Hey folks Welcome to good news York. I'm your
host Matt major from growth mode content joined
as always as my my slightly younger friend Slight
from the big city of Herkimer as my seventh grade
science teacher used to say originally. Yes.
Yep, originally. I'm a Hurka might Hurka what
the fuck was what was your town Nick? Well, we
were we were the cake. Yeah, you were the cake
eaters. We were the pizza pushers Frankfurt was
a spaghetti twisters. Yeah, and then Spaghetti
benders. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And then mohawk
was nothing mohawk was Well, you know the saying
in mohawk is well, there's always the goat Well,
there's always the goat anyway Great Great weekend
with a little better weather than we've experienced
We had a little bit of sunshine We had a little
bit of sunshine. I got to mow which always makes
me happy this weather thing It's you know, it's
one of those things where you'd like Everybody's
pissed off about it and there's nobody to get
mad at Oh, the story of society. We all want
to point the finger at something or something.
And it's understandable, because it's ruining
everybody's everything. No, I mean, it's been
basically Seattle the last month. And, you know,
we, unfortunately, a lot of people suffer with
seasonal depression through the cold and gray
months in New York. And it seems like that's
just been dragged out. And that sucks. Yeah,
that's why you just got to suffer from regular
depression. It's way easier. Year round is more
efficient. Way more efficient. You don't have
to worry about the... weather check it and go
am I gonna be depressed today what do you what
do you feel about some of the like the heat lamps
to the salt lamp things of that nature that are
supposed to help you know reduce that do you
have any faith in those sorts of things I have
no I don't even know what you mean by the heat
lamps or salt well so they have like a like a
bright you know sort of a simulated indoor Sun
that's supposed to oh I feel better I think you
know indoor lighting is great for when you're
growing certain plants You know I I think there's
there's some validity in those lamps Yeah, you
know I'm a big advocate of mental health and
whatever works works. I mean it makes sense There's
this app. I downloaded the other night You get
a lot of apps. I do I do it's actually asinine
weird. It's called Luminate, okay, L -U -M -E
-N -A -T -E and it offers you this light therapy.
So that like before you go to bed. Yeah, you
were talking about this, okay. Yeah, so you fill
out like what you want to get out of this light
therapy and then it gives you before you pay
for the app, it gives you like a free run. Yeah.
And it's about 10 minutes long. The first one's
free, kid. Yeah, exactly. And you use the flashlight
on your phone and you lay there with headphones
on in the dark and I swear to God, it was one
of the most insane experiences. Really? It's
almost like... You dream, but you're awake. It's
like you're in a subconscious hypnosis. All right.
But you also are seeing things with your eyes
closed. And then the next day, I felt great,
which could be the placebo effect. But man, I'm
telling you, based on that, I think - If it were
to initiate a placebo effect, I feel like that's
a positive. Absolutely. Right? Yeah, because
it worked. At the end of the day, you feel better.
At the end of the day, I feel better. But it
was intense. I recommend everyone try that. So
that brings me to answer your question, which,
yeah, I think Salt Lamps, if that works, if the
flashlight on my damn iPhone works, why wouldn't
those work? You got me there. There's another
app I found. You know what that reminds me of?
There's an old episode of Star Trek. Danny might
remember this. He's almost as much of a nerd
as I am. I believe it was episode two or three.
It was one of the first ones. It was called The
Game, and everybody got hooked on this thing.
And in the end... Data being the robot the only
one that couldn't have been hypnotized basically
by this thing Programmed a flashlight to flash
in a code to like decode everybody just reminds
me of exactly what you're talking about Yeah,
or like men in black when they would erase their
similar concept similar concept. Yeah, it's actually
men in black I always wanted one of those Everything
cool came from Star Trek dude. There's another
app and I know it's the morning but it's called
the hold app I read it through the comments on
social media hold it's male Kegel exercises so
that you can last longer in the bedroom. And
the reason I found it, I was reading a complaint,
a woman was complaining to like some newspaper
or social media outlet about how her, basically
her lover ended up cheating on her because he
could finally, you know, last a little longer
if you know what I'm saying. So, um, my point
of bringing that up is forget light therapy.
