New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘Pizza Gavones’ fire up pizza scene with entertaining YouTube reviews
When criminal defense/ personal injury attorney Donald Cretella gets to court the first thing judges, prosecutors and fellow defense attorneys want to talk about is pizza, rather than pending cases.
Cretella is rapidly gaining fame along with two friends he grew up with in West Haven as one of the “Pizza Gavones,” — three guys with the gift of ad lib who review pizza in every corner of Connecticut.
With legendary pizza in their early backgrounds, growing up near Zuppardi’s, Mike’s Appiza, Danny’s Expresso and not far from the legendary Wooster
Street in New Haven — the friends are comical, informative, edgy and heavily throw around pizza slang like “mootz” and “ah-beetz.”
What started out as a fun little schtick to spread positivity during the pandemic has to the surprise of them all blossomed into a success that could someday give famed YouTube pizza reviewer Dave Portnoy a challenge.
In a year, the “Pizza Gavones” have more than
3,000 followers on YouTube, so their gig is monetized with ads — that automatically happens at 1,000 followers. They sell merchandise — cups, shirts, and they’ve all been stopped by fans on the street for photos.
“We’re just humbled by the amount of success in a short time. It’s beyond our wildest expectations,” said Gavone Frank Zabski, who first pitched the idea to his buddies about a year ago while they were eating pizza in his yard. “We’re not doing this for the money. We want to make people laugh and get them out of the COVID situation.”
Zabski, a hardcore ahbeetz guy who also shows people how to make Wooster Street style pizza and crust in instructional do-it yourself videos, started it all in May 2020 with a Facebook Page during the pandemic — All About New Haven Style A’pizza (that’s Ah-beetz).” In August, they launched the popular reviews.
The success of that Facebook group — which now promoted the “Pizza Gavones” has also floored Zabski — it now has more than 11,000 members, from countries that include Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Bangladesh, Italy, Egypt, Finland, Spain, Poland, Nigeria, Philippines, Thailand, Trinidad, Singapore.
They have for now, anyway, had to turn down requests to do reviews in Chicago, Florida and other states.
But in their wildest dreams, they aspire to become a national force in reviewing pizza, akin to the former Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” with Guy Fieri.
“Our dream is to be the triple D of pizza,” Zabski said, referring to the show.
For now, the three have full-time regular jobs.
Cretella, of Cheshire, is a partner in his Bridgeportbased law firm Zingaro & Cretella, LLC; Zabski, of Milford, is a longtime entrepreneur who owns “Technology Revealed,” an Apple only consulting firm and for years ran a pizza truck business and Timmy Byrd, of Bristol owns Byrd’s Contracting LLC.
As the Gavones, the friends have catchy nicknames as reviewers — Cretella is “Donnie Spocks,” the second half short for spaccone, which means braggart in Italian, Zabski is the “Polish Pizzaiolo” — he announces at the beginning of videos that he’s “23 percent Italian” and Byrd, a burly guy described by Zabski as a “bull in a China Shop,” is “Gorilla Gavone.”
In doing the reviews they look at the “The Pizza, the Place, the Personality,” as the videos say and they easily dish about the nuances of crust, sauce and cheese. They talk about the ambiance and interview the owner or manager to get a feel about the place, the hard work that goes into it.
While the friends strive to be positive and highlight the business strengths, they are funny and fast ad-libbers and take jabs at each other like only close friends of decades could pull off.
In one segment filmed outside at Olde World Apizza in North Haven, Zabski says, “The first thing I look at is the circumference of the abeetz.” He’s looking for just the right “char” around the crust.
To which Cretella responded, “Did you say circumference? That’s a big word for a kid like you”
In a big voice at the beginning of their visit in North Haven, Zabski says in a big, confident voice “We heard this place is off the hook and we’re going to check it out.”
Cretella tastes the Olde World pizza and says, “This is old school, good pie. A little flop, not much grease,” he said. “It’s one of the best pizzas I’ve had in a long time”
Joe Elcuri, owner of Tipsy Tomato Bar and Pizzeria in Derby, said when the “Pizza Gavones” reviewed his place they gave him an award for “Best Specialty Pizza” after trying the baked stuffed shrimp pizza.
