Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.106 | Feat. Tony Calascibetta from Cam's Pizza!

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Good News York: Tony of Cam's Pizzeria - Heartfelt Stories and Community Impact In this episode of Good News York, host Matt Major from Growth Mode Content welcomes Tony, the owner of Cam's Pizzeria. Tony shares the inspiring 45-year history of the family business, including his brother Carmelo's dream. They discuss the restaurant's longevity, challenges, and Tony's approach of using pizza to bring happiness and build relationships. Tony also talks about his and his wife's charity work at the rescue mission, which they fondly call their 'date night'. The episode is filled with heartfelt stories of lives touched through their volunteer work. Tony also highlights the unique aspects of Cam's Pizza, including their mobile operation and famous pumpkin-shaped pizzas for Halloween. For more information, visit camspizza.com. 00:00 Welcome to Good News York 00:36 Meet Tony, Owner of Cam's Pizzeria 01:21 The History of Cam's Pizzeria 02:15 The Secret to Longevity in the Restaurant Business 03:26 Giving Back: Tony's Volunteer Work 05:08 Heartwarming Stories from the Rescue Mission 08:04 The Mobile Pizza Operation 10:29 Popular Pizza Choices and Unique Offerings 13:24 Upcoming Events and Special Promotions 16:01 Conclusion and Future Episodes

Instagram teen accounts have built-in protections for who can contact teens and what they see. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Balee to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts

to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey folks, I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode content. Welcome to Good News, York. This is an awesome episode. I am joined by a good friend of mine, fellow profounder, and somebody who I've been a fan of long before I met him.

because I've been eating his food at his local restaurant for a long time. So very excited to have my friend Tony. Tony, go ahead and introduce yourself and tell folks where you're from. Hello, everyone. How you doing? My name is Tony Kalashabeta, and I'm the owner of the Cam's Pizzeria. Man, Tony, you and I got talking, I guess I want to say recently. It's a little while ago now, though, at our good friend Jackie's fundraiser recently.

Yeah, for Varehaus. And we had such a good conversation. I honestly wish I had a microphone at the time because we could have done a whole podcast right there. But, you know, I loved learning about what you got going on. The CAMs name is one that's been around. We see it everywhere. It's a phenomenal. Mike was gushing over your brand already here today.

But really, it's got a great look. Give us a little background. How did it get started and kind of what's the, I know there's been a little evolution. to today? Give us a little history of CAMS, if you wouldn't mind. Well, CAMS is actually my brother's nickname for Carmelo, and the pizza business was his dream. Back 45 years ago, we opened. This past July 2nd was our 45-year anniversary. You opened up in Geneva. And what's neat about that is that the very first person we hired in Geneva, her and her brother have been running that location for the last 37 and a half years.

Wow. And they recently wanted to retire. So when that happened, it is, that I ended buying that one back. Wow. And we took that one back on July 1st. It was kind of a neat 45-year anniversary that we were able to retire those fine folks that did such a great job there in Geneva, and it continues to be a staple in that community.

That's great. Yeah, so excited about that. That's so incredible. So, you know, so many restaurants come and go, how do you last four plus decades? Well, it's not easy, that's for sure. I can imagine. It's a lot of hard work, but when you do what you love and you love what you do,

you know, pizza for me is a happy food, and we like to bring happiness because people's days and lives are tough. Yeah. And, you know, when they come to us, it's for a celebration or to make what they're going through a little bit more difficult times. And I always try to stress that attitude with everybody that they're our guests, welcome them. and I just like to use pizza as a lure, if you will, and make relationships and friends. I love that. Yeah.

I love that. We've got customers that are generations, you know? I believe it. That was pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's the way to do. Looking out for folks. That's just a message that we hear from so many successful people is, you know,

why you still hear is because we actually care. That's right. I tell my employees that all the time. If you don't care, I don't need your hair. Sure. No, that's fair. That's absolutely fair. Speaking of caring, you told me about a little kind of volunteer charity work that I believe you and your wife do on a regular basis.

Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, we call it our date night. Once a month, my wife and I and a bunch of other great volunteers and wonderful people. We head down to the rescue mission and we hand out free slices of pizza and free beverages. and it's expanded that we actually have clothing there and we hand out tracks and hand out small pocket Bibles and we play some uplifting Christian music and we pray for people.

We just acknowledge them. Yeah. And I tell you, it's been a game changer for me. Wow. I could tell you some tremendous stories. Even as I say them, they tear me up. Best tip I ever got my whole life was from a homeless person. Really?

Yep. What was that? It was a dollar bill. They actually gave me a dollar bill. They were so grateful and so happy for what we do. It's just, it was just, I still have that. And I've been tipped. Sure.