No, uh, There's something for everything out
there. If you really go into that app store,
man, it gets scary. Remember the old slogan,
there's an app for that? Yeah, it's true. I feel
like that, I don't know why that ever sort of
faded away, because it still is the most accurate
slogan statement, whatever. I feel like you would
have some really good app ideas. Do you have
any of them? Ideas? Yeah, you have any? Yeah,
no, I'm not one of those app guys. I fucking
hate apps, to be completely honest with you.
And maybe it's because I have built a few. a
number of specifically like radio station media
apps or e -commerce types of apps. They're just
a pain in the nuts. They're hard to maintain.
You got to go through all these different steps
with both platforms and they have radically different
steps. So if you want your app to work for Android
or iPhone, that's why you see a lot of these
big complicated ones will start off for a long
time on just one of the platforms. It's a huge
pain in the ass. And also, the majority of the
things to date that I've wanted to do, you can
do with a website. So if you have a properly
formatted mobile website, you don't need an app.
That's true. You don't mess with Apple or any
of that. You just say, here's the link. And you're
done. I agree with you. I had two app ideas.
One, somebody took. And it's a brilliant account
to follow. I wish I could remember it. having
IBS finding a bathroom is important especially
one that's clean and there's this woman who's
doing God's work in New York City where she posts
videos post content of showing you like West
Village you got to check this bathroom out and
she shows the sink and the and and how private
group called where Syracuse poops that's great
I love that you got to send me the link it's
really more of a parody the other the other idea
I had was an app where cuz doesn't doesn't Google
Maps show you a lot of Public restrooms, you
know yeah, but listen you know what you're walking
in exactly and that's why I'm I very much appreciate
what this person Yeah, remember those old gas
station bathrooms where you'd have like a baseball
bat attached to the key Here's the key and it
was like the filthiest a sheet of plywood or
yeah, like I didn't steal it Yeah, right like
you're gonna steal and uh you would have to wash
your hands before you pee because you're your
wiener was the cleanest thing you'd touch in
there. I mean, it was... Here's the thing. You
pull up one of those gas stations late at night,
you don't ask for the key to use the shady bathroom
around the back. You just piss behind the dumpster.
Oh, 100%. Like... Yeah. That is the safest...
I mean... Cleanest spot in the entire shady ass.
Yeah. My other app idea was, you know, I don't
know about you. I feel like you're along these
lines. A lot of times, I'll just ask my wife,
like... What's the temperature outside? And she's
like, 74. And I'm like, is that long sleeve jacket?
So I was like, what about an app where you kind
of input what your style is, right? Like they
do for when they send you a box of stuff, right?
Usually you put in your style and they send you
a box of stuff you tried on. This one you put
in your style and they don't say like. The exact
t -shirt you would wear but you would wake up
you click on the app and it would say Mike today's
a jeans t -shirt Long -sleeve day or today's
a jacket day or a sweater day because I'm a guy
I'm lazy, you know Alexa could do that. I'm not
sure no she's kind of dumb It's getting better.
I hate to do this. I really do, but I too actually
have an app idea, and let me know what you guys
think about it. Oh yeah, I want to hear this.
This is great. So, you know, we specialize in
content creation, and a lot of the time copyright
infringement is a big thing with songs and music
and stuff. So what if there was an app, and the
name of the app is called Muse, and what it does
is you upload Little portion of the song that
you want to use like for example Hit me, baby
one more time see if it's been written not that
but then it uses AI to make Kitten create something
in that style in that style as kitten meows So
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow in that tone
and everything and then you can take that audio
and upload it to your What do you think about
that? I will invest in this if, exclusively,
if we can make you the voice of it. Oh, yeah,
yeah. First of all, you have to be doing the
meow. That was a rollercoaster of emotions for
me. I was so invested, because Danny's got great
ideas. He had no idea where that was going. And
now it turned to more of a parody thing, and
I actually love it more. I think I love it more.
