High Pie: Taste of New York in town
Carlucci is a three-time World Champion Pizza Acrobat.
Tamae Watanabe, of Nepal, has a world record for oldest person to climb Mt. Everest; Francesca Bravin, of Spain, has the most consecutive somersaults underwater; and Joe Carlucci, of Madison, is in the Guinness Book of World Records for highest pizza toss.
The New York transplant opened Famous Joe’s Pizzera, located at 12120 County Line Road, this past December.
“I kind of fell into the pizza thing,” Carlucci said. “I like to be creative, depending on how I’m feeling, that’s how I make a pizza.”
Carlucci’s claim to fame is his entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s highest pizza toss at 21.5 feet.
Born and raised in Carmel, N.Y., Carlucci started working in his brother-in-law’s pizza business as a dishwasher. The rest is New York-style history.
After attending business school for two years, he opened a pizzeria with a business partner, but his pizza career didn’t take off until he met his friend and mentor, Tony G.
“He pretty much took me under his wing and started learning and competing with him,” Carlucci said.
The competing he’s referring to is what got him on shows such as The Martha Stewart Show, Food Network, ESPN and the Today Show, and taken him to places like Belfast, Italy and the Dominican Republic.
Now, Carlucci has brought his talents to Madison.
He first traveled to town two and a half years ago when he worked as a consultant at a local pizza establishment. He later decided to go into business himself and opened Famous Joe’s, where New York meets the South.
Pictures of his home state cover the walls of the restaurant, where a pizza oven sits in the front for costumers to see where and how their food is being made. If they’re lucky, they can catch Carlucci tossing dough into the air.
“It’s in my blood. I’m Italian,” he said. “I don’t want to be Joe Schmo pizza guy. I want to be the best. I look at this as a sport. We’re a team here.”
Joe’s head pizza maker, Quinton Cullman, said working for Carlucci is one of the best experiences he’s ever had. Carlucci is training Cullman to become an expert in the art of pizza making.
“They put their passion into everything,” Cullman said, I’ve had pizza in Detroit and Cincinnati, and this is by far the best.” He knows everything about it.”
But Joe’s just isn’t a pizza place, it’s a restaurant.
Menu items not only include award-winning pizza selections, but pastas, chicken and eggplant.
Carlucci named menu items like Theresa, Hanna and David, after nieces, nephews and kids around town.
He said kids are his restaurant’s niche, so expect a kid’s night where children under 12 eat for free.
“Every day I’m improving in every way,” he said. “I don’t want to be just a pizza guy. I wanted to be remembered as the beset in the industry.”
Carlucci’s does have plans to eventually open another Famous Joe’s, but for now, he will focus on providing the best quality pizza possible.
“We just don’t do pizza, we have a passion to be the best.”
