Table of Contents
- Hard Labor – Part 2!?
- Nebaletan Gesture of the Day – MANNAGIA!
- Pizza Review – Pizzeria Florian, East Aurora (Buffalo), NY
It’s been over a month since my last post. I shared my not-so-great first day as a dock worker right after high school here. Spoiler alert: I quit after just one day and called my mom (Grandma Joanne) and her boss, Dooney, for help.
Hard Labor – Part 2!?
A few weeks after that dock disaster, I found myself cruising down Route 20, past Geneva to Madison. Dooney had hooked me up with a gig as a warehouse helper at the 7-Up soda distributor. This job was way better than the dock’s job, except for one little mishap I’ll get to later.
During the day, it was just me and the warehouse lead. All the Teamster drivers had headed out to deliver 7-Up and other sodas to grocery stores. The job was physical, but I still had enough energy to go for a run or hit the Y for a lift afterward. I was getting ready for my first college football season.
My main task? Sorting bottles. And let me tell you, this was right up my alley! There were thousands of bottles neatly stacked on pallets, all deposit returns from grocery store customers. The lead would forklift a pallet of cases over to me, and I’d sort them by color and product. Each pallet had 20 cases, with 24 bottles per case—480 bottles in total.
I turned bottle sorting into a race with two goals. Goal 1: See how fast I could sort 480 bottles and restack the cases onto the pallet. I had this cool 1970s-era digital wristwatch that I bought from Loblaws grocery store in Ashtabula Plaza for about $4.99! I’d wait for the minute to tick over, and then I’d start the sorting frenzy.
Late 1970s Era Digital Watch – Its only function? To tell time!
Once the pallet was sorted and restacked, I’d check my watch. It only showed minutes, no seconds, but I kept track on a sheet of paper. I’d calculate my average time each day and compare it across days, always aiming to beat the previous day’s record.
The second goal? See how fast I’ could ‘fill a semi-trailer with pallets of sorted, empty bottles. Each trailer could hold 24 pallets (that’s 3,840 bottles!). The workload varied with the warehouse’s busyness. I could fill at least one trailer full of sorted empties every day!
They must have liked me. After a few weeks, I learned how to drive and operate the forklift. This meant I could fetch the pallets of empty bottles and load the trailer myself without needing the lead’s help.
As the day went on, drivers would return from their delivery runs with truckloads of empties. We’d stack these for me to sort the next day. Then, we’d refill each truck with pallets of fresh soda for the next day’s deliveries. This part was super physical. Many drivers had pre-orders to fill, so we had to pack each truck bay with specific orders.
Sometimes, a full pallet of 7-Up was needed. However, most of the time, it was a mix. It could be half 7-Up and half RC Cola. We’d build these pallets by hand, stacking each full case of soda into a pallet of 24 cases. Then, we’d load it into the truck. It was exhausting, but as a 17-year-old, I bounced back quickly!
If you look at the picture below, you can see that a truck had four tall bays. Each bay held two pallets. There was also one shorter bay for a single pallet. It was used for any extras needed during the delivery run.
Unfortunately, this job was not without peril. Dropping a bottle meant cleaning up shattered glass from the concrete floor. You might also grab a broken bottle or even step on glass. Like a dummy, I wore tennis shoes. The worst situation would be dropping a case of full bottles. An even worse scenario is dropping a pallet from the fork lift!
One day, the worst happened! As I was loading a pallet of empty bottles onto a trailer, I knocked over another pallet of empties. I stepped out of the tow motor to clean up my mess directly onto a glass shard. It cut directly through my sneaker and into my instep. Luckily, the shard did not lodge into my foot. Yet, blood quickly turned my cheap, white Pic-Way sneaker to a deep red.
I was sent home for the day. The next day, I returned wearing a pair of my father’s old mailman work shoes. They had stiff rubber bottoms and thick leather tops covering my heavily bandaged foot…couldn’t miss a day, needed to pay for college.