Because I actually had the idea, too, as a songwriter,
joke writer, where you upload maybe a melody
into something. And then it says, ah, nice try.
Foo Fighters already wrote that. Or sorry, Carly
Simon's got that one. Yeah, I mean, they're probably.
I mean, a lot of like the YouTube tools, when
you upload our videos, they'll actually do a
copyright scan before you post it. YouTube is
the strictest. Right. Right. In fact, I dare
say too strict. In some cases. Many folks would
say that. Yeah. We have a guest coming. We do.
We do. And his name is Nick. Is he here? Sanford
no, it should be any second Nick Sanford wait
to say that until he was ready to come in Nick
says Nick's a text that I didn't get or something
Well, he did text me a few minutes ago. I said
1035 a GPS said so he should be rolling in right
now We are gonna take a break and we have Nick
Sanford from toss and fire Which we've talked
a lot about on here and we've ate a lot of their
stuff before we do that I got to talk about our
man Zach on ads on the go do that nice go ahead
dude I am so excited about this You know as we
talked about ads on the go is now an official
sponsor of Good News York and we are also working
with them and promoting Good News York as well
as all of our growth mode content clients on
the sides of that incredible mobile billboard
truck. It's amazing. It is. I mean, this is the
picture of the truck, too. Right. Right. And
there'll be more and more. We're making the slides,
the ads, whatever you want to call them that
will go on the truck for, again, not only our
show, but all of our clients podcasts. So we're
making those now and those are going to go up
on the truck. And as soon as they do, we'll have
some really awesome photos of those in action.
But we're going to be doing a lot of things.
through this sponsorship that Zach and his company
has provided to us, because we get more than
just the driving around advertising, we'll save
some details, but we got these guys on the hook
to do a lot of cool things with us. And it's
amazing, especially for a kid his age to dive
into that and just pioneer this new age of digital
billboarding. Such impressive, impressive young
man, great business idea, great business model,
the way they've designed it to make it super
affordable. Yeah, totally. You know, billboards
are an expensive thing. Very. They make it very
much not so he starts at what 350 I was gonna
say it was like three or 350 you get a whole
month of advertising and you got to see this
truck I mean there is video on all sides. It's
huge, which by the way, if you do see us I want
to get some feedback hit us up producer at growth
mode tech comm you can email that anytime if
you have any questions comments concerns insults
anything you want us to talk about but Let us
know if you see us on the highway around Snap
some photos send them in or snap some photos
and send it. There you go We'll give you something.
Yeah, exactly. We'll give you a pizza. We'll
give you Danny's t -shirt. All right. We will
be the one he's wearing. And we'll make sure
he sweats in it first. And we'll let him record
a meow ringtone on your phone. Meow. It's a whole
suite. Can we put Danny on what's that app? The
one where you... Grindr? Sell. Oh. New app. The
ones where... What is it? Cameo. Oh my God. Good
if Danny Tripodi cat voice video. Here's the
question. What what $49? Uh -huh. That's not
bad. I'm thinking I don't know I don't know how
that platform works. How much does the platform
get first? Well, I've used it. I've used it I
gave my wife the the head doctor on Grey's Anatomy
did one for her and Susan Waldman of the Yankees
for my mom. So it's all different prices. Like
your big celebrities, you're looking anywhere
from 250 to 500, maybe 1 ,000. For what kind
of, like how long of a video? It depends. Usually
they'll do like a minute to two minutes. Okay.
Maybe even three minutes, some of them, if they
love the chat like me. Imagine making 250 a minute.
But the thing is, like, there's some people that
really commit to it and they go, look, somebody
paid for this. I'm going to do this right. Then
there's some that are just like, really, dude?
You didn't put any effort. Right, right. But
do you have any idea what the platform gets out
of that, what their cut might be? Does it tell
you? I think it does tell you. I mean, obviously,
I think it's a percentage, maybe like a 10%.
