte like youknow, fresh fresh mots. He's the
(26:19):
Grande Mots, you know, solike he's definitely like old school New York
like slice you know, slice shoptype place. I don't know he's flower,
to be honest, I haven't askedhim that, but but he's this
guy's like a decorated world world championpizza you know, pizza chef. I
(26:40):
mean he's a big deal. Yeah. And then I heard it that there's
some cool pizza trucks in Connecticut.Yeah, you aware any of these?
Yeah, there's there's one and it'scalled, oh my god, what is
the name of it? On thegreen truck. I just heard about it
this weekend. Yeah, big greentrucks. So they catered one of my
work events one time, and Ijust was like, holy crap. I
(27:03):
mean they're pumping out these beautiful,thin, crossed, nice sharred pizzas out
of a wood oven in this likeold school farm truck, probably like a
nineteen fifty or forty, you know, whatever it is. But wow,
Yeah, they're great people. They'vegot a few trucks. They actually had
a crazy thing happened too, wherelike some some jerk on the highway literally
(27:26):
cut them off and like they hada big accident. So yeah, but
they were able to nab the guyand they were able to raise money to
build a like for like truck andthey're still kicking ass. So super excited
for them. They're really nice people. And there are in a few other
trucks in the area that you knowthat are like pizza places locally that have
(27:48):
their own trucks and that sort ofthing. And I mean, obviously they
just crush you know, Pizza's pizzaslike our identity in Connecticut after the Hartford
Whalers left. I feel like Pezzais like our new logo. Yeah.
Interesting. Yeah, I don't knowif a lot of people in the country
realize it. I know it isn'tit's you know, well, we're just
like that. I don't think alot of people think of Connecticut. You
(28:11):
know, you think of me atall pizza, Yeah, at all periods
Like you think of New York forpizza. You think of Chicago. I
mean some people will say Philadelphia,but yeah, Connecticut is like just a
hidden gem. I guess, Idon't know. It's crazy, yeah,
crazy. It's gonna go to Bridgeportto that Connecticut Pizza festival. But that
(28:33):
weekend was a washout. That daythat it was it was like last month.
Yeah, they were gonna do it. It seems really cool. I
think that truck and a bunch ofthe guys we're gonna be there. Yeah,
a lot of my were gonna speak. My unie counterparts were there and
and I couldn't make it due to, you know, being sick. But
yeah, yeah, No, theyreally do a nice job there in southern
Connecticut. Huge pizza roots, alot of like very proud people, a
(28:57):
lot of Italians that you know,are like second third generation. They're still
slinging pies down there and probably willdo it for the rest of their life.
Now, why does Connecticut have suchgood pizza but they still can't crack
the bagel? Oh? Man,you know, honestly, I'm not a
(29:19):
bread guy, but we you know. But I have to say, I
don't even want to talk about thewater thing in New York because everyone's like,
oh, you guys don't have thewater. It's like, well,
no, we we can do okaywith pizza, we can sling exactly,
but yeah, when it comes tobagels, I don't know. I mean,
we do have a killer bagel placein Simsbury called Brookside Bagels, and
(29:42):
they're phenomenal, but it's fine.We'll see I'll be at the judge.
I'm gonna come out. We'll goget some bagels, a couple of slices
with some beers. You know,I would love that. Yeah, I
don't know. Man, Honestly,the whole bagel thing is kind of it's
just not my forte. I'm justlike, yeah, fair enough, fair
enough. So you start this Instagramaccount. I think you started on Instagram
(30:07):
first, right, Yeah, youknow, you're you're really in your passion
and you're loving it and things aregoing well and you're getting through the pandemic
and then all of a sudden youstart feeling pain. Yeah, yeah,
tell us about this. So,I mean, you know, as you
as you're like starting out with anythingInstagram, you know, pizza, You're
(30:30):
I was making pizza like three fourtimes a week, and I was eating
it like crazy, and I'm postingevery single day and I just had content
galore and so but like it wasfall of like twenty two and I you
know, here I am. I'mI've been in the pizza game for about
(30:51):
a year and a half and thingsare looking really great. You know,
followers are going like crazy. I'mmaking like great inroads, I've got sponsors,
you name it. But I'm startingto feel these awful intestinal pains,
and I'm thinking, man, isit gluten? Is it? Like?
Am I having a couple of extrabeers on the weekend where I shouldn't be,
(31:12):
you know, since I'm in mymid forties now and I had an
emergency appendectomy on Thanksgiving, And Ithought, okay, well that must have
been it, you know, butpain still help, I know, I
hope and pains still can you know? We're persisting? And I'm like,
(31:33):
oh no, man, I reallydon't hope. It's like I hope it's
I'm not a gluten allergy, so, you know, go through the holidays,
tons of pain. Finally, January, I go get another opinion,
They do all sorts of tests.They send me over to do a colonoscopy.
