Machu Pizza

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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(01:27):
We'll see you in the next video.

(01:57):
We'll see you in the next video.

(02:57):
Okay, so I don't know how to explain this.
You don't know how to explain it without being gay?
I don't know how to introduce this because I don't watch this show, but remember today we were talking about the first thing in this morning.
So this Jojo Siwa chick, so she's been popping up in my reels lately because I guess everyone's making fun of her.

(03:19):
So I'm like, who is this girl? So I did like, I was just bored on Sunday and I was going through some stuff and she's this girl from Dance Moms and this show Dance Moms.
And I went on like this short little like binge watching of like Dance Moms clips and I had no idea how horrible, how horrible these mothers are.

(03:43):
And I'm watching this stuff and like these girls are seven, eight, nine years old being berated by 40 year old women.
Because they're trying to relive their youth through their kids and it's like, it's just weird.
I mean, I wish I knew the show well enough to take one of like the main ladies lines and just use them against you when you start crying about it.
It's weird. It's like these pretty, like these cute little girls, you know, these tiny dainty little dancing girls and then every single mom is like 400 pounds and yelling at their children.

(04:16):
It's insane. And they're like, don't eat that. You can't eat that. Like look at yourself.
It messed me up. So a couple of things have messed me up in my life. One, you ever seen Requiem for a Dream, that movie?
I still haven't seen it, but you told me about it. You should watch it. That movie messed me up for like four days after that.
And then you're saying the dance moms are going to mess you up? And then watching Dance Moms this weekend like really messed me up.

(04:39):
Like I can't believe it was, it's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. It's smut TV. That's what it is. It is smut TV.
It's what is it? Housewives, you know, the real housewives just... Pretty much. It's all that stuff. It's just exploitation of people and forget it, whatever.
The whole reason I brought that up was because I was trying to think of a catchy line that the main woman would say,

(05:03):
but I don't know the show well enough to throw at you while you're crying on the job. So I'll just go womp, womp.
Like your uncle? Exactly. So yes, we did get a new truck.
Got a new truck. Unfortunately, you guys don't know it's our new truck because there's no writing on it,
but we got a new truck and it's a very large new truck.
Yeah, we got duly and 11 foot high, which is... It's different. It's different. You can stock everything you want on the truck,

(05:32):
but for me and my tiny little legs to step up and down into that truck every day.
Well, we do need to weld you a little step on that thing.
You don't need to weld me. You just need to weld a step onto the truck.
It's a big difference. It's two feet longer, two feet taller than the other one. A duly. It's high off the ground.
It's a good buy, though. It's a nice truck. It's got a ramp. It's got everything.

(05:56):
I mean, listen, I'm hoping to get to the point where that thing is fully stocked, where you roll up to a job
and you don't have to leave for the supply house. I'm going to be honest, and this is what people don't really...
This is what blue collar guys don't realize. Somebody pointed this out to me. They go,
listen, you need to keep in your mind that every time one of your guys has to run to the supply house,

(06:18):
that's $250 out of your pocket. And 20 minutes here and there.
It's such a waste of time and money.
It is a waste of time, but we do have the luxury, I will say, of being close enough to all of our jobs.
We're close enough that it's not as bad as the average.
It could be worse, but it could be way better. And if we have a big truck like that that has everything you could possibly need on it...

(06:45):
And that's expensive, but you know what I always think of when I'm driving that truck now?
And how expensive everything is in the truck now that I'm getting more familiar with the numbers and all this stuff?
How expensive everything is? There was a time where me and you were driving and somebody had cut us off.
There was a bunch of teenagers in a car that had cut us off.
I remember this.
And they cut us off, slammed on the brakes in front of us at a red light, and they passed us in the right lane that wasn't a passenger.

(07:11):
They didn't even pass us in the right lane. We were coming up to a red light. They came around us on the right,
jumped in front of us right at the red light, and the kids slammed on his brakes like 10 feet before the line.
And I'm driving and you said, put it in park now.
He gets out of the car, you go to the side of the window where the driver is, you knock on the window.
This is all in the middle of the road, and you go roll down the window.

(07:34):
I hear it all of us.
And you go, I don't know what you're thinking.
I said it calm.
I said it nice, quiet, and calm.
I don't know what you're thinking, but what I have back there is worth infinitely more than what your daddy bought you this Honda Civic 4.
I said it nice and calm.
So next time you do that, think about it. There's something like that.

(07:56):
I was like, I said it really calm.
And listen, it's stupid to get out of the car to like for road rage.
Let's go on record saying that it's it's stupid and a waste of time to go on record.
But this, I was so angry when this happened.
So I had my hands in my pockets and I knock on the window and I'm like, and I said it and I say it like real quiet.
I was like, and I kept eye contact with the kid and I said exactly what you told me.

(08:20):
There were four like teenage boys in the car terrified.
Terrified.
Good.
I didn't even see you bro.
What do you mean you didn't see me?
You had to go on the shoulder to go around.
You didn't see me.
Yeah, that was bad.
But road rage is bad, especially if you're in a truck with your last name on it.
Don't do road rage.
Anyway, listen, folks, we've been cruising right along with some really cool guests this season.

(08:44):
The guests have been phenomenal.
I think we've had great guests.
I've been excited about every single one of them, including this one.
We have had a lot of people on.
I'm going to tell you right now the guy we have on tonight.
He's not a big pro wrestler like we've had on.
He doesn't own a huge diner chain like a guest we've had on.

(09:08):
But he's got good tequila.
He brought us good tequila.
Today we have Marcello from Grumpy's Pizza in Saddlebrook.
And before you say anything, I'm going to tell you guys right now.
And this is 100% the fact.
Marcello makes the best pizza in North Jersey.
Grumpy's makes the best pizza.

(09:30):
The best pizza in this entire area.
And I only found you a couple months ago.
But dude, I don't know what you guys do over there.
And we live in like 10 pizza places surrounding us, including...
No, I'm not going to say the name.
No, no, don't say the name.
No, I won't say the name.
It doesn't matter.
Listen, this is North Jersey.
There's pizza places galore.
You can get pizza anywhere around the corner.

(09:54):
He's around the corner from where I live, but he's not around the corner from where you live.
And you'll make the trek for his pizza.
I'll make the trek all the way down to Saddlebrook to Grumpy's Pizza just to have...
Just to get myself a personal garbage pie.
Yeah.
Bro, guys, welcome Marcello from Grumpy's Pizza.
Thanks for being here, man.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so pumped you're here.
I'm so happy because the first time I met this guy, he's standing there and he's looking at me.

(10:20):
He's like, he just says it like, listen, I have this podcast.
Like, is there anything that you would be interested in doing something like that?
And I've seen them like popping up.
Obviously, there's Joe Rogan, right?
Like the big, big guys.
We're about to beat Joe Rogan.
So I'm like, I don't know who this guy is.
I've never seen him before and he just throws it at them.

(10:42):
I'm just like, yeah, yeah.
You know, I'm sure we'll...
Order your pizza and be gone.
I'm like, all right.
Dude, it's so random, right?
And I'm just like, yeah.
And then I see him again and he says it again.
So I'm like, oh, he's not fucking around.
Yeah, excuse my punch.
It's already dropping the F-Map.
He's for real.
I had to get you on.

(11:04):
First of all, you guys have a really good phone report.
You guys have really good etiquette.
You're doing something like kind of unique over there,
even though it's just a pizza place.
There's something unique going on over there.
And it's funny because every time I go in there,
you're a very happy guy, but you named your place Grumpy's.
Grumpy's.

(11:25):
Grumpy's.
I wish I could tell you this like crazy story about it, right?
Like, but the reality of it is that when you open a business,
it just comes down to getting people to remember you.
Yeah.
Right?
And I found that Grumpy's was a name that kind of makes you

(11:47):
stand out a little bit.
Yeah.
A lot of people named their restaurants their first name,
the kids first name, their last name, right?
Like, I thought Marcelo's wouldn't be a bad name,
but I feel like we would kind of blend into the mix a little bit.
Grumpy's is you're right.
That is actually, it's a standout name.
You know, and there is a little story behind it.

(12:10):
One of my best friends, my buddy Tom,
that I grew up with since I moved to the country.
You know, he's done very well for himself.
He owns a tattoo shop, he owns a construction company.
You know, he's always like entrepreneur.
Yeah.
And he's always had this knack for like branding.
Right?

(12:31):
Like, yeah.
And one day we were just hanging out and I told him, you know,
dude, like, I've been wanting to get my own place going.
You know, he knows I've been in the restaurant industry for a long time.
He was a tattoo artist for a bunch of years before he had his own place.
I'm going to pull the mic this way a little bit.
Is it a little better?

(12:52):
Yeah.
So then when I mentioned that to him,
I had been like whining about something like earlier,
and I was just like in a bad mood, right?
And then we were talking about it and he's like,
oh yeah, what are you going to name your restaurant?
Grumpy's?
He just said it.
Really?
That's it?

(13:13):
Just like that.
He just said it.
Yeah.
Do you pay him royalties?
I wish.
I don't know.
None of that.
But he just said it and then actually didn't open the restaurant for like two years after.
Oh, wow.
After he mentioned it.
But it stuck.
And it was in my head.
It was in your head.
It was in my head for more than years.

(13:35):
That's exactly how you know branding.
To me, that was like no question.
This is what the name needs to be.
I even had a lot of my family like, why are you naming it that?
Like, that's so silly.
Why would you do that?
And I'm just like, look, I don't expect you guys to get it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like to live my life in a way that I don't really like to explain myself too much.

(13:57):
You know, I still like why do things because at the end of the day, it's my decision.
I'm the one that's going to have to face those consequences.
Yeah.
That's just part of life.
Well, listen, you guys plugged in.
You've been open.
I mean, a little over two years ago, almost two years, two and a half years at this point.
Two and a half years almost, yeah.
And I think you guys have like really caught on to some kind of niche over there.

(14:25):
So branding is very important to us.
Of course.
All right.
So when I took over, I mean, I talk about this on the show all the time, but you know what?
I'm going to talk about it again.
So when I took over branding was very important.
So I made sure that everything we put out is the same color scheme, the same like I have the logo on my truck.

(14:46):
When my uncle took over in 1994, he I was like 12 years old.
He asked me to draw the logo.
So I drew that logo when I was a kid.
The one right there?
Yeah.
No, not this.
This is this is one of our suppliers, but the one at the bottom of the sign.
You do that right there.
Yeah.
When I was like 12 years old.
Yeah.
Every time everything is graphic design.

(15:09):
Right.
So he's doing it with pen and paper.
You got to grab people's attention.
You got to grab people's attention like, bro, anyone can open a pizza place named Salvatore's.
How many pizzas are sales?
You know what I mean?
Sales or the town you're in and pizza.
No, but it's it's not just it's not just his name, but it's again, like what you said, they're like they're doing something right over there.

(15:30):
First thing you do is you order when you order a pie because you call the girl on the
phone.
Always nice.
Not grumpy.
Not grumpy.
She's always asking you, you know, exactly how you want the pie made.
It's like that already puts you not.
I don't want to say at ease because that's you're just getting pizza, but it's nice.
It's nice because you I've ordered from pizza places where they're like doing you a favor.