I always want to know the business model behind
this shit. It's such a great. Idea it is so good.
We should have done that all right anyway. We're
gonna take a break We'll be back good news York
sponsored by ads on the go get ads on the go
calm We'll be back with Nick Sanford tossing
fire All right, welcome back to good news York
sponsored by ads on the go get ads on the go
calm I am here with a very special guest a celebrity
to us because we love your food Nick Sanford
from toss -and -fire pizza right here in Syracuse
Nick I know that was weak. It was one person
clapping. Thanks for coming on man. Thanks for
having me. Good morning so toss -and -fire is
The first thing that stands out first of all
great name How'd you come up with that name?
I honestly by luck so like when I decided I wanted
to start a mobile we wanted to start a mobile
trailer food truck trailer mm -hmm and I had
like a little like notebook and we started just
writing random yeah we had like Flames and Embers.
It was just like, what things said pizza and
fire, right? So we were trying to put these things
together, and I kind of narrowed it down that
it was gonna be something and something. And
some terrible, I had like Scorched Embers was
one of the names. Sounds like a metal band from
Iceland. I had some really bad names. And I was
like, no, I think this is the one. that we just
picked Toss and Fire. It's a great name. Well,
thank you. So the first time I was introduced
to your food was we had a little mini lunch celebration
here. And first I saw the branding, like the
name Toss and Fire. I go, oh, that's a great
name. And the way everything was packaged. And
then the big part, I had a taste of it. And here's
the thing. People maybe people that aren't from
New York or other places that are known for pizza
might think it's pizza How can how different
can it be? But yours really is unique and I'd
love for you to tell me I don't want you to give
away any secret recipes but you guys are unique
in the way that you cook it and in the way that
The toppings you have and we got to talk about
the garlic chips. Holy hell. Anyway So tell me
what what makes you guys unique. What is your
style? So I have always looked at pizza as like
a blank canvas. It's kind of always been my philosophy
about it. And I think of it a lot like how sandwiches
are. You can put anything on a sandwich. You
can put anything on a pizza. Obviously, you have
traditionalists. They want pepperoni. They want
sausage and mushroom. They want cheese, whatever.
That's me. And then you have people who want
to try different, unique things. One of my big
things when we started was that we were gonna
have some like signature pizzas and I had on
my original menu, I had mashed potato pizza.
We were gonna do a mashed potato pizza. What?
And my buddy Matt was like, dude, you should
do salt potatoes. It's like a huge Syracuse thing.
That is. So we took salt potatoes and like literally
did the exact pie we were gonna do, but used
salt potatoes for it and it's become our best
seller. People know us for it. They love it.
It's, it's, you know, and we kind of built off
of that. We were like, okay, well that worked.
Let's do this one and like so when we started
we had three specialty pizzas that were like
our main ones it was the salt potato the cheeky
monkey pizza which is made with cheeky monkey
tomato oil which i literally found in a store
here and was like this is really good and then
we put it on a pizza and then our fig and pig
pizza was the other one that was like one of
our main ones when we started which was just
like it's sweet it's salty it like it all kind
of combines and works well together and we built
off of that over the years like it's all it's
always been about being different and unique
and, you know, not the everyday thing you can
get at any of the hundreds of pizza places. Right,
but here's what I love about you and about Toss
and Fire. I've heard that same rap before of
like, we just want to do something that no one's
ever done. And here's the problem with that.
They do, but then they miss the mark on the traditional
things. What I love about you and your business
is that Toss and Fire does have the unique salt
potato pizza, by the way, the pickle pizza, holy
hell. But then if I get, like you said, I'm a
traditional mushroom or pepperoni. You nail it.
And like, my rule of thumb is like, when you
break the crust, you know, does the grease come
down? Is it triangular? And you nail all that.
