Help Rebuild Al Santillo's

One Bite Pizza Reviews

7/5/2024

El Presidente | Pizza Reviews

Transcript

00:00It's wild in there, right?

00:18Oh my god.

00:22Alright, so we're at Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza since 1918.

00:28We are in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

00:33This place, hole in the wall, frankly we've tried to go here, what, five times?

00:37Their hours are bananas.

00:39Like right on the thing, it says four days a week.

00:41I called it, he knew who we were, he says, oh, you're finally here.

00:44A bunch of people knew.

00:45He's like, you're lucky, I was going to close up.

00:47He's like, this guy just, he's a one man show.

00:48Get to 64 next time.

00:49I don't know what that means.

00:50They're telling me to get, they're telling me to get to 64.

00:51I have no idea what that means.

00:52It's like we just called in.

00:53We didn't have to menu.

00:5464.

00:55They go about a year.

00:561964 style.

00:57Yeah.

00:58Our standard pie.

00:59Yeah, but it has extra olive oil and parmesan.

01:00We just do standard cheese.

01:01Okay.

01:02I did get, they had some garlic bread thing.

01:03I'm going to try that.

01:04Great job.

01:05Thank you.

01:06I appreciate it.

01:07But this guy, he's like, you're catching up to some other pizza guy.

01:08He made me take a picture of it.

01:09It's like, I have it on my phone.

01:10He's like, you're catching up.

01:11I pay attention.

01:12I guess I'm his rival.

01:34One bite, every nose rules, big review.

01:36Frank, you'd like this guy.

01:37He knew all about it.

01:38You know what else?

01:39I liked everybody who knows me.

01:41They're like, no, no charge.

01:42This guy, $35 for two pies, straight.

01:45I love it.

01:46One bite, everyone knows the rules.

01:48Santillo's, he said he just won an award recently.

01:51Cooked well.

01:53Cooked well.

01:55One bite, big review, Frankie.

01:56I'm expecting big things.

01:57I love the guy in there.

01:58He's just like this Italian guy, one man shop.

02:01I was ready to leave.

02:02He's like, you're so lucky.

02:03I love him.

02:04One bite.

02:05Looks pretty good.

02:12Interesting.

02:22Good crisp.

02:23Very good crisp.

02:24One bite, everyone knows the rules.

02:30Wow.

02:33The crust was an electric bite.

02:41Sauce doesn't have a tongue and a tang.

02:45It's really cooked well.

02:46How I like it, like well done.

02:48I didn't ask for it well done.

02:49It was cooked perfectly.

03:02Yeah, I got it.

03:03I got it.

03:11I got it.

03:13The crust is so good.

03:15The crust is boosting it.

03:16I take the normal bite.

03:17I'm like, OK, I got where it is.

03:18And I take the crust.

03:19I like the crust so much it's changing my mind.

03:21I'm going to 8-3.

03:238-3.

03:24Solid, solid pizza.

03:28I think 8-3 is the right score.

03:30I think 8-3 is the right score.

03:31I'm proud of that score.

03:32I stick by it.

03:32You almost forget this guy on Camry is such a character.

03:35Ask him if he wants to be on there.

03:37But this guy, this guy's the real deal.

03:38If I was just voting on him, I'd give it like a 9-9.

03:41Like, I love the guy.

03:428-3, solid score.

03:44Very good pizza.

03:45And another big, famous one off the list,

03:47St. Hilo's Elizabeth Jersey.

03:49It's a reveal.

03:51How long you been doing it, one man shop?

03:53Here's the deal.

03:54My grandfather started this business in 1918.

03:57My father started over here in 1957.

04:00I've been working here since I was old enough to stand up.

04:04I grew up in this house.

04:06Still living here.

04:07I'm 62.

04:09And what's your hourly situation?

04:10Whenever you feel like closing, you just close?

04:12Right now, I'm open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,

04:1511 to 9.

04:16But I pretty stay faithful to those hours.

04:18But I built the business around my life.

04:21That's what my father said.

04:23The business is built around our life.

04:26So if I got to close for something,

04:28there's not another guy in the world

04:30that could come over here.

04:30And do you see what I do over here with this oven?

04:33There's not another guy in the world

04:35right now that could come and do what I do,

04:37put these pies in here, turn them all around,

04:40twist them all around.

04:42An oven's for this?

04:43Yes.

04:44Everything that you see here, go take a close up in there.

04:48Everything that you see here is all done by eye.

04:52You've got to be taught by a master.

04:55The people that taught me were masters.

04:56See how you look at that?

04:58Yeah.

04:58You've got to know by eye how it's supposed to look.

05:00It's part of the body.

05:01I'm glad that you stopped in.

05:03I'm proud to tell everybody.

05:04But I'm the last of a dying breed.

05:07If my father was supposed to be the last,

05:10and then I says, he got sick when he was like 57.

05:13He couldn't work no more.

05:15Then it's like either I'm going to take this thing,

05:17I know how hard it was, or else this good kind of pizza

05:20is going to be extinct.

05:21Who else, what other pizza places

05:23do you respect in like New York, New Jersey area?

05:27There's this pizza, and then there's everybody else.

05:30But who's got a good pizza?

05:32In this league, that's hard for me to say.

05:36I like it.

05:36Keep it tight for your home.

05:38I'm telling you the truth.