It could have been much worse! It was the first of several stints as a warehouse worker for soda pop distributors. After that first summer, I returned, albeit to a different distributor, each college break at Christmas and Easter…but with even more “responsibility”…for a future post….
Nebaletan Gesture of the Day – MANNAGIA!
It’s well established that Italians “talk with their hands.” Italian-Americans do the same. This habit has filtered down to just plain Americans like me. I’m certain that “hand talking” is learned, but I’d bet that it’s in my DNA too!
One of my mother’s (Grandma Joanne) hand gestures was biting the side of her hand. She made a noise that sounded like a snake hissing while biting. Her hand biting was like the picture below (from – Neapolitan gestures – discover the most important and talk with your hands (portanapoli.com)).
Frankly, this picture resembles Grandma Joanne!
Portanapoli.com defines the gesture as “Se t’acchiappo/Mannaggia” (translation – “If I will get you….” or also “F*ck!”. Conversely, in previous posts, I defined MANNAGIA! (08/04/23) and MANNAGIA DIAL! (08/22/23) as neither of the above!
I believe Grandma Joanne used my definition. She used this gesture more like “God Damn It!” But sometimes, it was just “Damn!” as in “Damn, that was good!”
Pizza Review – Pizzeria Florian, East Aurora (Buffalo), NY
Review #44 of 49 purchased pizza experiences in 2024, #164 of 169 overall!
In the past, I’ve disparaged “Best Pizza Lists” as mostly AI generated excrement; compilation extracts of Google or Yelp data. The article’s “author” rarely eats at their listed pizzerias. However, they still have the gall to use their real name as the “author” on an AI generated article!
In the few cases where the author actually visits the pizzeria, they are typically food and entertainment writers and not critics. These writers work for the local newspapers and fear they’ll loose their free meal ticket if they were to provide a true critique!
But, there is one list that seems legit for me, and that’s 50 Top Pizza (Guide to the Best Pizzerias in the world (50toppizza.it). They produce a World’s Best list and regional lists including 50 Top Pizza – 50 Top Pizza USA 2024.
I have now been to 4 on the USA 50 Top and USA “Excellent” List. Of those 4, I have rated 3 as GREAT! Only 10% of the pizzas that I review are GREAT. Therefore, it seems that 50 Top is a pretty reliable list!
The 2024 Top 50 USA list just recently included a new pizzeria not too far from our NY home, Pizzeria Florian (pizzeria-florian.com) in East Aurora, NY just south of Buffalo. Pizzeria Florian is the 2nd pizzeria of Chefs Jay Langfelder and Amanda Jones. Their initial pizzeria, Jay’s (see 9/23/23 blog post) is also on the Top 50 List.
We had to travel to Ohio for a YSU football game. But let’s not cut bait… PIZZERIA FLORIAN WAS GREAT!
