"It's NOT The Water!" Mike & Mario From Dough Boyz Pizzeria

“It’s not the water.” That simple line has started arguments, and turned Dough Boyz into a must-try stop for anyone chasing a real New York style slice in Central Florida. We’re sitting down with Mario and Mike, the duo behind Doughboys Pizza, to talk about how a Staten Island upbringing, a lifetime in pizzerias, and a whole lot of hustle landed them in the Orlando area with locations in Oviedo and Longwood.

We dig into the move itself: why they chose the Metro Orlando suburbs instead of the high-rent tourist zones, pizza culture and how their slogan was born. They also share what New Yorkers often forget: there’s plenty of bad pizza back home too vs. here in Florida, and skill matters more than myths.

Then the story gets real. Mario opens up about layoffs, stress, and a season where faith didn’t make life easier, it made the path clearer. We talk friendship and business, the behind-the-scenes of running two shops, how they handle love and hate on social media, and the community work they do through school support and outreach.

If you’ve ever moved from New York to Florida, missed the taste of home, or dreamed about building a small business that actually means something, this one will stick with you. Subscribe, share the episode with a New Yorker in Florida, and leave a review so more people can find the show.  

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Transcript

Welcome To Doughboys Pizza

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Let's to you, I'm your host, Lizette Perez. From Apple to Oranges is a podcast about the New Yorkers that now live in Florida. Real stories, real people, real moments happening in both New York and in Florida. And who knows, maybe one day you'll be a guest on the show too. Because one thing I learned over the years is that when I meet another New Yorker, we can't seem to stop talking about it. And this podcast is gonna get down to all the reasons why. Today, my guests, I did it. I got Mario and Mike from Doughboys on the show. Welcome to the show.

unknown 0:35

Hey.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Hey, thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

You're welcome. I don't even know where to start with you. Like, I am just so excited you're finally here. Everybody's been talking about your pizza at Dough Boys.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Congratulations. How long have you been in Florida now?

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Thank you. Almost three years. August will be three years.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

How are you feeling about your response to your pizza? Like, are you overwhelmed? Like, it just seems like everybody's supporting you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Yeah, I love it. You know, that's what we came here. That's what I came down here to do. I came to, you know, deliver a good pizza, and it's something that I've done my whole life. So it's like carrying the legacy from my grandfather to my father and now to me. So it feels good. It feels really good like to see people like love it, you know? Because back in New York, you're a diamond dozen. There's good pizza everywhere, right? So, and then when you, you know, come somewhere where they don't have like an abundance of great Italian food and pizza, and you you stand out more, and you know, it just feels good that people I was able to deliver that for people.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Are you Italian?

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Yeah, I'm half half Italian, half Puerto Rican.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Okay, so there's Boricua in you.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Yeah, yeah. My mom, my mom's side, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Okay, nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

But I spent a lot of time on my father's side.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

You got some stores still in New York?

SPEAKER_03 1:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

No more restaurants in New York?

SPEAKER_03 1:45

No, none. Like my father, my grandfather, my uncles, they all had pizzeria my whole life. You know, they open up, they s some would work out and they'd sell, and some wouldn't work out and they would just move on. And when I left, my dad had a place in Jersey. It was doing all right. It wasn't nothing crazy. Like, but when I came down here, after we blew up down here, that's when I called my dad and I said, Yo, they say, get rid of it. You're moving now, and I need your help.

Why They Moved To Orlando

SPEAKER_03 2:10

So he's here now. Yeah, my dad's here. My father's here with me.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

I love it. So, why Orlando? Like, how did you find us?

SPEAKER_03 2:17

So, well, my partner, my best friend, Mike, he's I guess you started like a kid here, right? Like he was a kid here. You but you were born in Jersey, right? Yeah. So he's born in Jersey, but then like as a little kid, he was here. So he kind of went to like elementary school, middle school, here, and then moved up to Jersey. When I moved from Staten Island to Jersey at the same time, so we clicked up in high school, but he moved back down here like five, six years ago, something like that. So when he moved back down here, he would I was in the union elevators. I was building elevators in Manhattan. Nice. So I was out of the pizza business. I was like, all right, I'm not done I'm done with this, I'm not gonna do this, I'm gonna chase the union dream. That's every Italian kid from Stan Island's dream is to be in the union, you know? Yeah. And marry a nurse or something or a teacher, right? So that's usually the path that we go. But he would always message me, text me, send me links to restaurants for sale in Orlando when he came back here. And I didn't want to do it because I was, you know, I had a union job, you know. That's it, I'm set for life, you know. Then when COVID happened, he sent me another place in the middle of like being laid off and going through a tough time. I just said, all right, let's look at it. And I flew down on my birthday. Yeah, one of the July 27th. So it was my birthday. I flew down here. We looked at one store. That's it. We only had one store on the on the agenda. Yeah. We went to one store, looked at it, and we were both like, all right, let's do it. Is that the one in the Vito now? Yeah, the one in Ovito. Yeah, the one in Ovito, because we got that's the first store, Ovido, and Longwood is the second store.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

So, real quick, for those who are listening who don't live in Central Florida, Ovido, Longwood, this is a part of Metro Orlando. It's a suburb to Orlando. But I wanted to ask you, why not actual Orlando?

