Restaurant news: Italian restaurateur opens new pizzeria at Daytona Flea Market

Daytona Beach is home to dozens of pizzerias, but none quite like this.

Pizzeus, located within the Daytona Flea and Farmer’s Market, opened for business just over a week ago, serving authentic “Italian-style” pizza and sandwiches. Owner and Italian native Furio Fattori runs the shop Friday through Sunday during market hours, alongside his wife, Irina, originally from Cuba, and their two children.

The quaint new eatery, a first of its kind at the local market, is bringing a true taste of Italy to the Daytona area, with a plethora of cheese, veggie and meat-layered bites to be enjoyed on the go or while seated within the neighboring, light-strung dining space.

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What’s on Pizzeus' menu?

For Fattori, quality begins with the details.

The experienced chef tells me all his creations are scratch-made, using a generous array of top-quality imported products that leave customers tasting a difference.

“I have every ingredient from Italy, nothing from the United States,” he explained, from his flour, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes to his Parmigian-Reggiano, prosciutto crudo di parma and mortadella.

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Fattori combines three separate flours when mixing his pizza dough, then lets it sit covered for two hours before placing it in a controlled temperature cooler for 24 hours in order to serve it the following day. According to the restaurateur, his meticulous methodology creates a pizza that's neither too heavy, nor bloating but rather light and fresh, with a crust whose crisp outer crunch and softer, chewy center steals the show.

Pizzeus’ menu offers 14-inch personal pizzas, a convenient size he tells me is 2 inches larger than typical personal pies, while yielding a shorter prep time within the eatery’s limited kitchen space.

Options include the classic cheese ($12) — homemade tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella; the Deliziosa ($16) — tomato sauce, baked ham, fresh mozzarella and sausage; and the four-cheese ($16.50) — blue cheese, gouda, mozzarella and stracchino; as well as large pizzas by the slice starting at $5.50.

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The restaurant also offers two sandwiches encased in the same crisp pizza dough, the panozzo 1 — tomato slices, ham, fresh mozzarella, olive oil and rucola (arugula); and my personal favorite, the panozzo 2 — mortadello with pistachios, Genovese pesto and fresh mozzarella; as well as the donzelle — described as fried pizza dough, served salted as a savory snack or layered with sugar and chocolate as a dessert.

Fattori: Pizza maker and passionate mentor

Fattori is a pizza-making veteran, abound with knowledge, culinary passion and success stories from his decades-long career as a teacher and pizza chef in Italy.

The restaurateur knew he had a passion for the culinary art from a young age, he tells me, soaking up information as a beginner chef and continually working to improve his craft.

“I was making my job with passion, starting from zero and step by step I learned, keeping information because I love pizza-making,” he said.

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It was during his early career in Italy, he noted, that he attempted to bring that very passion and expertise to the pizzeria he was employed with at the time, suggesting new techniques that would yield a higher quality slice. When his suggestions were immediately dismissed and he was told to simply get back to work, it was a turning point for him.

“This is the moment that changed my life, because to myself I said, ‘Why?’ I tried to make my best (pizza),” he said.

Realizing profit was often prioritized over passion, Fattori took matters into his own hands — he quit his job and enrolled in culinary school in Italy where he studied pizza-making for the next two years. This journey, he says, prepared him to begin his “true passion” — one that places quality and heart at the forefront — as a driven teacher and pizza-maker.

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Fattori meticulously taught the art for more than 20 years at schools across Italy, assisting young chefs in making various types of pizza, climbing the ranks within their local shops and even in starting their own businesses.

He instructed everything from ingredient mixtures and preparation techniques, to cooking methodology, proper pizzeria layouts and other business practices. Ultimately, Fattori assisted entrepreneurs in the opening of more than 60 pizzerias in Italy, with former students going on to open shops in France, Germany and the United States, among other countries.

The creation of Pizzeus

After eventually moving to Florida from Tuscany, Italy, in 2015, Fattori tells me he worked in pizzerias around the Orlando area for a couple years before he and his family later visited the Daytona area, where they felt an instant connection.

“I’m very happy to live here because, first of all, the community is very different,” he said. “It’s a little paradise. It’s nice … and it’s peaceful.”

But why the flea market? — a question, Fattori tells me he’s well-aware people may have.

The answer, he says, is multifaceted.

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The 1981-born flea and farmer’s market boasts more than 2 million visitors each year and is home to more than 600 registered vendors, making it not only an ideal location for foot traffic, but a place the restaurateur says he was met with overwhelming acceptance, kindness and consideration, resulting in a seamless, timely opening.

Furthermore, the market’s limited, three-day business period allows Fattori to combine his two passions in one location: operating his pizzeria Friday through Sunday and reinstating his Italian-rooted pizza courses at the shop during the remainder of the week.

The classes, which he hopes to host in the near future, will tentatively take place from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday – Thursday over a two-week period. Each course period, lasting eight days in total, will host three students at a time, and will teach the fundamentals of pizza-making.

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Fattori, trilingual with fluency in Spanish and Italian, tells me he hopes to attract students of all backgrounds and generations, noting that his field of work knows no age, only drive. For the pizza chef, whether teaching a full class or simply one attendee, his dedication will never waiver.

“If I have (only) one student, I (would) make a school for one student — I don’t care,” he said smiling.

Stop by, grab a bite

The family-owned restaurant eagerly welcomes the local community and hopes to bring a new level of authenticity to Daytona’s pizza scene, where Fattori’s lifelong love for the craft is evident with every bite.

“I take care. It’s not a job. I don’t make this for money — I make this for passion,” he said.

“We are a little family, but we make everything with many, many passion.”

Pizzeus is located within row P south at the Daytona Flea and Farmer’s Market at 1425 Tomoka Farms Road in Daytona Beach and is open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Friday – Sunday. For information, call 786-709-8884 or visit facebook.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Pizzeus restaurant opens at Daytona Beach Flea and Farmers Market