 October 1998 Pizza Across America 1998 International Pizza Recipe Contest and Demonstrations Meet the Winners... Seafood Pizza Category Shrimp Romulus Pizza About 6 years ago, E. Jay Myers and his brothers-in-law, Scot and Marc Cosentino, decided they wanted to open their own business. Coming from very disparate backgrounds -- E. Jay was in sales in the garment and cosmetics industry, Scot owned a small package delivery business and Marc was a New York City police sergeant -- the three figured that their mutual love of brick oven-baked pizza was the place to begin. "Everybody said we were crazy, but we put every penny we had into the place," says Myers. "We built the 1,000-square-foot-restaurant ourselves. As we were traveling around getting construction materials and things for the restaurant, we'd stop in local book stores and buy books about the history of and recipes for pizza. One of Evelyn Slomon's books helped us a great deal." The three took bits and pieces of the recipes they found and created their own signature pies. "We test-marketed the pies for about two weeks. Marc would bring over his friends from the police department to taste-test the pizzas and we used their feedback to alter our recipes." The Seafood Category winner was originally a pasta dish that Scot Cosentino made for himself one day in June. He combined lobster bisque, baby shrimp, angel hair pasta and fresh Beefsteak tomatoes and topped them with fresh herbs and Pecorino Romano. Cosentino left a plate of it on the bar, walked away for a few minutes, and when he returned, the employees had devoured it! Names after Marc's 8-month old son, Alexander Romulus Cosentino, the dish was "a natural" to go on a pizza crust, according to Myers. "We serve bread with the entrees in our restaurant that's actually made from our pizza dough," he says. "We figure anything that goes well with bread can go equally well on pizza crust." |
Home | Menu | Restaurants | Catering | The Goodfellas | Guest Book | Franchising