In This Episode

Welcome to the world premiere of Pie2Pie! In this inaugural episode, we welcome Nick Camacho of Lucky Nick’s Pizza to the show.

Lucky Nick’s began as a humble backyard operation in 2020, slinging pies for friends and family, but within no time the cars were lined up down the block just to get a taste of Nick’s pies. With the help of crowdfunding and a killer team, the operation grew into a mobile pop-up and catering powerhouse, serving their leopard-spotted pies to the masses.

From Pomona to the greater LA area, Lucky Nick’s can be found at hotspots like Homage Brewing and Melody Wine Bar, and have even fed the likes of The Weeknd, Asics, and Brain Dead Studios.

Alex caught up with Nick at Melody Wine Bar in LA for a great conversation. Hope that you enjoy it. Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Camacho of Lucky Nick’s Pizza!

       

Transcript

00:00:12:04 – 00:00:24:23
Alex
This is a segment called Pi to Pi, as you know. I’m going to ask my boy here 15 questions. He has one minute to answer each one. First of all, I want to give you a gift. Thank you. This is for you.

00:00:25:09 – 00:00:26:03
Nick
Appreciate it.

00:00:26:11 – 00:00:29:00
Alex
I got that for you because I think you’re like a badass.

00:00:29:06 – 00:00:34:21
Nick
You know, this gives me Terminator two vibes, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. Yes. So you knew.

00:00:35:07 – 00:00:38:06
Alex
Do, do, do, do, do. Anyways, AI’s taking over.

00:00:38:07 – 00:00:40:04
Nick
Thank Dude, You’re ready. I am.

00:00:40:05 – 00:00:45:06
Alex
All right. Who is someone in the industry you admire and why?

00:00:46:18 – 00:01:24:03
Nick
I’ll go with the first person that ever inspired me. Anthony Manjari. Before I knew anything about pizza, I saw this tattooed looking guy. Made pizza his own way. Didn’t really know what Neapolitan was. I think when I started, I tried to, you know, ride that line of, like, really puffy, soft dough. And over time, I think I’ve just taken his qualities of just doing things his own way, saying yes and no when he knows that not trying to appease to everyone and yeah, so I would say for sure that’s still my number one, you know, most inspiring person.

00:01:25:09 – 00:01:26:07
Alex
Have you eaten his pizza?

00:01:26:10 – 00:01:42:08
Nick
Do you know the one time that I did go to New York, it was during the pandemic. He was close. They were filming for that show that he’s on on HBO. So the whole place was shut down. I was super bummed, but I still got to walk by it and it was safe. So that was pretty cool. All right.

00:01:42:09 – 00:01:42:18
Nick
Yeah.

00:01:43:14 – 00:01:46:20
Alex
What’s your least favorite thing to make?

00:01:46:20 – 00:01:48:02
Nick
Like calzones?

00:01:48:22 – 00:01:53:08
Alex
Yeah, Like, yeah, I hate me a kick out of it. Why do you hate making calls?

00:01:53:11 – 00:02:11:14
Nick
Because just eat a fucking slice of pizza. Yeah. Like, it’s. You can’t. Like, you can’t really put toppings inside cause you have to cook them even more so. And then, like, sauce on the side. Now, like, just put tomato sauce on top, and then it’s just like it’s a hassle, especially with what we do. Like, we’re in the.

00:02:11:14 – 00:02:19:11
Nick
We’re in the business of churning and burning. Yeah, You can’t really do that when you’re crimping dough and, you know, Yeah, I, I can.

00:02:19:21 – 00:02:23:06
Alex
I 100% agree they never come out great either.

00:02:23:11 – 00:02:24:08
Nick
I know.

00:02:24:11 – 00:02:28:06
Alex
I’ve never like, I never look at a calzone and go, man, I’m proud of that thing.

00:02:28:12 – 00:02:29:05
Nick
It’s like soup.

00:02:30:03 – 00:02:31:03
Alex
What do you think about Yelp?

00:02:32:05 – 00:02:51:19
Nick
It’s one of the worst business concepts ever. It’s just crashing on businesses that are trying to make an honest living. I feel like most of the people that are on Yelp have never worked a day in their life in the kitchen and things happen, you know, like you can have the best meal in the world. It doesn’t mean it was it wasn’t dropped on the floor.