(15:53):
Yeah.
I went to one where I ordered a pie and when I went to go pick it up, I complained about
whoever ordered the, you know, whoever took orders on the phone.
I'm like, why is, you know, what's up with that?
It's like, it's like they're helping you, but it's almost like, like, oh, they have to
be, you know, like you're taking time out of their day.
Yeah.
Like, oh, this job would be so good if people didn't call it.

(16:15):
Yeah.
It's like, okay.
I've been in the restaurant industry for a long time.
Like I told you guys, honestly, it amazes me how people act like that.
Like, dude, nobody, nobody made you have this job.
Yeah.
Right.
Like you're here because you applied.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I want to actually, so we talked a little bit off camera.

(16:38):
Yeah.
You said you did do some college or you graduated from college.
You were going for something totally different.
Yeah.
Um, would you, so I, I spent a lot of time in the restaurant business myself waiting
tables, bartending, all that stuff.
Yeah.
You told me you even had your own restaurant, right?
No.
I had my own pizza place.
It wasn't mine.
I, I, I managed it.

(16:59):
Okay.
And the owner was never there.
So it was, it was, I did, I had kind of free range.
It didn't do well.
And to be honest, since I worked there 15, 20 years ago, like 18 different people have
bought and sold it.
For some reason, the location is just, no, different.
They just keep changing it.
Different owners.

(17:20):
Yeah.
It's just the location may not be good or whatever, but would you suggest, because
we talk a lot about kids who leave high school instead of going right to college, work for
a landscaper for a couple summers or something like that.
But I always say people, I always, and I always hear people talking about everyone should
work in the restaurant or some kind of service business just for a little bit.

(17:41):
Just humbunous.
Yeah.
It humbles you.
Yeah.
It humbles you.
It gives you a sense of, it teaches you a lot.
It does.
Like I learned, I pull a lot of stuff that I learned from the restaurant business and
I bring it into this business.
That's totally different.
Yeah.
You know, how many years in restaurant business
were you in?
I mean, I wasn't in the restaurant industry when I lived in Peru.

(18:06):
When did you leave Peru?
When I was 12 years old.
Okay.
Well, that's good.
I don't mean anything.
You know, my family didn't really have anything to do with restaurants except from eating
them.
Yeah.
That's pretty much all we did.
And then my father started the family.
He has two brothers, three sisters.

(18:26):
Most of them had already came here before we did.
Okay.
And they all were working in the industry.
They were servers, bartenders.
You know.
Gotcha.
They were already in that.
My uncle, he worked for a pizzeria in Queens for a lot of years right after he came here.

(18:49):
So you guys came right to this area?
We came.
From Peru.
We lived in Queens where one of my father's sisters, she had a house.
We lived there for a couple of months.
Just while we had an apartment set up, but we moved right to Lenghers.
So I started sixth grade in Lenghers.
Okay.
So, you know, the 12 years that I lived in Peru and then the rest of my life I've been

(19:11):
in North Jersey.
Yeah.
So this is, I grew up in this life, you know.
Most of your life is here.
This is the melting pot right here, man.
It is.
This is the area.
It is.
But my family, they were, they were all in the restaurant industry.
I remember when we first got here, like my uncle, he had, he had already bought a bar.

(19:32):
He worked in a pizzeria for a lot of years when I was younger.
And then by the time we came here, he had already had, he had already gotten a bar in
Queens and, you know, I was bar back and over there a couple of times a week, you know,
just while we were living in Queens.
Dude, it teaches you so much.

(19:52):
I loved it.
I fell in love with it.
They threw a party for my grandmother's 70 something birthday.
And they put me and my little brother to buy a 10.
Oh, really?
How old were you?
12, 12 years old.
And we're literally, we're behind the bar.

(20:13):
Tendon drink.
That's immigrant family shots.
That's always immigrant families.
They love, like, yeah, he's fine.
Let him do it.
He's fine.
He'll be okay.
But that day literally shaped the rest of my life.
Really?
You can remember that.
I loved it.
I loved it.
Being behind the bar, you're getting people drinks.
People tipping you.
People are tipping you.

(20:34):
It's like, oh, here's the beer.
Here's the money.
I was like, wow, it's never been so easy.
I see.
He saw green from 12 on.
Dude, that's, listen, I grew, like I said, I worked in the restaurant business for a
long time and I stayed there longer than I should have.
But you just every day you're getting paid.
It's hard.
It's kind of like hard to leave and get used to something else.

(20:55):
We're used to buy it until you know how that is.
100%.
You leave with money in your pocket.
You leave with money in your pocket every day.
Every single day.
And a lot of money sometimes.
Like, you can do very well.
Yeah, there was, but I just, I can't imagine you.
I mean, how long, were you this, almost this size when you were 12 years old?
When I was 12, I was like 5, 11 and like 200 pounds.

(21:20):
Wow.
Every, I've known a couple Peruvian kids growing up.
They're all huge giants, bro.
They're huge, like ready to go to war.
Something in the air.
Because they're living in the mountains over there.
You know?
Did my, my grandfather, he's like six, two.
My, my mom's brother, he's like six, four.

(21:42):
Even taller than me.
And then my father's side of the family, they're not all so big.
Like, my dad's like five, nine, five, 10 on a good day.
You know?
Gotcha.
So it's like a blend of like, my mom's flat, his family's real tall and skinny.
And then my dad's family, like their side is like a little shorter.
Yeah.
A little stout.
Right, right, right.

(22:03):
So me and my little brother, but like, you know, like.
I gotta get myself a Peruvian woman so I can have big kids.
Yeah, yeah.
I had a Peruvian buddy in high school, I think like sophomore, junior year.
And he goes, I'll never forget this.
I was friends with him for months.
And then finally I was like, what's your nationality anyway?

(22:23):
He's like, oh, I'm Peruvian.
I was like, oh, okay.
And I was sitting on my desk and then like two minutes later I was like, where's Peruvia?
He goes, no, he's like, no, dude, it's Peruvia.
Best American Geographical Education System right now.
We don't know anything.
They teach you, oh, everything, right?
We don't know anything.
They teach you nothing.
They teach you nothing.
You know why?

(22:43):
And I heard this the other day because America's so huge.
Like that's when we don't pay attention to anything else.
You know, it's not a good thing.
But I mean, yeah, we got to learn the maps.
It's not right, man.
I mean, you know, like, no, it's not.
You should know where Peru is on the day of the hour.
America's the best.
Do they really?
They did.
Well, that's the other thing.

(23:03):
Everyone knows where America is because it's like with English, almost everybody in every
part of the world, English is like required in their schools.
Here you have the option you can speak Spanish, you can speak French, you can speak Italian.
You don't have to.
You don't need those things.
You don't have to.
Yeah.
Everyone, it's like it is the global language.
You know, you can go to Japan and they're going to speak English for you.

(23:24):
If you go to the tourist theaters, right?
If you've ever done any traveling, then you know, like, if you speak English, you can
go to any part of the world where there's tourism and those areas are English speaking.
Except Montreal.
They won't speak to you in English.
They all speak English, but they will not speak to you in English.
Because they're like French, right?

(23:45):
Yeah.
Frogs.
Yeah.
I've been to that side and you know, you find assholes everywhere you go.
But that's anywhere in the world.
You're going to find people that are asshole.
Yeah.
You know, like there's nice people in those areas that speak to you in English.
You can't just generalize.

(24:05):
So you had a little taste of the restaurant business when you were a kid.
You grew up, you graduated school, you said you went to college.
Did you work in the restaurant business while you were going to school?
I was bytending, yes.
Yeah.
I was bytending not like full time, just like three nights a week.
Okay.
I remember I had like...
For some spending money.
Yeah.
Wednesday nights, I did some Fridays, a Sunday here and there.

(24:29):
You know, it let you keep a couple of dollars, you know, because I was lucky that I had a
job so I can pay for my own thing, you know.
When my family came here, we didn't really have a lot, you know.
You kind of come here and just try to build up your life, right?
That's right.
That's why you're here.
Yeah.

(24:49):
And, you know, being able to make my own money was like a big thing for me.
Yeah.
You know.
Huge.
It's huge, really.
When you start working as a young person, absolutely.
Yeah.
And especially because like, you know, my mom and dad were never like, oh, here's money.
Exactly.
You know, like, you have nothing to worry about.
You know, like that I need a hundred bucks.
That's a rude awakening.

(25:10):
You want new shoes, you got to go buy the new shoes yourself.
Of course.
Of course.
You know, I was lucky that the reason why my family came here from South America was
because my mom, she's extremely intelligent, you know, and she was able to graduate in

(25:31):
Peru with a master's in biology.
Really?
Yes.
But at the time, remember, this is like 2002 in South America.
There's no higher education.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right?
So she wanted to continue her career and that meant coming here or Europe, you know, for

(25:53):
a PhD.
So she applied to NYU for the doctorates in biology and she was able to get in.
So that's why my family was able to come here.
Like, she got a student visa.
And we had the F2 visa, which is like you come accompanying a student.

(26:13):
Okay, I got you.
And then she was able to teach some classes while she was studying.
So she had a little money.
And that was how we justified, like being able to come to this country as a family.
Right.
No, not just her.
Yeah.
And then, yeah, from there, she kept studying, she finished.

(26:33):
And then she got like what you call a worker's visa.
Right.
Before they give you the residency, they give you a worker's visa so she can keep working.
They see, you know, that you're trying to settle your life in this country.
So then you have the opportunity to apply for residency.
Okay.
We got the residency and then after five years, we were able to apply for citizenship.

(26:57):
So now we're citizens of this country.
Wow.
Nice.
It was a whole journey.
It sounds like it.
Like, extremely grateful.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of people don't even bother doing that, you know?
You know, everybody takes a different path in life.
You know, you're never going to fully understand like all of the situations that another person

(27:18):
is in, but I'm grateful that we were able to do things the correct way.
You know, come here and now I can grow my life.
Yeah.
You know, my parents gave me that.
Yeah.
How many siblings do you have?
I have one younger brother.
Okay.
All right.
So you got, so you go to college, you said you were going to college for, what were you

(27:40):
going to college for?
I college.
And you got your degree?
I did.
At the same school your mother went to, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So a big part of me going to NYU is because I went to Bergen for two years.
Okay.
Obviously that was low cost.
While I was going to Bergen, I was working at this place called Bounce U.

(28:00):
I know what it is.
It's a kids' birthday place.
I like that they had a great set up where you can just like work part time.
The sister worked there.
And if you ever needed to take a week off, it's a great company.
And John Horowitz, she was a great boss, great people.
Yeah.
Him, his wife, they were extremely supportive.
Really?
They had, it's like they had like all these kids, right?

(28:21):
Because they were, they literally gave us a place where we can go, we can be friends,
right?
Like you work with all these kids there.
We're all like almost in the same situation.
Right.
Like we're all going to school, we're all working.
And it's like extremely friendly.
Yeah.
Right?
Like it's kind of like a requirement to work at.
Yeah, of course.
If you're going to work with kids, you know, you want to be, you want to be enjoyable.

