Signed Reynolds photo extra special topping
STAR RECALLED: Pizza parlour got huge pie order
Nat Bastone used to make some dough for Ryan Reynolds. Now the Vancouver-born Hollywood actor has returned the favour.
Bastone and his cousin, Frank, have been slinging their thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizzas, born from a generations-old family recipe, for more than two decades from Nat’s New York Pizzeria on West Broadway in Vancouver.
Since it opened in 1992, the 30-seat eatery, with its black-and-white-checkered floor and photos lining the wall, has been a popular haunt for students from Kitsilano Secondary just around the corner, including Reynolds.
“He used to come here and hang out with the Greeks,” recalled Bastone, 54. He didn’t know Reynolds had acting aspirations until he saw him in one of his earlier gigs, a TV sitcom called — no joke — Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.
“This was well before he was a big star guy,” said Bastone.
One day, a couple months ago, the pizzeria got a call from a woman who wanted to order 32 large pizzas to be used as props in the filming of Reynold’s new movie, Deadpool, an X-Men spinoff.
Bastone was a little surprised by the order. The last time he had heard from Reynolds was about a decade ago after a looselipped employee who had delivered some pizza to the actor’s home blabbed the address to some girls. Reynolds got wind of it and phoned Bastone. Bastone apologized, and offered to buy Reynold’s another pizza: “That was the last time I heard from him.” Until the Deadpool order. “For a small business, that’s a good chunk of change for us,” said Bastone. More than the money, it’s the thought that counts: “It was the personal touch. He wanted us to have the business. He was thinking about us, which to me, was a nice thing to do.”
Bastone is keeping mum about the type of pizza ordered in case it spoils anything from the movie, saying only they were all the same kind of pizza. Frank, “the food guy,” came in before dawn to make the 14-inch pizzas, which were picked up at 7 a.m.
One of the production people dropped off a framed photo of the actor. “For Nat! Thank ya!!” it says, a scrawled signature underneath. The photo now hangs on the pizzeria’s wall.
Things are tougher now than they were. In 1992, a slice of pizza was $2.10; today it’s $2.75 for a slice of margherita — a negligible increase considering the hikes in rent, ingredients and labour.
“But we’re still surviving,” said Bastone, adding there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing. “It’s a good thing. We have fun with it.
“As I like to say, ‘All our friends are making the cash, we’re just making the dough.’ ”