Scott Wiener born in suburban New Jersey, has no Italian blood. His ancestry is Jewish Russian and Polish. Yet from an early age pizza became Scott’s favorite food, and now for the past eleven years, since April 27, 2008 to be exact, this Neapolitan specialty has become not only the center of his diet, but the subject of his livelihood. Scott’s pizza tours consist of four walking tours in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn: Williamsburg and Downtown. Each of them visits three pizzerias. He also offers and guides himself a Sunday bus tour, which covers Manhattan and another borough by rotation and visits four pizzerias, which he chooses on the spur of the moment out of the 58 pizzerias he recommends around town. His Manhattan walking tours and the Sunday bus tour usually start at “Lombardi’s” on Spring Street in Soho. Founded in 1898 and taken over in 1908 by Gennaro Lombardi from Naples, it’s one of the oldest pizzerias in New York.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from do wor now more of
the WR Saturday Morning Show and Larry Minty. It was
buried behind the walls for decades until a Brooklyn pizzaia
uncovered a coal oven from the eighteen nineties. Is it
worth going there to have a pizza made in that oven?
(00:21):
We asked Scott Weener from Scott's Pizza Tours if it's
worth the trip. First of all, all before we get
to it, Scott, and thanks for joining us. I understand
you're in Montreal right now. Why? Yeah, I'm in Montreal.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm judging a pizza competition called pizza Fest two day
competition that ended yesterday, and I've probably eaten one thousand
slices of pizza over the past two days.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I don't Canada is not known for great pizza, is it?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know what, a lot of places haven't been known
for great pizza, but suddenly are over the past five
to ten years because everybody's watching YouTube videos about how
to make pizza and everybody's finally getting it. So I
gotta tell you Montreal is a serious pizza destination now
that I've spent some time here.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Oh really, So you have a discerning taste. Is there
some there that's maybe even better than what you could
get in New York. It's hard to say better just
because oh, come on, no, no, don't quality What I.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Mean, well, you got a qualit, But listen, I'll put
it this way. There's a place I went to the
other day called Kujenies. Their Grandma Pizza would fit in
exactly with places in New York. There's a place called
Forno Pizza Frankie that is like a temple, uh, paying
homage to the famous pizzerias of New York where the
guy is basically like mimicking all these pizzerias in New
(01:38):
York City and doing a great job.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So that was great.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And then I had two New York style pizzas in
the competition from a place called Non Solo Pane and
they were I mean, they would be in the top
tier in New York City. So even though there's not
a ton of it here, there are places that really
stick out, which means there is hope and there is
sunlight for Canada.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's a very nice way to put it. Before we
get to Lucky Charlie's, let me ask you a question
about pizza and how you rank pizza. What makes a
great pizza in your estimation?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, for me, you know, I don't love putting number
rankings on pizzerias, but I do section them off into tiers.
And if it's a top tier pizzeria, then it's got
to be number one, they're paying attention to dough. If
they're not paying attention to dough, it can't be on
that top tier. And I mean it has to be
a well fermented dough that has flavor on its own,
(02:32):
doesn't just rely on topics.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So that's number one.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Number two, it has to be balanced, So whatever you're
doing on top of that dough, it just has to
be done mindfully. And with those two things combined, I
think it's not that difficult to make a great pizza.
Although if you want to make a great pizza seven
days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year,
you got to be focused.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And that's the third piece.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's about focus, balance and gough fermentation.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And with that, we want to talk about Lucky Charlie's
because is a pizza that significantly different because of the oven,
and especially an oven that back dates back to eighteen ninety. Well,
there's a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Number One, the age of the oven does not dictate
its greatness of the product the coming out of it,
because if you've got a bad pizza maker on a
great oven, you're gonna get bad pizza. The pizza is
only as good as the pizza maker. But that oven
is truly classic historic. I think the first time I
ever saw it was maybe twelve or thirteen years ago
when the guy Charlie Verdie who's the guy who owns
(03:32):
the building, called me up and told me he had
this oven underneath the sidewalk. And now to see it
in the hands of a friend of mine, Nino Connelio,
who's the owner of Lucky Charlie. He is if you
don't know his name, you need to know it. He's
one of the true pizza geniuses. He's won tons of
awards over the past twenty years, and he's nuts. And
(03:54):
those two things combined, you know, that's like the perfect
New York story. He's the guy worked in the oven.
So you go in there and eat a pizza. It's
only three pizzas on the menu. There's nobody more focused,
and there's nobody who cares more about balance than that guy.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, I know, that you don't like to put a
number of value on pizzas, but often you rank pizzas.