(28:42):
Can't be work.
You can't be grumpy working at Bounce U.
It was such a good time working there too.
Like it really was.
So that was like, you know, a little bit of money there and then I was able to take my
credits from Bergen and transfer them to NYU.
And because my mom was still working for the school, I was able to just like, they set

(29:06):
it up like in a way where like they pay her my tuition.
Okay.
Right?
Like whatever my tuition was, it's $50,000.
They added that to her salary.
I see.
It's a setup.
I mean, I was, this is like, you know, so many years ago, I'm not exactly 100% sure if
that's even how it works though.
Right.

(29:27):
I mean, me and my brother were both able to take advantage of that and went to school
pretty much for free.
That's great.
Yeah.
I mean, lucky because that's a, that's a very expensive school.
Yeah.
I think they're up to like $90,000 now.
If you're not in like a, if you're not in like a special doctorate program or something

(29:47):
like that.
Yeah.
That's why I had to make sure I finished.
Right?
Like, yeah, I get that.
For my mom, like I could never do that.
She's worked so hard to get us to this place and I couldn't just give it up.
So you went, did you go to that, you went to that, not for your mom, you finished for
your mom, but were they disappointed kind of when you took the path that you took because

(30:10):
they were like, listen, we put you down this way.
Honestly, it was tough.
It was tough.
Like, you know, we talk about entrepreneur, being an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship
in South America and the type of mentality that you grew up with is kind of like you
go to school, you do good, you graduate and you work for somebody else.

(30:34):
Yeah.
That's what everyone's told that you should, that's what you should do.
That's what you do.
Yeah.
Right.
Like a school, I mean, I don't want to get like super crazy into it, but it doesn't
indoctrinate you a little bit into being a working bee.
Yeah.
Right.
Like, oh, we fully agree with that.
The system's kind of set up.
Yeah.
Don't worry about that.
Yeah.

(30:55):
The system's kind of set up to make sure that there can always be more employees.
Yeah.
It sure is.
Yeah.
That's, I mean, that's not one of the reasons that we kind of advocate against college,
but it is one of the reasons, you know.
It's true.
And not everyone's cut out to be an entrepreneur or own a small business or build a business.
It's, a lot of people can't handle that.

(31:17):
A lot of people, some, I don't want to necessarily call them worker bees, but a lot of people
excel when they find a niche that they're in.
They work for a company.
They're able to build that company.
That's fine.
But running a small business, being an entrepreneur, putting in hours and just dozens of hours
a week, working 80 hours a week, not everyone's cut out for it.

(31:41):
Not everyone's cut out to like meet failure head on constantly or constantly be worrying
when you're building and stuff.
You know, you told me your first year, I kind of want to get into the business.
That's the lead up to getting open in grumpies, but you told me the first year of grumpies
and I totally relate.
It's terrifying.
It is one of the worst things that I've ever had to go through.

(32:02):
It's scary.
It's soul crushing.
You put all these hours in and I'm talking, you say 80 hours, dude.
It's no joke.
Like 80, sometimes more than a hundred hours in one week.
And money and everything.
You put on all this time and nothing's coming back.

(32:24):
It's like, and you start questioning yourself.
Like what's wrong with me?
What am I not doing?
Because it's like you're already putting everything you have in.
It's almost like you have nothing left to give.
A hundred percent.
And it's still not happening.
It's still not happening.
And it's just like, how long can I go on like this?

(32:44):
And when we first opened, my wife and I, we were working together and then we got pregnant.
In the first year?
In the first year.
Oh man.
So that's like a cherry on top of it.
Another shit store lunch.
What a nice truck.
You know, obviously being pregnant is not easy on the body, right?

(33:05):
Of course.
The hormonal changes at first and then you literally kind of, in a human, is exhausted.
Right.
You're building a human inside of your body.
Make those pizzas so we can make money.
We literally have no idea what that is.
But I mean, I didn't, like once we got to a certain point, like I realized I wasn't

(33:28):
going to have to be able to have my wife there all day like we used to.
And we had to hire more people.
So it was just you two in the beginning?
Dude, in the beginning, she's answering the phones, watching the pies that are in the
oven.
I mean, the back putting saps together.
That's what it is though.
A delivery comes in.
I'm taking the delivery.

(33:49):
Oh man.
She's taking the rest of it by herself.
Yeah.
Orders are coming in.
I'm coming back.
I'm getting Adjida just listening to this.
Dude, that's crazy.
It was nuts.
But you're building something.
Yeah.
That's the thing.
Like for me, listen, I've had some of the worst days, the worst weeks, the worst months
of my life doing this.

(34:10):
But I would, at this point, I would never want to work for anybody.
No.
I couldn't.
I couldn't even think about going to make somebody else money at this point.
Yeah, for sure.
You know?
And you'll get there too.
Yeah.
You'll get to the point where you'll become a plumber.
Like, you know, we've been working together for seven years, six, seven years.

(34:30):
I love making you money.
You'll be surprised.
Sometimes you're working and he's just paying you all of his money.
Tell me I'm right.
It's true.
I heard a quote.
Someone said, you haven't lived until you're putting payroll on a credit card.
Yeah.
I mean, you're literally taking money at your own pocket to pay your own.
What about quarterly sales tax?
You're gonna put that on a credit card?

(34:51):
Listen, I'm not.
Listen, I understand there's a whole, it's a whole different, I don't own my own business.
It's a whole different animal to own your own business.
I don't want to be there yet.
There's gonna be a day where I'm gonna be, want to be there.
And that's why I love hearing these stories.
Love people and how difficult it is and it's actually, again, why we do it for younger

(35:12):
people to prep you for that stuff.
It's gonna suck what you said.
The first year, you're gonna, sometimes even longer, you're not gonna make money.
You're gonna be paying everything out of your own pocket.
It's gonna just drain you mentally, physically, everything.
But at the end of the day, you have a good business.

(35:33):
This is a good business.
And there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm gonna go back to putting quarterly sales tax on a credit card.
That hits home.
Some of the worst.
I'm like, you know, I went to school, I went to them by year, I did a major in psychology,
I kind of mined it in business.
And I'm like, why didn't my teachers teach me anything about quarterly sales tax?

(35:55):
Like honestly, going to school for business, it's like...
Yeah, don't even bother.
You can say it.
It's like, what did I even learn when I was up?
It's nuts.
I just learned that this tax season.
They don't teach you how to do your taxes.
You read some book in college.
Go in for business.

(36:17):
At NYU.
At NYU.
I didn't know you.
That's insane.
You know, maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I just don't remember.
But I was not prepared for any of this.
Like, sure, you were going to read some books about what's the best way to manage a $14,500
company by some dude that just writes books.
Yeah.

(36:37):
Great.
That is so wrong.
Yeah, like...
I honestly think that kids should be able to learn this in high school.
I think they should die in middle school.
Learn how to do your taxes.
Make it responsible.
Learn how to balance a checkbook.
Yeah.
Learn how to do your own taxes.
Learn how to...
We know Zell.

(36:58):
Exactly.
My daughter is never going to do homework.
What do you mean?
Because she's one year old.
Oh.
We're going to send it to school.
And I'm just going to have to look at the teachers and be like, look, I don't know what
kind of life you're living.
But my kid clocks out.
And she's home.
And she's home.

(37:18):
She's going to get a real education.
Daddy's going to have to teach her what life is really about.
Because, honestly...
You're just a day care.
That's what they are now.
You're just a day care.
You're not teaching anything.
I want...
What I want from my children, right, for the future is like to understand that, yes, going
to school is important, right?
Learn how to read.
Learn how to write.

(37:40):
Have friends.
Get into fights.
Live life.
Yeah.
But if you're going to sit there as a teacher and look at me in the eye and tell me that
my daughter learning how to calculate some algebraic equation about a bridge and...
Yeah.
...angles and that's going to decide what type of life she's going to live, whether she can

(38:03):
solve that problem or not.
I'm going to tell you exactly where you can shove it.
Yeah.
Nice.
True.
I saw this great meme.
This great meme that usually resurfaces around tax time.
It says, it's like this kid sitting at the desk at the school and the kid's like, can
you teach me how to like do my taxes?
And the teacher's like, no, but mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

(38:27):
It's like, what the...
Amazing.
It's cool that we're well-rounded like that.
But why are we not learning this stuff in school?
Why are we not learning how to grow a small garden?
Why are we not learning how to like, even like self-sustainment?
Why don't you keep some chickens, learn how to plant some vegetables?

(38:47):
Because they need worker bees.
You're totally right.
They need worker bees that don't know how to do anything on their own.
Now we're getting...
You know what?
I don't even care.
I'm gonna get deep.
Burn it down.
That's why I'm here.
They need worker bees, dude.
That's the whole problem.
There was a shift.
Now I was born in 81.
Okay.
But I did a...

(39:08):
Yeah, I am.
Get that gray beard.
Get that gray beard here.
His name...
You speak softly, but I heard that.
You know what I call him?
At work?
Grumpies.
And then we ended up going to grumpies for lunch.
Yeah, no, I was born in 1981, obviously I don't know the education system, but I've read some

(39:30):
things about a lot of laws that changed right around the late 70s, early 80s, and the whole
Department of Education.
I believe that's when the Department of Education was created.
The second the Department of Education was created, the federal...
Just nothing has improved in education since the early 80s.

(39:51):
Nothing.
The teachers are actually coming out and saying, I've been teaching for 30, 40 years, we're
getting...
The curriculum is getting worse.
The kids are getting dumber.
They can't read anymore.
They can't do math anymore.
And they don't even know basic...
Like basic to take care of themselves.
You need basic math.
You need basic English.

(40:13):
It's just crucial to be able to do these things in life.
Teach the kids how to read a lease.
A lease agreement.
Teach the kids how to read...
That's another thing.
They don't teach you anything.
Nothing.
There's also a big cultural shift, I think, that goes with that.
There's a lot of younger kids that are very...

(40:33):
I've seen a lot of stuff absolutely disrespectful to authority and the elders.
There has been a shift in the way parents have been raising their children.
There's a cultural shift where kids...
Everybody's a special snowflake.
Everybody's a snowflake.
Everybody's exactly...
Exactly.
We don't do that here.
We don't do that here at all.

(40:55):
That just comes down to how your parent's parent...
You've got to be able to understand what you're capable of, what you're responsible for as
a man, as a person.
If those other parents out there want to raise their kids like that, that's fine.
I'm not wasting any time worrying too much about that.

(41:19):
You're allowed to have your opinions.
Those opinions are welcome on this show.
That's fine.
People can do things the way they want to do things.
I'm not here to press anybody down, but my kid's not going to be like that.
I'm just going to do what I can for my family.
They see the reality of it because they're all this crew.

(41:40):
It's tough.
It sucks.
Some days are just horrible.
You just got to be able to have the boss to get up and do it all over again.
You learn from a very young age.
It's not how many times you fall, it's how you get up.
Special little snowflakes are going to have a tough time trying to run their own business.

(42:00):
Have a tough time.
First time somebody writes a bad review, they're going to...
We got to close down.
Nobody liked my garden.
Don't even get me started about the reviews.
Oh my God.
How do you guys even get bad reviews?
You've had...
There's a lot of bad reviews that you don't see on our page because I like to handle it

(42:21):
right away.
If somebody leaves us a one-star review, I like reaching back out to them right away.
That's the way to do it.
Because obviously somebody's upset.
Something happened.
Let's fix this.
Yeah.
Especially if they're just saying what happened.
Not everybody is willing to work with you.

