Operations

Hard work pays off in pies for The Original Goodfella's

The Original Goodfella's brought wood-fired pizza to Staten Island 30 years ago. With a new location and a well-constructed culture, the award-winning pizzeria is headed for its next act.

Photo: The Original Goodfella's

December 7, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

With a name like The Original Goodfella's, you know the pizza has to be good. And co-Owner Andrew Scudera Jr. makes sure it is at his wood-fired Staten Island pizzeria. It's the culmination of years of studying pizzas, hard work and a bit of determination.

The Original Goodfella's started in 1992 when partner Scot Cosentino opened the first wood-fired brick oven pizzeria on Staten Island. It gained attention from the start as it was unique from what most local pizzerias were doing.

Andrew Scudera Jr. is a partner at The Original Goodfella's in Staten Island. Photo: The Original Goodfella's

At the age of 15, Scudera had a paper route that ended across the street from the pizzeria and would see the lines of people forming outside the restaurant. He used to walk in there every Friday and ask for a job. "I probably got thrown out 20 or 30 times," Scudera recalled in a phone interview, "until they finally needed someone."

Scudera said he fell in love with the brand from the beginning and knew he would make it a career. A few years in, he was managing the place and eventually partnered with Cosentino with a smaller place that had opened on Staten Island, which began his career as an owner/operator.

The brand has one unit on Staten Island, runs a residential pizza company and operates a pizza school for fledgling pizzaiolos. It moved from its original location to its current location, five miles away, about a year ago, which afforded a bigger space. Though the space is in a residential area, the demographic has changed. The original location was close to the bridge and had a melting pot of diners. The areas they're in now has a more Italian fan base.

On the menu

"We kind of started from scratch" with the menu when the restaurant moved to its new location, Scudera said. "We kept the core great sellers — the staples — and then wiped everything else out and just built (the menu) from the ground up. It's definitely a lot smaller from what we had for years."

Scudera said a plain pie is always going to be the biggest seller in New York, but the restaurant's award-winning Pizza alla Vodka, with a vodka cream sauce, mushrooms, peas and prosciutto is a top seller as well.

The Smokin Goodfella, with smoked mozzarella, a roasted pepper cream sauce, sausage, peppers, onion and basil is also a big mover, as is the Tequila Sunrise that has a tequila cream sauce, shrimp, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and a mango salsa.

The dough has a long fermentation. "We use a natural-derived starter with no commercial yeast," Scudera said. "We actually started with fermented fruit water and built a 'mother dough.' It consists of semolina because we do high-temp cooking in a wood-fired oven. It's a blend of high-gluten flour, semolina which is naturally fermented with fruit water for three days. There's not super high hydration — probably around 60%. It's beautiful."

Breads, croutons and pita breads are made in-house, as are fresh pastas. Everything is made in house except for a gluten-free crust (to avoid cross contamination). The menu is changed every three months.

"We felt a real need for maximum quality, and I feel that you have total control when you're bringing in more ingredients and doing it all and controlling it in house," Scudera said.

Pizza accounts for 65%-70% of sales. With fresh pastas, steak and chops, seafood and a long list of appetizers like Curly Fried Zucchini and Octopus Carpaccio, Scudera and Cosentino are trying to show customers The Original Goodfella's is actually more than just pizza.

The Italian-based oven burns oak, cherry and other hard woods and rotate as a wood/gas combo. The oven bakes at 800 degrees with 650 degrees on the floor. It locks in the temperature and makes for an even bake. That helps with labor because training on the rotating deck is easier as the oven temps don't fluctuate as a traditional deck oven would.

"What sets us apart is that people do remember that we were the first wood-fired brick oven pizza on the Island," Scudera said, "and even though there are tons of pizzerias, and there are a lot of wood-fired places now … most of it is classic New York-style deck oven pizza."

All the pizzas at The Original Goodfella's are made with fresh mozzarella, "so it's more like the original pizzerias opened up in the 1900s," Scudera added.

Photo: The Original Goodfella's

Operations

The brand has nearly 40 staff members, and the youngest has been with the company for 13 years. Some employees have been there for 20 years or longer. When The Original Goodfella's moved to its new location, it was armed with a group of veterans who knew how the business should be run. It was fairly easy to hire the rest needed for the larger restaurant, Scudera said.

He said the restaurant's biggest challenge is finding effective ways to market "because I still have people walking in every day who wound up at the old location first," Scudera said. "We've blasted this thing all over social media and we've done some traditional print marketing. We've put it out there big time but I still have a few tables a day who went to the old place first."

Culture is an important part of The Original Goodfella's operations. Setting precedent helps the employees understand the demand for quality and good service that makes up modern dining today. Staff greets customers when they walk in the door, and that's a move imparted on everyone right now to the teenage bussers.

"Everyone who walks in that door is like your grandmother coming over for Christmas dinner," Scudera said. "You have to make them feel welcome."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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