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Well, so like restaurant business is a tough business to jump into, right? You know, there's no guarantee it is a big risk there, right? So we knew we were gonna have good pizza. We didn't want to take a huge, like, I don't know, it still was a big location too.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

We were in between a Dunkin' and a Starbucks.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Yeah, it's a it is a great location, but why not like Orlando, Orlando? Well, financially, like, it's a lot to go, you know, celebration or Disney Springs, anywhere near Disney Universal, you know. And there was nothing wrong with the location that we found. So it was it was good. We're literally in the middle of Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks, and there's a Walmart right behind us, and there's you know, there wasn't that much competition around. So we knew we were gonna have good pizza. We just didn't know how fast it was gonna happen.

Not The Water And Pizza Myths

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, I love the slogan. I love I love your catchphrase is not the water.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

How did you come up with it and why isn't it the water?

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Because we sounded like a broken record, because every person from New York that came into the pizzeria would be like, Well, what's this thing about the water? And we would be, it's not the water while we're getting slammed, you know? And it one day we were just like, yo, that's it. That's the slogan. Like the light bulb just went off. Like that's the that's the the catchphrase. Yeah, it was organic. We just kept saying it to everybody because everybody kept saying it. Yeah, it was like it's not the water. Try the pizza, look, see? And then that was it. And it's working. Yeah, yeah, it's created a little bit of controversy, right? Because the people up in New York are dead set on it's the water, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Have you drank our water here?

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Sure, I have the water's different, right? It is different, yeah. But you know, like I told the the guys from the Think About It podcast, Big A and Joe, like those guys, you know, they asked me the same question, and I'm like, you guys are from New York, right? So you know there's a lot of there's a lot of garbage pizza in New York, too. But they all use the same water. So if up there it's not the water, why down here it's the water?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

The first time I had bad pizza in New York was when I went back in 2018.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

In the city.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, it was um, well, yeah, I think it was. I think it was um trying to remember where exactly I was during that time. I remember I felt like coming from here that I could go back and walk into any pizzeria and enjoy the pizza. Nah. Because that's how it was for years for me. Yeah, sure. But going back compared to here. Yeah. So the first time I went back, I had bad pizza. I was like, oh, what's happening?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

It's the water.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

It's the water.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Nah, it's just, you know, the city. Usually it's the city. I tell people, anybody that because I have people ask me all the time, like, yo, I'm flying up to New York in two weeks. Where should I go eat pizza? Because you get the standard, you could Google, oh, best pizzas. And my favorite pizza in New York is not even on any of those lists. Those are just tourist traps. You know, they have good pizza, but there's better pizza outside of those big, you know, so what was your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Like growing up outside of your family's chain, where was your spot?

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, so you know, we had good fellas on Stanton Island on Highland Boulevard was really good. We had Janeiro's right outside my high school, was really good on New Dorp Lane. There's so many Daninos, John Pat's. I loved Crispy. Crispy is a really good pizza. They are on all the lists. Crispy was really good. But my favorite, because as I got older, like I said, I was working in Manhattan for almost 10 years, and I ate pizza everywhere. Wherever my job was, I was looking for the pizza in that in that area in the city. And my favorite slice was 79th and Lexington. It was Upper East Side. It was a place called Don Filippo's. They had a really good slice of pizza. I loved it. So, but they're not on any list. Like, just goes to show you like so many places. Some of the best pizza is outside of what everybody, you know, says. I think we were just smaller back then. You know what's funny? As a kid, I used to take the cheese off my pizza.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Did you?

SPEAKER_03 7:50

I didn't like the cheese on the pizza. When I was a kid, my mother used to yell at me all the time because I would be eating sauce and bread.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Sauce and bread, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

But she didn't mind too much because she got to eat the extra cheese.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

You know, but yeah, when I was a kid, I pulled the cheese right off my slice of pizza and would just eat the bread and the sauce. I was never big on the cheese. So, but I just think as kids, you know, it was it was bigger. Everybody's got like, so here's here's like another like thing about New Yorkers, like in your neighborhood, you got your favorite, right? That's the place you grew up on. That's what pizza is to you. And it's New York style pizza, right? Because it's in New York. Same thing for me in Staten Island. Completely different pizza, but that to me is what a New York slice is, right? So everybody from different boroughs and different areas of New York City has their palette for what pizza is supposed to be. Traditionally, it's thin, crispy, light cheese, sweet sauce. That's the traditional New York slice. Some people like extra cheese, some people like extra sauce. It's just whatever place you got familiar with growing up in New York, that's what it is to you. So, you know, sometimes you get people like, oh, there's not New York pizza. Very rarely, but it happens. But that's because that's not what they remember them having for themselves. Yeah.