Where does the pizza at Lucky Charlie's rank.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Lucky Charlie's a top tier easily, And it's because it's
a well made crest the oven, you know, as I said,
the oven does not make the pizza. But the fact
that it's baking in a large it's a bread oven.
It's not meant for pizza. That place used to be
the Jamus scene of bread bakery in the early nineteen hundreds.
It's a dry oven because it's burning anthracite coal, and
(04:41):
anthracite gives you that dry exterior crisp with that even
char you know, it's like the flavor when you're eating
good barbecue. And so that place, to me, it's top tier.
But it's also it's a relic. It's a unicorn. I mean,
besides the pizza, it just has to be a special place.
(05:02):
And you know, unfortunately the oven is below the sidewalk.
You can't see it, but being in the space, you
do get the feeling of it, and if you stand
on the sidewalk out front, you could literally feel it
under your feet.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Are all the pizzas cooked in that oven there.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Every single pizza and a lot of their dishes. Are
you know. I stood there one day, maybe I don't know,
four weeks after he opened. I stood there in the
corner and watched them bake. They did seafood dishes out
of that oven, and they were doing these pizzas, only
three pizzas out of that oven. And it's wild to
watch because a restaurant and a bakery are not set
up in the same way. So the space downstairs is
(05:36):
bakery set up huge room. The oven has to be
twelve feet deep, which means that the peel, you know,
the shovel that you use to manipulate the pizzas, has
to be fourteen feet deep. So you've got this large,
super long peel that you've got to navigate around this room.
It's it's wild. I wish people could see it down there.
(05:57):
They got to stick a camera down there.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, So if you're a pizza aficionado, you're saying you
should take a visit the Lucky Charlie's.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, take a visit and go there early, like you know,
I don't know what time they open, four five o'clock.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Get there on the early side.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
See I you can catch Nino, ask him a question,
challenge him, tell him I don't think you really have
it of him, and then he'll say.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
You got to trick him.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
But then he'll show it to you.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
That that's tremendous advice. And I'm just assuming that's a
great impersonation because I've never heard him talk.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Listen for anybody out there listening who has ever met
this man, you know, my impersonation is one hundred.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Percent spot on. Oh thanks so much for your time.
Scott Waiders Scott's Pizza Tours. Right now, he's enjoying the
fine pizza in Canada apparently. Is the fine pizza in
Canada really just New York pizza?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's not, you know, it's they got different tastes up here.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
There's a lot of classic look local Montreal pizza that's
just heavy and a lot of topping. But then they've
got some thinner crust stuff that it does seem like
it's New York based. But it's hard to tell, man,
because really most of this evolution has been in the
past few years.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Scott Wiener from Scott's Pizza Tours. This has been a
podcast from wor
This is a podcast from do wor now more of
the WR Saturday Morning Show and Larry Minty. It was
buried behind the walls for decades until a Brooklyn pizzaia
uncovered a coal oven from the eighteen nineties. Is it
worth going there to have a pizza made in that oven?
(00:21):
We asked Scott Weener from Scott's Pizza Tours if it's
worth the trip. First of all, all before we get
to it, Scott, and thanks for joining us. I understand
you're in Montreal right now. Why? Yeah, I'm in Montreal.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm judging a pizza competition called pizza Fest two day
competition that ended yesterday, and I've probably eaten one thousand
slices of pizza over the past two days.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I don't Canada is not known for great pizza, is it?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know what, a lot of places haven't been known
for great pizza, but suddenly are over the past five
to ten years because everybody's watching YouTube videos about how
to make pizza and everybody's finally getting it. So I
gotta tell you Montreal is a serious pizza destination now
that I've spent some time here.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Oh really, So you have a discerning taste. Is there
some there that's maybe even better than what you could
get in New York. It's hard to say better just
because oh, come on, no, no, don't quality What I.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Mean, well, you got a qualit, But listen, I'll put
it this way. There's a place I went to the
other day called Kujenies. Their Grandma Pizza would fit in
exactly with places in New York. There's a place called
Forno Pizza Frankie that is like a temple, uh, paying
homage to the famous pizzerias of New York where the
guy is basically like mimicking all these pizzerias in New
(01:38):
York City and doing a great job.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So that was great.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And then I had two New York style pizzas in
the competition from a place called Non Solo Pane and
they were I mean, they would be in the top
tier in New York City. So even though there's not
a ton of it here, there are places that really
stick out, which means there is hope and there is
sunlight for Canada.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's a very nice way to put it. Before we
get to Lucky Charlie's, let me ask you a question
about pizza and how you rank pizza. What makes a
great pizza in your estimation?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, for me, you know, I don't love putting number
rankings on pizzerias, but I do section them off into tiers.