05:40You could bring me anybody's pizza,

05:41and I could tell you what they're doing wrong.

05:44Because this was handed down father to son

05:46for three generations by the guys that

05:48knew what they're really doing.

05:50You understand?

05:51This is a craft.

05:52This is a trade.

05:53This is not something that you're going to grab a guy off

05:55the street, and in five minutes, they throw the guy in front

05:58of the oven.

05:59I'm sure everywhere you go, you see a lot of that.

06:01Whoever they can get, and then the boss walks around,

06:04he's the boss.

06:05Now, this is the real Italian way,

06:08how it was when they came here 100 years.

06:11Like, squeeze that.

06:12That's why I'm here.

06:13Love it.

06:14Because my father says, if you can't

06:16make a good loaf of bread, what the hell good are you?

06:19I'm going to take this really good aged Pecorino Romano

06:23cheese that, once you buy it, you can't use it

06:26the way they give it to you.

06:27You've got to buy the good stuff from Italy.

06:30But it's only aged so long.

06:32You've got to age it longer.

06:33The longer you age this, they can age this up to three years.

06:37This is, listen, I'm going to tell you something.

06:39Turn that off for a second.

06:40Secrets, Tracy.

06:41I'm going to give you a line.

06:43When the real Italians come in here,

06:45I'm going to teach you how to say it so you feel it.

06:48You walk in, you see this stuff that I'm making.

06:51This is the real fucking Guinea shit.

06:53Give it to me.

06:54I can say that?

06:55Yeah.

06:56I'm a Jewish guy.

06:57I can still say it?

06:58No.

06:58This is the real Guinea shit.

06:59Give it to me.

07:00This is the real fucking Guinea shit.

07:02This is real fucking Guinea shit.

07:03Give it me.

07:04That's how you say it, baby.

07:04All right.

07:05I'm doing that from now on.

07:06This is the real fucking Guinea shit.

07:08Give it to me.

07:09Done.

07:09I'm doing that from fucking now on.

07:11Everywhere I go, it's Italian.

07:12This is the real fucking Guinea shit.

07:15Give it to me.

07:15All right.

07:16I like it.

07:18You can say it.

07:19You got to authorize it.

07:20All right.

07:20You hear that?

07:21I put your blood in this, bro.

07:23All right.

07:23As long as I, listen, everyone heard.

07:25I just got blessed to say it.

07:26Give me the fucking Guinea shit.

07:28100% Italian and it's like he had a book all old rules

07:33Go through the book go through the book if he could find something that was harder or longer tougher way to do it

07:39That's the way we're gonna

07:43Give me the fucking guinea shit

07:47You gotta say just like this

07:49You got the real fucking guinea shit. Give it to me. You got the real fucking shit. Give it to me

07:59You don't believe this shit when I was 13 years old you see that bread

08:03Yeah, I used to put a hundred and sixty three loaves of bread in that oven

08:07It was insane

08:08And you know what?

08:09My father taught me and then he left me here by myself to practice and try

08:14Practice and try and if I screwed it up, I had to make it over explain it to the customer

08:19That's that's how you get the real deal. I forget the fucking guinea shit

08:23I was taught all the old Italian ways. No, what like little tiny shopkeeper. It was great

08:27He went to it. You went to sit tires. You went this in Tanney's you went to Kalamazoo

08:32It was wonderful when you went and saw what a happy Italian people if you know, it's like gave us like a little thrill

08:37What do you think the New Haven pizza been there like Sally's Pepe is modern

08:41I only want to have was Pepe's and I'm gonna tell you he makes a good pie

08:47But I got issues with it was like a disgust with you off the record. I

08:52Mean everyone has their opinions Sally's I like more than Pepe

08:57Sally's I think you'd like Sally Sally's is more like all I could tell you is I never had Sally's but I said one of

09:03My intelligences up there and I got two videos I could show you

09:09Of a guy that worked for my dad doing so knows that went up there and investigated

09:15That's what we do. We're Italians. We do our own dirty work. Oh

09:20I love it. How's that one? Perfect. Well, you know these guys all these guys talk about pizza

09:27I don't even know is anything about well, I don't know. I know about eating

09:31That's pretty good for like a first time. I can't complain you got the job done. So this is like

09:38That's kind of hot to be eaten. But you know, it's good. It's like all right electric golf, right?

09:44You want me to give you a demonstration now when I clean the oven this is like the most ancient thing you see over here

09:51I

09:53Figured out a way to do all this

09:55Well, my father taught me this you see this this right here

09:59There's old pair of pants tied onto the stick, but I have people here

10:04I don't know how many times I tried to teach them how to do this and they can't do it go like this

10:13I

10:15Must be like in good shape

10:19Listen

10:20This is like all the guys I had that work for me. They don't the gym rats

10:24They used to love this because this is like, you know a workout for like a lot. Oh, yeah

10:31It's like a nice worker. Well, you ever want to come down here for a couple of lessons?

10:36I'd recommend it because

10:38When you go out then I know I know like this guy's got intelligence

10:43That you've seen from me a couple of pointers that you got to be looking for. Well, you're yeah, you're already a ton today

10:49I appreciate it. Listen, I live and breathe this stuff. I appreciate it. You can tell it'll come through. I'm glad we came

10:55Thank you very much

10:57And anytime you want to come back, you let me know. I'll work something out for you.

11:01Alright, I appreciate it man. That was great.

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