What A New York Slice Means

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Whatever borough they're at, which they was probably somewhere eating dollar slices, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Dollar pizza. Listen, what inspired you to keep the tradition going? You know, from being a child raised up in a pizza shop to where you are today, like do you have any favorite pizza memories, you know, as a kid? I mean, we all love pizza as a kid.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

It's just so familiar. It's like home, it's like second home. I grew up in the pizzeria with my dad. So my brothers would always want to stay home, play with their friends on the weekends, and I always wanted to hang out with my dad, but he was always working. Yeah. So I would go to work with him. So on the weekends, I was little, you know, eight, nine, ten years old. Put the apron on and I'd hang out at the pizzeria, clean off the tables, fill the sodas, sweep, help them roll dough, hang out, run up the block, play at the park. Like, you know, I just was always in the pizzeria, learning and doing stuff that eventually you get older, it's just all you know. I don't want to say you get stuck in it, but it just becomes so comfortable. Once you realize that you're good at it, yeah, then it just becomes easy because now the passion starts growing and you want to continue what they started and make something out of it too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

And I'm sure your dad is proud of you.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's my biggest fan. That's our biggest fan. That's that's our guy right there.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So pass the mic. Mike.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

What's up? What's up?

SPEAKER_02 10:17

What's up?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

So tell me your story because you said you were already here as a kid. You've been here a long time.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Yeah, so I I was born in Jersey. I moved down here when I was about six months old. My family bought a bar in Sanford, so we moved down here. But yeah, so I grew up down here, went to, like Mario said, elementary school, middle school, and kind of getting in trouble and stuff like that. So I got sent back to Jersey with my dad, met Mario, and we got in more trouble when I got there.

unknown 10:40

I bet.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Him and his brothers and stuff like that. But yeah, other than that, I ended up, you know, getting in trouble up there. So I came back to Florida and bounced back and forth a few times and yeah, just started my own business with a different friend of mine. And it took off and it ran its course, and eventually we got together and did Doughboys pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

What's your reaction to the response you're getting? Because I mean, you guys are blowing up on social media, and I've been having fun watching you.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Like, no, I love it. I I love it. The compliments, the hate, the whatever they got for us, we take it all. You know what I mean? We love it. Every bit of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

What kind of hate are you getting? Like, your pizza is so good. It's not the water, it's not the water.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

The people from New Jersey, New York, wherever, like, get out of here. How could you how could you make a good pizza? The bro made this, the bro made that, whatever, whatever it is. We got a good pizza.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

You do. Yeah. That's why you're here today.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Plus, I wanted to hear your stories. I wanted to hear like everything that got you to where you are today. But let's talk about Florida for a minute. So you've been here. You're already, you're a Florida boy now, too, just like I'm pretty much a Florida. I hate saying that I'm a Florida girl.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

I love it, man. I love Florida. I love, I love what Florida represents. I love Florida.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

It's nice here. Mario, are you liking it here? I know you're liking the business and all that, but I want to know how do you feel overall?

SPEAKER_03 11:51

I get this question all the time. I love Florida.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Good.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

I love it. I don't even think about New York no more. I used to, when I first got here, I would say all the time, like, it feels like I'm still in New York because I'm still in the pizzeria making pizza. Same pizza I made in New York, and all my customers are from New York. So the only time I back then, when we first started and first started blowing up, the only real time I would I would like to realize I'm in Florida is my day off when I'm driving around and I'm seeing the palm trees and the and the weird-looking birds, and like that was really it, you know. On the way home, you know, seeing the scenery. But for the most part, it felt like home when I got here because I was in the pizzeria and all my customers were fellow New Yorkers. So I just fell in love with Florida too, because like he said, I I love everything Florida represents. It's good for the kids, it's good for the family, and people needed us, so it's it's good for us for business, and I love it. I don't ever want to go back to New York.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

You have a family here, you have to have kids, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yeah, we both have kids. He's got one son, and I got four kids, three sons and one daughter, and we love it. We love it. My wife loves it. I don't know. I think it's like different. So, like when people get taken away from New York when they're younger, it's always gonna be that what did I miss? I miss that. You never feel you feel out of place all the time. And and then there's a difference, right? When people that grew up with it their whole life and they're fed up with it. They're like, get me out of here.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:15

So it's the same thing like you growing up here in Florida, you're like, ah, get me out of here sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

I do feel that way sometimes. I do.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

I want to go back home. Yeah, right. But for me, like 38 years in New York, it's like I'm done. Yeah, I'm good. I took the buses, the trains, the ferry, the potholes, the everything for my whole life. I'm over it, you know? It gets to a point where you don't even, it doesn't even phase you anymore. You see crazy stuff happening all the time, and it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. Regular.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah. No, it's true. Cause I mean, I know you said you heard my first episode, which shares my story, how I moved here, why I stayed here, and all that. But um, you know, you know, it's true what he's saying. Like, I did not have a good experience when I first moved here. I didn't find good pizza. There was no Mr. Softy. You know, little things that you think.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

You can't just go outside and take a bus to the mall. And it's hot. It's hot as I like the heat though.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

I like the heat when I'm by the water.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Yeah, I like the heat.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I like the heat when I'm by the water and I'm able to put my foot in, you know, and snatch around or whatever. Yeah. No, no, I definitely Florida has grown on me, but like you was expressing, I definitely had a minute where I was like struggling because it wasn't my choice.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Well, that's sort of like us too, because remember, he spent a lot of time here and then got taken away and sent to Jersey to go to high school. And it was the same situation for me and my brothers. We got pulled out of Staten Island, and like some parts of Jersey are close and similar to Staten Island in Brooklyn, and some are like country. And they we was in the country. My dad opened a pizzeria in like South Central Jersey area. Yeah, by six flags. And it's just deep, yeah. It's deep, it's out there. So, you know, same thing. I I couldn't just walk out the house, walk to the park, and make friends and play ball. You needed a car for everything. Like we felt out of place. I never felt like I belonged in that school or with any of those friends that I did make, you know, besides a couple that I still, you know, connect with today. And you know, that's what made us click up even more because we were the outcasts, the outsiders, you know. These kids all small town, grew up together their whole life, and then you got us that come in and like, you know, we're different. We're New Yorkers, he's a Florida kid, we're different, you know, but similar in ways, which is what we connected on. But so I understand that part, like being taken from your environment and culture shock, and now you're like, man, I hate this place, you know. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah. When did you leave Staten Island for Jersey then?