| Date | 9/4/24 |
| Pizzeria | Pizzeria Florian |
| City/Neighborhood | Buffalo, NY / East Aurora |
| Website | Pizzeria Florian (pizzeria-florian.com) |
| About Us | Pizzeria Florian (pizzeria-florian.com) |
| Style | Cross between Neapolitan, New York, and New Haven |
| Ambiance | Great old building on Main Street in East Aurora, NY, a tony suburb south of Buffalo near Orchard Park where the Bills play. Inviting exterior and warm interior made for a nice start to our meal! |
| Beverage Pairing | Red Wine served in a short glass! Just like I how I grew up, and how all wine should be served! Stemmed wine goblets are bougie, unnecessary, and easily broken! |
| Rating Criteria | |
| Shape | Round |
| Dough/Crust | Tickness – Thin Cook – not a classic Neapolitan bake! I had a little bit of NY Style and New Haven Style in the bake. Although thin, crispy like a New Haven, and it still had a pleasingly soft chew like a NY. Flavor – OH MY, MY. Whereas the bake was not classic Neapolitan, the dough had Neapolitan style flavors on steroids! It had a yeasty, nearly vinegary, slightly sour flavor profile – Really Zippy! (I’ve not used that word to describe others’ dough before). It was very similar to my sourdough bread. But the leavening was right on because it was not only flavorful, it had a nice rise at the cornicione. Unlike most other pizzas, the dough/crust was not a no flavor medium to hold sauce and cheese, Pizzeria Florian’s dough/crust was at least 33.3% of their pizza’s flavor! AS IT SHOULD BE! |
| Cornicione | Crispy, Spongy/airy, Chewy – OUTSTANDING |
| Special Notes | I was so impressed by the crust. I mentioned it to Jay as he hustled through the restaurant. I must’ve sounded intelligent when it comes to dough. Although Jay washed dishes that night because his washer called in sick, he stopped. He sat next to us and chatted for 5 minutes or more! It was an incredible, and fun, conversation. Jay took interest in this blog and wanted to know about my favorites. I said Mercurio’s in Pittsburgh (8/31/22 blog post) and Fabrica in Tampa (12/4/23 blog post). I think he was a little disappointed that said his other pizzeria, Jay’s was Good (but not Great). He openly disclosed parts of his recipe and seemed especially proud of his 72 hour dough fermentation process. Although, he didn’t disclose his recipe, I told him that I saw his sacks of flours stacked near the restroom. I was surprised by the King Arthur Special Patent and Caputo Pink which are typically high gluten pastry flours. In contrast to his original pizzeria, Jay’s, which has a wood fired Neapolitan oven, I wondered why he was using a gas oven. The oven temperature was a relatively low 660F at Pizzeria Florian. 660F provides a low and slow bake more typical of NY Style. By that time, I had probably used too much of his time, so I was left wanting to know that answer. I can only guess that gas, low temp ovens are easier to insure and also provide additional creativity (like using pastry flours) beyond simply copying Jay’s. I plan to ask again next time! |
| Toppings | A Margherita so only dough, sauce, cheese, and basil. The simplest are the best. |
| Sauce | Tangy, Savory, on the thin side but not watery, rich but not thick. Very Tasty |
| Special Notes | Once again, Jay proudly mentioned that he uses Bianco di Napoli Blue cans (see here) organic, pre crushed tomato and only adds a slight amount of salt. This would explain the extra richness and lower water content of the sauce since the process of making Blue extracts much of the water during crushing. I mentioned that I’d also viewed those cans near the restroom. Knowing that Bianco di Napoli is US grown and not a “true” San Marzano and was pre-crushed, I was surprised. But again, part of Pizzeria Florian is not to be a “true” Neapolitan although with Neapolitan roots. I guess that I can get behind that since I’m not a “true” Neapolitan, although, I’m a Nebaletan with DEEP roots! |
| Cheese | Cheese Type – Fresh, in-house Mozzedell! But it had an extra special addition of slightly sharp version of Grana Padano. Cheese Distribution – splotchy but melted over to most, slightly greasy, stringy The combination of freshness with the sharpness was a fresh flavor profile and OUTSTANDING! The addition of the Grana Padano really makes the cheeze ZING! |
| Cheese to Sauce Ratio | Sauce – A little to Medium Cheese – Medium Nearly perfect balance between the cheese and sauce both in tastes and in amounts and not so much as to hide the taste of the outstanding dough/crust! |
| Value | Quite expensive at $26 for a 14″ Margherita! This is $19 for a 12″ Neapolitan equivalent. As my readers know, I think a reasonable price for a 12″ in 2024 is $13 or less |
| Overall Rating | MANNAGIA! IT WAS GREAT! Although I frequently complain about the overprice of mediocre pizza, sometimes the tastes and textures of a certain pizza is just so fabulous, the price becomes irrelevant. Pizzeria Florian is one of few that fit this. |
| Would I Go Back? | In a New York (that’s East Aurora, NY) Minute! |
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