“I love the guys,” Elcuri said. “I love the fact that they were adamant about paying. They didn’t do it for a free pizza.”
Elcuri said he’s always busy, but the review brought in even more customers.
There are no caustic jabs at the pizza like Dave Portnoy can throw, but the Pizza Gavones are entertainingly edgy — in one video where they ask the manager of a pizza place to say the phone number for the audience, they tease him when he stops to Google the number.
They pull it off like seasoned performers, and it’s all unscripted and recorded on first take.
“Not to get religious, but it’s basically a gift from God. None of us (had) any experience doing ad lib — and we don’t script,” Zabski said.
The gold standard by which they measure the quality of all the pizza components is Pepe’s, Sally’s, Modern, “but, there are an incredible number of places in that class outside of them,” Zabski said.
Byrd said he loves doing pizza reviews.
“I love helping restaurants that don’t get the credibility as some others we all know and love,” Byrd said. “I love finding the next hidden gems and the future of great apizza.”
Byrd said he’d love if the Pizza Gavones could give Portnoy a run for his money. Portnoy is blunt, often insulting, and bases his 10-point score on a quick taste. In the beginning the Gavones used a 100 point score, but they dropped numbers because they’re so arbitrary and use words instead.
“I think we know a lot more about great pizza than Dave P. does. We do things completely different from him. I think we have a shot,” Byrd said. “I am somewhat surprised that we have the following we do. I am happy that we can bring some joy and that our members trust our opinion on Apizza.”
“People either love Dave Portnoy or they hate Dave Portnoy. Our goal is to get everyone who hates him,” Zabski said. “We have the utmost respect for Dave Portnoy and what he does for pizza, but his style’s not for everyone. The difference between us and him is he really doesn’t care if he says something bad about someone…We feel there’s enough negativity and we want to promote these places.”
Cretella said it would be nice to be the next Fieri, but not Portnoy.
“These people are small business owners who have invested their lives in their businesses…There’s always something positive,” Cretella said.
Cretella said he loves hearing the stories of the families who run restaurants.
“It’s wonderful to see people so proud about their vocation,” he said.
Cretella admits his grammar can go down a few notches during reviews and his use of slang can go up, but, “We’re playing a part.”
For the record, Cretella’s favorite pizza places are “Fuoco Apizza” in Cheshire and “Frisco’s Pizza” in New Haven on Forbes Avenue.
Sometimes the “Pizza Gavones” jazz up the review with outfits. For instance, to review Carmine’s Pizza & Italian Take Out in Durham they dressed in cowboy hats and ties and for “Nauti Dolphin Pizzeria” in the more upscale Fairfield they dressed as a boat captain, golfer and tennis player.
Zabski said that “growing up in West Haven” pizza was “basically in your blood.”
Every summer he worked in the church carnival fried dough booth and “the stereotypical little old Italian lady was running it,” teaching them how to make the dough and the sauce.
Within a mile of the house he was “inundated with ah-beetz” — Mike’s, Danny’s Expresso, Zuppardi’s.
“I didn’t discover Wooster Street scene pizza, until the early 90s…As they say. It was love at first bite.”
Describing himself as a “serial entrepreneur” Zabski said he started his own “Fired Up” pizza truck business in 2012, influenced by his pizza history. The business as a “huge hit,” but got overwhelming with two other businesses, he said.
In starting the Facebook group in the midst of the pandemic, he said, “I melded my passion for pizza with my passion for helping people keep their minds off the pandemic.”
Part of the content posted are his do-it-yourself videos
on how to make New Haven style apizza and crust.
Zabski combined a couple of methods in learning how to make the crust, information he heard and even some dumpster diving to find discarded ingredients.
Zabski said he didn’t get any “proprietary information,” but friends in the know told him, “Frank, you wouldn’t believe how easy it is.”
He has a back yard wood-fired oven to get the perfect “char” around the edges, but said there’s a way to accomplish that using a broiler at home.
Karen Leonetti who runs the popular Facebook group “Karen and Pete’s Wooster Street Family” said she posts Zabski’s DYI videos on her page and they’re popular.
“He’s a genius,” Leonetti said. “He looks good, he speaks well, he gets his point across. And by the end of his presentations you absolutely understand everything he is talking about.”