Pizza King Podcast: Empowering Pizzeria Leadership

John Gristina grew up around pizza in the Bronx, fought it for years, lost a partnership, and walked away from the industry for 13 years. Then COVID hit. He started doing pop-ups. And the business that once burned him pulled him back in. Today John owns Pizza Fenice in Pelham, New York — Fenice meaning Phoenix in Italian. In this episode, he and Tyrell talk about the hard decision to walk away, the 13 years rebuilding his life, and what it finally took to go back. They get into his doug...

In this week's Take Out Tips, Tyrell Reed gives you one practical tip for your shop this week: build accountability without being the bad guy. Vague expectations produce inconsistent results. Your team is not the problem - unclear standards are. Tyrell breaks down how to set measurable standards your team agrees to, how to make results visible so the numbers do the enforcing, how to build a leadership pipeline so accountability does not rest on you alone, and how to address it whe...

https://blacksicilian.com/bio/sedrick-crawley Chef Sedrick Crawley built something that does not look like anything else in the pizza space. Black Sicilian Pizza Company is a ghost kitchen in Maryland delivering 100 to 120 pies a day — minimum 3-day cold fermentation, luxury-brand-named pizzas (the Birkin, the Louie, the Chanel No. 5), and a brand identity rooted in hip hop culture and Black identity. Most days they sell out. That is on purpose. Chef Sed came to pizza through Pizza Univ...

The flour debate is here. New York just moved on potassium bromate. California already did it. And if you run a pizzeria, it's coming for you whether you're in those states or not. On this Takeout Tips Thursday solo episode, Tyrell Reed breaks down the bleached and bromated flour conversation from an operator's perspective. No science degree required. Just real talk about what this means inside your kitchen, your dough, your food cost, and your brand. Tyrell shares what he learned running 700...

Giovanni Labbate from Tievoli Pizza Bar joins the Pizza King Podcast to talk about building a premium pizza brand, growing from food truck operations into a successful restaurant, competing on major pizza stages, and refusing to race to the bottom on price. In this episode, Giovanni shares lessons from growing up in the pizza business, working in corporate restaurant operations, opening Tievoli, using competitions to improve the menu, and building around quality, systems, service, and consist...