'It’s all about being different': New coal-fired pizza restaurant to open in Daytona Beach

A brand new, fast-casual pizzeria is making its way to Daytona Beach next month.

Sam’s Coal Fired Pizza restaurant, neighboring TenneSteve Trash Ice Cream Shop in Daytona, is fusing high-quality cuisine with quick, casual service at its new beachside restaurant.

Though the eatery is owner Sam Tadros' first brick-and-mortar under the Sam’s Coal Fired Pizza brand, the name may sound familiar. Tadros began Sam's Coal Fired Pizza in 2020, a frozen pizza business that catapulted to fame following a notably positive review from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy — a nationally-known pizza connoisseur, recognized by The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other publications.

Though Tadros has since sold his frozen pizza venture, luckily for Volusia locals, Sam's Coal Fired Pizza is bringing its Portnoy-approved, homemade pies beachside next month.

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“It’s all about being different,” Tadros, who began his culinary escapades at just 13 years old, tells me.

Preparing to open his pizzeria’s doors in just a few short days, the restaurateur confidently declares quality as the defining characteristic of Sam’s Coal Fired Pizza.

“A lot of our stuff, we make in house, between our meatballs, fennel sausage … fresh mozzarella, our own burrata … and all our sauces,” he said. “I use three different flours on my pizza to make the dough — one of my pizzas I actually use five different flours. So, every pizza is very different.”

The eatery’s made-fresh menu will offer around 10-12 pizza selections with slices available all day, Tadros tells me, including Detroit-style pizza, Chicago traditional, Chicago stuffed, Roman and Sicilian.

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According to Tadros, New York-style pies — thin-crust selections created using homemade sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes and fresh, house-made mozzarella — will be cooked in the coal-fired pizza oven, along with the eatery's Sicilian pizzas, creating that slightly charred, natural flavor and incomparable crispiness.

“(Our sauce) is not too sweet, but it has a tang to it. And it’s not acidic,” Tadros noted.

For lovers of a fluffier crust, the Roman pizza, made from a combination of four different flours, offers an “addictive” crunch and airy, soft center comparable to fresh focaccia, the restaurateur explained.

Alongside its cheesy slices, the petite shop will also serve up a small range of pasta dishes, including chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan and penne vodka, as well as 2-pound Philly and chicken cheesesteaks and homemade lamb- and beef-stuffed gyros.

Beverages will include a range of 24 Jones Soda fountain flavors, High Noon hard seltzers, craft beer, and 12-ounce Margaritas available for $5, daily.

High-caliber cuisine meets quick, casual service

After scouring the menu, diners will simply place their order at the counter, grab a buzzer and sit down — it’s that simple, Tadros explained of the fast-casual eatery.

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With 30 seats indoors and 20 outside, the pizzeria hopes to serve as local go-to, where its convenience won't negate its quality.

The start of Sam’s Coal Fired Pizza

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Tadros, a Jersey City native who previously owned Slyce Pizzeria in Port Orange and Slyce on Flagler in New Smyrna Beach until 2018, launched Sam’s Coal Fired Pizza — then a frozen pizza business — nearly four years ago during the pandemic, a time-appropriate venture that brought a variety of vacuum-sealed pies right to customers’ doorsteps.

“We took a 2,500-square-foot warehouse, built it up and just started slinging pies,” he said. “We would make them, put them in a vacuum sealer bag, flash-freeze them, seal them and the next day they’d get shipped out.”

Everything changed, Tadros tells me, when Portnoy posted about the frozen pizza online. Portnoy, “the most influential person on the American pizza scene,” according to The New York Times, known for his country-wide “one bite” pizza reviews, rated the frozen pizza an 8.4, ranking it the third best of its kind in the nation at the time.

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“The goal was to just supply to local areas, but when Portnoy did his review, it exploded,” Tadros said.

Staggered by an influx of orders, the restaurateur partnered with Gold Belly, a nationwide delivery service, to meet immediate demand, until ultimately deciding to sell the frozen pizza business — officially doing so earlier this year.

Since then, Tadros tells me, opening a beachside pizzeria was never an end goal of his, but when the opportunity arose, it was one worth jumping on — one the restaurateur says will make many, like Portnoy, fall in love with the restaurant's scratch-made selections after just one bite.

Sam’s Coal Fired Pizza is located at 817 E. International Speedway Blvd. in Daytona Beach and plans to open its doors by Friday, March 8, with tentative hours of 11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. Friday – Saturday and noon – 9 p.m. Sunday. The eatery will offer takeout and delivery. For information, visit Facebook.com. or samscoalfiredpizza.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Sam's Coal Fired Pizza restaurant to open in Daytona Beach