Also, I always wondered, because I feel like
the sauce is kind of like, that's the thing,
right? The sauce is the main player. Do you spend
a lot of time like trying to perfect the sauce
ahead of time, or did you already have this and
you knew like, this is the ingredients I use,
this is what I'm going with? I remember the first
when I was first the first year I was in business
and like the leading up to that I literally drove
my wife insane because like I tried like 20 something
different really types of tomatoes and like all
of these things and like Actually when we started
we were using like imported Italian tomatoes
and we switched like two years in to these really
really great California tomatoes That I think
are are honestly just as good if not better than
the Italian tomatoes. Yeah And so that's kind
of where we landed and how we got to where it
is now. But I'm just a big, I'm a big fan of
a lot of different products in the pizza space
and I've gotten to know some of these companies
and some of these, like I've met owners of companies
and higher ups of these companies and like. There's
just some really great products out there and
we're fortunate to use them. See, I knew. I knew
you didn't just throw it together. You can taste
that you dialed it in. For sure. So let's talk
about that. How did this all come about? What
were you doing before you decided to open Toss
and Fire? So I've been in the restaurant industry
my whole life. That was the first thing I ever
did. I was 14 years old. I'm from Connecticut
originally. I worked in a pizza shop in Connecticut.
It's called Bellinapoli. I used to like ride
my bike or walk down the street because they
were right down the street from me. after school,
get a slice of pizza or a garlic bread with cheese
was like my favorite thing there. And there was
a cashier server named Barbara. And I'm sitting
there eating my garlic bread and she goes, she
goes, Nick, do you want to, do you want a job?
And I was like, I was like, yeah. And she said,
you want to, we need someone to bus tables on
Friday and Saturday nights. And I was like, okay.
It's like, it's five bucks an hour. I was like,
sounds great. And I started wiping down tables
and I, and I literally got into this thing. And
I don't know if I did something else. I would
have loved it as much as I as I do the restaurant
business. But I started wiping tables at this
restaurant, watching the way things moved and
the interactions with customers and how the cooks
in the back were making the pizzas and just the
hustle and bustle of the restaurant industry.
I literally fell in love. Like I was like, this
is like this is the coolest thing I've ever seen
in my life as a 14 year old. Absolutely. And
from there, they let me into the kitchen. I learned
how to answer the phones. I learned how to wait
tables. I washed dishes. I cut pizzas. Then I
got to learn how to make them. And I got to do
the dinners. And so everything kind of built
off of that foundation when I was wiping down
tables. I was like, this is cool. And I wanted
to learn more. And because I was eager, they
were like, yeah, let's come on in. Because a
lot of people didn't want to do that. No, especially
that age. I was really into it. So I did all
of that. And then after school, when I finished
high school, I ended up going to culinary school
to kind of get some of the foundations because
all I knew was this piece. I never did anything
else. So I was like I needed to like learn how
to work in like other kinds of kitchens and stuff.
So I did fine dining for a while. My father -in
-law was an executive chef at a fine dining seafood
place. So he brought me in as a line cook. I
got to learn how to like break down fish and
cook lobster and make mashed potatoes from scratch
and rice pilaf and cutting vegetables like doing
all these things that like I didn't really you
know pizzas like specific to pizza right but
you knew it was necessary yeah yeah so I did
that for a while and then I got into you know
when you're a line cook or you're a cook you
you find out that there's obviously more money
in management, right? So I ended up going to
school, like community college for hospitality
management. From there I went and got a job at
Panera Bread. I was a manager at Panera. Heck
yeah. Yep. So that's how I ended up in Syracuse.
I transferred with Panera to the Cicero Cafe.
Me and my wife moved up here. We bought our house.
It was cheaper to live here than Connecticut.
Yeah. And then I was doing the Panera thing and
I was like, I don't want to do this anymore.
started researching pizza trailers. One of the
first things I noticed when I was in central
New York was there wasn't a lot of food trucks
in general, but there were no pizza trucks. In
Connecticut, we had tons of pizza trucks. It
was very common. We used to go to this great
one called the Big Green Pizza Truck, and they
used to set up at a farmer's market that we could
walk to from our apartment. And I saw them doing
their thing, and I was like, that's really cool.