SPEAKER_03 15:39

So it was I was a junior, so I'm two years or a year older than him, but I'm two grades above him somehow. I don't know how that works. But anyway, so I was a junior and he was a freshman. And after high school, I went back to Staten Island because then my dad left Jersey, went back to Staten Island. So I was only in Jersey for like two, three years, went back to Staten Island, but then I had a girl in Jersey, so I was coming back to Jersey. Then we break up, I go back to Staten Island. Like it was one of those. I was everywhere, but nowhere at the same time. Yeah. So, you know, that's how the whole Jersey thing comes in, and why I'm so familiar with Jersey and how we're even connected through Jersey.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

So, Mike, you never lived in Staten Island. No.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

You're just a Jersey boy. No, yeah. He got in trouble in Staten Island. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

That much.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Now, when I moved back to Jersey, I lived in Trent for I don't know, maybe 10 or 12 years, and then ended up moving back. I got sick of that pretty quick too.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

I couldn't take it. It's a rough neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

So you went back and forth from Orlando.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah, I lived in Orlando for a while. I lived in Sanford. I lived in Lake Mary. I lived in Tallahassee, all over Florida.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Where did you go to high school here? Or did you I went to high school in Jersey, that's where we were at.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Yeah. So that's like that's like even crazier because he's going back and forth from Jersey to Orlando. Yeah. And I'm going back and forth from Stan Island and Jersey. Wow. But anytime we were in the same area, we were together, you know? And the friendship just stayed because it was organic. It was a natural friendship built, you know, just off loyalty and trust, you know. So, you know, there'd be times we didn't see each other for a whole year, two years. Yeah. And then as soon as we see each other, it's like like we've been seeing each other. Yeah. So pick up where you left off. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

That's it. Even like he was living down here for a few years, and we hadn't seen each other in a couple years when he when he hit me with, you know, he would always text me places, but I would always turn them down. And then that last time, he didn't, you know, he he wasn't even gonna send

Faith, Layoffs, And The Leap

SPEAKER_03 17:38

this place to me. He actually had the link up on his phone, was about to send it to me, and then he puts his phone down, he's like, nah, forget it. And then he changed his mind. He picked his phone out one more. Break his break his balls.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

And then he sends it to me. And I was just in a tough spot because after COVID, the union fell apart. I'm laid off. I'm struggling. Unemployment's not doing it. Four kids, inflation crazy in New York, everything jacked up, crazy. So I was having a tough time. But I never said anything to him. Like I never told him I was having this tough time. So when he sent the place and I was like, because I'd be I was praying, like, you know, give me something. What am I supposed to be doing? Yeah, it's 11 o'clock at night. I'm sitting at my dining room table, my whole family sleeping, and I'm like praying, like talking to God, like, I need something. What uh what is it? What I don't know what you want me to do. And I had been doing this for weeks in the car on the way to work in the morning. So I was helping my dad at his shop. So I but he only could pay me for like half a day, you know. So he would have me, and he had another guy come in at nighttime. So I would go in and on my ride into Jersey, I would just be praying to God. Like I came to faith in a real big way in that last year I was in Staten Island, like a huge way, like more than I've ever thought about it in my lifetime. And so just going to church and fellowshipping with the members of the church in Staten Island and talking to the pastor and talking to older guys from the church and then just being open and praying and leave, like, all right, whatever it is, show me. And then there was just that one night. I'm sitting there and he sting and I just check it. I'm like, all right, is it is this it? And I just so happened to be back helping my dad in the pizzeria. So I was sharpening my skills again, and then I just said, All right, let's do it. He was shocked. He was like, What? It was like a couple days later, like right away. Flew flew down right away. Cause we had to jump on it because they said they had another offer. Remember, we were calling them, like, don't make a decision yet. I'm coming. I wanna, I wanna put an offer. Cash offer.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Nice. So when you saw it, you're like, that's it, this is it.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

Yeah, so we saw it, and but you know, we were in, I was in, he was green light because he knows I've always been a worker. Like, you can't stop me from getting up going to work. Like, I'll never be outworked.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

You're gonna find something to do.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

