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Speaker 1: This is a podcast from wor.

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Speaker 2: Now more of the War Saturday Morning Show and Larry Minti.

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Speaker 1: It was bury behind the walls for decades until a

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn pizzaia uncovered a coal oven from the eighteen nineties.

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Speaker 1: Is it worth going there to have a pizza made

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Speaker 1: in that oven? We asked Scott Weener from Scott's Pizza

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Speaker 1: Tours if it's worth the trip. First of all, all

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Speaker 1: before we get to it, Scott, and thanks for joining us.

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Speaker 1: I understand you're in Montreal right now. Why?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in Montreal.

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Speaker 2: I'm judging a pizza competition called pizza Fest two day

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Speaker 2: competition that ended yesterday, and I've probably eaten a thousand

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Speaker 2: slices of pizza over the past two days.

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Speaker 1: I don't Canada is not known for great pizza, is it? Well?

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Speaker 2: You know what, a lot of places haven't been known

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Speaker 2: for great pizza, but suddenly are over the past five

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Speaker 2: to ten years because everybody's watching YouTube videos about how

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Speaker 2: to make pizza and everybody's finally getting it.

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Speaker 3: So I gotta tell you Montreal is.

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Speaker 2: A serious pizza destination now that I've spent some time here.

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Speaker 1: Oh really, So you have a discerning taste is there

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Speaker 1: some there that's maybe even better than what you could

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Speaker 1: get in New York.

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Speaker 3: It's hard to say better just because oh.

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Speaker 1: Come on, no, don't quality.

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Speaker 4: Mean well, you got a qual But listen, I'll put

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Speaker 4: it this way. There's a place that I went to

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Speaker 4: the other day called Kujenies. Their Grandma Pizza would fit

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Speaker 4: in exactly with places in New York. There's a place

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Speaker 4: called Forno Pizza Frankie that is like a temple paying

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Speaker 4: homage to the famous pizzerias of New York where the

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Speaker 4: guy is basically like mimicking all these pizzerias in New

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Speaker 4: York City and doing a great job.

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Speaker 3: So that was great.

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Speaker 2: And then they had two New York style pizzas in

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Speaker 2: the competition from a place called Non Solo Pane and

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Speaker 2: they were I mean, they would be in the top

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Speaker 2: tier in New York City. So even though there's not

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Speaker 2: a ton of it here, there are places that really

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Speaker 2: stick out, which means there is hope and there is

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Speaker 2: sunlight for Canada.

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Speaker 1: That's a very nice way to put it. Before we

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Speaker 1: get to Lucky Charlie's, let me ask you a question

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Speaker 1: about pizza and how you rank pizza. What makes a

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Speaker 1: great pizza in your estimation.

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Speaker 2: Well, for me, you know, I don't love putting number

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Speaker 2: rankings on pizzerias, but I do section them off into tiers.

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Speaker 2: And if it's a top tier pizzeria, then it's got

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Speaker 2: to be number one, they're paying attention to dough. If

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Speaker 2: they're not paying attention to dough, it can't be in

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Speaker 2: that top tier. And I mean it has to be

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Speaker 2: a well fermented dough that has flavor on its own,

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Speaker 2: doesn't just rely on topics.

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Speaker 3: So that's number one. Number two, it has to be balanced.

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Speaker 2: So whatever you're doing on top of that dough, it

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Speaker 2: just has to be done mindfully. And with those two

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Speaker 2: things combined, I think it's not that difficult to make.

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Speaker 3: A great pizza.

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Speaker 2: Although if you want to make a great pizza seven

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Speaker 2: days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year,

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Speaker 2: you got to be focused.

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Speaker 3: And that's the third piece. It's about focus, balance and

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Speaker 3: dough fermentation.

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Speaker 1: And with that we want to talk about Lucky Charlie's

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Speaker 1: is a pizza that significantly different because of the oven,

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Speaker 1: and especially an oven that back dates back to eighteen ninety.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a couple of things. Number One, the age

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Speaker 2: of the oven does not dictate its greatness of the

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Speaker 2: product the coming out of it, because if you've got

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Speaker 2: a bad pizza maker on a greade oven, you're gonna

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Speaker 2: get bad pizza. The pizza is only as good as

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Speaker 2: the pizza maker.

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Speaker 3: But that oven is truly classic historic.

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Speaker 2: I think the first time I ever saw it was

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Speaker 2: maybe twelve or thirteen years ago, when the guy Charlie Verdie,

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Speaker 2: who's the guy who owns the building, called me up

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Speaker 2: and told me they have this oven underneath the sidewalk.

