- Okay, let's say you're in the South Hills, in Dormont specifically, and you could go for some pizza.

You will want to find this shop called Badamo's.

It's named for its young founder, Anthony Badamo, who knows what kind of pizza he likes.

- Fairly basic in the display case.

Plain, pepperoni and the white.

And then we usually throw a little bit of a, some sort of special in there.

- Good pizza, as good as it gets.

I actually stopped here Saturday for the first time and came back Tuesday and again today.

So little crushed red pepper with some Parmesan cheese.

- Yeah, I mean that's kind of what we're known for.

We're, we're, we're doing pizza by the slice.

We've been doing that since day one.

- Day one wasn't here in Dormont, it was about a mile farther south in Mount Lebanon.

It was called Apizza Badamo.

- I signed the lease January 1st, 2010, went in there, had really kind of no clue what what I was doing.

At the time, it was pretty scary, but it was, it was very, very old school.

A real old school start.

- Well, Mount Lebanon took off.

- Badamo's Dormont - But in 2023, Anthony moved the business here to Dormont.

- Thank you.

- Along with loyal helpers like Herbie Gregg, who's been around since 2011.

- I have family from Long Island, so I've always known pizza as you walk in, there's an angry old guy yelling at you, "What do you want?"

"Gimme your money, get out the door."

And when we were up in Mount Lebanon, it was kind of a similar thing, you know, but we were a lot nicer about it.

- I had been, you know, in Mount Lebanon for 14 years.

The business was very strong and, and you know, I just had an opportunity to purchase the real estate here and it just made sense for me to, you know, move right down the street, still be able to serve my customers, kind of have a new project too.

- My favorite thing about Anthony's pizza is the, the slice aspect.

I'm gonna have two of the square.

- Two plain.

You know, you come in, you get to see everything.

It's all right in your face.

A lot of people come in thinking they're just gonna get two cuts of cheese and then they see something in the window that they weren't expecting.

And now they're, you know, like this guy, he's never had the Sicilian, but now he comes in two, three times a week getting the Sicilian.

- This is Cole Colemyers.

He first went to the Mount Lebanon shop, as a customer, while still in middle school.

- So right now I'm doing a pepperoni square for our window.

So cheese first, sauce on top, a little Romano cheese on top of that.

And then a nice portion of pepperoni.

- The pies come out, we set 'em up for the display.

And you know, a lot of our folks like the pies with the reheat.

That's kind of a classic thing.

You throw it back in the oven, get it that, you know, kind of take the edge off, crisp up the bottom and then back out the door with it.

Folks like that extra crisp.

And we, we love it too.

- I will say the pepperoni Sicilian might be one of the best slices in Pittsburgh, but I'm a big fan of the Margherita.

- I like being able to put a different product out into the case every day.

We have some creative freedoms we can, you know, change up a little bit, keep some customers intrigued.

Always something new in the case.

And I think that's what keeps it fun.

Fun and interesting for us.

- And when Anthony moved down here, we had to follow him.

And I brought Gary, who's from Brooklyn originally, here to see it and say, okay, this is pretty good pizza.

You gotta try it out.

- The whole idea is to grab it, go, and keep it moving.

- Well, to keep the business moving, Anthony, in 2016 found another, smaller, former pizza shop on Federal Street on the North Side.

- Yes.

We took the space, we renovated it, it took about a year and then we opened up December 28th, 2017.

And it's been a smash ever since.

The North Side is an amazing neighborhood, completely underserved.

And it's one of those spots that like everybody is welcome, the whole neighborhood... - Oh yeah, camera!

Hey!

- Electricians.

- Keep him outta it.

- What do, what do you all have over here in the triangle?

- And they got very good pizza.

So I just stop here, get a couple slices on my lunch break.

Come from California Ave and just indulge.

- See my coworker and I worked right down the street and probably about once a week we stop over and just grab a couple slices of pizza for lunch.

- Yeah, I get usually two square pepperoni.

That's my go-to.

- I like a savory sauce and a nice, crispy, dough undercrust.

- Crispy crust.

Good service.

Just delicious.

Right?

- And I heard it was good.

- Yeah, I, I normally pick up a couple pepperoni rolls as well, whenever I'm, whenever I'm in.

- All day long, it's just folks are in.

The slice game there is so strong.

- I'm gonna do two pieces of your tomato basil one.

- The team down there is unbelievable.

- Have a good one!

- Yes.

Anthony's North Side team there includes Chris Chaturvedi who was making some dough when we stopped there one day.

- I'm the pizza guy.

My focus has always been like on just making the dough and making the pizza and that's always what I'm most concerned about.

Kind of wanted to start working here 'cause it was my favorite pizza in the city at the time and still is.

So... - So, I usually get three pepperoni slices, some garlic knots.

It all depends on the day.

- Three cuts, and garlic knots.

But yeah the garlic knots are great, the ranch... - And just two small cups of ranch dressing.

- So, I'm coming for work.

I gotta go to work and I need something for lunch.

And pizza's always my go-to.

I love pizza.

Pepperoni pizza, to be exact.

- Some of us look for the cheese.

- The crust.

Some of us look for the, for the sauce.

And as my son likes to say, "How is the undercarriage?"

- I'm from this side of town, so when this place came here, I was happy.

It was real good.

We're gonna get... - Pittsburgh Margherita.

- Yes.

- Get the large one.

- Large Pittsburgh Margherita.

- A corner slice of white please.

- Cheese slice.

- If you can't do a plain pizza right, you can't do it, right.

- We have a couple special things in the case today.

- I do like anchovies too.

I come from Brooklyn though, and even I think this pizza is the best, you know?

- Yeah.

Better than New York.

- It was close to my New York pizza, made me very happy.

I brought it home to the wife and she loved it too.

- I don't know what you put in it, but it is nice.

- Right now I'm probably more inspired and more excited about doing this than I ever have been.

- Yeah.

I got no complaints.

I'd say I'd like to tell everyone, this is the best job I've ever had.

The last two years have been really good.

We, you know, I have really good people working for me.

- He's a great boss, great boss, great friend.

And we have a great time doing it.

- The pizza tastes better than ever.

Mmm.

Mmm.

You know, you try to get better every day.

Right?

So... - And the sauce!

Mmm.

- When you work with your friends and you love what you do, you can't complain about anything in life, you know?

So... - I think this, this tops it to be honest, from whatever I had before, yeah.

- Every day is a new chance to better yourself and have fun, serve the community.

- The crust is my favorite.

Best for last.

- People are really receptive to, you know, heart and love and good flavors.

- I feel like the more, the more love is in it, like the family love in it, is better it is, for real, when it comes to most restaurants.

- So we're, you know, we're, we're thankful to, to kind of be known around here, you know.