Yeah, I'm a hustler. Whatever it is, I'm gonna figure it out, and I'm gonna go to work, and I'm gonna work harder than everybody, and I got something to prove. Got a chip on my shoulder a little bit. Like, he knew that about me, so he was willing to invest his money into in the restaurant business, which is one of the hardest businesses to make it. Everybody told him he was crazy, but he knew what he was getting with that. So for me, it was like, this is it. Like, this gotta work. If it doesn't, I'm done. Walk away from a union job. Like I was laid off, I wasn't fired. I eventually would have gone back, I guess. But you know, there's a there's a ceiling to that, right? Now there's no ceiling now when we did this. But so the faith, just having faith that it was gonna work out, back against the wall, no other option. There's no way I'm failing. And that just took us to the next level. Man, yeah, it's a crazy story.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yeah, I love it. I love it. You know, fighting with faith is not easy. People gotta really tune in and have oh, when you have to have faith like that, oof.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Well, you know, it's crazy. So when I started going to church, because all this faith stuff happened way before I got laid off and everything. So I start going to church and like a couple weeks later I get laid off again. I'm like, yo, what's going on? Now then I'm getting evicted a couple weeks after that. Now I I'm getting evicted. Lost my car. I lost everything. Everything. I'm like, yo, what is going on? I thought when I started going to church and praying that things, good things are supposed to happen. I didn't realize this is how God works. He breaks you down and strips you of everything that's not for you, and then closes all the doors to open the door that you show you the path. So this is it's like destiny. This whole thing, this whole Dorboys thing is 100% faith-driven from God, big blessing, destiny.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

I love that you shared that because it always fascinates me to learn when someone has faith like that, and that that God's been such a part of their journey, because that's not what you hear all the time. And that's not something people share all the time. So I appreciate that from you. And I I'm so glad that you did come on here. Because I'm telling you, when I said I've been wanting to have you on the show for like a year and a half, when I'm like, okay, I'm getting closer to doing this podcast, I'm gonna have Mario as one of my first guests.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

I'm glad you're here.

Locations, Music, Celebs, And Giving

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Glad you brought up.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

I'm happy to be here anytime you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

So let's talk about your stores because I just realized even you know, you got the Ovito location. Tell everybody exactly more or less the address or whatever it is you want to share about Ovito, and then you got Longwood.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Ovito is the first location. It's 3635 Oloma Avenue. It's right on the corner of Aloma and Tuscailla. They built the new Starbucks on that corner. And then the Longwood location is on 434 in Ronald Reagan. It's right by the train tracks right there. You can't miss it. We got a big mural painted on the side of the building that says it's not the water. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

I love it. I love it. Oh my gosh. When you guys were coming to Longwood, I was super excited because I was like, okay, I don't gotta go across the water, the water, you know, on 417 to get to your location. Because even though I live in Stanford, it's still a little out in Ovito, but Longwood works better for me. It's on the way home from here from my job.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

I'm like, yeah. Yeah, you see, you probably see my brother Nick all the time. I have seen Nick, yeah, yeah. Next time you go in there, if you see him wearing his slides, tell him you're gonna tell me.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Okay, I will. What else can I spy on for you? No, but I love it. I love it. I go inside and y'all playing freestyle music. You playing freestyle music over there too and over yo.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

Yeah, that became a thing, like I forget what was going on. I was playing like the Italian music in the beginning when we first opened. Then we're getting like our teeth kicked in on a Friday, and this like slow Italian music is I'm like, we gotta switch this up. Yeah. So I was like, I put the freestyle music on, and then now you see people start dancing at the tables. Yeah. I'm like, yo, that was another thing that became part of our identity because I grew up on that music. My dad used to have the vinyls and the turntables.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

He was a DJ too?

SPEAKER_03 23:40

Yeah, back when not an official fish. Yeah, yeah. But you know, everybody thought there was a DJ in the day. Yeah, with the techniques and the crates and stuff. So he had all these freestyle records. Sapphire used to come into Pizzeria in Williamsburg that my father and my uncle had. Wow. Yeah, and she signed napkins for me all the time. I didn't know she was as a kid, but she Williamsburg is like a bunch of artists, and it's like the creative side of Brooklyn now. Yeah. But yeah, Sapphire used to be in there all the time.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Have any celebrities had your pizza now recently? Oh, wait, you had Dame Dash there.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Dame Dash was just, yeah, Dame Jet. How did that go? It was good, it was interesting, you know. He's he's he's a legend, you know. It's crazy, it's almost like surreal, right? Because it's like this is Dame Dash. When you watch those old Rockefeller videos, and he'd be in the office screaming at people, and like yo, this is Jay-Z's partner, Dame Dash. But you know, he was cool, he was down to earth, he came in, he loved the pizza, you know, he showed love, so that was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Well, I wanted to pull up, but I had an event that day.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

That's all right. That's all right. I was like, I'll get to the store one day. Maybe you could get him on your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Yeah, maybe. Does he live out here?

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

He does.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Because that's my criteria. You gotta be a New Yorker in Florida.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

He's here, right? Wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

He would do it. Yeah, set it up for me. Oh my gosh. I'll make the link. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm hoping to have some celebs on the show eventually, you know. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Are there met a lot of celebrities from New York that live here in Central Florida?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Well, I know you know Search is out here.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

He's I think he moved to Tampa. Really? Yeah, he's out. He's in Tampa now. Oh yeah, but he I mean, it's still not.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yeah, you know, it's still central Florida. A couple hours, but still, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Yeah, he actually just I gotta get back to him about that basketball tournament.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

There's some other celebrities I heard live out here, but I mean, I can't confirm for sure. I think I heard that special ed is out here. And I don't know, you know, some of these people want to be low-keys, I don't I don't even know.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Miami for sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, and Nori gotta call me.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

That would be nice. That would be nice. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Maybe one day, you know, when this podcast finally gets some traction. We're still new and young, we're growing. So share the podcast with a New Yorker that now lives in Florida.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

But oh yeah, so so tell me what okay, you've been here about three years, almost three years.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Almost, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

And I want to know what you do on your days off. Like, where are you hanging out? And maybe where are you eating too if it ain't pizza?

