Pizza Expo Floor Stories With Tara, Tony, and Brett

This week on the Pizza King Podcast, I’m bringing you a different kind of Takeout Tips episode.

Instead of one topic, I’m sharing a few quick conversations I recorded live from the Pizza Expo floor at the Perfect Crust booth. These are short interviews, but there’s a lot in them if you run a pizza shop, lead a team, or care about the craft.

You’ll hear from Tara Hattan of Andolini’s Pizza, world pizza champion and one of the most recognizable names in pizza acrobatics, Tony Scardino from Professor Pizza in Chicago, and Brett Geiger from Izzy’s Pizza, who shares his path from a Detroit-style pizza bus in Las Vegas to a brick-and-mortar shop in Nebraska.

We talk about competition, pressure, freestyle creativity, building a pizza concept around what you love, learning from the industry, and why being around the right people still matters. If you’re an owner, operator, or manager, there’s a good reminder in this one. Keep showing up. Keep learning. Keep talking to people who care about the work.

Let me know which guest you want to hear in a full-length episode.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What is going on, Pizza Fan? Welcome back to the Pizza King podcast. I'm your host as always, Tyrell Reed. It's first day, so you already know what that means. We're doing a takeout. I'm gonna do it a little bit different this week, though. Since we, you know, did get a few you know other interviews and we just dropped the interview with Vito from Expo. I figured we just kind of keep on that same train, right? I was fortunate enough to spend some time at the Perfect Crust booth. You know, thanks to my my friend Eric Dam and Grayville and Brian, Holly, the whole team over at Perfect Crust Pizza Liners. Excuse me. The whole team, they were they were so nice, so accommodating, and um allow me to just kind of set up on the corner of their their space, their booth, and and just talk to folks on the floor. So that's what we did. And we were able to get you know a couple of interviews done. So I wanted to use this time this this Thursday just to highlight some of those. They were all you know, quick, you know, two or three minute chats with folks. So we'll uh we'll draw some of those here today. I really appreciate everybody that stopped by. I talked to Tara Haddon from Andalini's Pizza over in Tulsa, World Pizza Champion, just crazy dope, dull spinner, you know, first woman to ever win acrobatics. Um she's pretty dope, man. She showed out when she came, when she came. I posted a video of me trying to trying to uh spend one of the practice does, and I looked like a damn fool. It was it was pretty funny. Followed up by Tony Ascardino, the professor himself from Professor Pizza in Chicago, another world pizza champion. Shout out to him for coming by and talking to us. And and lastly, we talked to Brad Geiger from Easy Pizza, Oklahoma. Brett was introduced to me as a man who does what he wants, and I appreciate him. He was uh he's a super nice guy, really, really cool to talk to, good guy to know, and we're we're hoping to get all three actually to come to come on the show and sit down and do four interviews. So without further ado, let's get into it, Pizza King podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Oh this is see this is what happens when you get a world pizza champion, dough spinner, showing up. She's got dough in her bag. Smacking people smacking folks all around. Come on.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Oh, it's not, it's like it's a it's a practice dough, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

What's the secret? How do you how do how do I get it to spin?

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Yeah, like I kind of started doing it.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

You wanna put a mic on so we can hear you?

SPEAKER_04 2:25

Clip me up.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Boom.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

So you kind of like throw it up and then you'll incorporate your other hand so it's like not good.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I make pizza every day. Yeah? This isn't just I know it doesn't look like it.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

You wanna like be really cool? You can throw it behind your back. You just look where you're throwing it. Don't hit this guy with the dog. And then there you go.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Alright, so I'm I'm a pro. Yeah, so you're pro.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

And then a little behind the back.

unknown 2:55

Oh, he's doing it.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh man. Almost almost that's fun. I've been following you for a while. You were like one of the first women to win Acrobatch, right? Yes. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. Where did you find the inspiration for that? I've interviewed Mike on my show too.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Okay. Honestly, him. Um we do like a little like fun version of kind of what they do here in Vegas between all of our stores. We'll call it Endomania. Yes. So it's like uh, you know, college version of it, you know. Oh shit. But it's really fun and we need someone to do acrobatics, and I was like, I guess I'll do it. And I started juggling it around on the on the floor, and Mike stood up and he's like, You're going to Pizza Expo as soon as you turn 21.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

As soon as you turn so you've been coming here for eight, nine years now?