It was kind of in the back of my head. I went
on with my life. moved and a couple years later,
I was like, I should do something like the big
green pizza truck. Yeah. And so I started researching
and talking to people, whoever would talk to
me. Like, I just started like reaching out to
people who were doing it in other parts of the
country and trying to pick their brain and get
information and kind of put a plan together.
And that's kind of how it like went from one
thing to another. That's amazing. Nick, that's
amazing. I mean, I already had respect for you,
but I have more respect now because I Some of
the best, because I worked in the service industry
as a server bartender for a long time before
this. And you didn't always come across owners
that were involved. Sometimes you come across
owners who got some money and wanted to open
a restaurant, but they weren't in love with it.
More importantly, they... They didn't. I think
it's so important, especially if you're going
to own a restaurant, to know what you have to
go through to wash dishes and be on the line
and, you know, just makes you a better owner
and have an appreciation. I always said everybody
in the world should have to work in the service
industry for at least a month. So you just you
learn so much about yourself and just about society
in general. So you started with the food truck
and then I think was it 2015 you started in 2020
and 2024 you opened up. Those three years, you
opened up three different locations? Brick and
mortar? We had a trailer in 2015. Our first trip
was a pull -behind trailer. We actually got a
second trailer in 2016, which is also kind of
a funny story. The pizza shop I worked at in
Connecticut, a girl that worked there named Crystal,
she had started a mobile food truck business
in Connecticut. Her and her husband at the time
had started this business, and they were getting
out of it. And they had a trailer, and she messaged
me and was like, hey, any chance you want to
take this trailer off our hands. And I was like,
I don't have the money for it. I can't do it.
And she's like, we'll finance it for you. You
just pay us monthly over five years and it's
yours. Holy hell. And I was like, okay. Yeah.
So I went and my father -in -law was still living
in Connecticut. He went and looked at it for
me. And then I went and bought it and took it
home. And it was the most terrifying drive I
probably ever had in my life. I bet. And then
we actually, we started our 2016 season with
two trailers. And we were doing, it was our first
year doing the amphitheater. It was the reason
we wanted the second trailer was so we could
do the amphitheater because I knew that, you
know, it was going to be a really cool place
to set up at. And I wanted to be a part of it.
And I couldn't do it if I only had the one unit.
So I got that trailer. We had these two units.
We were doing stuff. And later that year in 2016,
we opened in North Syracuse. We were actually
looking for a commissary kitchen. We weren't
even looking to open a restaurant. We wanted
a place to prep our food. Is that a ghost kitchen?
Yeah, we ended up opening a restaurant there
because it didn't make sense to pay the rent
and not sell to customers. So it was already
a pizza shop. So we went in there, we had to
put a wood fire oven and do our thing. And we
opened up a restaurant, but it also was kind
of the hub for the food trucks at the time. Absolutely.
So now, during the day, do you... Sometimes you're
out in the trucks, or are you in one of the restaurants?
What's your days like? So I'm kind of all over
the place. I'm mostly, the food trucks are what
I love to do. I love going from place to place.
I love music, so I love being at concerts. I
love to, you know, I get to go to a wedding one
day, and then I get to go to a food rodeo. I
get to go to a concert. It's never the same day.
It's always different. We're doing the same thing,
but we're doing it with different scenery. Right,
and like 15, 20 years ago, if you owned a pizza
shop, that's what you did every day. Now it's
like you still own a pizza shop, but it's different.
Now that's actually how I invited you on the
show, was I was at the Dave Matthews band concert
at Lakeview Amphitheater here in Syracuse. And
by the way, you were a savior because I was starving.
I got front row for the first time in my life.
Yeah, which was insane. And but because of that,
I didn't want to leave for a drink, food, nothing.
So I didn't eat. I was starving. And I'm walking
up the hill and I'm going, I guess I'll have
to stop some. And there like like a beacon of
hope is the tossing fire truck up there. And
you're in there at 11 o 'clock at night after
the show's over and you're slinging. And I'm
bothering you about coming on the show. How do
you get that gig? I mean, I feel like that would
be a cutthroat gig to get. Yeah. I mean, we were
fortunate when, so it was it was 2016 and there
were like less than 10 food trucks operating.