SPEAKER_03 26:02

I'm a big steak guy, so I'll I'll grill at the house and I'll grill steaks, or sometimes we go out. We've been to, you know, a couple nice places, F D, Prime, Vitas. The what kind of Spanish food is that? Oh, I like Vitas in Altamont? Yeah, it's real good.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

I love that spot. Yeah. I spent uh my last two birthdays there. Yeah, it's just a nice little vibe.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

You know, or we'll go to uh PBR, is that what it's called? What's the place we go to with the cowboy book? When we go watch the fights. Oh, uh the social sports, sports social. Sport social. I think I've been there one time, yeah. Somewhere on Five Drive, we got all these bars connected to each other.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Oh, I think that's at um Point Orlando, actually.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

They got the funny bone.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Yeah, Point Orlando.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

So, but upstairs they have this bar, the sports bar with all these TVs over. So anytime there's a big fight, we'll go over there on Saturday night.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

That's where I met place uh I met DJ Kulmaisky, who was my second guest on the show.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah, I had him on my show. That's the spot I mean.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

You know him? I did an interview with him back when I was doing music when I was younger. Yeah. Yeah. I drove out to the I think the Bronx, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah, he's from the Bronx. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

I did like a little radio interview thing. What? Like this, but with like cameras and it was live. I remember that's crazy. He's not gonna remember me, but I remember DJ Cool Maysky.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

That's yeah, wow. The show's turning out to be like a novel, I'm telling you, because everybody likes layers. Yeah, there's been layers. Like I had another DJ friend on on like episode five, I think, DJ Kasper, who said he got. I'm like, so how did you start DJing? He was like, DJ Cool Maiksky was my, you know, he picked him up saying that was basically his inspiration. And I'm like, what? I'm like, that's crazy. He was my second guest on the show. And then, you know, like, well, even last week, my la my guest was talking about you guys, which on the way home, I said, Yeah, I'm gonna stop by Longwood. I know he's not there no more, but I'm gonna stop by the store. That's when I made them call you. I'm like, can y'all get Mario on the phone for me?

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Yeah, and my brother's like, there's some lady here, she's just from the radio show. I'm like, put her on the phone. Because he always, he's gonna screen it for me because there's so many people. Of course. That's one of the things. There's so many people that come into the shops looking for donations, sponsorship. I had a like a yeah, I had like a grown man ask me if I would donate to his flag football team so his him and these guys could buy jerseys. But men, not kids. Men. Like, wait a second.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Grown men, okay, for the jersey.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Okay. Like, I don't know what their situation is, but really, like, we can't find a better cause to, you know, like get me to donate some money. And we do a lot. We do stuff, human trafficking, we sponsor uh a program. We every school that's within the area, we we give free pizzas to. Anytime the sports teams have home games so that they could sell it. Seminole Baseball Academy. Our kids go there. Great, great program for young athletes looking to get better. Shout out to Will. And you know, there's tons of stuff that we do. So we're always open to doing things, but it's it is crazy how many people do come here in the in the area for stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Seminole County does a lot, and there's a lot of people. There's an organization that helps other organizations, and they're always asking people. So yeah, I know how it is out here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:17

And then we do stuff on our own, like when we went downtown and just fed people, you know, what I forget what the name of the community outreach, Christian outreach. We went down there and just handed out pizza as much as we can, you know. Oh, I love it. We do stuff like that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

God bless you guys. God bless your business. How's it been working together as best friends in business together? Because sometimes, you know, that's hard. Oh, they looked at each other. It's easy. It's easy. They looked at each other like they were in love.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Because my brother is so funny because everybody, you know, like you hear the old saying, don't mix friends with business. Yeah, and it's true for a lot of people, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Probably the majority, but that's the only way I've ever done business.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

Yeah, it's with friends.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

I've ever done all my businesses are with friends. I was just saying that's that's the only way I really do business. I've always done business with friends and family, even though people said, no, don't do it, you can ruin your friendship. I'm not gonna get into a business with somebody that I think it could ruin our friendship. You know what I mean? So it's been good. It's been good for both of us.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

I don't think there's ever been a time in our life where we've gotten into like a thing where we didn't talk.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

I mean, there was that one night in front of Carrie's house with Melvin.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Y'all wasn't even with me.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

I get drug into this shit. Now you're gonna have to explain because I have no clue what you're doing. Nah, we just I I forget.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

We have another friend. He's our he's our guy. There's no hard feelings. Yes, that's one of our close friends, too.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

And he was Why'd you tackle him? I he was Oh, you tackled him, he was acting up.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Nah, because he was acting up when the cops had come to this house party at my ex-girlfriend's house, and then I start I tackled him, and he was this guy's drunk, and he's like, what the fuck to break up, he tackled both of us.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

