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Goodfella's is the name and family is the game.Since 1993, brothers Scot and Marc Cosentino and brother-in-law E.Jay Myers (37, 38 and 36, respectively) have been serving upgourmet pizzas to New Yorkers with Goodfella's Brick OvenPizza. With no background in food service, $75,000 among the threeof them and a love for food and family, Scot, Marc and Myers setout to create a business that would put them on the map. Theyopened their first restaurant on Staten Island in January 1993 withcompetition from five other pizzerias within 10 blocks. With no airconditioning, a refrigerator from their house and a teeny mixer,they cleaned their windows and typed up a menu.
"In the beginning, we went to food distributors and said,'Give us the best of everything,'" Scot remembers."And that's how we put together the taste-not by anyrecipe, not by any standards. We just started throwing thingstogether."
The three men made a pact that, no matter what happened, theyweren't going to let anyone else determine their course."We knew we wanted to be in control of our own destiny,"Myers says.
Within seven months of starting, Goodfella's Pizza was votedthe best pizza in the country at a national pizza contest inManhattan and subsequently given national TV exposure. With a fullhouse every night, they opened a second location in Brooklyn, NewYork, in 1994. In 1998, they formed their Goodfella's franchiseunder the name Globe Restaurant Group Inc. With sales figures of$2.8 million for 1999, Myers predicts close to $5 million this yearwith the opening of five more stores.
"We work 190 hours a week," says Myers. "We loveit."
"For us," adds Scot, "it's franchise by day,restaurant by night."