(42:42):
But there is a couple of reviews, I'm going to see that out just to be responsive.
Because they were being so disrespectful.
So insulting that that type of people, I can't even waste my time with.
You know, when you...
I've had some bad reviews on my Google page.
When you go to those people's history, that's all those people do.

(43:06):
All one-stars.
Yeah.
They just...
Every single one of them.
You're not kidding.
They just want to make the world and treat people like shit.
So they're not even worth it.
Yeah.
Google reviews is just a place where they can complain.
Exactly.
Where people vent.
It's like everybody needs a venting place.
And a lot of people's places help Google.

(43:26):
I mean, I think most consumers are aware of that.
That there's really crappy people out there that just use it as a platform to complain.
And you don't know what they're dealing with at home.
Right.
So you can't take it so personally.
You can't take it personal.
I tell my wife this all the time.
The five-star reviews are great.

(43:49):
Right?
Like, but at the end of the day, it's those negative reviews that have really allowed
us to build our business to wear it.
Yeah.
Because if somebody's complaining about something that you're doing, you know, maybe you need
to take a step back and look at it objectively.
Like, could I be doing something better?
Yeah.
You know?

(44:09):
That's an entrepreneur mentality.
That is an entrepreneur mentality because a lot of people have a tough time taking criticism.
But if you can take criticism and use it to your benefit, I mean, that's huge.
The improvement that you can make.
Of course.
I mean, and you guys see grumpy's now like two years in, you know, we've gotten there
because this is not how we started.

(44:30):
I promise you this.
When we first started, the pizza was no better than your regular Joe Schmo pizza I swear to
God.
Really?
Like, look, it was a good pizza, you know what I mean?
But it's not what it is today.
Well, you made improvements.
Of course.
You started working, you made improvements.
You have to.
I mean, I kind of thought that you kind of went into these like, I have secret pizza

(44:52):
recipes and I'm going to blow the world's mind.
This is the secret.
Don't stop growing.
Don't stop becoming better.
Don't stop learning.
Yeah.
Don't stop learning.
Edit yourself.
And this is a big thing for other restaurants out there.
Like I've worked for a lot of restaurants.
A lot of time people are scared to change something because it's already set.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, everybody make money like this.

(45:12):
Our customers already like it like this.
Change it up.
Don't do that.
If you know that it could be done better, make it better.
Make it better.
Don't be a skit.
Right?
Because you want to know the difference between the guy that just stays where he's at.

(45:34):
Like he's just there and he's going to die like that.
Yeah.
Like the people that really are able to take off become right because that's why we get
into business.
Right?
You don't want to get into business to just do okay.
Right.
Right.
We're all in this pursuit of happiness.
Yeah.
We're all in this.
You want to build your empire.
You want to make money.

(45:55):
Yeah.
Exactly.
You want to make money.
There's no beating around the bush about it.
That's what we're here for.
You get into business because you want to make money.
If you're not in business and you're thinking about getting into business, the reality of
it is that if you are not a business owner, you're going to have a very difficult time
not trading your hours for money.

(46:17):
Yeah.
That's true.
Yeah.
Like, and it's not true for everything.
Like there's a lot of sales drops where the more you sell, the more money you make.
Yeah.
So you're not necessarily trading your time for money.
Yeah.
No, you're right.
It's not all across the board.
But if you're just, you know, you put 10 hours in and you get this much, right?

(46:42):
And then maybe you get a raise, but you're like kind of limited.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're capped.
Yeah.
You're kind of capped.
I mean, unless you have other side hustles, which is great.
Yeah.
I think everybody should be doing some type of side hustle if you have the time for it.
I don't have a lot of time.
I wouldn't imagine so.
My side hustle is spending time with my baby.
Right.

(47:03):
You know, like in front of my family.
And that's my side hustle.
Yeah.
Right now.
Okay.
Excuse me.
But at the end of the day, you're just kind of limiting yourself for a paycheck, right?
Like the hours that you work versus how much you get paid and you could always climb,
right?
Obviously you see it like people climb from one job to the next.

(47:24):
They're offering more money for your hours.
But at the end of the day, it's just money against your hours.
And if you don't show up, you don't get paid.
You don't get paid.
Yeah.
Right?
Being an entrepreneur, like the reality over this, like, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to trade X amount of hours for X amount of pay.
Like for me, it's like, the sky's the limit.

(47:47):
Yeah.
Right?
Like nobody says that you can't have 5,000 pieces of deals.
There's no law that says that you can't.
Right?
Pop John's.
Think about it.
Right?
Like it's kind of scary because nobody tells you that.
Nobody tells you that you're not allowed to do this.

(48:09):
But also nobody tells you like, listen, you can have 5,000.
You can have 10,000 trucks.
There's more than 10,000 trucks out there right now.
Why can't you match it?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Sky's literally the limit when you're an entrepreneur.
When you're running your own thing, I want to present.
You're literally only limited by your own imagination or your own perception of yourself

(48:30):
and how far you can go.
That's going to make a great reel.
Scary.
I'm going to short on YouTube.
That's scary.
I'm going to pump that out like 30 times next week.
Love it.
Love it.
I mean, honestly, that's just what being an entrepreneur is.
And we said before, not everybody has that in them and it's okay.
That's okay.
It is.

(48:51):
It's okay.
It is what it is.
But aside from what I just said, there is the fact that you can put in 100 hours a week,
lose money.
Yeah.
Lose money.
You can lose money.
You can put all this time in and you just lost money.
It's not.
It's scary.
It happened to be at the casino last week.

(49:12):
It's one of the worst things you can do honestly.
You put in 100 hours at the casino last week.
It makes you want to beg for a paycheck.
It makes you want to beg for a paycheck.
I've been there, dude.
Trust me.
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I wish I could work 100 hours for somebody else.
I would be making 2000 a week.
I've been there.
I've literally come home and I've said, I can't do this anymore.

(49:35):
I can't do this.
I sit down and once I start thinking about my other options, they always involve working
for something else and that's where it stops.
And I said, you know what?
I can't do that.
I just can't do that.
And we've been doing this podcast for about a year.
I'm not making money off this.
It takes me 30 hours a week to do this thing.

(49:57):
30 extra hours a week to do this thing.
But this is like, this is your side hustle.
This is my side hustle.
You could monetize this eventually.
Another thing that I piggyback off.
This guy.
He just shows up.
He just shows up.
He doesn't even take a shower before.
Nope.
But that's what it is.
I mean, I sit there, you know, I don't want to go off a tangent right now.

(50:21):
But so when I took this company over, my uncle, listen, my uncle, he got hit hard in 2008.
2008.
That was the big balloon, right?
Like the great recession.
To be honest, I don't think he's he mentally ever recovered from that.
So when I took over investments and stuff, I had a lot of properties.

(50:42):
He had a lot of, he had a lot of homes that he owned and rented out and he lost pretty
much everything because when that hit tenants just said, I can't pay you.
I just can't pay you.
So what is he's going to do?
What are you going to do?
Beat them down for money?
So and everyone got hit.
Everyone got hit in 2008.
So when I took it over several years later, I just don't think he mentally recovered.

(51:03):
He had five trucks on the road.
He was down to his own.
He was just him.
He had to fire everyone else.
It was just him riding around.
Well, going from having, you know what it is to have a crew now.
I know what it is to have a crew.
Right.
Going from a nice crew that you trust.
That's so crushing dude.
Dude, 100%.
So like that'll destroy somebody.

(51:23):
We talk about COVID.
Like everyone's every, you know, now that now that COVID's pretty much done or whatever,
everyone's like, oh, you know, all these small businesses, they're complaining.
If they weren't able to make it through COVID, then they weren't doing something right.
It's like, are you kidding?
Are you joking?
I read a ton of comments on Instagram like that.
It enrages me.
I think that's ever said anything like that.

(51:45):
You've never had your own business and you probably never will.
You have no idea.
You don't deserve to have your own business.
You shouldn't even open your mouth.
You can't open your mouth.
You know, that's your business.
You were looking at the gray camera for that, right?
Yeah.
Good.
Because we're going to pump that out as a real two.
I hear that a lot.
A lot of ignorant people.
Ignorance.
That's what it is.
When you go through something like that, it's hard to recover.

(52:08):
When I came on, we didn't have a website.
We didn't have any social media, so I took this and ran.
I decided I was like, listen, we have a logo that is so big on the truck that you can
see it from down the highway.
Let's build off of that.
So I picked the color scheme.
Everything complements that color scheme.

(52:30):
Everything complements the overall shape.
Everything complements the general vibe of that.
And I also pull my grandfather who started it in 1961 into the branding.
So branding.
You find the old man in there.
Even the shirts we wear now.
Nothing like a little history behind your brand.
100%.
I fully believe that.

(52:50):
My grandfather used to run, used to ride around in blue button down, long sleeve button
down shirts.
That's what we wear.
To honor him.
You made it a uniform.
Yeah.
We made it a uniform.
You made his look a uniform.
100%.
That's amazing.
I love that.
I love that.
And I think it's a good thing that you're wearing a uniform with this whole plumbum
sting.

(53:11):
The colors in the plumbum logo.
When I do the background of everything, I make sure it's all colors from that.
The text is right.
The text is the same.
So brand.
I didn't go to school for this.
I picked this up as you go.
No.
I mean, honestly, it's so cool because I don't think like that.
No, he's artsy.
You bring.
Think like this.
I'm more fartsy than artsy.
It's definitely.

(53:32):
I don't think like that.
I don't.
I don't think that's special.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I'm just trying to figure out what makes sense, you know, because listen,
I want to build my empire.
You want to build your empire.
Yeah.
Eventually you're going to build your empire.
You will.
You will.
I could see it in him.
He's got that eye.
Napoleon.
I got that Napoleon.
Do me a favor.
Look at the camera.

(53:53):
Just go like, yeah, exactly.
I will conquer Egypt.
That's going to be the thumbnail for the video.
But there's a huge, for me, like.
When I was growing up, I never wanted to be a plumber.
Here I am doing it.
And, you know, the whole branding thing is very important to me.
And I think it should be important to every entrepreneur because it's huge.

(54:13):
Your social media presence.
I mean, I follow it.
Do I follow you guys?
I don't think I actually follow you, but you just still show up in my feed.
I need to officially follow you guys.
I just say if you follow it as you would do that every day because it just makes you so
hungry.
You just look at the food and you're like, that looks so good.
I always ask him on the way home from like.
On the way home from class, I always ask him.
I go, what are you doing?

(54:34):
You want to go get some tea?
He goes, nope.
I already ordered grumpy garbage pie.
It's over.
I'm on my way.
They made me a crispy crust with garlic sauce.
That's what you want, right?
You want to eat.
Yeah.
Dude, when I worked at that pizza place, when I was running that pizza place, I put on
like 80 pounds.
You know, he said to me one time, he comes in, he's like, yeah, I used to have this piece

(54:55):
of ria, I used to run this place.
He's like, it wasn't as good as this.
I'm like, this guy's no joke.
He's really telling me like, you know, right?
I'm like, I'm here.
I like this food.
Like it's better than what I used to make.
Oh, 1000%.
Yeah.
No question.
No question.
I'm not a chef.
I'm not a cook.
I don't understand food.
I served it for a long time.