That was the problem.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

That was probably the only time, but we called I called him in the morning, like, what are you doing, stupid?

unknown 31:08

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

But no, like we we have compatible personalities, really. Like, they there's just really never been any like, oh no, arguments. Like, even if there is something like I disagree on or he disagrees on, we we say it and then all right, next, let's go, let's move on.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

It's it's okay to disagree, right? So you go into business with somebody, you gotta be able to disagree with them and work through it. If you can't work through it, then this isn't your guy. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, you gotta be able to say whatever's on your mind and nobody take it personal.

unknown 31:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Right? Right. We know a guy.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Yeah, exactly. So, Mike, I I don't remember seeing you like on social media. Like, I'm just letting Mario. Yeah, why? You're a handsome guy, you know, you got that's what I see. I get there and smile at the end. I'm just wondering, you know. That's it. I'm not flirting, I'm just wondering, like, you know, uh just no, but like I'm just saying for real, like, because Mario, you know, everybody's like, where's Mario? Where's Mario? I know, I know he's.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

He always liked the camera. For me, I never liked it, you know? Like I said in the beginning, I was always getting in trouble. I was trying to avoid the camera. So honestly, I don't know. It's just he he fits it. We understand our parts, he does it better than I do, and I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Well, whatever you're doing, it's working.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

It's working. I'm so glad to have you here today. Now, listen, before we start closing the show, I'm gonna give you each an opportunity to share something you want to say. Like, I don't know if you've thought about what you might be talking about when you came up here, but I know that, you know, look look Mario's grabbing the mic. Mike passed it to him. Okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Nah, I mean, we just usually wing it anyways. Like, I didn't I didn't think of I wanted to before I came up here, would just listen to your podcast about yourself. So I kind of got a little bit of who I am. Yeah, who you are, because we had never met. So, and I just figured it, you know, a free-flowing conversation is what we were gonna have, and that's what we've had.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

And it's yeah, you know, but I'm open to anything, anything that you want to ask or you know Well, no, I just wanna, you know, I now I want to know what you don't like about Florida, if there's anything.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Uh

Florida Gripes, Hiring, And What’s Next

SPEAKER_03 33:16

the drivers.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

The drivers are bad. Alligators, right? Alligators, yeah, they're everywhere. Are you are you like scared to be by a pond or a lake or anything? No.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

No, because so I got uh my six-year-old son is always watching some type of reptile, fish, lizard video or something. So I've uh been educated on pond monsters. That's what he calls them, pond monsters. And so alligators are more afraid of you really than you are of them. Obviously, there's the chance that he's gonna eat you, but most of the time they're gonna swim away from you. It's really the crocodiles you gotta worry about.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

I heard if they, and I don't know if it's the alligators or the crocodiles, but I heard that if if you get in a pinch with them, that you could just like pinch, you know, get their engage their eyes out, and that would be. I haven't heard that one. I don't want to get pinched. I'm just saying, just be ready. I'm ready to open the alligator's eye if I need to.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

But there was um one time we took the boat like 20 miles offshore, and we jumped off the boat into the water, and that was probably s the scariest experience I had with water. Not because anything happened. Yeah, you can't even see land. There's nothing around you, it's just water. You jump off the boat, and now it's just you in the ocean. We got back in the boat real quick. We got right back in the boat. Nah, I don't think there's anything besides, yeah. You know, people are gonna be weird everywhere, right? So Florida's got some weird people too, just like New York has got some weird people, right? But Florida man stuff, I think it's a little more, nah, they're both equally as entertaining. Yeah, they are. They really, they really are. I just love it. I don't really have anything bad to say about it. Maybe my only thing would be when it gets real hot, I guess. But even that, it's like you go inside to the AC. I really love Florida. I love it. Like after spending my whole life in New York, I'm like, okay, I'm good. I'll go back and visit, maybe. You know? But I love Florida.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

We love having you here. We love having your pizza. We we really do. Like, I believe everybody that says they love your pizza is absolutely loving your pizza. Yeah, you guys got all the followers. Keep doing the social media thing. You got this. This is good. Yeah, I pray for longevity for your businesses, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

I I want to be more consistent with the social media. I get like I'm you know, I'm a busy guy between both restaurants, wife, kids, baseball, a lot of stuff going on. I I just kind of like lose track of the social media. Yeah. Even it's crazy, I'm on it every day. I gotta be a little bit more consistent. I gotta put more videos out.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

I don't even feel like you're not posting. Like you guys are doing good.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

Yeah, because so one of the tricks I learned about social media, as long as I'm posting in the story, I'll stay in the algorithm, I'll stay relevant. Then when I drop a feed post, it'll be like I dropped one yesterday, you know? So it stays as long as you keep posting somewhere, you stay in the rhythm.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yeah. So, okay, about a year ago you opened Longwood. Any plans for opening another location?