00:02:52:03 – 00:03:08:05
Nick
That doesn’t mean that, you know, the meat expired three days ago. Like, there’s so many things you don’t know about a restaurant just by going inside and you had bad service, like get over yourself. I mean, you could have just been in there on the one day that everything that could go wrong did go wrong. That’s my opinion.

00:03:08:08 – 00:03:13:00
Nick
Um, I have friends and family that are like Yelp elitist and, like, weirds me the hell out.

00:03:14:00 – 00:03:18:14
Alex
Number four, what’s your favorite tattoo and why?

00:03:19:10 – 00:03:35:04
Nick
Damn. Damn you. Uh. I’ll say probably my back piece. Okay. Um, so I have all traditional, so there’s not really meaning behind any of them. I didn’t, like, pick out. No, I take that back. I totally screwed up my daughters names. Both of them I have.

00:03:35:04 – 00:03:38:07
Alex
Dottie. You about to super Fuck. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I actually.

00:03:38:08 – 00:03:39:11
Nick
I always forget, but. Yeah, Sorry.

00:03:39:12 – 00:03:40:08
Alex
So, Dottie.

00:03:41:02 – 00:03:48:08
Nick
And Marlo, those are my daughters, so hands down. Yeah, those are my favorite. I screwed up. I’m sorry, but. Yeah, and because they’re my daughters.

00:03:48:08 – 00:03:50:15
Alex
Yeah, Yeah, but tell us about your real favorite piece.

00:03:51:03 – 00:04:10:05
Nick
My back. My back piece. To me, that was just something that I always wanted to have done. Long story short, I used to be like, £300, and I was really big. And I like I essentially lost weight because I knew that I wanted tattoos in the future, had skin removal surgery. Did the whole nine tightened up. And when I got my back piece done, I was like, Damn, I did it.

00:04:10:05 – 00:04:13:02
Nick
Okay? It was just like a little check. Check. Mark.

00:04:13:15 – 00:04:16:20
Alex
What is the best slice you have ever had?

00:04:16:20 – 00:04:40:13
Nick
So it was definitely on my New York trip. Y y I know, but it wasn’t. I mean, but see, this is where it gets. No, no, no. Okay, so I have two answers because New York was like, it’s so hard to do is I eat like 30 slices in a matter like two days. So maybe my you know, my thought process was it wasn’t right.

00:04:40:13 – 00:05:00:02
Nick
But I had the sausage, brown butter and sage slice from F an F pizza in Carol Gardens that she was fucking fantastic. But out here, my favorite slice that I’ve had Apollonia is Cheese Slice. And I’ve said that before fucking what’s it say is went in there and like gave it the high rating.

00:05:00:04 – 00:05:03:18
Alex
No you, you said something different before the bar stool.

00:05:03:18 – 00:05:06:05
Nick
Yeah. We’re actually, we’re actually homies now. No, no, no.

00:05:06:06 – 00:05:15:03
Alex
You’re like eight to I that’s my new favorite slice. Yeah. Bonus time. What do you think about Barstool Sports?

00:05:15:03 – 00:05:17:14
Nick
No, I’m just not a fan.

00:05:17:16 – 00:05:26:01
Alex
All right. What are your three favorite ingredients as pepperoni?

00:05:26:11 – 00:05:35:14
Nick
That’s always going to be my favorites. The. It’s got to be the Supreme. I love the Black Edge, isn’t it? The little charred, the cups of. Oh, man, my mouth is.

00:05:35:14 – 00:05:35:23
Alex
Water.

00:05:37:22 – 00:05:54:09
Nick
So hands down that, you know, I love mushrooms. Mushrooms on a pizza is always great. And you know, I’m going to say sauce. Just the mere fact that one of my favorite pies is just a marinara pie when when it when it’s done right, when it when it’s done really right. I don’t I don’t need cheese all the time.

00:05:54:15 – 00:06:01:13
Alex
You don’t need cheese. Yeah, we don’t need cheese all the time. People take a break. You heard it here. It’s that straight from Nick.

00:06:01:13 – 00:06:03:04
Nick
In Buffalo, Montana. Overrated.

00:06:03:04 – 00:06:16:21
Alex
Oh, Oh, Buffalo Moss, ladies and gentlemen. Overrated. Maybe Don’t stop putting it on everything. You know what else is overrated? Barata. Am I right? It looks great. It’s not that cool.