The lady comes out, the doctor, and she's just like sits me
down and and she's like, weweren't able to finish your colonoscopy because you
(31:56):
have a like a four centimeter tumorin your colon that's like bulging out of
it too. And I was like, I mean like in there and shocked
because I still had the the youknow, the Michael Jackson juice whatever you
call it, prof fall still inmy system. So I was like,
oh, thank god, it's notgluten. Then I'm like, wait a
minute, did she just say cancer? You know? So, yeah,
(32:21):
it was tough, you know,it's it's a thing. Until that point,
they didn't they couldn't tell from bloodtests no, so some things looked
wonky. But they did the biopsyafter the colonoscopy and they confirmed it was
cancer, stage three colon cancer.And I learned that at the end of
(32:44):
January, and then in two dayslater, I was able to get surgery
by like one of the best doctorsat Hartford Healthcare through a friend of mine
who is now my guardian angel,and I literally I'm very lucky. They
were able to get ninety nine percentof it out during the surgery, and
(33:07):
then after that I had four anda half months of chemotherapy, which was
the least fun thing I think I'veever done in my life. So but
I'm I'm here, I'm alive,and I'm so lucky. I'm so grateful.
Yeah, man, well, yeah, I'm just so glad that you
(33:27):
were able to get through all that. Yeah, did you stay offline during
that time. No no, Iused whatever content that I had left over,
and I had about twenty five,maybe thirty bakes worth of content and
videos and you name it. SoI was able to stretch some of that
stuff out. I didn't you know, there was maybe a week or so
(33:52):
where I didn't post due to likereally feeling down and out. But no
one knew, and I continued towork my job. My job knew and
they were very supportive, but noone knew in the pizza community except for
a couple of people that I tippedoff, you know, told privately.
And my whole goal was is thatI never want to post anything saying I
(34:14):
have cancer. I wanted to postsomething at the end that said I beat
cancer. And I used that asmotivation to get me through. And pizza
distracted me from feeling down and blue, and you know, so it was
it was a healthy distraction. Andyou know, of course around the house
here there was a lot of positivity. I tried to stay positive, and
(34:37):
of course there were a lot ofdark cancer jokes that I would just bring
upon myself, like can't can't dothat, I have cancer, so sorry,
you know, like I just I'mjust such a that's just me.
I'm just a sick maniac and sobut I very grateful and honestly having a
(34:57):
second chance at life. You know, you look at things a little differently
now and and but I'm just veryexcited to get back into the pizza game.
And I've I've kind of you know, dip the toe into the water.
I'm starting to get there. I'mstarting to get back into baking a
little bit more. But it's stillhard. You know, I still have
some residual side effects and stuff likethat. But you know, it could
(35:20):
be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse. It certainly
could be worse. Yeah, andalso, you know, I guess it's
a cautionary tale. The second opinion. You have to go and and figure
out what was really going on.Yeah, it's if you're couldn't have a
cancer. I guess that's one ofthe ones, right they say that,
they say that's the one. Butyou you need to be proactive, you
(35:42):
need to stay on top of it. People came to me afterwards after I
posted that thing on Instagram where theywere like, that was amazing, Like
you're an inspiration, You're such agood you know, ambassador to you know,
make awareness or bring awareness to havingcolonoscopies and listening to your body.
(36:04):
If you're if you feel something off, go and get it checked out,
don't wait. Yeah, and itsaved my life. That's that's amazing.
Yeah. Yeah. So what's thefuture hold you? Do you go to
do you travel with any of this? Do you go to the pizza expo?
Do you do any of that?Do you have any interest in it?
I haven't. I haven't. I'mjust I'm a real homebody. I
(36:25):
hate to say it. You know, there's times where, like, you
know, I'll get down to NewHaven and you know, do a kind
of a pizza crawl down there.But other than that, I probably should
seeing I am an ambassador with UNEY, I probably should be doing a few
more events with with my my counterpartsand UNI buddies. But yeah, I
(36:46):
really haven't. I haven't thought aboutthat. There's times where, excuse me,
I think about, like possibly doinga pizza pop up in my town.
I know that there's a lot ofpeople begging me to, you know,
to make them pizza, and Ijust don't have a timetable in terms
of like when I'll feel one hundredpercent to do something like that. But
(37:06):
yeah, I think that pizza willalways be a part of my life.