So we were fortunate to get into that venue.
And, you know, we've tried to do everything we
can to be good partners with them and put out
a good product and. offer a good service and
just do our thing. It's definitely cutthroat,
but it's been fun and I hope to continue as long
as we can. I hope so, too. Are you there every
show? We're there every show, yep. That's great.
Pretty much. Maybe here and there we can't do
something, but we're pretty much there every
show. I gotta ask, you, I've heard, so obviously
you know there's New York style pizza, right?
There's Detroit, I just found out there's a Detroit
style, which I didn't know about. Chicago. I
did hear some rumblings. Is there a Connecticut
style pizza? There is. There's New Haven style
pizza. OK. We actually started doing pop ups
with New Haven style pizza. We do them once a
month on a Monday night when we're normally closed
from 4 to 8. Our next one is June 16th in North
Syracuse. So we open up for four hours. We only
sell New Haven style pizzas. It's been something
I've been working on for a couple of years to
try to kind of figure out and how to do it. in
the shop and... I don't think it's ever gonna
be something we can sell in the shops full -time
because it's so different from everything else
we're doing. What is it? So it's made with like
a completely different, it's a completely different
dough, it's made with a different kind of flour,
it's cooked like we cook it partially in like
a deck oven that you would cook a New York style
pizza in and then we finish it in the wood fire
oven. Okay. Thin, crispy, it's got a char and
it's got a chew which is like the biggest difference
between New Haven style and other types of pizza.
It has a chew because it's kind of like you took
Loaf of like really good bread crusty delicious
bread and a pizza, and then you created this
thing Okay, and that's the best way I can describe.
I'm down. It's very awesome. I really like it.
That's amazing So then I have to ask This is
the age -old question. Is it okay to put pineapple
on pizza? I think you put anything on pizza.
Yeah, I agree I think you put anything on pizza.
I think that if people get it's very controversial
of course, but I think that anything Anything
goes. That's what I say. Yeah, we put pickles
on pizza I mean, right. How can we sit here and
go? Oh pickle pizza is great But that pineapple,
you know, I say different strokes different folks
whatever you want, you know, as long as the basis
is there I absolutely love your pizza obviously
and you guys actually I think part of the reason
why it's such a signature taste is is it a special
kind of oven or is it the process of it? Yeah,
so I mean everything we do is kind of unique,
right? So we cook, we make dough with imported
flour from Italy. But it's not like your super
traditional Neapolitan pizza. It's kind of like
a cross between a Neapolitan and a New York style
pizza. It's a little bit more crispy than a traditional
Neapolitan pizza if you do the wood fire. They're
cooked in these imported ovens. Those come from
Italy. They cook at a thousand degrees. It's
ancient technology, right? There's no like there's
no turning the dial to get right right right
sure you want it's That's cold or that's hot
or we need to adjust it. You have to have the
right amount of wood It's there's there's like
this there's like this chemistry that needs to
happen when you cook with these with these wood
-burning ovens And some days work better than
others sure sure But I think that there's a lot
of fun in that And it's cool. Like I think with
the food trucks, it's really cool to like walk
by the food truck and see the fire roaring. Yeah.
Seeing pies coming out of this oven and like
100 percent. There's something that's like it's
like kind of like this primal. Yes. Thing. Yes.
It's cool. I could not agree more. Toss and fire
pizza. We have any. Well, actually, I'll show
you. Danny, can you throw up the picture? I want
to talk about this real quick before we go. So
I've had your pizza. The pizza's phenomenal.
Speaks for itself. There's a nice shot of one
of the pizzas there. But it's these things Matt
ordered. These, is it garlic parmesan chips?
