Hey, folks, I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode Content.
Welcome to Good News York. This is an awesome
episode. I am joined by a good friend of mine,
fellow profounder, and somebody who I've been
a fan of long before I met him, because I've
been eating his food at his local restaurant
for a long time. So very excited. To have my
friend, Tony. Tony, go ahead and introduce yourself
and tell folks where you're from. Hello, everyone.
How you doing? My name is Tony Colashibeta, and
I'm the owner of the Cams Pizzeria. Man, Tony,
you and I got talking, I guess I want to say
recently. It was a little while ago now, though,
at our good friend Jackie's fundraiser recently.
Yeah, for warehouse. And we had such a good conversation.
I honestly wish I had a microphone at the time,
because we could have done a whole podcast right
there. I loved learning about what you got going
on. The Cams name is one that's been around.
We see it everywhere. It's phenomenal. Mike was
gushing over your brand already here today. But
really, it's got a great look. Give us a little
background. How did it get started? I know there's
been a little evolution to today. Give us a little
history of Cams, if you would mind. Cams is actually
my brother's nickname for Carmelo. And the pizza
business was his dream. Back 45 years ago, we
opened. This past July 2nd was our 45 year anniversary.
We opened up in Geneva. And what's neat about
that is that the very first person we hired in
Geneva, her and her brother have been running
that location for the last 37 and a half years.
Wow. And they recently wanted to retire. So what
ended up happening is that I ended up buying
that one back. Wow. And we took that one back
on July 1st. So it's kind of a neat 45 -year
anniversary that we were able to retire those
fine folks that did such a great job there in
Geneva. And it continues to be a staple in that
community. That's great. Yeah. So we're excited
about that. That's so incredible. So so many
restaurants come and go. How do you last four
plus decades? Well, it's not easy that's for
sure I can imagine hard work, but when you do
what you love and you love what you do you know
pizza for me is it's a it's a happy food and
we like to bring happiness because People's days
and lives are tough. Yeah, and you know when
they come to us It's for you for celebration
or to make what they're going through a little
bit more difficult difficult times And I always
try to stress that attitude with everybody that
they're our guests welcome them And I just like
to use pizza as a lure, if you will, to make
relationships and friends. I love that. Yeah.
I love that. We've got customers that are generations,
you know? I believe it. That was pretty awesome.
Yeah. Yeah, that's the way to do it. Looking
out for folks. That's just a message that we
hear from so many successful people is, you know,
why you still here is because we actually care.
That's right. I tell my employees that all the
time. If you don't care, I don't need you here.
Sure. No, that's that's fair. That's absolutely
fair Speaking of caring You told me about a little
Kind of volunteer charity work that I believe
you and your wife do on a regular basis Can you
talk a little bit about that? Yeah, we call it
our date night once a month my wife and I and
a bunch of other great volunteers and wonderful
people we head down to the rescue mission and
We hand out free slices of pizza and free beverages
And it's expanded that we actually have clothing
there and we have, we hand out tracks and hand
out small pocket Bibles and we play some uplifting
Christian music and we pray for people. We just
acknowledge them. And I tell you, it's been a
game changer for me. I could tell you some tremendous
stories. Even as I say them, they tear me up.
Best tip I ever got my whole life was from a
homeless person. What was that? It was a dollar
bill. They actually paid gave me a dollar bill.
They were so grateful and so happy for what we
do. It's just it was just I still have that.
And I've been tipped. Sure. Big numbers in the
past for different things. But it's such a special
thing coming from someone who has and is so needy.
Yeah. Yeah. That's that's incredible. It's, you
know, given folks just that that sort of dignity
of a good good meal. I know is so huge for them.
And I love how you frame that as the date night.
It is. I love it. What do you and your wife do
for fun? Oh, we go and feed folks. Yeah, yeah.
We love that. Actually, I'll tell you another
quick story if I could. Sometimes you go out
there and you wonder if you're making an impact.
And sometimes there's people that come that aren't
really in that category. Sometimes the people
that come are the people that causes some of
the problems down there. But we don't judge.
We give the pizza to everyone. Sure. And one
time, I come down, I pull right in front, I beat
the horn on the way because they know it now.
And this story comes from someone that's not
my story. This woman, she found out that she,
homeless woman, knows that comes all the time
to Kansas for the Tuesday. She found out that
morning that she was pregnant. and she was so
devastated that she was going to end her life.
