 November 19, 1999 Family Business Produces New York City's Best Pizza STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The year was 1992, and an ambitious trio with no experience in the restaurant industry set out to create the world's greatest pizza. They said goodbye to the corporate world and decided to do something for themselves for a change. "We wanted to make a difference," says E. Jay Myers, who runs Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza with his brothers-in-law Scot and Marc Consentino. "Our goal was to create the best tasting pizza ever, and we accomplished that." But before they opened their 1,000-square-foot store in Staten Island in 1993, the trio didn't know how to make pizza. "We read about a dozen books on how to make pizza, and we also did some market research and product testing," says Marc Consentino. "We eventually found a product that was delicious."
At Goodfella's, all ingredients are homemade - including the dough and sauce - and cooked in a wood-burning brick oven. The restaurants offer a variety of gourmet pizzas, plus an assortment of fresh salads and appetizers as well as family-style pastas and entrees. The company, which employs 80 persons, strives to maintain "the look, image and feel of a mom and pop business," according to Consentino. And those efforts have paid off, according to Goodfella's customer Sal Cardella. "I've been there many times and the food is just tremendous," says Cardella, a fellow entrepreneur and longtime customer of Goodfella's. "It starts when you walk in the door - their service is similar to a four-star restaurant, which is really amazing for a pizza place." "Our goal was to create the best tasting pizza ever, and we accomplished that." E. Jay Myers, Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza Goodfella's, which recently began franchising its concept, has been featured on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee Show, 1010 Wins, NY 1, WNBC and WCBS, and in Gourmet Magazine and Zagat's Restaurant Survey. The restaurant, where the average per person check is about $14, was also selected "Top 100 Pizzerias" in the nation by Pizza Today for four years in a row. Celebrity patrons at Goodfella's include Regis Philbin, Miss America and Mayor Rudolph Guiliani. In addition, the company represented all of New York City when the mayor wagered 10 of its famous pizzas in a friendly bet with the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio when the NY Yankees played Cleveland in the 1998 major league baseball playoffs. Through it all, Consentino says one of the biggest challenges of running New York's most famous pizza place is "trying to keep it all organized." The partners have overcome that hurdle by taking courses in business administration and organization. "The better we can organize our operations, the faster we can get our products out and the more business we can handle," explains Consentino. "We overcome it by educating ourselves and our staff." In the future, Myers says Goodfella's is looking forward to expanding through its franchise program. "How many times have you heard someone say that you can't get good pizza outside of New York City?" says Myers. "Our goal is to make that statement obsolete, and we plan to do it by letting the rest of the nation have a taste of Goodfella's." |
By then, the trio, which now range in age from 35 to 37, was running out of money. It was time to bring their product to market, so they assembled a menu and opened the doors to Goodfella's. Today, the company operates from that original location and one franchise located in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. "It's a successful family business, which you don't hear much about these days," says Myers, adding that 1999 combined sales are expected to reach $2.2 million.
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