Big numbers in the past for different things, but it's such a special thing coming from someone who has, and it's so needy. Yeah. Yeah, that's incredible. It's, you know, given folks just that, that sort of dignity of a good meal. Yeah. I know is so huge for them. And I love how you frame that as the date night.

It is. And I love it. So many, you know, what do you and your wife do for fun? Oh, we go and feed folks. Yeah, yeah. We love that. Actually, I'll tell you another quick story if I could. You know, sometimes you go out there and you wonder if you're making an impact.

And sometimes there's people that come that aren't really in that category. Sometimes the people that come are the people that cause some of the problems down there. But we don't judge. We give the pizza to everyone. And one time I come down, I pull right in front, I beat the horn on the way because they know it now. And this story comes from someone that's not my story. This woman, she found out that homeless woman, knows that comes all the time to campus for the Tuesday. She found out that morning that she was pregnant.

and she was so devastated that she was going to end her life. Wow. And God had put me right at the right place at the right time where I actually stopped her from crossing the street. And because of that, she stayed and said, well, I'm going to get a slice of Cam's pizza. And sometimes other ministries come down with us because the food, the free food is the bait, if you will.

Sure. And there's other wonderful organizations and ministries around here that look to try to help these folks for existence of Teen Challenge. And there was a pregnancy crisis folks that were there as well. They're wonderful people by Julie Rosati. And they happened to start talking to her. And it was actually the folks from Teen Challenge. And they talked her off the ledge, if you will.

So I don't know any of this is going on. I'm just there making pizza. And a few months later, I have this person who's hunting me down asking everybody, I'm not a Facebook person. So someone tells me about it. So I finally meet this woman and she says, you and your wife saved my life.

Wow. So what happened is she gave birth to this child and she called the baby's name is Blessin and they call me Uncle Tony. And just to know that God put me in the path at the right time to stop this woman from ending her life and her baby's life.

And in a three-year old birthday, She's been adopted since, the adopted parents, and the real mother had come, happened to be the day after her for a third day birthday, they came down to the rescue mission as we were doing our free night pizza. And she brought her. I should have brought a picture of it. It's just one of those stories that. Yeah. to God that he was able to use us in that fashion. Sure.

So, you know, it's not just pizza. It's what you do and how you do, you know, and I'm just grateful that I, that's my forte, that's my blessing, and I get to use it in that fashion. Sounds like he also got another lifelong pizza fans and process. Yeah. So that's not a bad thing either. Let's talk a little bit about the pizza business, because something else I found very fascinating was just how you even do that, right?

So you've got an incredible mobile operation and you've got a whole pizza shop in a trailer. Yeah. And that just sort of blows my mind. Could you just talk about that a little bit? Because I think that's kind of unique how you do it. Well, that was a while ago, too. We started doing, and Oswego, been there for 41 plus years. And Harbour Fest, many people aware of that.

Back in the day, Harbor Fest was pretty tremendous. We were the very first food vendor for Harbourfest. Wow. And Harbourfest grew so quickly. We would set up at one of the parks where they would have the fireworks. And what I would do is we would make pizza in every two blocks I had kind of like the Pony Express with a handcart and hot bags delivering pizza up to the park. And that's not very efficient. Sure.

Although we worked with what we had. Yeah. And that just put the bug in my head. I need to make pizza there locally. How do we do it? And we created, we actually built the trailer itself in the oven that's in there. It's a revolving pizza tray oven. And that's how we handle it from up there.

So from there, it just kind of expanded. And so we've been doing mobile pizza trailer for probably 35 plus years. Wow. And it got to be pretty big. We're doing 175 days a year with mobile units. And then COVID came. And now everybody else got in the game. So now we pick and choose.

We love to do events like we get over the Verra House and then go downtown. Well, I just love that. that story of how you sort of put that together. You know, you see like you said, lots of people get in game, but I feel like they have sort of warming ovens and things that are pre-made and they're out of the truck in many cases. You have

a legitimate that you built for that application. He's not just a chef. This guy's an engineer. I love that. That's just so neat. I think that, you know, and again, we talk about, you know,

why businesses survive you saw a unique opportunity and figured out how to make it work and then how to make it better. And I just love to see that, you know? Yeah, you said make it work. That's one of my favorite lines. I'm going to figure out, make it work. Yeah. Yeah, you got to get it done, right?

That's what's got to happen. I love that. I love that. Tell me a little bit about the pizza business. So these days, there's all kinds of crazy pizzas. You can get all kinds of weird toppings, all these things. what is still the go-to most popular best-selling pizza configuration that you get every day? You know, you're right.

Pizza business has changed quite a bit. We started 45 years ago. It wasn't one on every corner. It wasn't every gas station. It wasn't every restaurant has a pizza section. It wasn't every convenience store. And even the big box stores, you know, the Wegmans and the Walmarts and the tops, everybody has pizza. So it's not just the local pizza guy you're competing with.

