Slice House: The Pizza World Champion, Pizza Acrobatics, and a Riot in Italy

**Michael Ornelas** (0:00)
Is one of San Francisco's best artisan pizza joints about to take the nation by storm? Tony's Pizza Napolitana regularly has wait times that can exceed two hours, but Slice House by 13-time pizza world champion Tony Gemignani takes those recipes and serves them to customers in substantially less time, while still keeping the quality something worth bragging to Nona about. After nearly causing a riot in Naples for beating locals at their own game, Tony Gemignani has earned the right to do whatever the heck he wants with pizza. He's appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America and a plethora of Food Network shows, all leading to him writing multiple cookbooks and a children's book titled Tony and the Pizza Champions, which feels conceptually humble.
This week on the show, I'll slice my pepperoni of knowledge and place it across your pie of curiosity, so that you too may know everything I've learned about Slice House by Tony Gemignani. Then, we'll direct our attention to the people of Yelp to see what they're saying about the very Slice House we infiltrated. This is the Fine Dining Podcast.

**Court McGowan** (1:45)
I want to know about this riot.

**Michael Ornelas** (1:47)
Oh, you'll get to know about this riot, but long story short, an outsider came in and won a competition that beforehand no other outsiders had done. Whoa. So, yeah, we will get into that one specifically.

**Court McGowan** (2:05)
Very good.

**Michael Ornelas** (2:06)
Hello, and welcome to the Fine Dining Podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornelas, and this is the podcast where we dive deep into the history of your favorite restaurants and then thoroughly review them one week later by comparing them to Chili's. This week, we're covering a chain that I got excited about the moment I heard who was behind it, as I'm a big fan of the creator's main restaurant in San Francisco, Slice House by Tony Gemignani. Joining me is a friend, an awesome actress and improviser who's on not just one, but two of the teams I perform with around Hollywood. She's one of my favorite people I've met through improv. She's a virtuoso at the violin, and she's why birds fly in a V formation.
It's Court McGowan.

**Court McGowan** (2:51)
Hello.

**Michael Ornelas** (2:53)
That was the first time I broke saying something because it was just a lie. I didn't know I play violin very well. And you're why birds fly in a V formation.

**Court McGowan** (3:02)
I'm why birds fly in a V formation. You're welcome to people who enjoy taking in the sky, just in general.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:11)
Just people who are just fans of-

**Court McGowan** (3:12)
Of the sky.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:13)
Of cloud watching.

**Court McGowan** (3:14)
Yeah.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:15)
I actually, upon writing that bit, I then looked up why do birds fly in a V pattern.
And it's basically that the front bird creates lift, essentially. And so it makes it easier for all the other birds behind it. They basically are like creating a jet stream and it's lifting all the other birds.

**Court McGowan** (3:36)
Wow.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:37)
All right. Do you have any history with Slice House specifically?

**Court McGowan** (3:40)
I have no history with Slice House specifically, and little history with pizza in Los Angeles.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:46)
I picked this restaurant for you specifically because you lived in New York for 12 years.

**Court McGowan** (3:51)
That's right.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:52)
I just realized you're dressed like a pizza.

**Court McGowan** (3:54)
Oh my God. Thank you for noticing.

**Michael Ornelas** (3:57)
Was that an intentional, this is the pizza-est shirt you have?

**Court McGowan** (4:01)
Yes, and.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:06)
What's your relationship to pizza?

**Court McGowan** (4:07)
I have always loved pizza. I think everyone had a pizza party as a kid on a birthday, but my family did Sunday night pizza.
I still do feel like Sunday night pizza is a thing for me. Not religiously every Sunday, but once a week should be a pizza.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:25)
Are you going to do it tonight?

**Court McGowan** (4:27)
Double duty.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:28)
You're going to double do it?

**Court McGowan** (4:29)
No, I don't think I can.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:31)
Yeah.

**Court McGowan** (4:31)
Love pizza.
I love New York pizza now that I have tried a bunch of pizza in New York. But when I was growing up, it was like chain pizza. It was Domino's or Pizza Hut.

**Michael Ornelas** (4:44)
Yeah, Domino's is mine. Pizza Hut, I had a birthday party at back when they had the buffet.