Our Story

My dad could cook anything except bread. Stuffed calamari, shrimp fra diavolo, pork fried rice, he studied every dish like it was a puzzle worth solving. But his dough always came out dense, like concrete. He called it the family curse and laughed it off.

He never stopped chasing good pizza crust though. When we moved to Florida, he found Alfonso's Pizzeria and introduced me to it like it was sacred. Yeasty dough, tangy sauce, that smoky oven smell. It hit me like lightning. Pizza stopped being just food and became memory.

That Pizza Place Tallahassee Dave and Dad

Me and Dad

As restrictions lifted, I started sharing pizzas with neighbors. Word got around and I became "the pizza guy." A few of us ended up building a wood-fired oven modeled after the ones in Italian villages, so neighbors could bring their own dough over to bake and hang out.

Before it was even finished, I flew to Italy for sixteen days with a friend. We ate pizza almost daily and talked to pizzaiolos about how they think about food: simple, balanced, made to share. I brought those lessons home and started making pizzas for birthdays, holidays, whatever came up, with a small crew of friends who still work with me today. Later I went back for formal training.

I grew up loving to cook for people, but dough was still my weak spot too, until a shipping mix-up during the pandemic left a 55-pound bag of flour sitting in my house. I figured it was time to break the curse.

So I studied yeast, salt, water, flour, and how Italian dough differs from bread. My first pizza was misshapen with sauce everywhere, but the crust was actually edible. I tried again. And again. My wife Kelly, my toughest critic, started asking for seconds even when she was full. Turns out my dad was right about one thing: good ingredients make everything simpler.

Building our community oven

That Pizza Place Tallahassee Building Pizza Oven
That Pizza Place Tallahassee Oven Building Team

Cooking Pizza

That Pizza Place Tallahassee Dave's Pizza

On the hunt for pizza in Italy

That Pizza Place Tallahassee Dave and Davie in Italy
That Pizza Place Tallahassee in the kitchen of an Italian Pizzeria
That Pizza Place Tallahassee Italian Pizza 1
That Pizza Place Tallahassee Dave finding great pizza
That Pizza Place Tallahassee Selling pizza at the market in Italy
That Pizza Place Tallahassee Italian pizza 2
That Pizza Place Tallahassee Italian Pizza 3

Kelly’s favorite pizza from our Anniversary trip to Florence, Italy

That Pizza Place Tallahassee Kelly and her Whole Wheat Crust Pizza

Making pizza in Tuscany

That Pizza Place Tallahassee Dave attending a pizza making class in Tuscany

Now we are launching a private catering service with a mobile wood-fired oven and bring this spectacle to you. It's the crackle of the fire, the smell of oak smoke, and a table full of people who came for pizza and stayed for the company. From my dad's kitchen in Texas, to a 55-pound bag of flour I never ordered, to the ovens of Naples, this whole thing has come down to one thing: quality.

It's not just pizza. It's the reason we call it That Pizza Place.