Meet the couple bringing Authentic New York Style Pizza and more to St. Augustine

Born to make pizza, Augie Bullone owned Pizzeria's since the age of 18 and now he is here in St. Augustine bringing us the same delicious pizza he made for years in New York. His wife Amy had a few minutes to chat with me because belive it or not customers were ordering pizza at 11am and they were getting very busy.

How long have you been making pizza?

Augie started working in Pizzeria's when he was 13 years old. His parents are off the boat from Italy, so he learned to cook authentic Italian food from his mother. When he was 18 years old he opened his first pizzeria in Massapequa, NY on Long Island. Eventually he opened up a second location in Brooklyn, so you could say he’s pretty much been making pizza his whole life.

What brought you to St. Augustine?

My uncle lives in St. Augustine and we were ready to leave New York. Three years ago, my father and Augie were looking for a business in the area and found one in the outlet mall so they jumped on it. I moved down permanently a year ago, I wanted to wait for my kids to finish school in New York and I needed to sell my house. I came back and forth every month for two years, needless to say, it was hard.

What made you move to this new location?

We sold the outlet mall location in March, we found the rent to be high and this location on King gave us more freedom. We rented the space two years ago and had been renovating it until opening day in July. Everything needed to be replaced, so it took us time to get it done. Over the two years of renovation, we looked at other locations but his heart was always here.

How was it when you first opened?

It was a rough opening. The week we were going to open, Augie started making the dough and the dough started flying out of the machine because it was hooked up backwards. The hot and cold water were reversed in the bathroom and we were flushing toilets with hot water and the air conditioner went as well. This all delayed us a week or two. I think we finally opened on July 17th.

Do you find it harder to make the dough here because of the water and humidity?

To be honest, everyone thought it would be an issue, but we put in a water filtration system and we have not had any problems making the dough. It isn’t any different than our pizza in New York.

What do customers love about your pizza?

They rave about the crust, they love that it’s crispy. We make everything from scratch, the dough, sauce, all the veggies are fresh, and we don’t use any canned products, except for olives.