Pizza Influencer Interview: Jimmy Carfora, Owner of Side Porch Pizza

Side Porch Pizza, a New Jersey-based mobile pizza and wings catering company, is becoming the main event since opening in 2022. With delicious favorites like Hot Honey ‘Roni and the Drunken Grandma with vodka sauce, owner Jimmy Carfora packed up his LloydPans, Ooni ovens and high-quality ingredients to chat with us about the success of the young company.

How do your mobile preparation times and strategy differ than in a traditional brick and mortar kitchen?
We’re on site, we’re making pizza hot and fresh — speed counts without sacrificing quality. We use our homemade doughs and sauces and we try to crank out pizzas as fast as we, as fast as people need them when we’re there. The difference between us and when you go to a traditional pizzeria you’re expecting to wait when you walk in there. If you’re getting a slice, you’re expecting to wait 5 minutes; if you’re getting a fresh pie, you’re going to wait 25 minutes if not longer. If you’re going to a sit down restaurant it could be 45 minutes. For us, you’re hiring us to be there servicing your event so we want to get everything out as fast as possible. We have two ovens and we want those to be running continuously throughout the event. The client picks the menu and we make the set of the pies that they’re looking for and as they’re eating them we replace that one.

How do you decide what makes it on the menu that clients choose from?
A lot of trial and error. My family has eaten a ton of bad pizza throughout the course of research and development. But, there’s been a lot of good pizza too. I start with what I like and then I crowdsource the answers. I use social media too; I’ll throw a poll up and see what people would like to have added to the menu. We do wings too, and I would like to have six up on the menu before the season starts.

How did you find out about LloydPans and what pans do you have at Side Porch?
I was baking regular round pizzas, and I wanted to make a Sicilian and it just wasn't coming out right. My wife found LloydPans online. I tried them out in the pan, and everyone said it was much better. The pans stack nicely, they’re heavy duty and they’re the easiest thing in the world to clean. The pan changed our entire business model [to handcrafted square pizzas]. I always liked the square pie and I needed one that fit in the oven. The pan is the perfect size for the Ooni Koda 16s. Couple that with the quality of the pizza that comes out, it became a no-brainer — it became a specialty.

Side Porch Pizza was established in 2022. What have been some of the key factors in your quick growth?
It’s a competitive market; I’m not the only game in town. In a market like that, the best thing to do is differentiate and specialize in something else. That’s where the squares come in. We’re making handcrafted specialty square gourmet pies onsite for you and your guests. We use the LloydPans 14-inch square exclusively. The dough is light and airy; it cooks through the pan; the pan is nonstick, high-quality aluminum; the temperature bleeds off and the heat flows through really well. I wouldn’t have the business model I have without LloydPans.