The Pizza King of Queens- NYC Day In The Life

We’ll spend the day with an NYC Pizza Master Dave Acocella who has a viral Tiktok following
at Philomena’s in Sunnyside, Queens! What’s it like creating New York’s Most Iconic Dish?
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This is Dave aella of filamina in Sunnyside Queens today I’ll be spending the day with him to find out what it’s really like behind the scenes making New York’s most iconic dish Dave I’m normally the one eating the pizza but what’s it like owning a pizza shop in

New York City where being a pizza snob is basically ingrained at Birth when I decided to open up a pizza shop I had to make sure it was an awesome pie so I I really spent a lot of time on making a really good dough something that was

Really special and what it’s like I get to eat pizza every day it’s a pretty cool job yeah very cool job so this is my great uncle nio that’s my grandmother he brought her over he had three restaurants he was very successful there’s a tradition that’s been carried down through generation to generation

And I still have my great-grandmother’s rolling pin and it was actually my great-grandfather’s rolling pin probably circa 1900 1901 and this was brought from Italy to uh Elizabeth New Jersey where my great-grandmother lived and give it to my mother and now I have it so this like passing the torch so my

Ovens I have electric Mor forny ovens and they’re great um because I could do my Square pies and my round pies in there no my Square pies when they come out they look like this they’re beautiful have light Airy crispness to it all right John let me try to make a

Pizza you ready I’m ready apron cuz you got a black shirt on my on you got to get flower all over yourself and the filam hat you want me to actually make it with you yes you can do this if you insist I’ll do it you can do it

Pis I was born for this shop let me see are I do okay you look great it be good don’t worry had a viewer tell me once that I looked like a guy who just works at a pizza shop I like an everyday New Yorker I see it should we do Jersey

Shore cuz they’re both from Jersey originally hey there you go let’s do that Jersey Shore how many hours a day do you actually spend in this shop making pizza making dough so I get here around like 10:00 prep up make the dough service time then afterwards I do all

The pre- fermentations and then I cut up my square dough I only open up for dinner at the moment soon we’re going to be opening it for lunch as well so I’m usually here for at least 16 hours a day sometimes how long does the dough take

To ferment usually 3 days is is a nice time the square dough I like to have it right around 3 days so that way you can release the natural enzymes and you can digest the the the dough itself like we’re about to go do some surgery here

Ready to make some pizza I still haven’t touched anything I’m extremely clumsy I lack common sense and I can’t cook but getting me you’re getting me excited I have some hope you could do this I got the look what can you say New York sty

It’s around 60% so this is a little bit more Lucid it’s it’s not as firm so the whole pie starts out this small yeah so now we’re going to slowly stretch it out well this is a personal pile this is 12in person oh this 12 in okay top

Portion this is smooth side so now the the bottom is facing upwards this is the coar side so we’re going to compress and move up see within press so that way you can Define it so you’re going to stay within the middle okay that’s fine so now what

We’re going to do is going to move it around again but again just watch what I do it’s kind of like sculpting it’s like art yeah exactly I used to play with Clay when I was a kid so oh you’re natural now here comes the fun we can do

Nea the style but one way I like to do it kind of just using our Knuckles and kind of stretching it out little by little a full rotation of of the dough so we’re going to go with right where the crust is and just kind of move it

Around just a little start moving around there you go but you want to move from okay we’re going to put it down he made this look so much easier sorry my my dough happen to be very fragile so that’s where we’re going to have something like sure that’s the reason

Hey back so it’s like here uhuh and just kind of go from under uh-huh underneath uh-huh but you want to go what do I do with the thumbs well you’re too inside the dough so that’s why it’s kind of ripping but that’s okay I got a lot of dough don’t

Worry about we’re going to get it out we’re going to get the dough stretch it out right do like a little patty cake so you just want to find the edge of the crust and kind of go back and forth It’s like a wet towel you you’ve clearly done this

A few more times than me I was into clation so I would like make my own like little sets and stuff and sets and stuff like that I have another one just in case no offense if it was a miracle that I could figure this out how many pies you think you’ve made

In your life a lot man good question but hundreds of thousands hundreds of thousands yeah I’m sure I’m sure I’m sure that’s up there yeah cuz we’re to use gravity kind of like stretch it out for us so I’ll show you what I mean we’re going to go like this see I’m on

The edge and back down this yeah and back down uh-huh and keep on doing that a few times and it’ll open right back up there you go okay hey my wife if my wife Could See Me Now I I don’t think I’ve cooked anything for like four or five years so now we’re