00:06:16:22 – 00:06:18:20
Nick
You just heard a bunch of mom’s feelings right now.

00:06:19:16 – 00:06:22:09
Alex
What is the best and the worst thing about popping up?

00:06:22:11 – 00:06:45:22
Nick
I’ll start with the worst. And that is the setting up and tearing down. It’s a lot, you know, checklist, you know, the ten tables, I mean, down to the oven, really. Like, it’s not like we light it up and then drive around with it like that. So it’s getting there two or 3 hours before it’s just a process.

00:06:45:22 – 00:07:01:19
Nick
And then the tearing down is like, cool. We just finished, we just knocked out 200 pies and now it’s like a fuck. I was trying to tear it all down and load up and then go back and go drop it off in like that whole thing. But the best part of it has just been like how organically we’ve grown.

00:07:03:09 – 00:07:23:06
Nick
You know, I don’t want to say the money aspect because obviously having a brick and mortar, it costs a lot more, a lot of overhead. But you know, just being in a new place are also knowing our spots and having people come and seeing the lines grow every single time. And it’s like a feeling of like, Damn, we’re doing it.

00:07:24:10 – 00:07:30:13
Alex
Respect. Yeah, that’s awesome. What is the greatest band of all time and why.

00:07:31:06 – 00:07:36:06
Nick
Suck not my favorite band.

00:07:36:14 – 00:07:40:17
Alex
Does it. It Yeah. It doesn’t it, It could.

00:07:40:17 – 00:07:50:06
Nick
You know, I’m going to say Queen Solid. I mean, badass vocalists, guitar solos, they appeal to everyone, like, really?

00:07:50:06 – 00:07:52:22
Alex
Yes.

00:07:52:22 – 00:08:02:05
Nick
Stadiums. And just like having the crowd in the palm of your hands. Not many bands can do that, especially now. Monster, Bad Bunny.

00:08:02:05 – 00:08:08:20
Alex
SH Big Bad Bunny did then. Murray Bon Bon Bon Bon Bon Where You Want Lucky Next in the next three years.

00:08:09:05 – 00:08:28:02
Nick
Honestly, just one brick and mortar, preferably close to my house in Claremont, Pomona area. Be close to my family, you know, make an honest living. I’m not looking to have a million of these guys. I just want to be happy. I’m happy now. So even if it was this in three years, I think I’d be content. There’s so many.

00:08:28:03 – 00:08:35:20
Nick
You’re putting out great pizza. There’s so many good pizza spots in L.A. now. I think that’s more what I want to see. Just more good pizza.

00:08:36:04 – 00:08:36:08
Alex
Yeah.

00:08:36:09 – 00:08:43:12
Nick
And and everyone being together, you know, none like none of this. I’m better than you. You know, we’re all trying to make good pizza.

00:08:44:06 – 00:08:47:22
Alex
It’s wrong with that. Yeah. Respect. What did you want to be as a kid?

00:08:49:03 – 00:09:11:22
Nick
Oh, I want to be like a comic artist. I love drawing as a kid. I was pretty decent at it for being like an elementary and middle schooler. But as I got older, I kind of stopped, and then that slowly turned into making music and touring and wanting to be in the biggest band that I possibly could. I got to do some cool stuff.

00:09:11:22 – 00:09:18:08
Nick
But yeah, it was when I was a kid it was drawing so, you know, that might have led to tattooing or something. I don’t know.

00:09:18:08 – 00:09:19:05
Alex
Do you still draw.

00:09:19:23 – 00:09:28:09
Nick
You know? No, I have. Everyone says I have nice writing, but I don’t draw anymore. I’m not inspired to draw.

00:09:28:19 – 00:09:29:18
Alex
What did you play in the band?

00:09:30:17 – 00:09:35:21
Nick
When I started, I played drums and then as I got older, I had a band where I sing and play guitar.

00:09:36:04 – 00:09:38:23
Alex
It was the band called The Motel.

00:09:38:23 – 00:09:59:01
Nick
Life was like one of the first major ones we toured with or that I was in the toured. I sang and played guitar in a band called New Manners. And then I was in a band called Naive Thieves, and we were from Riverside and that was part of the biggest band that I was in, did a lot of shows like The Deer Hunter and that type of stuff.

00:09:59:01 – 00:10:07:02
Nick
We we sound like The Strokes. We sounded nothing like all these like indie kind of like experimental bands that we were touring with. But yeah.

