Our Love
Our Passion
Double Pepperoni, under cheese and on top of cheese.
Detroit MI
The Beginning- A New Style
Gus Guerra
1946
Gus Guerra & Buddy’s Rendezvous in Detroit
Back in 1944, Gus Guerra formed a partnership with a family member to open Buddy’s Rendezvous in Detroit. At first, Buddy’s was just a bar but when do Italians not serve you food when you’re visiting. In 1946, Grandma Passalacqua taught her son-in-law, Gus, her focaccia/sicilian style pizza recipe to offer to the bar’s patrons. They made their pizza Grandma’s way with a local twist, they baked it in rectangular blue steel pans, pans that had once been used to carry parts in the Detroit automotive plants. Being rectangular they cut the pieces into “squares”. They then watched their restaurant and their pizza grow to become a Detroit institution.
Cousins AJ and Rich
A Love of Food
Steve & Irene’s, Engleside Inn on Long Beach Island
- AJ
Fast Food, Old Orchard, Home cook
- Rich
AJ has deep roots in the food industry. At the age of 20, he owned four award-winning hoagie/pizza shops in northeastern Pennsylvania. Rich’s maternal grandfather, Dominic Figliomeni (once a restaurant owner himself), helped AJ in the kitchen and shopped for supplies. AJ has recipes from Dominic that Rich’s mother doesn’t even have. When he needed a new challenge, AJ moved to the Jersey Shore and became the executive chef at the Engleside Inn on LBI. Later, looking for another challenge, AJ moved to New York City for a sales career. However never forgetting his roots and love of cooking.
Rich is a little older than AJ, so he fondly remembers the restaurant that Dominic Figliomeni and his uncles (including AJ’s father) operated in Pennsylvania for a number of years. During college, like many students, he worked in fast food and was quickly promoted to a supervisor’s position. After Rich graduated from college, he briefly worked at Old Orchard in Eatontown, NJ, performing a variety of kitchen & catering tasks. He considered attending the Culinary Institute of America to become a chef, but life and a promotion intervened. Rich spent nearly 30 years working all aspects of a photography business (retail, rentals, management, and operations), but he never lost his love and passion for food.
Viola Cousins - AJ & Rich
Fair Haven NJ
A Love of Pizza
A Passion for Pizza
With their love and passion for pizza, Viola cousins AJ & Rich bring you something different! Not a Neapolitan, not a Sicilian, not a Roman, but something American. A pizza that’s light & airy, crispy, chewy, buttery, it’s the best of all worlds. Give it a try; you’re going to love it!
Understanding that the highest-quality ingredients result in the best pizza, Rich and AJ are using high-protein flour from Caputo, King Arthur, and others to provide the chew and flavor you expect from a great pizza. Their fresh dough is given time to develop its unforgettable flavor, currently testing 24 hour to 72 hour proof times. Their sauce is homemade from Jersey tomatoes and Italian spices. It is what some are calling the best sauce they have ever tasted. Currently the cousins are using a Polly O mozzarella cheese & midwest cheese blend but researching a variety of cheeses for the best flavor and authenticity. And, of course, they’re using authentic style pizza pans to give their pizza its caramelized cheese edge and crispy bottom.
While AJ and Rich have full time jobs and pizza making is a passion they don’t have a business or a brick-and-mortar location, What they are doing is donating their time and money in support of their fellow Knights at the Columbus Club/Knights of Columbus in Fair Haven, New Jersey. Check to see if there will be service and bring a canned good or toy donation as we come into the holiday season or whenever you visit.