It's everyone. You know, the traditional cheese pizza is still a very popular one. The other couple of busters we have is the chicken-bacon ranch is another one that is big hit. So good. Chicken wing pizza and also our peppery sausage is a big hit as well. So we have a lot of different combinations. There are some crazy combinations out there. We tend to stay kind of more traditional than get too crazy.

Sure. I like to do different things. I need the professional pizza man's take now. I got to ask you the controversial topic. You know, Hawaiian pizza, pineapple on pizza, what's your take? You know, I'll eat it. I probably won't ask for it. I probably won't make it, but if there's one's sitting there.

Fair enough. To me, it's all personality. You know, it's like eggs. How do you like your eggs? You make eggs a million different ways. Pizza's the same way. And I think that's why I love about it because it's something for everyone. And every age group, every personality, every ethnic background,

whoever they're used to having, every culture, it's just something that it unites people together and they think it's a flavor that hits everyone. I love that. I love that. This guy knows this stuff here, man. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you one of my favorite parts of cams,

one of the reasons that we've ordered from you from years now, is not just the pizza. You also have some good desserts there on hand. A couple simple but good. choices and not every pizza shop I feel like does that. I think they're missing the boat there. Sometimes you want just that little treat at the end, you know? That's right. That's right.

You guys got it figured out. And I just love that. Yeah, our canollies are a big hit. We actually make the canoli cream with the ricotta cheese and we season it accordingly. And then the shells, we have them imported from Sicily. Wow. Yeah, we try to keep those on hand fresh and they've been a big hit. I'll put them up against anybody's.

That's the way to do it, man. When I was a teenager, one of my first jobs was I was the delivery guy at a local pizza shop. And sometimes it was my job to fill the canollies. And I can't really tell you how many got filled and how many just got eaten in that process. But I can tell you it wasn't a profitable venture for my boss at the time. Yeah, everybody likes to lick the ball. Yeah, yeah. It was a good time.

Tony, what else is going on? Anything like that that we should know about events, coming up that people should look for, look for you at, things like that. Anything on the radar? Yeah, we do a couple of different things. We've got Dirt Week next week in Oswego. Okay. If anybody's familiar with that, but they turned that asphalt track into a clay track.

And what used to be down to the fairgrounds is up in Oswego. That's been going on for, I don't know, probably 10, 12 years now. It actually became the busiest week of the year. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty tremendous. And it's a great following. We always had the concession stand in the racetrack, but now we also set one of the mobile units in the back as well.

And it's a fantastic event. It's exciting. The weather's going to be wonderful, so we're expecting huge crowds. And we have a lot of regulars there that come from Canada, from everywhere else from the races. We've actually made friends over the year. So I'm looking forward to catching up with everybody there.

That's great. Yeah. That's great. I just love that. You don't get that from these. these chains in the convenience store pizza guys, you know, are not in the community and making relationships. But anyway, what's your website and all that fun stuff? Folks want to check you out, find your locations, all that.

Yeah, camspeza.com. Easy enough. And we have a website, a Facebook page for Oswego and Camillas in Geneva. And they also have one for all the three, which is Cam's NYPisa. Great. So, yeah, we have some posting there. This month, excuse me, we highlight our Jackalander pizza, our pumpkin pizza. So it's a sheet pizza, shape of a pumpkin, dressed with the toppings, the Jackalander look.

That's very popular. So we've taken pre-orders with that. That's a big hit on Halloween, which is probably one of our busiest, the busiest night of the year. I can imagine. I've had that in the past. I almost forgot what time of year it is, believe it or not. But that is such a cool thing. Yeah, we start off and out for the fall season,

but it definitely highlights for Halloween. Wow. And you pre-order, you said. Yeah, we suggest you pre-order because it gets nuts. Wow. Yeah, it's one of the benefits of having that revolving oven. We can cook 24 of those at a time. I see.

Yeah. Damn. Damn. This is. We can do some volume there. This is it. Camp's pizza, I can attest they got online ordering all that fun stuff. Stop in any of the locations that Tony mentioned or at the events that you see as trailer.

just love to have you, man. Anytime you want to come back and talk about anything you've got going on, you're more than welcome here. Well, thank you for having me. I much appreciate it. This is exactly the type of thing that we love to highlight here on Good News, York.

And with that, we'll call it a day. Guys, this has been a great episode of Good News, York. Please like, follow, share, and don't forget, tomorrow we've got an exclusive interview with the Retro GameCon people. We're going to tell you all about this fantastic. show that will sell out the convention center. So don't wait for the episode.

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So with that, peace out. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me. travel expert Darley Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L'Iq Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been selling there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities.

Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. My name is Mackenzie and I started to go fund me for the adoptive mother of a non-verbal autistic child, the mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed,

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