Just going to top it off so on this one is going to be sausage pepper and onions spil I’ve had this pizza here before in another video and I said that Dave knocked it out of the park with the the smell it smells like the boardwalk minus the Hairspray the mineus

The hairspray and uh Red Bulls so I go in the middle and just kind of push out the sauce and now you just kind of go Clockwise this this I like this I can handle finally found something I’m good at use S St Tomatoes which I I absolutely love Jersey Shore it’s sausage prepper and onion so green peppers five or six uh-huh so you need to you need to Envision the different slices here right right exactly Jama

Making Red Hots which I like they’re a little on the they have a nice kick how old were you when you made your first pizza pie oh wow I was a kid I used to make p with my mom all the time and we

Used to make the square pies so it was a thinner crust and and it was also very easy some cheese and we’re going to top it off to make all these really fun pies as a matter of fact I still make those pies that today she’s make potato pizza

Yeah I wish I was making pizza as a kid you know it’s a different world I used to spend time with my mom in the kitchen when I was younger and that’s how I really learned pizza but just kind of understand each dish cuz once I started working in the

Restaurant industry yeah it was something like oh I know all these dishes all right how long do we cook for 4 minutes and how long does this normally take you cuz this felt like it took me forever it should take like a minute this is the smell when you walk

Into the pizzeria okay you want to take this out why don’t you go first show me how it’s done then I’ll try now you’re talking all right under the middle and pull it out yep think I got it wow it’s like a baby here I don’t want to drop this oh man

Perfect perfect I’m a natural that was the easiest thing we’ve done all day I think get down and dirty I got a little crooked there this is the most effort I’ve ever put into a food video before I’m always consuming not creating food it’s actually it’s the other way no

Now you’re good yes yeah this is actually the funnest part of the job I just do this all day I I used to work at a restaurant called davano and we had outdoor seating on 6th Avenue between bleer and house and my favorite job was putting the cheese where the wind was

Coming from you have to like do it on an angle and it would just go right into the plate look at all that parmesan though wow woohoo this is a real Jersey slice some could argue you have the best job in the world just eat pizza all day

I was trying to get people who come in for his employees and I had something posted on Craigslist eat pizza all day and get paid how many opticat did you get three only three only three I would have fought at least like five or six I read an interesting quote from an

Article would you cut school to go to Joe’s Pizza who told you that I have I have sources Joe is always that goto slice not Ray it was Joe’s growing up in Jersey though we don’t lack in good pizza good bagels I never felt a need to

Rush to the city at local pizzeria Alonso was always a go-to place and that’s one thing I love about pizza because it’s always about having a good time I was fortunate enough to work at a restaurant called dilano DSO was legendary it’s one of the most famous and successful Titan restaurants in in

Kage Village 2009 my boss came up to me and he’s wanted to put a piece of oven in the back so I started making dough and started practicing on all that stuff I was getting pretty decent pies over there Flash Forward to place called 21 Greenpoint Homer Murray owned the the

Restaurant it’s still there it’s really awesome place but it wasn’t until gusur Billo came into town and gurillo is like this master pizza maker from Naples Italy and I was like I have to work for him they called me up said no that’s okay we don’t need you you know don’t

Don’t bother coming but I showed up anyway because I know they needed me so I I just kind of hung out in the in the in the front for like a half hour 40 minutes until I heard D Day come on I know I’m sorry come on come on in cuz I

Knew they needed an extra hands I was always passionate about making pizza but it wasn’t until I worked with these guys I truly had the passion to make pizza your dough is so light and Airy that I’m almost done with my first slice I don’t

Feel full at all a lot of New York Pizza spots you get that kind of sinking feeling in your stomach after two three slices but not here uh but letting people back into the City and stuff like that they just said they loved my pizza Neapolitan or Italian

Style pizza is so much different from New York style they really appreciated the effort the uh just the margarita square with the drizzle of olive oil and basil and rain and rain hey how you doing nice to see you if you sat out here how many people you think would say

Hi in the next hour uh a few if we have to talk about your your signature slices I think your square is probably know the top of the list right yeah yeah absolutely it’s late AR he’s got a nice crunch in the bottom let’s let’s you

Have to have a quiet moment you can hear the crunch they heard the crunch I felt the crunch I tasted the crunch oh the solid foundation of that crunch I know you’re always so busy behind the counter but do you ever look and just stare at people’s

