Go inside Madison Avenue Pizza in Dunedin, Florida

Each month in Destinations, we highlight an up-and-coming pizza spot in Florida. In Pizza Destinations, we showcase a pizza place that may have just opened to rave reviews, hit best pizza lists or have exciting news. If you’re a pizzeria that would like to be featured, reach out to Executive Editor Denise Greer at [email protected].

A Look at Madison Avenue Pizza with co-owner Sean Ferraro

Photo courtesy of Madison Avenue Pizza.

The Tampa Bay-area pizzeria is garnering local and national attention for its New York-style pizza. We reached out to owners Sean and Jackie Ferraro to learn more about the hotspot. “We are not the typical pizzeria,” Sean says. “I am Italian and grew up in an Italian-speaking household with my Italian-born family. But I was born and raised in Florida and wanted our restaurant to combine modern food with the traditional Italian flavors that I grew up with. We play classic rock and reggae on the radio, sports on the TVs, and our restaurant has a bright, modern vibe. When we are busy on a weekend night, the energy in the shop is amazing. Our customers say Madison Avenue Pizza has a “vibe,” and that’s what draws them in. We also make almost everything from scratch in house. And if we can’t make it, we source it locally. Just for fun, we also make a 32-inch pizza – the biggest in Tampa Bay. And on weekends in the summer, we deliver pizzas to the islands behind the restaurant with our little boat that we call ‘The Pizza Skiff.’

Photo Courtesy of Madison Avenue Pizza.

“Obviously, our regular pizzas are our bread and butter, but we also have some more adventurous options on our menu, such as a pickle pizza and weekly rotating pizza specials, such as the Return of the Mac pizza (Big Mac inspired), Chick-Fil-A Pizza (with the actual sauce plus homemade nuggets, waffle fries and pickles), Cuban sandwich pizza (with homemade Mojo pork, salami, ham and pickles) and tons of other fun options. We also make a killer Sicilian pizza with a slow-risen crust that gives it a unique, light and airy texture that is really special. We make our Sicilian with an old-school inspiration, with cheese on the bottom, a simple sauce from milled tomatoes on top, some Calabrian oregano and imported grana and pecorino. Due to the huge demand, we have a hard time keeping the Sicilians in stock. We have a cult-like following for our weekly specials. It’s great for marketing because after years of releasing weekly specials, most of our customers go on our social media religiously every Monday to see what it is. It keeps them engaged with our shop on a regular basis. Our weekly specials range from things that are more typical, like a sausage and peppers arrabiata, to things that are more adventurous, like a crab rangoon pizza. It gives us a lot of flexibility to make pizzas that wouldn’t be practical to add to our menu and to try out possible new menu items before they become permanent. A lot of our specialty pizzas on our menu were weekly specials at one point. It also gives me an opportunity to be creative and create. I love making our everyday pizzas, but I really love coming up with something brand new and exciting – and it’s amazing to see customers go crazy to get a weekly special that came together perfectly and went viral. It gives me freedom to have fun with my cooking and sometimes push the limits of what a pizza could be. The team also has a ton of input on our specials, and they give me a lot of feedback in our R&D process. It gives my chefs and leaders an opportunity to contribute to the creative process and get involved.”

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Check out more Pizza Destinations in People & Pizzerias.

Pizzerias On The Radar

We added a new section to our Pizza Destinations called “On The Radar.” While Pizza Today Magazine is monthly “On the Radar” allows us to share quick snippets of pizzerias that are making headlines, introducing new initiatives, receiving honors and more. Check out “On The Radar” each week to see which pizzerias are making the news. If you’re a pizzeria that would like to be featured in On the Radar, share your news with Executive Editor Denise Greer at [email protected].

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