Paulie Gee on pizza, success, and authenticity
At PizzaCon Philly, I caught up with legendary pizzaiolo, Paulie Gee. Paulie is the founder behind beloved slice shops and wood-fired locations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and beyond. Not only does he make great pizza, but he creates an environment full of good music and positive vibes.
Check out the full video or transcript below to hear Paulie’s perspective and advice for shop owners new and seasoned.
Transcript
Sabrina D’Alessandro:
I'm Sabrina with Slice, and I have in the hot seat today a very special guest that needs no introduction, but tell us who you are.
Paulie Gee:
I'm Paulie Gee, I have pizzerias in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Maryland.
Matthew Katakis:
Paulie Gee is the best, the best. Paulie Gee is the best.
Paulie:
There’s no best, only favorites here.
Matthew:
My favorite. I love this guy. Paulie Gee’s the man.
Paulie:
This guy has the best clam pie anywhere.
Sabrina:
Best clam pie. You heard it here first.
Paulie:
Sabrina:
So excited that you're here today at PizzaCon. We met originally in Nashville at the Pizza Fest down there. What drew you to PizzaCon Philly?
Paulie:
I want to see my friends. I want to make new friends. I love meeting people who know who I am and want to say hello. And I get to encourage them, and it's what I do.
Sabrina:
What is your philosophy on pizza? What makes a successful shop?
Paulie:
I like to create more than just a place you get pizza, you come to one of our places, you know, and there are other people who will make pizza just as good. But I like to create a dining experience. So my slice shops are an homage to the 60s and 70s. The shops I went to when I was a kid. I like to play music for them and that, I think, is the differentiator.
The most important thing about our shop is that we make pizza that I love. You should always be making pizza that you love. And then I'll be good,
Sabrina:
And Paulie, if you could give a piece of advice to someone who hates their job but loves pizza, what would you tell them?
Paulie:
Quit your job and do pizza. Okay. If you're doing something that you really don't like, you're not going to be doing it well.
You're going to be disappointing people, or you're going to be really suffering to get it to the level of the people who are just like, born to do that.
I'm speaking from when I was in IT okay. But when I started doing what I love, which was cooking food for people, play music for people, talking to people, suddenly my life is, you know. I've been saved, my life has been saved.
Sabrina:
And now you help a lot of shops become better, get started. What's a piece of advice that you would give someone? Step one: if they want to take that leap, jump into a pizza shop.
Paulie:
Just do it. There’s going to be lots of fears. Walk through the walls of fear and put your faith in God that if things go wrong, God will be there to help you.
Sabrina:
Paulie, let's talk a little bit about ingredients now. How important is sourcing good quality ingredients in your product?
Paulie:
You can make wonderful pizza very simply as long as you're using great ingredients. I use Stanislaus Tomato Magic and I use Grande mozzarella, and I don't do anything else to it. And because it's a quality ingredient, it tastes good. And that's very important.
Sabrina:
Great pizza is not just the ingredients but it's the environment you create. What's in that playbook that you build to create your perfect shop?
Paulie:
The most important thing to me – and this goes for the wood-fired places as well as the Slice shops. When somebody walks in – I want the staff to look like they’re one of the guests. And I picked that up from Roberta's in Bushwick in Brooklyn.
You don't want to have uniforms on, you want people to feel like this is like the Little Rascals opened up a pizza shop. That's very important. And I want to be true, you know as much as possible, to that era or whatever in terms of what the place looks like.
Somebody just came to me. They gave me a really nice Andy Pettitte bobblehead to put there, because the guy knows I'm a big Yankee fan. But it's like Andy Pettitte was from the 90s and the shop is from the 60s and 70s. Just want to be true to that.
But I want this stuff. I want people to feel like the staff is there as part of the community.
Sabrina:
And how would you describe the Paulie Gee community? What's the Paulie Gee community like?
Paulie:
Whatever community I'm in. You come into our slice shop in Greenpoint, you'll see all Yankees stuff and you'll see all music related to New York.
But when I came to Philly, I wasn't going to put Yankee stuff up. I have all Sixer stuff up on the wall because I want it to be a local shop. I'm not trying to bring New York to Philly. I'm just trying to bring our experience to Philly.
Sabrina:
You got to know your audience, you really do.
Last question here, Paulie. If you could give a shop a piece of advice on how to stand out from the rest–there's so many pizza shops around–how do people differentiate themselves?
Paulie:
Don't try to stand out from the rest. Try to be yourself and do what you love and hope that other people love it as well.
Sabrina:
Paulie, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to Slice today. You are a true legend and I love talking to you and hearing your perspective.
Paulie:
It's my pleasure. Let's do it again sometime.
Paulie doesn’t try to stand out among the crowd, he tries to be authentically himself and foster a genuine connection with his community. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your approach, Paulie reminds us that great pizza is about more than just the recipe — it’s about the heart and soul behind each slice.