Reactions like the reaction I just had how does that make you feel but when I first opened up counter person said to me that guy just took a bite of your pizza took the Crunch and then he looked at it again he was like he was like how

Is this happening this is amazing what’s going on this is yeah we’ve had so much fun inside and it looks like a really fun job you get to eat pizza for a living but there might be people watching who have a dream of opening up a pizza shop what are some of

The harder things about it what you might not notice on the surface the biggest issue yeah is help getting getting a good staff in for years I had such a big problem getting the right people in here so for you it’s not the hours because you told me you were here

16 hours a day just about every day of the week yeah I mean once I get more help then I can just kind of dwindle that down a little bit but um but I really enjoy what I do on a Monday I just make dough and that’s like my

Vacation from the rest of the week the Sunnyside Community it’s extremely diverse like what are your customers like that’s the beautiful thing about Queens every ethnic background known to man on Earth that lives in Queens so justment I had to do was you know nonp pork items I have a beef pepperoni which

I actually love but prefer over the pork pepperoni nothing nothing too crazy howy you do Mr Quinn how are you good to see you good have to get put back to work more of this business than just making pizza right yeah yeah he had to sell it

You can work to register help out Dominic over here maybe relieve him of his duties while he helps me make pizza okay Bo looks a lot different from this side of the counter I got to admit I think you have way more fun than we have filming this stuff well because we get

To eat it all the time yeah you get to eat it and you get to make it I’m telling you if I worked here it would be bad news I would just be taking slices all the time how how many slices a day do you eat here like three four 3 to

Four I 800 S year well you got to check for Quality Control so you have an excuse yeah there you go fold inch this is going to be your handle you’re going to put your other hand here fold that cre po the in give me that look easy that fold over

This oh I see push down in oh perfect throw it there and now we’re ready for a pie my wife would be laughing watching this cuz I really do lack Common Sense this is like my worst nightmare trying to assemble even a box I think I could

Do it after 500 attempts all right I got the next customer I’m uh a little nervous hey how’s it going good how are you uh the Jersey Shore with the sausage okay this exciting got my first customer how much cash oh yeah yeah I love you

Guys he’s gives you and then it’ll tell you how much to give back change 14450 all right I’ve never worked a cash register in my life you know true story this is pretty surreal actually here you go cool thanks cool you want a receipt right hand yeah just again mean too

Good light and just walk it out all right let’s serve it let me quit YouTube Let me quit YouTube for this there you go enjoy I work here well good afternoon good evening good morning anyone everyone wherever you are hi see Rob Rob how are you stay of the way good to see

You my name is Don Incredible Pizza Guy welcome to fil please reverse the camera you just started your Tik Tok live stream where you know I do a lot of YouTube stuff but you are a Tik Tock star for your pizza making videos how on Earth did you get into that

Uh man I’m still trying to figure it out but um I I developed the name do incredible pizza guy let me get a sticker that incredible pizza guy don’t ask me how I came up with the name I did actually I did it because of the fact

That I wanted to monitor my kids on Tik Tok see this girl who sang across the street I saw she was live so I was I was like getting into it and then I heard this guy uh and we’re going to go to Jackson Heights maybe get some tacos or

Get a burger somewhere so and turned out to be Kenny Kenny and uh after that I tried he tried my pizza and after I couldn’t get rid of him after that it works here um I started getting into uh the live streaming and that was a lot of

Fun so I’ve been live streaming for like a year and a half now all these people over there how you doing I’ll break that one second how is that actually transferred into business do you ever have people walking off the street and they say hey I’m watching your stream

Right now so you have tourists from you know in Time Square that figured out how to get here from Time Square wow but you are the source of the videos now you are the host you’re the show how important do you think that is going forward for

Businesses and the in the 2020s Queens is not a designated Pizza Town it was you know I had no other choice but I have a lot of fun making all these videos cuz I I’ve been in New York for 26 years now I worked as a video editor

I mean Tik Tok is where it’s at these days how many pizzas do you serve in a given day so I like to keep the the slices uh the the the display filled with pizza but I usually like to have at least 14 pies in the window I make like

120 pies like uh on the weekends each each night think I’m going to leave this to the professionals I I have a newfound respect and admiration for the hard work these guys do the V they’re on their feet all day putting this much effort in to the pizza and dealing with customers

And dealing with money not for the faint of heart now that You’ spent the day with one of the top Pizza makers in New York City in this video we show you another backbone of New York street food culture and that’s breakfast carts you’ll find out why New Yorkers are

Obsessed with these ones