Irony Is His Middle Name: Fitness and Pizza Guru Tommy Ardito
Necessity is the mother of all invention. It also happens to be the mother of most soloists. It’s certainly the spark that’s driven Brooklyn-native Tommy Ardito to higher and higher levels of success, first as a private trainer, then as a gym owner and now as Brooklyn’s first “underground pizza boss.”
Tommy Ardito
About five years ago, Ardito, now 34, was squatting in an apartment vacated by his brother’s girlfriend, so broke he could barely afford food.
But here’s the thing about Tommy Ardito. Like so many soloists, he has unbelievable hutzpah, an instinctual drive to thrive. And he has a genius for finding unsolved problems—and then turning his solutions into successful business ventures.
First, he did it with his gym, a boutique fitness space in South Brooklyn that offers elite-level training at the most affordable price point in New York City. Then, when the pandemic hit in 2020, and gyms went dark, he began remote training. It wasn’t enough to pay the bills, so he turned his stress baking into a pizza empire by serving artisanal pies out of his apartment. His only marketing was the mouthwatering photos of exquisite pizzas — fresh out of the oven, all bubbling cheese and crust—posted on Instagram. The DMs flooded in.
Next month, Ardito and his business partner will take their black-market pizza biz legit with their first brick-and-mortar slice shop in the heart of Park Slope, one of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation. It’s a bold move and a figurative middle finger to COVID’s brutal culling of restaurants in New York City.
In this episode, we talk with Tommy about his unstoppable motivation. We talk about fitness (he knows a lot). We talk about the financial predicament facing Millennials. About surviving as a soloist. And, of course, we talk about pizza.
Ardito is one of the most engaging and inspirational people I’ve ever met. And, yes, he makes the best pies in New York City. If you don’t believe me, your loss. But, first, take a listen. You’re going to want to put Tommy’s pizza on your bucket list.
—Nicole Dyer