(55:16):
I serve drinks.
I get that part.
Yeah.
But I'm not good in the kitchen.
My mom, my mom taught us.
Yeah, I'm not.
I'm not.
You don't trust him with the grill?
No.
It's like, get out of here, man.
Go have a beer.
I think grill a good burger because I know when to flip it.
OK.
OK.
You just do the one flip?
Just the one flip.
They tell you.
Yeah.

(55:37):
You know that meme where Tony's a parameter and I was like, how do you want your burger
cooked?
And he's like, I know damn well that I'm cooking all these the same.
It doesn't matter how you order it.
They're all coming on medium.
I don't ask people how they want to cook.
But you know, that's not my aspect.
But I don't know what we're talking about.
What are we talking about just now?

(55:57):
You had your own pizza place?
Oh, and I put on 80 pounds.
Yeah, this is why I can't follow your social media because I'll be there all the time.
Just packing on.
No, it's not.
I got to buy a whole new wardrobe then.
I lost 80 pounds 20 years ago and we got to put it back on.
Good.
I mean, you must have been a really big guy, 80 pounds.
That's a lot.
Bro, I found a picture recently.

(56:18):
You know what?
I was so pissed at my mom.
Mom, I know you watch this.
So she was looking through old pictures and she's like, oh, I'm going to do a photo dump
of my children back in the day and she put one up of me at that time.
At that time in my life, it was a hard time in my life.
How old was it?
Oh, 21.
So I put on that weight.

(56:40):
And then a year later, I took it all off.
I hit the gym hard.
But my mom was like, oh, I want to, my children, let me show pictures of my children.
My mom put that up.
I was like, mom, can you please take that down?
I want everybody to forget.
I don't want anyone to see that every day.
That period of humiliating.
But yeah, this is why I can't work in the food industry.

(57:01):
Your mom's going to love you with your 500 pounds.
Oh, that's fine.
I need other people to love me, though.
Yeah, that's true.
I want other people to love me, too.
Yeah, man.
Yeah, I've been through it.
I gained a ton of weight through college and then I was able to drop it.
Yeah.
I mean, obviously, you know, I like the.

(57:21):
Listen, I would never trust a skinny chef.
No, don't trust a skinny chef.
I'm telling you, you don't think so?
Yes, it's the reality of it.
Don't trust a skinny chef because they just don't eat their food.
They don't.
They don't.
If you're a chef, it's good.
You never heard that quote?
I've heard that.
I've heard that.
But the only reason why I didn't necessarily agree with it is because I get the whole

(57:43):
fat, like fat chefs.
Yes, they love food.
They're making great food and everything like that.
But I also figured in my head that like a skinny chef, he appreciates certain, you know,
like certain aspects of the way he makes.
No.
All right.
I tell you this, like if you see a chef that's really fit, they're probably eating a lot.
They're packing up calories and working them off.
But if you see a guy that's just kind of like looks like he doesn't really like food so

(58:06):
much, the reality of this trade of the industry that I'm in is that.
It's a big boy trade.
That's what it is.
There's just as many guys that love it.
There's just as many guys that this is just kind of like the only thing that they know
how to do.
You know, and you're right.
And not everybody is as passionate about the trade.

(58:28):
Right.
Like I'm sure you've worked with some plumbers.
They don't love fixing pipes.
They don't trust a serious plumber that loves it.
But I'm sure there's a ton of guys out there that are like, I love this.
I love this.
I like to show up and I like to fix shit.
We got a plumber that rents the other side of our garage.
He is never in a bad mood.

(58:50):
Never.
That's who you are.
You get out of it.
Fix toilets.
It pumps you up.
You can talk about other people.
Yeah.
But you see it, right?
In your trade, those guys that love it, those guys that don't, they both do the job.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, exactly.
In my trade, the difference is that, you know, those guys are tight in those boats

(59:10):
with the same tool.
Right.
And with us, like, it's just like a little bit different because honestly, like as weird
as this sounds, when you're cooking, your own palate influences the food significantly.
Yes.
Right?
Like, and a lot of times, you know, not everybody's born with the same type of palate.

(59:30):
Yeah.
Right?
Some people have better flavor profiles.
I got friends who are so uncultured.
It's ridiculous.
They can't eat any different types of food.
You give them any types of food.
It's like, I'm like, this place is amazing.
This place is amazing.
And I had to go try it.
Do they have chicken fingers?
Exactly.
And they like to have chicken fingers.

(59:51):
It's okay.
Right?
That's why we have it on the menu too.
Yes.
People like chicken fingers.
Yeah.
People like chicken fingers.
Come on.
Chicken tendies, bro.
I like a nice tendy.
Let's do this.
We've been talking a long time.
Yeah.
Guys, we're going to take a quick break.
We're here with Marcelo from Grumpy's Pizza in Saddlebrook, New Jersey.
We're going to talk some more about, we're going to get into your social media.

(01:00:14):
Right.
And then we'll talk more about your branding.
A little back end stuff.
Yeah.
And then like what your plans for the future are.
Yeah, man.
But guys, thanks for listening.
We'll be right back.
Call courts plumbing and heating for top rated service in Bergen County, New Jersey.

(01:00:37):
And don't forget to keep treats for Frankie on hand.
This is seriously one of the best pizzas I've ever had.
When I say it's hands down one of the best pizzas you'll ever taste, I mean it.

(01:00:58):
I have ordered from here many, many times and their food is always top notch.
Everything on the menu, even sandwiches are just so tasty.
I travel from New York City to come get grumpy.
If you enjoy pizza, this is a must try place.
Once this pizza hits your taste buds, you realize that it all works perfectly together.
And that's what makes it unique as a Grumpy's Pizza.

(01:01:20):
Do you need to fix your microphone before we record?
No.
You said it keeps falling.
No, I found a spot for it.

(01:01:41):
It's okay for it.
Frankie, you want to sit on my lap for a second?
Come here.
Come here, you wanted to come up here before.
We're going to name her Frank from Men in Black.
We're going to name her Grumpy.
You got to get a dog like that and name her Grumpy.
Never.
You don't want to have two dogs.
That's Miley.
Miley's a pitnick.
And now I'm naming her Bob Miley.
No, I'm naming her Bob Miley.

(01:02:04):
Alright folks, welcome back to Plumb Bumps Podcast.
Thanks for watching.
We really appreciate it.
We want to remind you that we are sponsored by Quartz Plumbing and Heating, top rated
plumbing company in Bergen County for over almost 60 years now, 1961.
We can say that because we are Quartz Plumbing and there's no one more awesome than Quartz

(01:02:29):
Plumbing.
But in addition to being sponsored by Quartz Plumbing, we are also sponsored by Promo
Bros, promobros.net.
Promo Bros will make you all your promotional merchandise for all your promotional merchandise
needs.
If you have a wedding, if you have a company event, or just something personal you want
to make for yourself or just a small group of people to have something personalized,

(01:02:50):
they make all types of different merchandise for you.
So check them out, promobros.net.
Tell them Quartz Plumbing sent you and they'll hook you up with a discount.
But folks, we are here with Marcelo from Grumpy's Pizza in Saddlebrook, New Jersey,
the greatest pizza place in North Jersey, hands down.
Tell us your secret recipe.
I can't even wait anymore.

(01:03:11):
He's been waiting for that.
Secret recipe now.
I'm plankton and SpongeBob.
What is it?
What is the Krabby Patty formula?
You know what?
I actually don't want to know because I don't want the magic to end.
Honestly, what do you want to know?
The recipe for the dough?
The sauce?
The cheese?

(01:03:32):
You know, you go to some places where the sauce is very acidic and it gives you heartburn.
I'm not an old man, but I can't eat pasta and meatballs in certain places because it
just gives me indigestion.
Because of the heat today?
It hurts.
And I'm like, what's going on here?
I'm going to fluff your ass right now.
Because I love pasta and bread and marinara, I was raised on pasta and marinara sauce.

(01:03:58):
Your crust is perfect.
The sauce is delicious.
I'm going to tell you right now.
Who would have thought that I'd have to go to Peruvian to get the best pizza?
I've been to Italy.
I went to Napoli to get pizza.
Hated it.
I'm coming to Grumpy's for the pizza.
He was plugging Grumpy's over there in Italy.

(01:04:19):
Bro, my pie, my go-to pie for you guys is the garbage pie.
The garbage pie.
Hands down, the garbage pie.
It's a banging combination.
If you guys ever hit up Grumpy's and Southerbrook, you've got to get the garbage pie.
It's delicious.
Do you have a preference over there?
I love his plane.
My mother loves your grandma?
The grandma pie?
The red or the drunk grandma?

(01:04:41):
The red.
She's obsessed with the red grandma pie.
I love the plane.
I think there's nothing.
You don't need to do anything to that.
If you can make a good pie, it's so simple and perfect.
I don't even want to deviate from it.
He keeps raving about the garbage pie.
I'm sure I'll eat it one day, but the plane pie is the go-to.

(01:05:04):
And your chicken club sandwiches.
Do you like the saps?
The chicken club sandwiches.
I haven't had a saps for a while yet.
Me and my brother?
We make our own bread.
Yeah.
All right, I got it.
You make your own bread?
You make your own bread?
You make your own bread, yeah.
That's why I'm telling you, bro, the sandwich, the key to a sandwich is good bread.
It's good bread.

(01:05:24):
You need it.
Okay, I don't care about calling out this company.
Jersey Mike's, all these chain sub places, they're like, we get the best ingredients,
but their bread is garbage.
You know, like when it comes down to eating carbohydrates like that, it's delicious.
I mean, Jersey Mike's have had it.
I'm not going to say it's a bad sub.

(01:05:45):
But if you eat something and then you feel like there's a bag of bricks in your stomach,
you're eating the wrong food.
You should not feel like that.
Food is not supposed to make you feel like that.
Unfortunately, a lot of places, maybe they don't know any better.

(01:06:06):
Maybe they just don't care.
Maybe they do care.
They just, you know, they don't know another option.
Maybe they just, I've worked for a lot of chefs, a lot of different restaurants where
the people that don't really eat their own food, believe it or not, that is crazy.
That is crazy.
Like how crazy is it that you can have your own restaurant and you don't eat your own

(01:06:28):
food?
I've worked with chefs that don't taste their own food.
Didn't your parents hire another plumber though one time?
No.
No, the second I got into plumbing, they're like, all right, that box is covered.
We're not paying another damn thing in our life.
So tell me about the transition from you graduating college in psychology with a minor

(01:06:52):
in business.
How did you go from that to pizza, to food, just food in general?
What was the journey like that?
So we talked about how my family was in the industry.
To be honest with you, while I worked in the industry, I never had anything to do with

(01:07:13):
the kitchen.
Okay.
Right?
Like all of the jobs that I had were not in the kitchen.
Like I wasn't prepping, I wasn't cooking until like just a few years ago.
The true love of food is for my grandmother.
She's actually, she lives in Florida.
She's actually staying with us at home right now, which is amazing.

