Don’t miss this back-and-forth conversation with a mentor and mentee in the pizza business. This week we chat with Pete Raskovic, owner of Bentley’s Log Cabin Pub and Grill in Hollandale, Wisconsin and his mentor, the pizza icon and visionary John Arena, who owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

Pete reached out to us wanting to share just how much John Arena helped him as he developed his pizza and pizza concept. Pete’s background is in IndyCar mechanic. He grew up in New York and wanted to bring New York-style pizza to his small town in Wisconsin. A friend suggested he reach out to John Arena for help getting started with pizza. Pete was surprised when John responded and offered so much of his time, talent and technique. Pete referred to as a “pizza boot camp”

We talk about asking for help, the culture of this amazing pizza industry to mentor new operators and the role industry veterans can play for incoming and new operators. Pete says that John answering his call changed his life. Whether you are new to the business or an industry veteran, this is a can’t-miss episode.

This week, Denise and Josh sit down with Joe Argento, co-owner of Mama’s Meatballs & Pizzeria in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Joe grew up in the pizza business and began working at his grandmother’s shop at age 8.

Joe went on to own his own pizzeria, but was ready to switch directions. His wife, Katherine, wanted to be in the food truck business, but Joe still wanted a storefront of some kind. As luck would have it, an existing restaurant/food truck became available in Pennsauken. While, at first, the business functioned as a sandwich shop, Joe and Katherine quickly knew that pizza needed to be part of the equation.

Mama’s Meatballs & Pizzeria has an expanded menu and drives creativity with offerings, like turning jumbo garlic knots into sliders. The delivery and carryout shop serves New York-style, Sicilian and Grandma pizza, an assortment of sandwiches and five different meatballs.

We talk shop in a casual conversation. We even explore when Joe and Katherine decided to reverse course on expanding the business into a neighboring storefront and honed in on the future of the business to one day own the space and build his dream kitchen and storefront, include dine-in seating.

Learn more about Mama’s Meatballs & Pizzeria at https://www.mamasmeatballs.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mamas.meatballs/.

This week, we chat with Chef Daniel Holzman, who owns Danny Boy’s Famous Original, a two-location operation in Los Angeles, California.

We spoke with Daniel a few days before the catastrophic wildfires broke out in LA. So, our conversation with Daniel focused on his career, the growth of Danny Boy’s and what he has learned in the restaurant business.

Danny Boy’s locations are currently safe. We would like to recognize Danny Boy’s, who has quickly provided sanctuary for those affected. Both pizzerias are feeding the community, firefighters and first responders.

More background on Daniel:
Daniel started his cooking career at the age of 15 at Le Bernardin in New York City and remained there for four years until (at the suggestion of chef Eric Ripert) he attended the CIA. He then accepted a position at the soon-to-open Palladin in New York City under chef Jean-Louis Palladin (and worked alongside Wylie Dufresne and Sam Mason, among others). He went on to begin what would ultimately become a 10-year culinary journey through some of the West Coast’s finest restaurants, including The Campton Place, The Fifth Floor, Aqua and Jardinière.

In 2010, he co-founded The Meatball Shop in New York City. The fast-casual mix-and-match menu of meatballs was an instant hit. Five more locations of The Meatball Shop opened in NYC in quick succession, and he also co-authored The Meatball Shop Cookbook, published in 2011.

He moved to LA in 2019 to embark on a new passion -- pizza -- and opened Danny Boy's Famous Original, the slice joint of his childhood dreams, in 2021. Describing the years-long his years-long odyssey to perfect the New York-style slice: "As a classically trained chef, I approach pizza with reverence. Pizza isn’t fast food; it’s one of America’s most important dishes. And to understand how to make it great, I deconstructed everything about it. I searched out masters across the country, learned the history, and sampled thousands of pies. I interrogated oven makers, traveled to tomato farms, tried grains from countless flour mills, and experimented with the perfect cheese blend."

Since opening, he's received praise from LA Magazine for his "ultrawide, perfectly foldable, tangy-crusted slices [that] nail it"; LAist for being a "NY-style pizzeria that absolutely rips"; and Eater LA, which claimed "There may be no better New York-style slice spot in LA than Danny Boy’s right now.”

He just opened his second location of Danny Boy's this past summer, and has his sights set on a third.

He's also the co-author (with Matt Rodbard) of Food IQ: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts, released in 2022. (Some of the questions they answer include: "Why does pasta always taste better in a restaurant?", "When is it okay to cook with frozen vegetables?", and "What is baker's math, and why is it the secret to perfect pastry every time?")

Last but not least, he also co-hosts On the Line, a podcast during which he and co-host Chef Amanda Freitag interview culinary innovators.

More on the LA Wildfires

Among the horrible devastation from the wildfires in Los Angeles, we know there were pizzerias have been lost. Our new Senior Editor Kate Lavin is reporting on the LA Wildfires and the Pizza Community, including local pizzerias directly assisting the efforts on the ground, as well as Slice Out Hunger, who is rallying pizzerias in a fundraising effort to provide emergency funds. Read Kate’s s