Enjoy fresh pizza made on the spot.
The parties you remember most are the ones with great food and great entertainment. When food is the entertainment, even better. And what could be more engaging, and delicious, than watching chefs make fresh, hot, personalized pizzas on the spot?
Everyone loves pizza, but when it’s delivered for an event, the quality declines on the trip from oven to table. Pizza Biza brings chefs, ovens and supplies to your home or other venue, and makes it fresh while you watch. “We set up a gorgeous pizza restaurant in your backyard,” said owner Alex Medjuck. “Our special ovens give the pizza a brick oven taste. You lose that when you have it delivered.” Pizza Biza is based in Lakewood, and moves to Florida from November to Pesach.
Medjuck brings pizza from standard to gourmet with a toppings bar to please all tastes. And each time he does an event, he tries something new and gauges the response. “My specialty is serving people and making them as happy as possible with their pie,” he said. “I also try unique things they wouldn’t try on their own.” That might be pineapple with jalapenos. Or a new trendy pizza item—lemon slices. Dessert pizzas are catching on: they’re like s’mores with marshmallows, cookies and cream on pizza crust. He has also discovered that many people like well-done, almost burnt crusts. No problem for him—his ovens go up to 950 degrees. He can cater to regional differences in tastes. He has found that in Deal, the Sephardim like spicy—lots of jalapenos. In contrast, Brooklyn chasidim don’t like spicy, but love onions.
Medjuck also personalizes accessories. His standard color for pizza accessories is black, but when he did a children’s birthday party for popular social media influencer Rachel Ostroy, she requested a white theme and he was happy to comply. That was just the beginning of going the extra mile to provide whatever service was necessary.
“Alex was so accommodating,” said Chava of Ella Events NY, who organized the birthday party. “The main thing I look for with vendors is that they will bend over backwards to have communication and be responsive. Alex took care of things with original, creative ideas. He was flexible when there was a date change. He was leaving for Florida that day but came to the party and then went straight to the airport.”
The party had a teddy bear theme, with a build-a-bear station, bounce house and ball pit area. Medjuck added to the theme by taking the logo artwork to a contact who personalized the pizza boxes and peels, the wooden paddle a chef uses to remove pizza from the hot oven. He purchased new table cloths and a canopy so the colors went with the décor.
Chava said people loved standing by the ovens and watching as the chefs put the pizzas together, spreading on the sauce and cheese and popping them in the oven. The children loved that they could take their own boxed pizza to sit on the side and eat.
“The brick oven-style pizza had premium ingredients like a thin Italian style crust and mozzarella, and a fresh taste, not standard,” she said. “There was fresh basil and different types of cheeses for options, so the party catered to the tastes of both adults and kids. It was perfect for outdoor dining.” The kids couldn’t get enough of the dessert pizza, she added. Toppings like Nutella, marshmallows and chocolate mints on pizza crust made for a unique taste experience.
Chava was pleasantly amazed by the way Pizza Biza set up, served and cleaned up. “They brought everything and left without a trace, like they weren’t there,” she said. “And when they were there, they knew what they were doing; they didn’t need a lot of guidance.”
When Medjuck left the birthday party, he was going to oversee the launch of Pizza Biza in Florida. If you are vacationing, visiting or residing in Florida from November to Pesach, you can have a Pizza Biza party in your backyard, hotel, on a yacht or at another site Medjuck can recommend. A client has already booked a bat mitzvah party for 2022. You can still book a party in the northeast through October, and again post-Pesach.
Pizza Biza began when Medjuck wanted to get a pizza oven as a thank you gift for a family friend who hosted him in Orlando for Pesach. But the wait was pretty long. Instead, he started thinking about getting one for himself. A marketing and advertising veteran who has worked with many restaurant clients, Medjuck was looking for a new venture. He realized that he didn’t like sitting in front of a computer all day, a must in the marketing field. But he did like making people feel good. And what makes people feel better than delicious food?
He researched the idea of doing pizza events and saw that no one was doing them with chalev Yisroel ingredients and kosher certification. He drove around on chol hamoed, thinking about the CEOs he had read about who had a vision and a dream and “went with it.” So instead of buying a pizza oven as a gift, he ordered one for himself and started Pizza Biza, a name he came up with that evoked the party vibe of Ibiza in Spain. “I had no idea if it was going to work out,” he said. “It was total intuition.”
Pizza Biza began in June and has been doing events for 25 to 700 people in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, including the Catskills and the Poconos. Medjuck went to Surfside, Florida, where he has a place near the former Champlain Towers South, and brought his pizza ovens to feed the volunteers and first responders who helped when the building collapsed. He is excited to be starting Pizza Biza parties from his Florida location.
Pizza is a much-loved item for all kinds of parties, including birthdays, anniversaries, upsherins and family get-togethers. Take your party to the next level with Pizza Biza, gourmet pizza made fresh and cooked to order, with a full Pizza Topping Bar.
Sukkot is around the corner. Have a Pizza Biza party in your sukkah. Or a gorgeous fall party until November. Spending time in Florida over the winter months? A Pizza Biza party will attract friends and family from the shivering Northeast. Text or WhatsApp 732-534-2623, email [email protected] or follow Pizza Biza on Facebook and Instagram.
By Bracha Schwartz