And I do joke around at timeswith my girlfriend where I say, you
know, I want I would loveto soft retire it around fifty five,
you know, move to Florida,open like a pizza joint down there,
blow their minds because they've never seenpizza like mine before, and you know,
(37:30):
and then just kind of like,you know, be like the mayor
down there where you know, I'llsling, you know, sling a couple
of pies. I go out,I shake some hands, I kiss some
babies and and you know, dothat. But it's a very manageable,
small shop, that type of deal. So who knows, man, I
you know, I'm just so psychedto be still bacon, you know.
(37:50):
So yeah, you know you're describingmy life, right, I'm fifty five.
Yeah, I just bought the foodtruck with a pizza oven in it.
Oh and I'm I'm kind of tryingto do what you you you're describing.
Yeah, but I didn't do itin Florida. Yeah, I will
say that it's hard as shit.Oh yeah, yeah, Well that's the
(38:13):
reason why I got out of therestaurant business because I was working ninety hours
a week and when I got toit sales, and my boss is like,
amen, you do realize this islike a fifty hour a week job.
And I was like, buddy,do you know what I just was
working for the last like fifteen yearsof my life? Are you nuts?
(38:34):
So you know, I would thinkthe restaurants somewhat similar. Like if I
do two events, two four hourevents on Saturday and Sunday, that's eight
hours and everyone's like, oh eighthours. Shit, I get it.
It's your side hustle. That's whyyou call it side hustle. Bread.
Yeah, I have to drive there, I have to prep the truck.
I have to have the cold cutsliced. Yeah. I have to make
the sauce. I have to makethe creams, the spreads. It's a
(38:58):
lot, man, and you're doingthat's solo. I'm doing it solo.
Yeah. You know, we wewe have you know, my son helps.
We have a couple of people intown that will come over. But
a lot of it's solo. Yeah, it's uh, but it's different when
it's your passion versus it is ajob. But but you know, what's
really funny is like, and thisis the good thing about doing it the
(39:22):
way we're doing it, in away, we're able to not book events
at certain times. So this weekendwe purposely took off and we went out
to Montalk And then I'm sitting outthis place on the water with my wife,
kid and my family from Connecticut.Actually they met us with their kids.
And there's people like my age andolder that are retired or they're working
(39:45):
but whatever, and they're just sittingon a beach all day. Yeah,
and they're living like what is normalretirement or starting to wind down. And
then I came home and I gota little depressed because now my mind's a
little mess up. Am I AmI stupid? Am I supposed to be
working this hard? Right? No? Yes, you will. Yes.
(40:07):
My grandfather just retired at ninety eight. He was a cell of his company.
And you know what, he's sharperthan most guys and that are retired
in their seventies. Because all right, that gives me hope. He stayed
busy, kept his mind sharp,he stayed busy. I mean, this
dude's like ninety nine. Now he'sstill hoofing up and downstairs. He wants
(40:29):
to jump on his boat on youknow, Candlewood down in New Fairfield.
I mean, this guy is amaniac, you know. All right,
Well, maybe maybe I'll be ninetyfive humping fifty bags of king off the
flower over my shoulder. We'll seesee what happens. Damon. Thank you
for talking to me. Man.Maybe one day we will get to meet
in person. I would love that. Yes, I'm glad to hear your
(40:50):
inspiring story and that you're doing sowell healthwise, and I'm sure it's going
to just keep getting better and betterand you'll get back to it soon.
I can't thank you enough for havingme on. I'm super excited to just
be a part of your show.I'm like flattered, beyond flattered. So
thank my pleasure. All Right,we'll be in touch, buddy, be
good, all right, all right. This episode of Bread for the People
(41:15):
was brought to you by Side HustleBread, Long Island's handcrafted, artisanal bread
company. Side Hustle Bread is afamily run business that's bringing the neighborhood field
back to Long Island, one loafat a time. If you like what
you're hearing, don't forget to headon over tie iTunes and rate and review
this episode. Reviewing and rating isthe most effective way to help us grow
our audience. This episode was producedby Milestone TV and Film. I'm your
(41:38):
host Jim Serpico. Less it bethe bread Everyone
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie is America's hardest working grassroots activist who has your inside scoop on the biggest news of the day and what's really going on behind the headlines. The founder of Turning Point USA and one of social media's most engaged personalities, Charlie is on the front lines of America’s culture war, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students on over 3,500 college and high school campuses across the country, bringing you your daily dose of clarity in a sea of chaos all from his signature no-holds-barred, unapologetically conservative, freedom-loving point of view. You can also watch Charlie Kirk on Salem News Channel