Welcome back to Pizza Quest!

Muhammad Abdul-Hadi's and Michael Carter's new book, "We the Pizza," just came out this week. They join us from their restaurant, Down North Pizza, in Philadelphia's Strawberry Hill neighborhood, to tell us all about it. The subtitle of the book, "Slangin' Pies and Saving Lives" is really what makes Down North Pizza unique among the many great pizzerias we feature here. The restaurant represents a larger mission, including the hiring of formerly incarcerated individuals, providing housing subsidies for those in need, and a number of other neighborhood and community projects that we discuss in this conversation with Muhammad and Michael, all designed to elevate the quality of life for the locals and to also serve as a model for, hopefully, otherDown North's across the country. It's a work-in-progress but the launching pad for it all is the amazing and creative square-style pan pizza menu created by head chef Michael Carter and his team of cooks. The creativity on display is beautifully captured in their new book, written by Muhammad, along with co-author David Joachim, as well as beautifully energetic photos by Amurri Lauren. As you will hear here, all of the good works envisioned by Muhammad, who has been a community activist for years in Philadelphia, are made possible by the success of Down North Pizza. Join us as we discuss how to make a vision of community transformation come true, in this week's episode of Pizza Quest.

Welcome back to Pizza Quest!

Joel Kostman supported his family for over 30 years as a New York City locksmith, but that was just his day job. By night, he was (and still is) a serious writer who channeled his locksmithing adventures into a semi-autobiographical fictional cult classic story collection called, "Keys to the City: Tales of a New York City Locksmith." The New York Times even called him "The Doctor of the Deadbolt." As Joel says, "New Yorkers are concerned about keeping people out on a very primal level, whether it's an abusive spouse or a creep on the corner. They like to talk. I like to listen." Joel and I are childhood friends and have gone on a number of pizza quests together when I happened to be visiting in Brooklyn, where he once lived. Join us as we recount those adventures, including his role in helping me win a James Beard National Bread Baking Championship, and his most recent exciting news: the possibility of the book being turned into a major television series.

The Doctor of the Deadbolt is in, here on Pizza Quest.

Welcome back to Pizza Quest!
In this episode, we are joined by Eddie Fischer (no, not the famous singer and husband of Debbie Reynolds and father of Carrie Fisher), but the OTHER Eddie Fischer, a Jersey guy, the founder of How U Doin?, a new boys and girls club about to launch near Dallas, Texas. Yes, he and I share a long, shared history of East Coast pizza questing but, more importantly, his current quest is to provide a safe haven for teens struggling with the allure of drinking, drugs, and alienation. How U Doin is a clubhouse, but it's much more, fueled by a vision to make a difference in the lives of the youngsters involved and, also, in the community at large. Hear how Eddie Fischer discovered and is fulfilling his new mission in life which, by the way, involves pizza making as part of his formula for success.