• 6 months ago
El Presidente | Pizza Reviews
Transcript
00:00All right, pizza review time.
00:21We're at Cross Kitchen, only three reviews on the app.
00:24We're in Madison, New Jersey.
00:26I said, Austin, why'd you pick this place?
00:27He goes, you did, Dave.
00:29You did.
00:30Where'd I learn how to do drugs, Dave?
00:31I learned it from you, Dad.
00:33Like, one of those.
00:33I guess I sent him a picture.
00:35I will say, you didn't get this in there, Austin?
00:37There's a guy, long hair, like long band-like hair,
00:41like white hair, just long hair.
00:43I hear a noise.
00:44He's just sitting there.
00:46And I took a quick video watching, like,
00:48a scene from the Caribbean with loud ocean.
00:53Like, just staring directly at it.
00:55He goes, it's Sunday, man.
00:57We like to get a little mellow around here.
00:58All right, so there it is, Thin.
01:01It's probably why I sent it to you,
01:03because what did we do earlier on this New Jersey trip?
01:07Bunnies, which I gave an A3, which I love.
01:09I love bar pie.
01:10This is a bar pie.
01:12So let's see what we got.
01:14Thin or Thinny Thin?
01:15Is this the Thinny Thin I was talking about?
01:17No.
01:18OK.
01:20This is good, but when you're this thin,
01:24you got to have earthquakes on your,
01:27because it's like a cracker pizza.
01:28So the crisp has to be earthquake-y.
01:33And fortunately, the tides were louder.
01:36I'm only just watching, just chilling out and being mellow.
01:44Sounds like a good bar pie.
01:467.3?
01:49I guess it's good.
01:50It just needs, if this had the crisp on it,
01:52you get the high sevens, low eights.
01:54Without the crisp, 7.3.
01:55It's fair.
01:56You got to call it fair.
01:56That's mine.
01:57Sorry I didn't recognize you at first.
01:59No, don't be sorry.
02:00I don't care.
02:00Keith Fielding.
02:01Nice to meet you.
02:02I'm the general manager, also the chef of the restaurant.
02:05We are owned by Mario Lavecchia, Bar 440,
02:08East Orange Golf Course.
02:09All right.
02:10Down in Short Hills.
02:11Good to know.
02:12You know, I know you came to town once previously,
02:14and I've been in town for 50 years, doing food a long time.
02:17I respect everything that you're doing.
02:19I think it's fantastic.
02:20Thank you.
02:20I appreciate it.
02:21You know, and the fact that it's a long work week,
02:25it's really early for me.
02:26Yeah.
02:27So I'm sorry I was late.
02:28No, you're all right.
02:29No.
02:30I just, I think it's great to come in.
02:32No bells, no frills unannounced.
02:34No.
02:35And that's a good way to catch people, you know.
02:37It's a way to get a good natural reaction to the pies.
02:40You caught one of our regular pies,
02:42You caught one of our regular pies.
02:44We're actually known for our Detroit style pizza.
02:46OK.
02:47And we also are the only one in the area
02:49that I'm aware of that does Chicago deep dish.
02:51You guys do deep dish, huh?
02:52Yeah, we do Giordano style.
02:54Yeah.
02:54So it's a little bit narrower.
02:55It's not quite Lou Malinati's, you know.
02:58But we also do a lot of original recipes.
03:01I do a chorizo and clams, which is called Madrid.
03:04Cherry peppers, fried diablo, things like that.
03:07Yeah, we try to get a little creative with things.
03:09Very cool.
03:0990% of what we do is scratch or micro business,
03:12as you can see.
03:14Madison, which has had a long tradition
03:16of Napolitano Italians.
03:18You know, there was a time in the 80s
03:20when there was 14 pizzerias in town.
03:23Yeah.
03:24And as time has gone on, a lot of those people,
03:27the sons passed the business along.
03:31So the product gets a little diluted.
03:33It's not the quality it used to be.
03:35All that good stuff.
03:37We opened this about three years ago.
03:39I came in about two years ago.
03:41And since then, the business has started to grow.
03:44Word of mouth, pretty much our only advertising.
03:47We like to kind of keep it that way.
03:49We're busy enough, but not too busy,
03:51so we can focus on the quality of the product,
03:53as opposed to just putting out units, that sort of thing.
03:57So I just wanted to give you a little background.
03:59Appreciate it.
04:00Nice to meet you.
04:01Keep up the great work, guys.
04:02I love how you're listening to the waves.
04:06Oh, please.
04:07I got to try to keep my head straight.
04:10In this political climate, you can't hear me.
04:12Do you mind if he gets a video of the waves?
04:15Oh, sure.
04:15Please.
04:16Please.
04:16Yeah, yeah.
04:17Either that, or I usually go with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
04:22I like that.
04:23Feel like Trip City, and swimming with the sharks.
04:28I walked in, and he was just sitting there,
04:31just staring out at the street.
04:34Yeah.
04:34You know.
04:35And I mean, this all coming from a background of what's,
04:39I studied at FCI in New York, which I'm a fan,
04:41and I'm a famous home guard.
04:43And I came back to town a couple of years ago,
04:46and started just doing the basic simple stuff.
04:49So when we product test, we make several versions.
04:53We'll put it here, and we'll let it sit for an hour.
04:55We'll take it in the car, and drive it around for 45 minutes.
04:57Nothing worse than getting a sandwich with fries in there.
05:02Yeah, right.
05:02Everything's soggy out, or whatever.
05:04So we do that to test containers.
05:06We have three kinds of cheeses.
05:08Before we settled on one cheese, we were going to use.
05:10A lot of love.
05:11If it ain't good, why do it?
05:12Right.
05:12You know, so we try to pour as much bash as possible.
05:15I know you're a business man.
05:16No, no, no.
05:16I love hearing the back story.
05:18It's great.
05:18Too much of your time.
05:19No, I appreciate it.
05:20It's great hearing the back story.
05:21In a town that's known for pretty darn good pizza,
05:24we came up at a time when the town needed a little.
05:27Yeah.
05:28Awesome.
05:29A little boost.
05:29All right, cool.
05:30Thank you very much.
05:31Yeah, no, no.
05:32Nice meeting you.
05:33But again, keep up the good work, guys.
05:34Thank you.
05:35Nice to meet you.
05:36Yep.
05:36Happy with my career starting one place at a time.
05:38Yeah.
05:39See ya.

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