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Is it still fun?

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Yeah, yeah. It's it's less intimidating and less stressful, I think. The longer.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Do you feel famous? Like people know you. No?

SPEAKER_04 3:51

No. I'm like, I mean, what's pizza famous?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Like you were just walking by and there's like, oh my god, that's Terra Hatton, World Pizza Champion.

SPEAKER_04 3:59

Eric and I are basically neighbors. So that's why. I mean, we're both just, you know, little Tulsa celebrities, I guess. Tulsa celebrities. Little Tulsa pizza celebrities.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, are you are you ready to spend some dub? No, I just want to get in the middle of this and say hi. I am no good at this. I need where do I find these?

SPEAKER_04 4:15

Um, these are the best ones I've found. It's a website called Pizza da Goma. It's in Italian, but they're they're the best. They're like they're stretchy, they're hard to rip, and they feel just like the acrobatic dose.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

How much do you practice?

SPEAKER_04 4:28

Probably more not as much as I should, but I think the more I've came, the more I'm just like, it doesn't have to be as stressful. So I'm like, I don't I don't need to practice so much because you're gonna forget all about it when you go up there anyway, and the music starts. You're just you'll panic and just do whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

So you're set, is that choreographed or is it just freestyle?

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Sometimes um this this year it's definitely gonna be freestyle. Oh my man.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Hey Drew. Hey, me, me, World Pizza Champion. Oh, come back because you you gotta get on the podcast. I'll come back here because I haven't seen the slice booth, but I know it's somewhere around here. I'll tell I'll find it and text you. Yeah, yes, sir. But so some choreograph, but sometimes you freestyle.

SPEAKER_04 5:08

Yeah. I think it's better when I freestyle because then it's just it's more authentic, it's fun, it's less stressful.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Do any of these competitions ever make you nervous?

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Yes. Yeah. Um, I do all the pizza games ones, but like the fastest and the largest, those are like stress me out and I'm like, I'm ready for it, and it's fun. The acrobatics, I feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack every time, like right before. I don't know why I keep doing it.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

What are you uh excited about this year?

SPEAKER_04 5:34

I don't know. I think I'm just excited to just kind of have fun this year and not have the pressure of like I gotta win. Like, if I win, I win. You know, if not, I'm probably gonna eat some good pizza and meet some new people. We've met now, so I mean it's a it's a good year then, you know?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

I love it, I love it. So well, thank you for this. I appreciate it. Gave me a quick lesson. I still suck, but I'm gonna practice. World Pizza Championship. That was good, thank you. Come on so we can see you. I just literally just ran into Tony. Was it Professor Pizza?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

That's right, so that's how it happens on the showroom floors sometimes. Hell yeah, Professor Pizza out of Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Totally made, yeah. What are you excited about here at the at the Pizza Expo?

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Man, everything like moments like this where you meet people that are just in their own respect on fire about pizza in our in our industry at large, meeting up with folks like Tara, who's on the World Pizza Champions and a teammate of mine.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Who just gave us a whole show with Doug?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, she's just a huge source of inspiration for me, and um, so many others on the team and just throughout the industry that are on the showroom floor are as well. So to have the chance to connect with them, that's that's really the number one goal. And the competition, the talks, the demos, those are fun too. But they're secondary to just being with people. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

What how did you become a member of World Pizza Champion?