(01:07:35):
I love having this woman now.
She showed her love for her family through food.
Yeah.
I get that.
In Peru, she didn't work.
She was always stay at home, mom.
She had sick kids.
She took in, like God knows how many other cousins, friends, right?

(01:07:59):
Like I was born into like a full house.
Yeah.
Right?
Like God's madness.
There's always a ton of people in the house.
I'm so used to that.
And my grandmother, this is my father's mom, Nelly, she was just like a matriarch.
She lost her husband when she was young.

(01:08:20):
My father's father passed away.
And she just kind of like took it upon herself to like, you know, oversee this family and
make sure that everybody's successful and everybody's hardworking.
And she made sure that everybody was like extremely well fed.
And growing up like that, it's just, you know, we just always had this love of food.

(01:08:47):
We knew what good food was.
Yeah.
Right?
Like because we're eating it at home.
Like so lucky, so grateful.
Honestly, I don't think my life would be anything like this if it wasn't for my grandmother
putting that on me.
You know, she just said like, this is how you eat.

(01:09:07):
This is what you eat.
Yeah.
You know, growing up, staying at her house in the summers, like, you know, we would leave
the house, go to the market, buy the food for the day fresh.
Yeah.
Come home, cook it, take your time.
You make it a thing.
Like, it's not like, oh, I have five minutes.
What do I eat?
You know, like I need some sustenance.

(01:09:28):
Like, no, life was very different.
You know, it's just kind of like, there was nothing like you would make this whole meal.
And then everybody sits down and it's bomb.
And everybody eats and everybody's laughing and having a good time.
But why pizza?
Why not like a Peruvian restaurant?
That's my wife.
Oh, really?

(01:09:49):
Yeah.
But I hated pizza.
What she decided, yeah?
Did you really?
I didn't hate pizza.
Cause no one actually hates pizza.
In my life, right?
Like, in my family, going out to eat was going out to eat to a Peruvian place.
Right.
That's what we did.
Pizza was just like that guy in the corner, he says pizza.

(01:10:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, we lived in this little apartment in Linghez.
There was a pizza next door.
And that's the only pizza that we ever ate.
I didn't even know that pizza was like different.
Right?
Because like, you were the Chinese, right?
And you kind of expect like the same flavors.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No matter really where you go.
And then like, if you're going out to like a fancy place, obviously it might be a little

(01:10:35):
different, right?
Yeah.
Like you can't get general selling like a fancy Chinese place.
But I didn't know that about pizza.
I guess like I was a little close minded.
Okay.
Like nobody really exposed me to it, you know?
And then I was working at this restaurant.
That was like one of my last jobs that I had before I opened the business.

(01:10:57):
And I was working there and my wife and she's like all about the pizza.
She really?
She loved pizza.
She just loved eating pizza.
So you know, when we first started dating, like, you know, we'd be at home hanging out
and I'd be like, oh, let's order a pie.
Right?
And she'd be like, oh, this is good.
This is okay.
But the place that I was working at, they had a wood fired oven.

(01:11:21):
And I didn't have anything to do with the pizza side of this.
Oh, wow.
Just waking in the kitchen, right?
And they had this wood fired oven.
And at the time, honestly, I didn't even appreciate how beautiful this oven was.
Yeah.
Honestly, like looking back at it now, like two years after working in that of my own
place, like that oven shaped how we cook things at Grand Prix.

(01:11:47):
Okay.
Right?
Because like, yeah, like if you ever walked in, have you ever walked into like a dominoes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that says like, oh, 450 degrees is what the temperature that's needed.
Yeah.
The cookie pie seems high, right?
450.
We cook at like 625.
Yeah, that's what I used to cook pizza at.
600, 625.
Yeah.

(01:12:07):
It just laps like a, like the heat creates the smile reaction.
Okay.
Right?
And your crust.
And that's why you see like those little char spots on your dough.
See like the char, it's not about burning through.
Right.
Like if you bite into a pie and that piece is burnt through, it sucks.

(01:12:29):
Yeah.
Tastes like burnt toast.
Yeah.
But if you got a nice little char, it should just be on the very outside of the dough.
I'm getting turned on right now.
I won't let you know that.
I'm just going to let you know that.
Yeah.
Of course.
Like it's, food should be sexy.
Yeah.
100%.

(01:12:50):
Food should be sexy.
But like that does, I mean, many different people have many different reactions.
This guy likes to, you know, like he's getting no pumped up about it.
I haven't seen one pie eaten here.
They're just all.
But yeah, food should be sexy.
It should be something they got excited about.

(01:13:11):
You know, like it's a big part of all of our lives.
Like you literally cannot leave.
Food brings people together.
That's what I always noticed because my family is also, I've a foreigner for a father.
And food, I'm not going to say.
It does.
It brings people together.
He goes, it doesn't matter.

(01:13:32):
And he's a big fat guy too.
And he's just like, food brings people together like nothing else.
And even when he goes, you, this is the unique thing about food.
You could be eating food.
Yeah.
And when you're eating good food, you're always talking about other types of food that
you had that's good.
It's always just like this.
There's this whole thing around food that brings everybody together.
Yeah.

(01:13:53):
I mean, they say like there's different theories about how humans evolved to be what we are
today, but a big part of it was being able to cook over fire.
Yeah.
Right.
Like it literally evolved us.
Yeah.
You know, what other species out there on the planet just that literally cooks their
food like you've ever seen a lion take down a gazelle and then like start cleaning it,

(01:14:15):
throw it over a rose.
Right.
Like, no.
Like, the roses were in trouble.
They were in big trouble then.
So, so your wife chose pizza why?
Yeah.
Why she just, because she loved it?
She just, she just loved it.
And you were like, I'm going to make you the best pizza you've ever had.
I was more like, let me learn how to make a pizza to impress this guy.
Okay.

(01:14:36):
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, you need a girl to try to, you want to look good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And yeah, at first I just learned to work with the dough that they were already doing
at this place.
I like, you'll be surprised, dude.
It's not that easy.
Like at the beginning you have these hands, it feels like you have two left thumbs.
So, I was stretching those ripping it.

(01:14:58):
I'm like, making the pie, putting it in the oven, rips in the oven.
Oh my God.
Do you put your pies on screens or right on the oven base?
So in the beginning, we're putting them right into the peel.
Okay.
Like on the peel right into the oven.
And then like you see my place is very tiny.
So as we got busier, we had to adapt.

(01:15:21):
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
The screens came out of speed and excessive.
Gotcha.
You know, because if you know what it is to stretch a pie and build it on a peel, right?
Like there's different ways to do it.
For those who don't know the peel is the big wooden shovel.
The big wooden dome thing, you stretch your dough, you put it on the peel, throw a little

(01:15:43):
flour on the bottom, you put it in the peel, you put the sauce, cheese, and then with the
peel you launch it into the oven.
Yeah.
Right?
Now our oven is so small.
Like, I don't know what oven you were working with when you had your place.
So we have...
I got to pay attention to what you have over there next time I go.
So we have just two decks.

(01:16:04):
Right?
Okay.
Two decks.
But these decks, they're not six pie ovens.
Yeah.
They're four pie ovens.
Oh wow.
Right?
Yeah, that is tiny.
Yeah.
So the busy we got, I realized we had to...
We got to be able to get moving quicker.
Yeah, to adapt.
Move quicker, move quicker.
Right?

(01:16:25):
Yeah.
And it's funny because I would have never considered building a pizza on a screen.
Yeah.
Like when I first opened my business I was like, this is like blasphemous.
Yeah, I agree.
And now I come to realize like, you know, we can make a great pie on a screen.

(01:16:48):
You make a great pie on a screen, I'll give you that.
And it's out of necessity.
At the end of the day it doesn't just cut, it's out of necessity.
Yeah.
And you know what happened?
One day we're cooking, we're busy.
Forgot it.
I think it was a Sunday night.
Right?
And we're just having one of those busy rushes.
Like we got it into the day.
It was a Friday.
Okay.

(01:17:08):
And then we had a Sunday night.
If you know Friday it's like your busiest day.
And we're making pies in the middle of the rush.
And I dropped the peel and it snaps in half.
It was your only peel?
It was my only peel.
It was the only one we had.

(01:17:30):
And I was like, I got to sink my hands into a 450 degree oven now?
There's no way to...
Yeah, that's a showstopper right there.
But like we mentioned the place was already built out before we got in.
I think we were talking off camera for that.

(01:17:55):
The guy that was in there before me, he left all of these screens.
And we didn't use them.
But I'm like...
We got to.
Yeah.
So I was like, maybe see if you can go to my old job.
I think they have an extra peel.
Like we got to make a move.

(01:18:17):
All the stores are closed at this time.
It's like six o'clock.
Right.
Restaurant Depot they close at like four, five, six o'clock.
Where are you going to get a massive slab of wood?
There's nowhere to go get a new one right now.
So while she's out going to my old place that I was working at before, I'm still really
good friends with the owners and stuff.

(01:18:37):
We all left in good terms.
So I'm like, I know they have some extra peels.
Just go ask them if they can give you one.
In the meantime, we have like 10 pies to do like right now.
So I was like, give me the screen.
You got to use the screen.
Like what are we going to do?
Call people back and tell them that we can't make the C-Sat.
What does the screen do though that is taking the place of the peel?

(01:19:02):
So the screen, it's like, it's one of those things like you kind of like, it gets like
looked down upon and like the pizza industry, I guess a little bit that you're using a screen
to like make your pies like a cop out.
Yeah.
It's a cheat.
It's like a cheat sheet.
Like, like it's like, you don't know how to make pizza yet.
So you're using like training wheels.
Yeah.
Like you don't know how to ride a bike.

(01:19:23):
So here's some training wheels.
Here's the screen.
You don't know how to make a pizza.
Here's the screen.
Right.
Like make your pizza on a screen.
To get, so from what I was learning to make, to get it off the peel and keep it in a circle
takes a lot of practice.
It's like a, it's like a, it's like a skill to do that.
And then you get to a point where you can, exactly.

(01:19:45):
And then you can throw it out.
Then you get to a point where you throw it on, you just boom out.
And then there it is.
And then you pull it out.
It's the perfect circle.
It fits exactly in the box.
Exactly.
A screen.
It's extremely, it's a big scale that you built.
A screen is already, is already perfectly circular, you just line your dough up on it
and you put it on the screen in the oven.
Okay.
But the thing for us is we have such a limited amount of room.

(01:20:08):
I had to, you know, I had to realize that like the second I put it on the screen, I'm
like, I could have three doughs already stretched out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
So why am I looking at just build one at a time when we could put two screens down,
two doughs, building both, launch them in the oven at the same time.

(01:20:30):
It just, like my brain started thinking different.
It wasn't so much about pride anymore.
Like you come to a time in business where you're just like, this is about making money.
More pieces that I can do.
And you do it.
And you still do it with quality.
That's the thing.
The less the customer has to wait, the more business we're going to do.

(01:20:53):
Let's put it in, let's put it in some, in the plumbing term.
So a lot of the old timers look out, look down on guys for using ProPress.
Or the accordion screen traps.
Or the accordion screen.
Well, we do not use that.
No, I'm saying like people who just like, I can,
That's a homeowner thing.
Yeah.
But the old timers will say, oh, you're using ProPress.
You should, you're not sweating pipe like a, like a real man or whatever.