And if it's a top tier pizzeria, then it's got
to be number one, they're paying attention to dough. If
they're not paying attention to dough, it can't be on
that top tier. And I mean it has to be
a well fermented dough that has flavor on its own,
(02:32):
doesn't just rely on topics.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So that's number one.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Number two, it has to be balanced, So whatever you're
doing on top of that dough, it just has to
be done mindfully. And with those two things combined, I
think it's not that difficult to make a great pizza.
Although if you want to make a great pizza seven
days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year,
you got to be focused.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And that's the third piece.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's about focus, balance and gough fermentation.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And with that, we want to talk about Lucky Charlie's
because is a pizza that significantly different because of the oven,
and especially an oven that back dates back to eighteen ninety. Well,
there's a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Number One, the age of the oven does not dictate
its greatness of the product the coming out of it,
because if you've got a bad pizza maker on a
great oven, you're gonna get bad pizza. The pizza is
only as good as the pizza maker. But that oven
is truly classic historic. I think the first time I
ever saw it was maybe twelve or thirteen years ago
when the guy Charlie Verdie who's the guy who owns
(03:32):
the building, called me up and told me he had
this oven underneath the sidewalk. And now to see it
in the hands of a friend of mine, Nino Connelio,
who's the owner of Lucky Charlie. He is if you
don't know his name, you need to know it. He's
one of the true pizza geniuses. He's won tons of
awards over the past twenty years, and he's nuts. And
(03:54):
those two things combined, you know, that's like the perfect
New York story. He's the guy worked in the oven.
So you go in there and eat a pizza. It's
only three pizzas on the menu. There's nobody more focused,
and there's nobody who cares more about balance than that guy.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, I know, that you don't like to put a
number of value on pizzas, but often you rank pizzas.
Where does the pizza at Lucky Charlie's rank.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Lucky Charlie's a top tier easily, And it's because it's
a well made crest the oven, you know, as I said,
the oven does not make the pizza. But the fact
that it's baking in a large it's a bread oven.
It's not meant for pizza. That place used to be
the Jamus scene of bread bakery in the early nineteen hundreds.
It's a dry oven because it's burning anthracite coal, and
(04:41):
anthracite gives you that dry exterior crisp with that even
char you know, it's like the flavor when you're eating
good barbecue. And so that place, to me, it's top tier.
But it's also it's a relic. It's a unicorn. I mean,
besides the pizza, it just has to be a special place.
(05:02):
And you know, unfortunately the oven is below the sidewalk.
You can't see it, but being in the space, you
do get the feeling of it, and if you stand
on the sidewalk out front, you could literally feel it
under your feet.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Are all the pizzas cooked in that oven there.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Every single pizza and a lot of their dishes. Are
you know. I stood there one day, maybe I don't know,
four weeks after he opened. I stood there in the
corner and watched them bake. They did seafood dishes out
of that oven, and they were doing these pizzas, only
three pizzas out of that oven. And it's wild to
watch because a restaurant and a bakery are not set
up in the same way. So the space downstairs is
(05:36):
bakery set up huge room. The oven has to be
twelve feet deep, which means that the peel, you know,
the shovel that you use to manipulate the pizzas, has
to be fourteen feet deep. So you've got this large,
super long peel that you've got to navigate around this room.
It's it's wild. I wish people could see it down there.
(05:57):
They got to stick a camera down there.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, So if you're a pizza aficionado, you're saying you
should take a visit the Lucky Charlie's.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, take a visit and go there early, like you know,
I don't know what time they open, four five o'clock.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Get there on the early side.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
See I you can catch Nino, ask him a question,
challenge him, tell him I don't think you really have
it of him, and then he'll say.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
You got to trick him.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
But then he'll show it to you.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
That that's tremendous advice. And I'm just assuming that's a
great impersonation because I've never heard him talk.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Listen for anybody out there listening who has ever met
this man, you know, my impersonation is one hundred.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Percent spot on. Oh thanks so much for your time.
Scott Waiders Scott's Pizza Tours. Right now, he's enjoying the
fine pizza in Canada apparently. Is the fine pizza in
Canada really just New York pizza?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's not, you know, it's they got different tastes up here.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
There's a lot of classic look local Montreal pizza that's
just heavy and a lot of topping. But then they've
got some thinner crust stuff that it does seem like
it's New York based. But it's hard to tell, man,
because really most of this evolution has been in the
past few years.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Scott Wiener from Scott's Pizza Tours. This has been a
podcast from wor
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