00:10:07:08 – 00:10:08:21
Alex
Well, is any of that on Spotify?

00:10:08:23 – 00:10:10:04
Nick
It’s on Spotify, yeah.

00:10:10:04 – 00:10:11:07
Alex
You check out Equal.

00:10:11:07 – 00:10:13:08
Nick
Vision might still have some records, so.

00:10:13:10 – 00:10:15:11
Alex
All right. God cop those dude.

00:10:15:11 – 00:10:16:13
Nick
Naive thieves.

00:10:16:23 – 00:10:20:11
Alex
Lives of thieves. Naive, naive thieves love it.

00:10:21:06 – 00:10:23:04
Nick
Knives of thieves Could have been like a metal band.

00:10:23:10 – 00:10:30:11
Alex
Yeah, Yeah. You know, any way you cut it, what’s the one thing you really look at when you visit another pizza shop?

00:10:31:16 – 00:10:54:12
Nick
I think I’m always mostly intrigued with, like, just the guys making the pizza. I always like seeing, you know, whenever I go to Hot Town, I see Andrew just fucking covered in flour and, like, running. They’re running back. And why? That’s cool. Like, I mean, not to say that it’s fun when you’re like, you know, like when you’re trying to make things work and you got one or two people, you’re trying to do a bunch of things, but I appreciate those things.

00:10:54:12 – 00:11:16:20
Nick
I let go of going in and seeing the hustle, but mostly just seeing someone covered in flour, stretching the dough. You guys have a nice pizza master. So I like, you know, I like looking at the ovens. That’s mostly it. I mean, obviously the decor is always cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah. Number one, I want to see someone back there struggling.

00:11:16:20 – 00:11:26:08
Alex
They’re there. I like that. I like that a lot. What is one thing that every pizza maker should know?

00:11:26:08 – 00:11:29:03
Nick
Um, man, are we trying to get, like, philosophical here?

00:11:29:12 – 00:11:31:09
Alex
Dude, Go into the depths.

00:11:32:00 – 00:11:52:18
Nick
I mean, I’ve heard this, too, and it’s kind of like the best advice that I’ve ever heard is just like, make mistakes. That’s kind of how I came upon. Like the recipe that we’re at now. I think the last six months has been the most consistent that we’ve been, and it took a while to get there, but it kind of happened just, Oh shit, I think I didn’t put as much salt in this or that.

00:11:52:18 – 00:12:10:09
Nick
And I’m like, Oh fuck, it’s more balanced or whatever. Make mistakes and try new shit. There’s so much, so many good products out there that are at our disposal, you know, like there’s always people on Instagram that are wanting to push their product, whether it’s a chili or something. Just try it. Don’t you know you’re not above it.

00:12:11:10 – 00:12:12:15
Nick
Worst case, you don’t like it.

00:12:12:15 – 00:12:12:22
Alex
Yeah.

00:12:13:07 – 00:12:15:21
Nick
But make mistakes. Absolutely.

00:12:16:10 – 00:12:20:09
Alex
What inspires your creativity?

00:12:20:09 – 00:12:39:04
Nick
Honestly, Like childhood memories, I think. I think for I mean, maybe for you too. But like, when it comes to pizza, I’m always drawn back to things that I looked forward to as a kid, whether that’s like, you know, a certain topping or certain cheese style of like we used to use fresh Mott’s and then.

00:12:39:13 – 00:12:40:08
Alex
I was like, Why.

00:12:40:08 – 00:12:59:23
Nick
Isn’t this like not hitting it for me? And I realized because like, I wanted to, like in low moisture Mott’s, you know, so I think I’m always going back to my childhood, what are my earliest memories of pizza and that influencing the new way of thinking, which is wood fire, you know, sour dough, more blistered, artisanal, if you want to call it that.

00:12:59:23 – 00:13:01:04
Nick
But my childhood for sure.

00:13:01:04 – 00:13:06:20
Alex
Yeah. Describe. And an authentic Los Angeles style slice.

00:13:08:04 – 00:13:23:04
Nick
Ooh, I’m not just blowing smoke up your ass. I feel like when I had a hot tongue slice for the first time and I have a classic. The classic, by the way, is like one of my favorite slices to me, that kind of hit the mark because, like, it’s you can tell it’s inspired by like a New York slice.

