Tony’s Takes Flight: Tony’s Pizza Napoletana To Open In SF Airport

by Joe Bonadio

With Spring just a few days away, and Pizza Expo looming, this time of year is about as close to pizza season as you can get. And naturally we’ve got much to report, including sort of a blockbuster: in the first week of May, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana is coming to the San Francisco airport.

Keep in mind, we’re not talking about a Slice House location; that would have been news enough. This is actually a second location of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, Tony Gemignani’s flagship North Beach restaurant—albeit a slightly abbreviated version. At a time when Tony is opening Slice Houses across the country, this qualifies as a very big deal indeed. Intrigued, I recently sat down with Tony to get some details. Lightly edited for length and clarity, our conversation is below.

Joe Bonadio (JB): So I heard about SFO! Congratulations, man.

Tony Gemignani (TG): Thanks.

JB: You’ve always seemed to be keen on having just one Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. Is this a shift in your thinking?

TG: Well to summarize, it’s Tony’s Pizza Napoletana because that’s my flagship pizzeria that’s really known in San Francisco. What we’ll be doing is slices, paninis, wraps and breakfast. So it’s not going to be a sit-down Tony’s where you get a wood-fired margherita Neapolitan pizza. But you’ll have an array of California and New York slices, as well as slices of pan pizza, like Grandma, Sicilian or Detroit.

JB: So it’s primarily designed for takeout?

TG: There’s seating, but it’s more fast casual. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. And Tony’s is the name they wanted, that’s the iconic name. So it’s Tony’s Pizza Napoletana that sells pizza by the slice. Grab-and-go, fast casual, whatever you want to call it.

You’ll see purple potato, pesto, and of course pepperoni and cheese slices. And some great wraps, too.

JB: When are you set to open?

TG: We’re hoping for early May.

JB: That’s great. So it can’t be easy getting into the airport. What’s the process?

TG: There are always different bids for airport locations. And when you go on a bid, a company that works with airports will typically grab a burger concept, a pizza concept, sushi, coffee, etc. That will be one group’s portfolio, and you compete against other groups in a bidding process. The group that wins the bid goes into the airport.

I was in a group with Equator Coffee, Napa Farms, Pacific Cocktail Haven and Kitava. There has also been some talk of Balboa Café coming in. This was actually the third time I was a part of a group. So it has been a long process.

And there’s a lot to it. It’s breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. You have to have breakfast items, you need to have grab-and-go items, and you have to offer items that you may not have done in your restaurant.

JB: I assume you were a big part of putting it together.

TG: We worked together, and I designed the space. It’s a brand-new area in Terminal One, so we’re not taking over an existing location, like it used to be a Jamba Juice or something. It’s a brand-new area with a new design. We designed the Tony’s part of it: the kitchen, equipment and the overall layout. Meanwhile all the other concepts are being designed and built alongside of ours.

JB: And it all opens at the same time.

TG: It all opens at the same time.

So here’s the menu: We’ve got four salads: an Italian chopped salad, a Caesar, a caprese. We’ll have a breakfast croissant with eggs, applewood smoked bacon and cheddar, and one with prosciutto and eggs. We’ll do scrambled eggs with bacon, potatoes and fresh berries.

I’ll also have things like oatmeal, yogurt and fresh fruit, things I obviously don’t do at Tony’s. And then wraps: we’ve got a chicken Caesar wrap, a sun-dried tomato wrap. We’ve got a few different paninis, including a North Beach with salami, prosciutto, mozzarella, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

JB: That sounds great, perfect to take on the plane.

TG: Yeah it’s easy, grab-and-go. Of course pizza by the slice. We’re talking about local beers on tap, and local beers in the can or bottle. Black Hammer is one I’ve been working on getting; Laughing Monk is another one.

JB: I can’t wait to check it out.

TG: You know, it was a goal and a dream for me to go into Giants Stadium, and the Warriors and the Forty Niners stadiums. And for me SFO was kind of like Damn, I’m still not in there. So it was a big goal for me—and they say the third time’s the charm.

I look at every goal that I have—I’ve accomplished a lot at this point, but this was a pretty big goal of mine.

JB: I’d say it’s about time. And it’s pretty high profile; they’re putting a lot of press behind it.

TG: Yeah, they are. It’s good to see that.

There are still a lot of small things to work out. I’m hoping to get fresh bread delivered at 6:00 AM every day; we won’t be able to make bread there, it’s tough, so we’re trying to find someone local. But we’ll make our dough there, our starter’s going to be there, and we’re all set up to do our from-scratch items.

The pizza will be great. Everything will be done right.

JB: You can’t get pizza like that in an airport, either. No matter where it is, it’s Sbarro quality. Think about it: have you ever had a really good slice of pizza in an airport?

TG: No, I haven’t. It’s going to be nice, and we’re excited.

JB: Meanwhile, you’ve got a lot of Slice Houses getting ready to open…

TG: We have six new stores opening in the next eight weeks.

JB: Whoa!

TG: Yep. We’ve got Palmdale open now, and Fountain Valley and Riverside will hopefully be opening at the end of March. Both Santa Clarita and Franklin, Tennessee are set to open around April 19th, and San Diego Little Italy is opening April 26th.

JB: That’s awesome. Last year, I remember you telling me that pretty soon, you’d be opening a store every month.

TG: Yeah, and now it’s almost every week. We’ve got a lot going on this year: there are going to be about fifteen openings, at least. So it’s the biggest year for me in terms of openings. I couldn’t have done it without the team. Chef Anthony, Tom, Bill, Dominique, Jesus, Jason….there’s a bunch of people on the team now, plugging away.

Meanwhile, I’ve got Pizza Expo coming up.

JB: March is going to be nuts for you!

TG: Yeah, I know.