Dude, they were, I can't even describe. They're
just so original and they're so flavorful. I
could not stop eating them. How'd you come up
with this idea? So we wanted to, we were looking
at some different kind of appetizer -y things
and we have this really, really great garlic
butter that we use. That's the key. And so that's
kind of how it was born. The garlic butter thing
is kind of funny because it was one of the only
things I kind of took from that first job in
Connecticut was this garlic butter idea. They
do these things called garlic bites. Yeah. And
it's literally, I think it's like the best kept
secret at Toss and Fire. It's pizza dough. with
garlic butter spread on it, gets cooked in the
oven, it gets cut up into little triangle pieces,
and then it gets pecorino romano on it, and then
you dip it in marinara. They're so good. They're
so simple. I'm drooling. I'm literally drooling
all over this. Really delicious, yeah? That is
absolutely amazing. I mean, all your appetizers
are great. The pizza is great. But it's just
your passion and the originality stands out,
man. So where... Oh, actually, you know what?
I'll tell you real quick. Have you ever heard
of Oneonta New York style pizza? It's like the
cold cheese on yeah, yeah, I've heard of it.
Yeah, my buddy went there I went to visit him
in college and you know end of the night you're
drunk and you the big thing was like I get this
big slice of pizza and then they throw on top
of the pizza just cold mozzarella and it sounds
ridiculous But it's fantastic. So there's these
little pockets of like places that have their
own little style pizzas But toss -and -fire bar
none one of my absolute favorites other than
your your own Do you have a favorite pizza place
or all time? I'm a pizza nerd. Me too. Me too.
I like it all. I like it all. I think there's
tons of good pizza. In central New York, I think
Mario and Salvos does a fantastic job. I think
Paladinos does a really great job. I think Pavone's
does a really great job. Pizza Regionale does
a really nice job. I mean, there's really so
much good pizza. I travel to places all the time
and I always try to find the best pizza to Vegas
for the pizza expo tons of times There's tons
of great pizza out there Florida in Orlando.
I found great pizza. I found it all over the
place I the only place I've ever found bad pizza
and again, I'm a pizza aficionado. I could eat
it for breakfast lunch and dinner It was in the
middle of Iowa. And I can't, you know, maybe
not their fault. That was the only place. Other
than that, I think some of the best pizza I can
remember off the top of my head is there's one
in Utica, New York called Slice. And then on
Genesis, that's phenomenal. And then there's
a famous one, my wife took me to Mac in something
on the Jersey Shore. Something in Macs, they're
very famous. Probably the best I've ever had.
So I like sharing that. Got to go to New Haven,
Connecticut. Yeah, that's already, I've read
that. Frank Pepe's, Sally's, Modern, Zupardi's.
The Sausage Pie from Zupardi's literally will
change your life. Jimmy Zabit's in Milford. I
got my summer plan. There's so many. That's phenomenal,
man. So before we go, let's talk about where
we can find the trucks and the brick and mortar
stores and toss and fire. Let's do it. Yeah.
So, you know, our trucks are all throughout central
New York. You can find where we're going to be,
like our public events at streetfoodfinder .com.
Our schedule is on there all the time. If you
can visit our brick and mortars, those are open
all year. We have a location, our original location
in North Syracuse. It's on North Main Street.
Our second location is in Camillas. in township
five, right by the movie tavern. And then our
third location, we have like a satellite location
inside of Harvey's Garden in the city of Syracuse.
That's amazing, man. And you can actually book
your truck, too, for events? Yeah, we do weddings,
graduations, birthdays, corporate events. You
know, pretty much any reason you want to celebrate
something, it's a great thing. My truck catered
my son's fifth birthday party yesterday. That's
awesome, man. Yeah, that's the coolest. Nick
Sanford. Austin Fire, Nick, thank you for coming
on Good News York, brought to you by Ads on the
Go. I would not just have some random pizza on
or on if I wasn't serious about saying it's some
of the best pizza I've ever had. And we really
love you here and we're gonna continue to eat
your food. And we love you, man. Thanks for coming.
Thank you. All right, that's it for Good News
York. We'll be back tomorrow for Tuesday Newsday
and all that other fun stuff. See you tomorrow.