00:13:23:04 – 00:13:46:01
Nick
It’s a larger slice, like a six inch type deal slice. But it wasn’t like, I don’t know, there’s vegetables on it. It was, you know, it’s hitting the marks of a New York slice, but it’s like, I’m not afraid to like dunking in some ranch. Yeah. So to me, that would be like a quintessential cool L.A. slice because I haven’t had anything similar to that.

00:13:46:01 – 00:13:50:00
Nick
Like, there’s a bunch of guys that are trying to do the Joe’s thing, you know.

00:13:50:02 – 00:13:51:20
Alex
Let this one right out since he’s talking about me.

00:13:52:00 – 00:14:05:13
Nick
But yeah, I you know, I for me personally, I feel like that’s a good interpretation. It’s vegan. If you ate it, you won’t fucking know that it’s vegan. Like who doesn’t like veggies on their pizza?

00:14:06:07 – 00:14:07:02
Alex
A lot of people don’t.

00:14:07:05 – 00:14:10:19
Nick
It blows my mind like, you know, I mean, as long as it’s done right, you know, it’s.

00:14:10:19 – 00:14:11:23
Alex
All balance, right? Yeah.

00:14:12:01 – 00:14:17:20
Nick
Like I’m not going to put like, shit ton of spinach on it and then it’s just going to be like a wet bomb. Yeah.

00:14:18:06 – 00:14:24:08
Alex
Yeah, no doubt. But I make sure that this one gets in there. Yeah. I’ll venmo you later for that one.

00:14:24:18 – 00:14:26:19
Nick
You’re good. Yeah. Just give me another one of these.

00:14:26:19 – 00:14:39:08
Alex
Yes. The Terminator keychain and classics License for Life. Okay. I think that this is the last one. What was your favorite movie as a kid and what is your favorite movie now?

00:14:39:19 – 00:14:58:12
Nick
Okay. Favorite movie as a kid? Yeah. We loved National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation as a kid. Just brings me back. I could watch that all year round. Favorite movie. Now my wife hates me for this, but Dumb and Dumber still still my favorite movie of all time.

00:14:58:12 – 00:14:59:08
Alex
That’s a classic.

00:14:59:16 – 00:15:00:07
Nick
Dumb and Dumber.

00:15:00:21 – 00:15:04:19
Alex
I remember. I remember kicking the back of the seat. That was so funny.

00:15:05:02 – 00:15:17:01
Nick
It’s it’s like especially as a kid, I mean, I was probably like four or five when that came out. But yeah, even as a kid, I like. I know, I know. I’m not supposed to repeat any of this shit, but it’s pretty funny.

00:15:17:09 – 00:15:18:13
Alex
Did you see it when you were five?

00:15:18:18 – 00:15:33:15
Nick
Oh, yeah, my dad was. Yeah. My dad didn’t give a shit. I’m not, like, in a bad way. My dad was a great dad. My dad was out there, but, like, my. My, my dad’s a funny guy. My dad’s honestly, like, the funniest guy that I know, so it. Yeah, totally made sense that we were watching that stuff.

00:15:33:15 – 00:15:33:17
Nick
Yeah.

00:15:35:09 – 00:15:43:06
Alex
Thank you. I think that was 15. Maybe it was 13. We got some questions. We got some answers that I had a great time. This guy’s got to start cooking.

00:15:43:07 – 00:15:44:15
Nick
Yeah, we’re going to cook right now.

00:15:44:21 – 00:15:50:06
Alex
I appreciate you doing this. And is there anything else you want to you want to say to the viewers out there.

00:15:50:06 – 00:16:10:01
Nick
LuckyNicksPizza.com or Instagram at Lucky Nick’s Pizza is probably the best way to get a hold of us like an experts pizza gmail.com. Uh, we have a bunch of pop ups coming up. Uh, just check out our Instagram. We have everything there and thank you to Alex. He’s doing a lot of cool stuff for the pizza, cool community.

00:16:10:01 – 00:16:12:09
Nick
He’s making it fun and that’s kind of what this is about.

00:16:12:20 – 00:16:21:08
Alex
Thanks 100%. Thank you. Dude, is this supposed to be fun? We’re going to link all that in the bio and I’ll make clear later.

00:16:21:21 – 00:16:27:23
Alex
How shall I get Jay?