SPEAKER_03 36:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:19

We don't have an exact place yet, but we definitely want to open more places.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

So it's in the near future.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Oh, I know one thing I don't like about Florida. So I don't I don't know if it's a Florida thing or if it's a generation thing, but the work ethic. You know, finding good help is hard to find, but I've always heard that my whole life, but I feel like I don't know if I don't want to say Florida people are lazy because I know lazy people from New York too. I think it's more a generation thing that this younger generation coming up is not willing to work as hard as we did, you know, for a paycheck. So everybody wants to get paid, but and not everybody wants to put in the work that it takes to get paid.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

You're not wrong.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

Yeah, and that's another thing. Everybody thinks you get rich online, and you can, but you still have to put the work in. Like you still have to work harder than everybody at that. So if you're sitting there playing video games for six hours a day and not doing your online stuff, it's not gonna work. You have to work hard no matter what you do. But that's like one of the things that's been a challenge for us. It's why we haven't opened the third store, is because good help is hard to find, you know, and things take take time.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

So are you hiring? I mean, I know this podcast, you know, this episode could be heard maybe three years from now. Someone's gonna maybe we can.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

If you're a pizza man, if you're a pizza man, send us a DM. Come see us. If you make pizza, pull up. You make pizza if you could cook, if you can waitress, whatever it is that you do. And it's a plus if you're from New York, too. Because that's our our vibe, right? So, but we're open to anybody. I have a waitress from Tennessee. She got this the southern twang. She can't even pronounce some of this stuff on the menu. Rolly teeny. I playing Rolly Teeny, she says.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Yeah, what's your favorite thing on your menu?

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Pizza.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Pizza.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

I like everything, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

I like jammy poles. I try jammy poles. That's the only thing I try separate from, you know, getting a slice of it.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Let my father cook for you. Like something special. You like do you like mussels, clams, linguine like white? That's more my husband.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

I do I could do clams, but my husband is more into the oysters and all that.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

So bring your husband one night. I think my father is in Ovito cooks on Tuesday nights. He flies solo over there. And you tell me what you guys want to have, and I'll make sure. My dad does franchise, picata, massala, caciatore, any Italian dish that you loved anywhere ever in your life, he can make it, and you're gonna love it. I bet.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

So just let me know.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

You and Yasvin, what you guys want to try, and then I'll set it up. I'll have my dad get ready for you guys. You guys come out and have some dinner.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

It's so sweet. Thank you. I appreciate that. Oh my gosh. Any last words? I appreciate you so much being here. Like, I don't know. I'm just happy. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

Thank you for having us. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

When I first started the podcast, it was challenging because all my guests came on, like my first eight guests came on without knowing what the podcast was about.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

And I was just like, just come up. I'm doing something new, I'm gonna try it out, but I can't tell you what it is because I wanted to get the reactions.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

So when you heard about this podcast, were you like, ah hey, New York isn't fine.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

As soon as I heard about it, I met I I don't know if I messaged you or commented on your post.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Oh, yes, you did.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Yes, you said. That's fire. I wanna I wanna be on that. Like, I it because it was it the branding of it, like from apples to oranges, that's a fire podcast name.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Thank you. Yeah, and I'm loving the stories. I'm having so, like I said, it's been working on like a novella.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Yeah, and then you get a little piece of New York from everybody, you know? Yeah, because my New York is different than your New York, and your New York is different from the next person.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Yeah, and I never been to Staten Island. I only touched it one time because I took my daughter on the ferry just so we could pass the Statue of Liberty.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

Staten Island is like far Rockaway. Like you don't go there unless you you're passing through or you know someone. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Yeah, well, I never even been to Coney Island though. Like my parents was not leaving the Bronx. They were.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Exactly, yeah. So a lot of people grew up like that living in Staten Island and never seen the Bronx, you know?

SPEAKER_01 40:21

Long distance. I lived.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

Long distance New York. Yeah, I lived in New York my whole life. I never went to the Statue of Liberty.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Like, yeah, well, we did in fifth grade. That was our fifth grade trip.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Yeah, I never even went on a trip to Statue of Liberty, and I would ride on the ferry every day for years and stare at it. Yeah. Never was like, man, I should go there one day.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

All you do is walk around and look up. Yeah, right. Right, right. Right. I went inside it one year. I did go back one time, and um I did go up the stairs to go to the crowns. It was very narrow and dark and kind of creepy and a weird.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

That was France gave that to us.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

And it used to be the color of a penny.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

It was. Copper, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much once again for being on the show. I appreciate you for being here and many blessings. Thank you for coming to Orlando, bringing your pizza. Thank you so much, Mike, too, for joining the show. Anything else you want to say, it's not the water. It's not the water.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

It never was.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

This episode is being brought to you by BX Journeys. Visit their website at bxjourneys.com to book your next cruise out of New York City or Florida. Visit BX Journeys on YouTube so you can check out their cruise reviews and join them on their next journey. Send them an email at bxjourneys at gmail.com. Please don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show so you could get the alerts of when the next episode will drop. And if you would like to become a supporter of the show, tap the support show tab to get started. I'm Lizette Perez, the Citos TU. Thank you so much for checking out this podcast. Leave us a comment in the show notes. Show Mario and Mike some love too. Let them know how you're loving their pizza. All right. And you can send a voice message to the show. Let us know where you're listening from and if you are a New Yorker now living in Florida. Don't forget to follow me too on my socials at Lizette Perez, at Lizette and the City on TikTok. And from Apple to Oranges on IG. Let's see those to you. Have a good one. Until the next one.