Is the end coming for 'the best pizzeria in America'?
"I'm here 60 hours a week for my four days a week," Joe Beddia said.
The days may be numbered for Fishtown's Pizzeria Beddia, which Bon Appetit magazine in 2015 named the best pizza in America.
Pizzaiolo/owner Joe Beddia's parlor -- open only four nights a week, dishing only 40 pies a night in a tiny space with a small counter but no tables -- just started the fifth year of a five-year lease.
"I'm going to do it for another year," he said during a chat Tuesday in advance of his cookbook Pizza Camp (Abrams, 224 pages), which is to be published April 18. "I think five years is a lot."
And then what? Renew for five more years?
"Then something else happens. I don't know. It's not 100 percent [certain that the shop will close]. But I'm here 60 hours a week for my four days a week. I come in at 8:30 a.m. and work till 11:30 at night. And then on Tuesday I'm here, doing orders, paying bills, and making dough. It's not like I have a regular life. I still really love doing it. After five years, I'll be 41. How many [chefs] are still working the line all the time?"
When Beddia wants time off, he simply closes the shop, posting notices on social media. There's no listed phone; customers must show up in person and pay in cash.
Stay tuned for a complete interview with Beddia, who said the cookbook was truly aimed at the novice. He tested the recipes in his home oven.