And God had put me right at the right place at
the right time where I actually stopped her from
crossing the street. And because of that, she
stayed and said, well, I'm gonna get a slice
of Cam's pizza. And sometimes other ministries
come down with us because the food, the free
food is the bait, if you will. And there's other
wonderful organizations and ministries around
here that look to try to help these folks. For
instance, Teen Challenge. And there was a pregnancy
crisis folks that were there as well. They're
wonderful people by Julie Rosati. And they happened
to start talking to her. And it was actually
the folks from Teen Challenge. And they talked
her off the ledge, if you will. So I don't know
any of this is going on. I'm just there making
pizza. Few months later. I have this person who's
hunting me down asking everybody. I'm not a Facebook
person So someone tells me about it. So I finally
meet this woman and she says you and your wife
saved my life Wow, so what happened is she gave
birth to this child and she called the baby's
name is blessing and they call me uncle Tony
and Just to know that God put me in the path
at the right time. Yeah stop This woman from
ending her life and her baby's life and in a
three year old birthday, she's been adopted since,
the adoptive parents and the real mother had
come, happened to be the day after her third
day birthday, they came down to the rescue mission
as we were doing our free night pizza, and she
brought her, I should have brought a picture
of it, it's just one of those stories that, and
I remember them coming there, it's busy, they
said, come take a picture with us, go out and
take a picture with her. And then later that
evening, as you know, I'm wondering for the day
and kind of reminiscing, and then all of a sudden
it just hit me emotionally. And I was just so
grateful to God that he was able to use us in
that fashion. So it's not just pizza, it's what
you do and how you do. And I'm just grateful
that that's my forte, that's my blessing, and
I get to use it in that fashion. Sounds like
you also got another life -long pizza fans and
process. That's not a bad thing either. Let's
uh, let's talk a little bit about the pizza business
because something else I found very fascinating
Was just how you even do that, right? So you've
got an incredible mobile operation and and You've
got a whole pizza shop in a trailer. Yeah, and
it just sort of blows my mind Could you just
talk about that a little bit because I think
that's kind of kind of unique Well how you do
it? Well, that was a while ago, too. We started
doing, and as we go, been there for 41 plus years.
And Harborfest, many people were aware of that.
Back in the day, Harborfest was pretty tremendous.
We were the very first food vendor for Harborfest.
Wow. And Harborfest grew so quickly, we would
set up at one of the parks where they would have
the fireworks. And what I would do is we would
make pizza. And every two blocks, I had kind
of like the Pony Express with a hand cart and
hot bags delivering pizza to the park. Oh, wow.
And that's not very efficient. We worked with
what we had and that just put the bug in my head.
I need to make pizza there locally. How do we
do it? And we created, we actually built the
trailer itself and the oven that's in there.
It's a revolving pizza tray oven. And that's
how we handle it from up there. So from there,
it just kind of expanded. So we've been doing
mobile pizza trailer for probably 35 plus years.
Wow. And it got to be pretty big. We were doing
175 days a year with mobile units. Then COVID
came and now everybody else got in the game.
So now we pick and choose and we love to do events
like we did at the Vera House and then go downtown.
I just love that story of how you sort of put
that together. Like you said, lots of people
get in game, but I feel like they have sort of
warming ovens and things that are pre -made and
they're out of the truck in many cases. You have
a legitimate, that you built for that application.
He's not just a chef, this guy's an engineer,
I love that. That's just so neat. I think that,
and again, we talk about why businesses survive.
You saw a unique opportunity and figured out.
how to make it work, and then how to make it
better. And I just love to see that, you know?
Yeah, you said make it work. That's one of my
favorite lines. You've got to figure out, make
it work. Yeah. Yeah, you've got to get it done,
right? That's what's got to happen. I love that.
I love that. Tell me a little bit about the pizza
business. So these days, there's all kinds of
crazy pizzas. You can get all kinds of weird
toppings, all these things. What is still the
go -to most popular, best -selling pizza configuration
that you get every day. You know, you're right.
Pizza business has changed quite a bit. We started
45 years ago. It wasn't one on every corner.
It wasn't every gas station. It wasn't every
restaurant has a pizza section. It wasn't every
convenience store. And even the big box stores,
you know, Wegmans and Walmarts and the tops,
everybody has pizza. So it's not just the local
pizza guy competing with this, everyone. You
know, the traditional cheese pizza is still a
very popular one. The other couple buts we have
is the chicken bacon ranch is another one that
was a big hit. Chicken wing pizza and also our
peppery sausage is a big hit as well. So we have
a lot of different combinations. There are some
crazy combinations out there. We tend to stay
kind of more traditional than get too crazy.
We all like to do different things. I need the
professional pizza man's take now. I got to ask
you the controversial topic. Hawaiian pizza,
pineapple on pizza, what's your take? You know,
I'll eat it. I probably won't ask for it. I probably
won't make it, but if there's one sitting there.