SPEAKER_00 6:52

You know, I just kept following them around for the longest time. You know, you kind of gotta fake it till you make it. I'm on the team and I still feel like I'm faking it till I make it, but uh I competed for a variety of years in Vegas and in Atlantic City when they were still doing that, and had the chance a bunch of different times to help out Tony Geminiani set up for his demos and execute those. They'll go. And um, you know, they took a liking to me over time. Right on. Feel very blessed.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Tell us about Professor Pizza. What kind of pizza do you do?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Yeah, Professor Pizza is a like tavern-style Chicago? It's an exploration of many styles of pizza.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Uh we've got two in Chicago, one in Boston that we just opened. Uh, the one that we just opened in Chicago is our first slice shop.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

But it's a little bit different from a lot of slice shops in that we offer seven different styles of pizza from New York, Sicilian, Grandma, Detroit, good then deep ditch cast iron. I'm not even counting some gluten-free and plant-based options that we offer as well. So we have fun just kind of exploring the different styles, the terroir or the lineage of those different styles, and showing them off to people that might be new to them. You like straight geeking out on pizza in this shop.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I like that. What's your favorite?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Hard to say a favorite, right? But at the same time, I would say we're one of the only shops in Chicago. Calling out grandma style is a style that we offer, and it was one of the first styles that we offered before. The the uh variety of all the other ones that uh we added to the menu. Okay. And so something we're particularly known for. And I just competed in uh world's best cheese slice, and this time around, because I did that last year, and I won Best for the Mid-American region uh with a New York style cheese slice. And this year we went with the grandma style one, and I felt really good about how it came out. Yeah, man, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Well, thanks for stopping by. It's great to meet you. Shout out to Instagram so they can follow you.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, Professor Pizza, Professor Pizza Westtown, Professor Pizza Boston. Come at us, guys. We're here for all your pizza needs.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Hey, appreciate you, Tony. Thank you so much, man.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

I can't wait to see this. Absolutely. I'll tag you up. Uh yeah, tag me up and I'll I'll I'll give it a post. Oh, yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Thank you. Come on over here. So I'm Tyra, I host the Pizza King podcast. All right, cool. We talk to pizzeria operators, we talk to vendors and people who support. Check it out. Tell us about who you are and what Izzy's Pizza is all about.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

Uh my name's Brett from Izzy's Pizza. We used to be Izzy's Pizza Bus. We made a food truck here in Las Vegas. Yeah. I converted a school bus into a food truck and we did Detroit style pizza. Okay. Started off here in Vegas uh in 2019. Just some family stuff, moved out of town, just uh you know, school-wise for my kids' stuff. Took us to Nebraska and now we have a little small brick and mortar just called Izzy's Pizza.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Do you still have the bus?

SPEAKER_03 9:34

I had to donate it because of mechanical engine issues, all this, you know, like a lot of food truck issues. Not really business stuff, but it had to go. So now we're uh now we're just in a little pizzeria and making it happen in there.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Dizzy's what style of pizza you did? Is it still Detroit style?

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Yep, Detroit style is our main thing. Uh we ventured into grandma style, and man, I'm really proud of those right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

How was Detroit style received in in Nebraska when you got there?

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Man, it's been amazing. Like our first gig there, and then for the following two years, right? We moved there, sell out every day, like all the time. Like first 45 minutes we sold out. So uh they just love it because there's only one other place in town doing it too. So it's a little something different. We take a lot of pride in it, you know. We come to places like this to try to learn the most we can.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

So where did you where did you get your pizza roots? Like, how did you know pizza was what you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Uh man, this place honestly, back home. Back home for me is Rockford, Illinois, which is like uh like an hour or so from Chicago, west of Chicago. Uh but I really like the tavern style growing up, like until when I moved to Las Vegas, tavern style wasn't really a thing, and I just kind of wanted to go back home with my pizza flavoring.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I'm a Midwest guy too, so I know I know that feeling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah. So uh yeah, just started making it at home, man. But then I tried this uh Detroit style pizza one day that just blew my mind. And I've never had it before, and I was like, well, okay, I'm gonna just buy a pan and start focusing on that. So it just blew up, man. I just fell in love with it, and here we are seven years later.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

That's awesome. Congratulations. Yeah. Well it was great to meet you. I'll make sure we we follow you. Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Cool. Uh you can find us on Instagram or Facebook, just under Izzy's Pizza or Izzy's Pizza Omaha. If you look up Izzy's Pizza Bus, all roads lead to us. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Man, thank you so much, Brett. It's great to meet you. We'll make sure we give you a follow, man. This was good.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Yeah, absolutely appreciate it. Appreciate you. Nice.