Our History
The Fine Folk Story
Fine Folk owner and founder Mike Denunzio was born in Bethpage, New York, and grew up in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. He has worked in pizzerias since he was 14.
His parents opened a seasonal restaurant, DeNunzio's Brick Oven Pizza and Grill, where Mike worked for many years. In the winter 2008, Michael visited Fort Myers, Florida, for a little beach time and warmer weather on vacation. When he came, he fell in love with the area and met his now-wife Brianne.
"I fell in love with the area," he says. "I fell in love with the girl. "Seven years later, we decided to open up a pizza shop here."
"Ever since I was a kid, I have obsessed over pizza. I now have three different pairs of shoes with pizza print. Much of my and Brie's wardrobe has some pizza-related flair; we read Pizza Today magazine, go to pizza conventions, compete in pizza contests, and have made visiting different pizzerias on vacation part of something we love to do."
Brie, the other founder of Fine Folk Pizza, has 2 degrees, one in event management and another in hospitality. She graduated from Rosen, the hospitality branch of the University of Central Florida. She also grew up in Oklahoma and has that midwestern hospitality about her.
Fine Folk Pizza opened in the fall of 2015. "I wanted to share my love of making great pizzas with the Fort Myers community. The funny thing was when we first opened, the dough sucked. It was so bad we had to delay opening. I brought the recipe from NJ to Florida, and the dough turned out different. That may be because we the used pizza dough mixer spun backward, so the hook kept falling off, and we had to finish it by hand! The other part was the water and environment are different. We needed to figure out what was happening. Eventually, after much trial and error, we realized that we needed to ferment the dough longer. In New Jersey we could achieve good results in a 24-48 hour proof time. In Florida, we need 48 to 72 hours. Also, the hydration amount had to go up. We raised the water in the recipe by 2%. We even changed the trays we store the dough in. In NJ, we used plastic dough boxes, but here in Florida, we had to switch to metal baking sheets to help slow the fermentation even more. Finally, we realized we needed to have the dough rise in four separate rise areas and handle the dough in the third rise stage to reactivate the yeast to speed up the rise to be ready in the fourth stage. " says Mike
Eventually, Fine Folk Pizza ended up with a dough recipe they are proud to serve and has helped them win two Caputo Cup Pizza championships in New Jersey each year put on by Pizza Today magazine. "I'm proud of what we are doing here at Fine Folk Pizza. I'm proud of our two national titles, BUT I KNOW that trophies don't matter as much as the last pizza we serve and how we make our customers and team feel every single day. Brie, myself, and our team, understand this and take what we do very seriously. We even have weekly meetings with our team to discuss topics like coming up with new ideas to surprise and delight our guests or going over recent customer reviews to learn what we are doing well so we can do more of those things and learn and improve from the criticisms" says Mike.
Folk Pizza will be eight years old in October 2023.
Today, Fine Folk Pizza has become that pizzeria Mike and Brie always envisioned.
"The name Fine Folk Pizza was chosen because that's our goal: To be good people. To have a business that makes a positive difference in peoples lives and our community. To be Fine Folk.
A big thank you to all those who support us in the community, and a big thank you to our hard-working team, past and present. Without you, Fine Folk Pizza would not be possible."
- Mike and Brie DeNunzio