Ryan Vaughan and Paulie Giannone, the man behind Paulie Gee’s pizzeria in Brooklyn, both have pizza ovens in their backyards, which is how you know they really love pizza. This year, under Giannone’s guidance, Vaughan is opening a Paulie Gee’s in Cincinnati.
How’d you get into pizza? I visited Una Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, and from that point on, I was obsessed with wood-burning ovens.
You hired someone to build one in your backyard? Mark from Blue Oven Bakery put me in touch with a friend from Ireland who happened to be coming to the States for a masonry conference. He moved into my house for 10 days. My wife loved that.
Then you met Paulie Giannone on the Slice website. He was very active on Slice at the time, and I reached out to him on Instagram. He gave me his contact information and said come to New York City. I did just that.
What makes Paulie’s pizza good? His crusts are phenomenal. They char up nice, but are also chewy.
Do you have a favorite Paulie Gee’s pizza? The Cherry Jones—it’s mozzarella and gorgonzola cheese with dried Bing cherries. When it comes out of the oven thinly sliced prosciutto is laid overtop, then it’s drizzled with orange blossom honey.
Will there be some Cincinnati-themed pizzas on your menu? We’ll have everything that made Paulie famous, but also a goetta pizza. I don’t even think Paulie knows what goetta is yet, but he will.
Paulie Gee’s, pauliegees.com
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