Fair enough. To me, it's all personality. You
know, it's like eggs. How do you like your eggs?
You make eggs a million different ways. Pizza's
the same way. And I think that's what I love
about it, because it's something for everyone.
Every age group, every personality, every ethnic
background, whoever they're used to having, every
culture, it's just something that... It unites
people together, and I think it's a flavor that
hits everyone. I love that. I love that. This
guy knows his stuff here, man. I'll tell you
what. I'll tell you one of my favorite parts
of Cam's, one of the reasons that we've ordered
from you for years now, is not just the pizza.
You also have some good desserts there on hand,
a couple simple but good choices. Not every pizza
shop I feel like does that. I think they're missing
the boat there. Sometimes you want just that
little treat at the end, you know? That's right.
You guys got it figured out, and I just love
that. Yeah, our cannolis are a big hit. We actually
make the cannoli cream with the ricotta cheese,
and we season it accordingly. And then the shells,
we have them imported from Sicily. Wow. Yeah,
we try to keep those on hand fresh. They've been
a big hit. I'll put them up against anybody's.
That's the way to do it, man. When I was a teenager,
one of my first jobs was I was the delivery guy
at a local pizza shop. And sometimes it was my
job to fill the cannolis. And I can't really
tell you how many got filled and how many just
got eaten in that process. But I can tell you
it wasn't a profitable venture for my boss at
the time. Yeah. Everybody likes to lick the ball.
Yeah. Yeah. It was a good time. Tony, what else
is going on? Anything like that that we should
know about events coming up that people should
look for or look for you at, things like that?
Anything on the radar? Yeah, we do a couple different
things. We've got Dirt Week next week in Oswego.
OK. I don't know if anybody's familiar with that,
but they turned that asphalt track into a clay
track. And what used to be down at the fairgrounds
is up in Oswego. That's been going on for, I
don't know, probably 10, 12 years now. It actually
became the busiest week of the year. Wow. Yeah,
it's pretty tremendous, and it's a great following.
We always had the concession stand in the racetrack,
but now we also set up one of the mobile units
in the back as well. And it's a fantastic event.
It's exciting. The weather's going to be wonderful,
so we're expecting huge crowds. And we have a
lot of regulars there that come from Canada,
from everywhere else, from the races. We've actually
made friends over the years. So looking forward
to catching up with everybody there. That's great.
Yeah. That's great. I just, I love that. You
don't get that from these chains and the convenience
store pizza guys, you know, are not in the community
and making relationships. But anyway, what's
your website and all that fun stuff? Folks want
to check you out, find your locations, all that.
Yeah, camspizza .com. Easy enough. And we have
web stuff. Facebook page for Suigo and us, Camillas
and Geneva. And they also have one for all three,
which is Cam's NY Pizza. Great. So yeah, we have
some posting there. This month, excuse me, we
highlight our jack -o' -lantern pizza, our pumpkin
pizza. So it's a sheet pizza, shape of a pumpkin,
dressed with the toppings, the jack -o' -lantern
look. That's very popular. So we've taken pre
-orders with that. That's a big hit on Halloween,
which is probably one of our busiest night of
the year. I can imagine. I've had that in the
past. I almost forgot what time of year it is,
believe it or not, but that is such a cool thing.
Yeah, we start offering out for the fall season,
but it definitely highlights for Halloween. Wow.
And you pre -order, you said? Yeah, we suggest
you pre -order, because it gets nuts. Wow. Yeah,
it's one of the benefits of having that revolving
oven. We can cook 24 of those at a time. I see.
Yeah. This is you can do some volume there. This
is it cams pizza I can attest they got online
ordering all that fun stuff Stop in any of the
the locations that Tony mentioned or at the events
that you see his trailer Just love to have you
man anytime you want to come back and talk about
anything you got going on You're more than welcome
here. So thank you for having me. I appreciate
it It's exactly the type of thing that we'd love
to highlight here on Good News York. So And with
that We'll call it a day Guys, this has been
a great episode of Good News York. Please like,
follow, share. And don't forget, tomorrow we've
got an exclusive interview with the Retro Game
Con people. We're going to tell you all about
this fantastic show that will sell out the Convention
Center. So don't wait for the episode. Go to
Retro Game Con. Get your tickets. And also, while
you're clicking around the internet, visit our
sponsor, Ads on the Go. Get ads on the go .com.
Our man, Zach, with the billboard truck is just
the nicest young man in town. And we couldn't
thank him enough for his ongoing sponsorship
for the show. So with that. Peace out.