BROTHERS IN ARMS

How Carmine Testa engineered the rise of the Jersey Pizza Boys and built a brand that just keeps spinning to greater and greater heights.

BY RICK HYNUM | PHOTOS BY RICHARD BARRY

Carmine Testa was just an eighth-grader when his father bought a pizza shop—pretty much on a whim—in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1984. “I thought it was the coolest thing in the friggin’ world,” Testa says. “It sat maybe 30 people, with pizzas, sandwiches and some dinners. I answered the phone, greeted customers and took orders.” His dad, as it turned out, wasn’t exactly suited for that line of work—he closed the store down a year and a half later—but, for Testa, pizza became a calling.

“There were three pictures on the wall: Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and John Stamos,” Testa recalls, with a chuckle. “I have no idea why John Stamos was on the wall.”

You won’t find photos of Stamos at Testa’s own New Jersey pizzerias, Carmine’s Pizza Factory in Jersey City and Jersey Pizza Boys in Avenel. Testa’s teenage sons, Michael and Nicholas, are stars in their own right, known nationwide as the Jersey Pizza Boys, a pair of dough spinning prodigies with smooth moves and charisma to burn. Their grinning visages grace the walls at both of Testa’s stores, and Testa wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s not just that Testa is proud of his boys—although he certainly is. He also knows a good marketing angle when he sees one. And Michael and Nicholas, a pair of natural-born showmen, never met a TV camera they didn’t like.

The Potato Chip Toss Testa has stories to tell about his life as a baker and pizza man. After his father closed shop, Testa took a job at a biker bar, called Pioneer Tavern, that also sold pizza. He quickly won over the tough, leather-clad clientele just by being himself. “I’d bring out a $6 pizza, and they’d hand me a $20 bill and say, ‘Keep the change, kid.’ Before I knew it, I was making $80 in tips in one night. Everybody knew the bikers loved me, so nobody messed with me.”

From there, Testa went to Anacapri Pizza, a precursor to Anacapri Foods, now a major East Coast distributor. Anacapri Pizza had a gimmick. “The pizza counter was located at the storefront window,” he says. “You had to learn how to toss pizza dough at the window, especially the Potato Chip Toss. It came in really handy when you saw a couple of pretty girls walking by. You banged on the window to get their attention and started tossing the pizza.”

Testa ran his own store, called Pizza Villa, from 1991 to 1996. In that experience, he says, “I learned everything not to do. Those were some of the best years of my life, surrounded by friends, being my own boss, but not making any money because I did so many things wrong. Through my mistakes, I learned what to stay away from.”

By the time he opened Carmine’s Pizza Factory in 2000, Testa knew what he was doing. Then his sons came along. And that’s when things really took off.

Ninja Mode

To burnish his own spinning skills, Testa had purchased some Throw Dough from PMQ. “One night I’m lying in bed, and Michael wakes me up. He’s got this $50 Throw Dough in his hands. He’s, like, ‘What’s this, Daddy?’ And I’m, like, ‘Don’t touch that, put it down!’” But the artificial dough proved an irresistible toy to Testa’s sons—and a cheap investment that would pay off in a big way. The boys played around with it at the pizzeria while Testa worked. “Michael had this natural ability,” he says. “It caught my eye immediately, so I went into ninja mode. How do you stand out in the market?”

U.S. Foods was delivering to both Carmine’s Pizza Factory and a rival pizzeria down the street—always the same ingredients, Testa noticed. He knew he needed to distinguish himself from his competitors in some other way. One day, he shot a little video of Michael spinning dough and set it to Michael’s favorite song—Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5. “The song and Michael’s rhythms just worked together perfectly, even the way he’s moving his shoulders,” Testa says. “I put the video out and, boom, it goes viral. The Huffington Post picked it up, and all of the TV shows around the country would pick up on whatever Huffington Post thought was cool.”

Testa calls it dumb luck, but he was shrewd enough to capitalize on the video’s popularity and start making his own luck. “There’s National Pizza Month, National Pizza Day, National Pepperoni Pizza Day, and all these TV shows need a three-to-six-minute segment,” he notes.

Under the Carmine’s Pizza Factory name, Testa started using social media, particularly video, to promote his sons. He created a Facebook page, which has more than 44,000 followers, just for them. The more