(01:21:17):
But we get to a point where,
I'm using the accordion screens.
Where is the screens?
Where is just one, like we get to a point where, listen, we got to get this boiler done.
We got to get it in and out.
Let's, we bought a ProPress machine.
Now we ProPress a boiler.
We bang them out in one day.
You got to keep moving and make money.
Of course.
And the old timers, they'll bust your chops.

(01:21:38):
But you know what?
It's, it's about getting the job done.
It's about getting the jobs done.
Getting the job done, getting the job done correctly.
And you know, like you guys making sure that it stays good.
For us, it's making sure that it's delicious.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But you're still kind of guaranteeing this to the customer, right?
The investors of what industry you're in.
Like your, your job is to make sure that you're putting out something that you can be proud

(01:22:00):
of.
And to be honest with you, the screens were like a big thing for us because of how limited
we were with space.
Honestly, if it wasn't for that peel breaking that day, we would still be launching them
into the oven.
I don't know if we would be where we are right now.
So you guys, I mentioned in the first half, you started about two and a half years ago.

(01:22:20):
You said it was a journey to get to where you, where you are, that your quality was not there
at the beginning and you've built up.
So I mean, you've done, you've been interviewed by news, like by no local newspapers.
People have, you know, written about you guys.
You have guys have great grave reviews.
So I found out about them.
We've never asked for a review before.
They just come out.

(01:22:41):
I've never, never asked for a review.
I feel like it washes the experience away for the customer a little bit because.
Like we do have a lot of people that come in for it.
And I don't know if people are doing it.
Definitely there's nothing wrong with doing it.
We're asking for a review.
Right.
Like I'm not saying that there's something wrong with doing that.

(01:23:02):
What I'm saying is like, there's customers that come in, they mentioned the reviews and
I say, thank you.
Yeah.
Right.
Like, but I feel like if I were, if I were to listen to them say like, oh, the reviews
are so great.
And I said, like, yeah, can you please leave us one, then it would make the customer think
like, oh, they only have good reviews because they're telling people to do it because they're

(01:23:25):
asking people that are really happy about the food to, to leave a review.
Yeah.
I'm totally opposite.
Yeah.
I'm a review whore.
Well, because with you guys, you have to make sure that you're the word gets out there
that these people have.
Google reviews is huge for us.
I got a lot of new business from Google reviews.

(01:23:45):
This art, I have a dispatching and inventory, uh, invoicing program that when I schedule
a job, when I go there and I press finish job, it automatically sends a customer an email
that says, please review us here.
And I tell people, we do something like that.
Yeah.
I'll tell people to their face though.
I'd be like, listen, if you enjoyed us, please leave us, please leave us a Google review.

(01:24:07):
I don't even care.
Maybe I should start.
I'm a, I'm a monkey with the symbols, bro.
I do not care.
I'm scared to be.
I'm trying.
I'm literally trying to get a huge presence online.
Social media is big to us.
What is social media to you guys?
Like how much, how much of part of it is it, is it in the forefront?

(01:24:28):
Is it kind of in the middle or you just really don't even pay attention?
Honestly, social media.
So when you're on social media, right?
Like you're on Instagram, you don't just post on Instagram, you also browse to Instagram.
So I'm guessing just as a business owner, you've kind of been targeted by ads of other
companies making social media seem like this massive thing that you need to be doing.

(01:24:54):
You need to be paying these companies money so that they handle this for you because it's
going to change everything.
This is the magic touch.
I ain't falling for that crap.
It's not true.
Yeah, it's not true.
It's not true.
Obviously there is, there's an advantage to having social media, right?

(01:25:14):
There's an advantage to running ads, right?
Business comes in from it, right?
But if you think that having a beautiful Instagram page is more important than having
delicious food, you're just kidding me.
Totally wrong, yeah.
You're kidding yourself, right?
You could be doing all of this social media and advertising and promotions and all this

(01:25:37):
stuff, but if your job sucks and your guys suck and they're not doing things right, you
could have.
You got to have the goods to back it up.
You got to have the goods to back it up.
You can maybe float it for a couple months, but that's going to catch up to you after
a while.
It's almost worse, I would think, to be able to promise the world and you're all smoke

(01:26:01):
and mirrors.
Yeah.
At the end, right, because what's the point of getting a customer in there and then they're
just going to be disappointed by your product.
Yeah.
You're going to be losing business.
Are you looking to turn grumpy's, obviously you're looking to expand at some point.
Are you looking to turn grumpy's into a restaurant maybe or like get bigger?

(01:26:25):
Are you sticking with pizza?
Would you want to expand your culinary?
Culinary?
Yeah, of course.
Honestly, when we first...
Can you hear that on the camera?
I can hear it through the headphones.
I'm going to open a Peruvian place next to you called Puggies.
Honestly, Peruvian food, I love to eat it.
I guess I don't know as much about cooking it.

(01:26:45):
This is the reality of it.
You know, just like Chinese food, right?
You think that people in China are eating...
No.
Genital sub chicken, sesame chicken and boneless spare ribs.
That's the thing.
In my family, all of those dishes that you see on the Peruvian restaurant menu, we would

(01:27:08):
eat that very rarely.
Especially during parties, special occasions that we made, you know, fancier foods.
But the reality of it is when you're growing up in Peru and your family really doesn't
have all that much, you just kind of eat what you can afford.

(01:27:31):
See and what's affordable.
Of course, yeah.
You kind of have to feed a lot of people.
So, you know, not everybody, we're not getting filet mignon out, you know what I mean?
For everybody, every single day.
So growing up eating Peruvian food in Peru, you know, you go to a restaurant and you can
get a lomo saltado.

(01:27:51):
Right?
Say that again?
What was that?
Like you can go to a Peruvian restaurant in Peru and get lomo saltado or get the resistive
chicken.
Okay.
Right?
Like, but you go to a restaurant for that.
That's not the same thing that you eat when you're at home.
You know, like, it's different.
So for us in America, it's PB&J and mac and cheese.

(01:28:13):
Yeah, 100%.
Or some ramen.
The reality of it is like people are like, oh, why don't you add more Peruvian stuff
to the menu?
And I'm like, this is all Peruvian.
This is my touch on a classic American Italian.
This is my touch on it.
You know, we have the grandma pie that you mentioned that I think you said your mother

(01:28:35):
loves it.
That sauce, right?
That's the same sauce that my grandmother would make for us in Peru because we eat noodles
with red sauce.
Yeah.
Oh.
Like, it's not a Peruvian dish.
But we ate that.
That's interesting.

(01:28:55):
Like, you think that I'm not giving you my Peruvian?
Right, right, right.
Like, that's right.
Oh, you're giving your touch to it.
You're making pizza with my background and this is my touch.
Yeah.
What's that mean with the salt that sprinkles the salt like that?
Salt, babe.
Sprinkle a little Peru on your...
I mean, he found the niche.

(01:29:17):
He did.
Is he still around?
He's still around, I think.
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, I don't follow him.
That's not just a meme.
But it's like a chef.
It's like this little tiny guy now out of like Abu Dhabi, I think.
It's like a little mini salt bay dress.
It's just like him puts these little sunglasses on and he does like a whole flair show at

(01:29:37):
like a real restaurant.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
I don't want a show with my food.
Excuse me.
I don't want it made in front of me.
You don't like hibachi?
No, I'm not crazy about it.
Yeah.
I don't like sharing tables with other people that I don't know about.
I always thought that was like a little, like, you know, like a little crazy.
Like you just sit down with like other people.
I'm just sitting there like, oh, yeah, I hear you, man.

(01:30:09):
What is your, let me ask you this.
What is your, what is your favorite pie that you guys make?
My favorite pizza is, so, you know, like how you say like the classic cheese pie is like
great, like the way it is.
So to me, it's delicious.
I eat a cheese slice daily.
Yeah.

(01:30:29):
I do.
I do.
It's because like I've worked with other guys that are like, oh, I, I work in peace
area.
I don't eat pizza anymore.
I'm like, your piece is probably not that good.
Yeah, it's probably not good then.
It's probably not that good.
Yeah.
Because mine is delicious.
I eat it all the time.
Yeah.
How could you get bored of something that's so good?
Right.
But at the end of the day, for me, like a great pie is simple.

(01:30:55):
Yeah.
Right.
And the classic cheese, we just kind of go for like a classic approach to it, right?
Yeah.
Those sauce, cheese, boom.
Right.
But then from there, we kind of moved it up a little bit where I came up with like the
plain Jane.
And the plain Jane is just a little bit different in the fact that we use a lot of garlic in
there, right?

(01:31:15):
Oh.
A lot of basil.
Yes.
And we lay the cheese down first and then the sauce kind of dropped on top.
Okay.
With the garlic and the basil and a lot of parmesan.
And that to me is my favorite piece.
Gotcha.
It's called the plain Jane?
The plain Jane.
It's not even on the menu.
It's not?
No, it's not.

(01:31:35):
It's for him only.
You hear that guys?
It's for him only.
You can always order.
Some secret sick grumpies, bro.
Plain Jane pie, it's not even on the menu.
And like, honestly, there has to come a point in business where like you kind of have to
limit all of the options that you give customers.
Oh yeah.
Because you have to edit yourself a little bit, right?
Like we're all about the secret menu world, about please and our customers world, about

(01:31:57):
you know, asking how you want your things done, how you want your piece of cooked, how
you want, you know, your crust to be.
If you like garlic, if you don't like garlic, you see like what I like, it's might not be
the same that you like.
Right.
So that's why we ask.
Yeah.
At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we tried our best to make sure you give

(01:32:19):
this perception of options.
You give these people options, but at the same time, you're keeping it a very simplistic
menu.
You watch, you watch Kitchen Nightmares.
We don't have a huge menu.
You got the web.
You watch Kitchen Nightmares.
Uh, that I grew up on Gordon Ramsay.
Bro, he says that all the time.
Yeah.
Keep it simple.

(01:32:40):
If you're seeing this, you're one of my idols.
It's coming on next week.
I do that to me.
Honestly, the standards that this man has, right?
Like a lot of people might see him as a douche.
Like he's a name chef, whatever.
Like, have you really watched?

(01:33:00):
Yeah.
He gets lit because of how things are happening.
But he also, he says the same thing.
He goes, I've had, I've owned restaurants.
I failed in restaurants.
I've been in clothes, a ton of restaurants.
The key to it and what he says in every single episode, you keep it simple.
Keep it simple.
Keep the menu small.

(01:33:20):
When you keep it simple, but quality.
There has to be some simplicity to it.
Because food shouldn't be something that you like have a hard time with.
Yeah.
I feel like sometimes, you know, we ask people these questions and they're just like a little
overwhelmed in the beginning.
But like we see how much repeat business we get, which has really been ideal.
Oh yeah.
That's 100%.

(01:33:41):
It's been the whole time.
Even for us, same thing.
You know, and your customer, they might not order, some customers order a couple of times
a week.
Some people order a couple of times a month.
Some people just order a couple of times a year.
But they're coming back to you.
But they're coming back eventually.
You got to make sure that they leave with a great experience.
And yeah, sometimes, you know, like we use our lingo as a little different, you know,

(01:34:02):
like.
That's okay.
You're changing the scene.
Yeah.
But we try, right?
Yeah.
We try to make it like so.
And that you like, it's a little different from other pizzerias because nobody else asks
you, oh, you want that well done?
Like, are you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Most people don't care.
They don't care.
Nobody.
I'm telling you right now, nobody asks.
Nobody asks how you want your crust.