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Speaker 2: And now to see it in the hands of a

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Speaker 2: friend of mine, Nino Connelio, who's the owner of Lucky Charlie.

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Speaker 2: He is if you don't know his name, you need

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Speaker 2: to know it. He's one of the true pizza geniuses.

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Speaker 2: He's won tons of awards over the past twenty years,

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Speaker 2: and he's nuts, and those two things.

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Speaker 3: Combined, you know, that's like the perfect New York story.

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Speaker 3: He's the guy worked in the oven. So you go

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Speaker 3: in there and eat a pizza. It's only three pizzas

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Speaker 3: on the menu.

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Speaker 2: There's nobody more focused, and there's nobody who cares more

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Speaker 2: about balance than that guy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that you don't like to put a

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Speaker 1: number of value in pizzas, but often you rank pizzas.

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Speaker 1: Where does the pizza at Lucky Charlie's rank.

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Speaker 2: Lucky Charlie's a top tier easily? And it's because it's

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Speaker 2: a well made crest. The oven, you know, as I said,

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Speaker 2: the oven does not make the pizza. But the fact

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Speaker 2: that it's baking in a large it's a bread oven.

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Speaker 2: It's not meant for pizza. That place used to be

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Speaker 2: the Jamus scene of bread bakery in the early nineteen hundreds.

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Speaker 2: It's a dry oven because it's burning anthracite coal, and

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Speaker 2: anthracite gives you that dry exterior crisp with that even

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Speaker 2: char you know, it's like the flavor when you're eating

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Speaker 2: good barbecue. And so that place, to me, it's top tier.

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Speaker 2: But it's also it's a relic. It's a unicorn.

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Speaker 3: I mean, besides the.

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Speaker 2: Pizza, it just has to be a special place. And

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Speaker 2: you know, unfortunately the oven is below the sidewalk. You

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Speaker 2: can't see it, but being in the space, you do

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Speaker 2: get the feeling of it, and if you stand on

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Speaker 2: the sidewalk out front, you could literally feel it under

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Speaker 2: your feet.

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Speaker 1: Are all the pizzas cooked in that oven there every.

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Speaker 2: Single pizza and a lot of their dishes.

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Speaker 3: Are you know.

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Speaker 2: I stood there one day, maybe I don't know, four

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Speaker 2: weeks after he opened. I stood there in the corner

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Speaker 2: and watched them bake. They did seafood dishes out of

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Speaker 2: that oven, and they were doing these pizzas, only three

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Speaker 2: pizzas out of that oven. And it's wild to watch

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Speaker 2: because a restaurant and a bakery are not set up

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Speaker 2: in the same way. So the space downstairs is bakery

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Speaker 2: set up huge room. The oven has to be twelve

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Speaker 2: feet deep, which means that the peel, you know, the

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Speaker 2: shovel that you use to manipulate the pizzas, has.

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Speaker 3: To be fourteen feet deep.

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Speaker 2: So you've got this large, super long peel that you've

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Speaker 2: got to navigate around this room.

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Speaker 3: It's it's wild. I wish people could see it down there.

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Speaker 3: They got to stick a camera down there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you're a pizza aficionado, you're saying you

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Speaker 1: should take a visit the Lucky Charlie's.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, take a visit and go there early, like you know,

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Speaker 2: I don't know what time they opened, four five o'clock.

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Speaker 3: Get there on the early side.

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Speaker 2: See if you can catch Nino, ask him a question,

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Speaker 2: challenge him, tell him I don't think you really have

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Speaker 2: an off him, and then he'll say.

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Speaker 3: You got to trick him. But then he'll show it

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Speaker 3: to you.

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Speaker 1: That that's tremendous advice. And I'm just assuming that's a

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Speaker 1: great impersonation because I've never heard him talk.

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Speaker 2: Listen, for anybody out there listening who has ever met

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Speaker 2: this man, you know, my impersonation is.

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Speaker 1: Spot on. Oh thanks so much for your time. Scott

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Speaker 1: Widers Scott's Pizza Tours. Right now, he's enjoying the fine

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Speaker 1: pizza in Canada apparently. Is the fine pizza in Canada

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Speaker 1: really just New York pizza?

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Speaker 2: It's not, you know, it's they got different tastes up here.

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Speaker 3: I'll be honest.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of classic local Montreal pizza that's just

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Speaker 2: heavy and a lot of topping. But then they've got

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Speaker 2: some thinner crust stuff that it does seem like it's

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Speaker 2: New York based. But it's hard to tell, man, because

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Speaker 2: really most of this evolution has been in the past

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Speaker 2: few years.

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Speaker 1: Scott Wiener from Scott's Pizza Tours. This has been a

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Speaker 1: podcast from wor