(01:34:24):
Nobody asks you how you want your, you know, like you want it medium, dark, whatever it
is.
Sauce on the side.
Yeah.
That is, first of all, a dipping sauce on the side for pie genius.
You like that?
That vodka sauce on the side.
Yeah.
I get it every time.
Yeah.
I don't know why more people don't know.
It just cooks it up a little bit for you.
Yeah.

(01:34:44):
Exactly.
A hundred percent.
It's just like a little extra like, oh.
No, you guys are so good.
And even the fresh basil that you have that you just, that you garnish the box with.
I love seeing it.
Love seeing it.
Yeah.
I open up the boxes, basil on the side.
You know why we do that?
Why?
Because I think that once you open up my piece of box and you see that basil and it just
makes it look so good, right?
Like, then you go and you're going to order from somebody else.

(01:35:07):
And then you open that box and it doesn't have the basil.
It looks empty.
Yeah.
It looks empty.
And I don't, I'm not saying like, oh, just because we, you know, I think we make some
of the best pizza.
Yes.
But the reality of it is that people are going to order from other places.
There's going to be another places where somebody else is ordering.
I want to make sure that there's some kind of pop, some type of lasting impression that

(01:35:30):
we get from people.
So that next time you open up that next box and there's no basil, it almost looks weird.
Yeah.
It almost looks like they forget something.
Even though they just gave you exactly what you asked for.
Dude, that's a smart way to look at that.
And that's marketing in itself.
Marketing and branding.
Absolutely.
100%.
It's little nuances.
We go through so much basil.

(01:35:51):
I could imagine.
You should, as a pizza place should.
You talk to a pizza place who doesn't go through much basil, there's a problem there.
Yeah.
I go to a restaurant almost every day and you see a lot of these guys like often, like
I'm sure you go to the warehouse and you sometimes run into the same guys here and there.
I hate them all.
The more they see you, the more comfortable they become with you.

(01:36:14):
So I have all these guys like, why do you have that much basil after?
This guy is ordering us out of basil.
Dude, we go through a couple cases of basil a week sometimes.
They're like, but why so much?
Why so?
You should.
We just use it for garnish.
I tell them.
I try to, I always try to be very open with the way we do things because like you brought

(01:36:38):
up Kitchen Nightmares.
A lot of the passion that I have in the kitchen comes from seeing Gordon Ramsay.
You calling your employees idiot sandwiches?
Honestly, that's one thing that I don't like do.
I think you should be moralizing your team to become better.

(01:36:59):
You guys have a very good vibe in there.
There's always laughing.
There's always joking.
There's always a lot of talking.
People complain about that sometimes.
You know that?
Really?
Can you believe that?
We've had customer complaints.
About the joyfulness in a restaurant?
The dancing, the laughing.
And I'm just like, why are you guys having such a good time making pizza?
I wanted, I came in for grumpy.
I want to see grumpy.

(01:37:19):
Yeah.
You want to see everybody be miserable like every other place.
Yeah.
No, that's crazy.
You can't please everybody.
You can't.
There's literally some people.
You could never please every single.
There's some people out there.
There, you can, it doesn't matter what you do.
It's like I woke up miserable today.
Why is everybody happy?
Yeah.
Why are you guys having a good time?
How come everyone's wife doesn't hate them?
You know?

(01:37:39):
Like, that's the most ridiculous complaint I can hear.
At the end of the day, like we really do try to make a place where people want to be.
No man, your place is very comfortable.
And you're right.
It is small, but you walk in there and there's always happiness.
There's always talking.
The cashier is always super, super kind and smile on her face.

(01:38:02):
That sticks with people.
So.
Because we're people too, man.
You guys are people.
Like, it just comes down to treating others how you want to be treated.
And that's, it's not rocket science.
No.
Like, you know, you just want to treat people well because you want to be treated.
Where are you looking to take grumpy?
Oh, that's what, that was going to be my next question.
What's the future hold?

(01:38:22):
Honestly, me and my wife, we talked about it.
By year five, we want to make sure that we have another location.
Where are you looking?
Where do you think?
Honestly, it took us two years to find just this one location.
Really?
Yeah.
Wow.
Just to find the place?
Yes, to find a place.
Yeah.
And like you mentioned that place that you used to run.

(01:38:45):
Location.
So many places have flipped through it.
Location.
Location.
So has ours.
Has it really?
Oh yeah.
That's risky.
Yeah.
It's a lot of stuff though.
Yeah.
I mean, when we first opened, you had to see people coming in the door.
Like, is this an owner?

(01:39:06):
Because this place has changed like so many times.
So many different names.
And you know, they were just kind of coming in like very skeptical.
Like who is in?
Yeah.
You know, like is this place even going to be any good?
Or like who even owns this place?
Right?
And then obviously in the beginning, me and my wife were there the whole time, like every
single day.

(01:39:26):
Yeah.
So we were type people like, no, like this is our business, you know, and they would
make them like a little more comfortable.
But we even see like some posts on Facebook, people are still saying like, oh, I don't,
I don't think that they're the owners.
Like, you know, those kids are so young that they probably don't, they probably don't own
that place.
They're just saying that like it's probably another old guy that owns it.
You know what?

(01:39:47):
It's, you got a lot of uphill battles over there.
I'll tell you this much, but I think your attitude towards the business, your attitude
towards the customers, that's going to win out in the long run for sure.
Absolutely.
I like to have a good attitude because you have to lead by example.
Like when you go in there, like if everybody sees that the boss doesn't care, then why

(01:40:08):
should they?
Yeah.
And I've worked for people like that.
I've been on the other side of it, right?
Like if this guy doesn't really care, then why am I giving it so much effort?
You know, if they don't care, which way it goes, you know?
And I've worked for people that really do care.
So I've learned, right?
Like how important that is to be able to be a leader and be in the face, in the front

(01:40:33):
of it.
Like, you know, this is how I want things done and show them like how I'm doing things.
You know?
And I think like this is one thing that, so when I mentioned that I was bartending, this
guy Willie, he owned this business for like 45 years.
He owned this one barge, right?
And he always said the place is going to take the attitude of the owner.

(01:40:57):
Yeah.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
He says like, you feel the vibe in a restaurant, that vibe is going to come right from the
top.
Yeah.
I'm convicted by that.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You know, and it sucks.
Sometimes you have enough day too as an owner just because you're the boss doesn't mean
that you're perfect.
Yeah.
You know, you're going to have a bad day once in a while.
So yeah.
Or more than once in a while.

(01:41:18):
Yeah.
Dude, some days I walk into the restaurant and pissed.
There's some, you know, shit going on.
Like, cause people aren't listening sometimes, right?
Like you get pissed off, but it's only because I cut.
Yeah.
Like you wouldn't get pissed because you don't care.
Right.
You're right.
Yeah.
But um.
That's some sound advice right there.
Yeah.

(01:41:39):
I feel like, you know, the more you grow, it's a little bit harder to keep a handle on all
of that.
Yeah.
You're the best.
Well, listen, I would love to.
We've been talking a long time.
This has been a great episode.
This is super insightful.
And you know what I'm, you know what I'm happy about this episode is you're giving a lot
of wisdom, but it's organic wisdom.

(01:42:00):
Like learning the hard way, the roots from Peru, the kids growing.
Yeah.
100%.
That's the most valuable information you can get is organic, organic wisdom.
Yeah.
Listen, tell the people where they can find you.
So we are in Saddlebrook.
We're on Saddle River Road, 522 Saddle River Road in Saddlebrook, New Jersey.

(01:42:22):
You can find us there Tuesday through Sunday, 10 to 10.
But I don't miss.
If I'm not there, my wife is there, you know, come by, say hello, grab a slice.
We're cool.
You're cool.
You like good food.
We have good food.
Come eat, man.
Everybody loves everybody there.
What's the phone number?
201-880-05.
0-05-55.

(01:42:43):
And I would just say, if you could just not call me, that'd be great.
We have a ton of people waiting to call.
So like, order online, man.
What's the website?
www.gruppy'snj.com.
I signed up to your text message.
Order online.
We spent all this time building this webpage.

(01:43:04):
Order online.
Get your food exactly how you want it, because it's all the options around there.
No, I feel bad.
I always call.
No, that's fine.
Call, call, no problem with the calling, right?
Yeah.
But if you could order online, I promise you, it's so much faster.
All right, fair enough.
So much faster.
You get exactly what you want.
It tells you exactly when it's going to be ready.

(01:43:24):
Where can people find you on social media?
So the whole thing is Grumpy's NJ, right?
Grumpy's NJ.
We're from Jersey.
You can find us on Facebook, Instagram.
We don't have Twitter.
Is it called X now?
Yeah, whatever it is.
But yeah, you can find us on Instagram.
That's where you see all the delicious food.

(01:43:46):
We make posts.
We make silly videos.
Get on there.
Check us out.
Nice.
You're going to find a little inspiration for dinner in there for sure.
Marcello, thanks so much for coming over.
Thank you.
I really appreciate it.
We've been trying for a long time to get you here.
We finally got you on.
I'm so happy we got you on.
And folks, get a Grumpy's Pie.
You got to go over there and get a Grumpy's Pie.

(01:44:07):
Me and Max are telling you you have to try this pizza.
Absolutely.
But thanks again for coming on.
We really appreciate it.
Yeah, folks, we want to remind you.
What was that?
We want to remind you once again that Court's Plumbing sponsors Plumb Bums here.
We're very happy to have a hand in the Bergen County plumbing industry.
Court's plumbing has been in business since 1961.

(01:44:28):
My grandfather started it back in the day.
We still have the same phone number since he first started it back then, which has always
impressed me.
Guys, thanks so much for watching.
We really appreciate the viewers coming back every week.
It means a lot.
Please remember to like, share, subscribe, share the reels, tell people to watch the
show.
If you are interested in being a guest on the show, we'd love to have you.

(01:44:51):
We're always looking for business owners, entrepreneurs, anyone in a really interesting
industry.
We'd love to have you on and come have a conversation.
You can go to courtsplumbing.com.
You're going to click the Plumb Bums logo in the corner and fill out the Be a Guest application.
We'll review that.
We'll have a conversation.
We'll have you on the show.
It's a blast, right?
You had fun tonight?
I feel like I've known these guys for years.

(01:45:13):
I swear to God, like, just running in this is like being one of the easiest things.
I was a little nervous in the beginning.
I've never done anything like this before.
It's so easy talking to this guy.
Bring a little bottle of whiskey.
You know what I mean, right?
Bring a whiskey and a cigar.
We'll have a blast.
We'll have a drink.

(01:45:33):
It's just been great.
Thank you guys so much.
If you're anyone in any type of industry, we'll see if you fit in.
If you have something interesting to give younger people coming up, we'd love to have
you on.
So check that out.
Again, go to the website and click on the application.
Guys, we'll see you here next week and we really appreciate you for what you're watching.
We'll see you here next time.

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