Sardo's Pizza & Pasta

Seminole, Largo, Clearwater, St. Petersburg - You've heard of New York Soup Nazi, the abusive purveyor of gourmet soups made famous on the long-running Seinfeld TV show. But have you met the Pizza Nazi who owns Super Sardo's Pizza located at 10839 Ulmerton Road, Largo Florida, across from the Pinellas County Sheriff Dept. Santo Sardo, a second generation family entrepreneur, daily serves insults along with the New York style pizza slice and beverage, focaccia melt or any of the other homemade Italian specialties he prepares. He confronts his patrons, mostly regulars, at the counter and he doesn't discriminate. He does anybody and everybody. You made me explain what that (dish) is and now you're not going to buy it, "he'll bark at a customer. Ask him to cut your slice in half and he'll inform you sarcastically, "There's a knife and fork over there." You take them from the dispensers. Then he'll cut the pizza and tell you, "Put the knife and fork back, you don't need them now. Do you want me to feed you, too?" Allison doesn't like ice in her soda, and he insists she explain why every time she orders it...Asked if can he put any kind of toppings on a large pizza, Santo answers, "Do you have the money to buy the toppings? If you do then yes." An elderly lady who asks for a Sicilian is told, "Would that be a Sicilian guy or a Sicilian slice, because I'm a Sicilian." Say you're just looking and get hit with, "At me of the food? Didn't you know what you wanted before you came here?" And if you can't pronounce focaccia (foh-ka-chi-a)-it's a delicate homemade mini-bread - he won't give you the specialty sandwich until you do. Santo "helps" with exaggerated pronunciation of each syllable "You should hear how they butcher that word," he laughs. Some customers go there as much for the abuse as for the delicious, inexpensive homemade food. Others hope he will pick on them. It means they've arrived. It's a daily good-natured ritual, and he's never at a loss for an insult. Ask for water and you'll get, "Bottled water or the cheap kind?" If it's the latter, you have to shout it so everyone can hear. Santo says his confrontational humor is really a shtick that helps take the edge off the stress of operating a business so he doesn't get burned out. Some feel his sharp tongue defines his personality, and the street smarts he acquired growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I was literally born on a flour sack," says Santo who began learning about Italian cuisine at the age of five in the family pizzeria. He came to Florida with them in 1979 when he was 15 and worked in pizzerias they operated in Largo. He stayed until 1985 then returned to Brooklyn to run his won place until 1991. He opened in the food court in 1995, practically where his parents ran a shop and created a Brooklyn-style neighborhood pizzeria. He invested $2,500 in a water filtration system and pays $75 a month for filter replacements so his dough will be sweet and pure for the traditional thin-crust pizza, stuffed vegetarian pizza, ham and cheese rolls and calzones. His four fulltime employees have been with him almost from the start. There's a soft side to the Pizza Nazi, inspired, no doubt, by his three children: Johnny Bones, Stella Bella and Santo Jr. During the Christmas season, he contributes pizza to the managers at Kmart in exchange for discontinued toys or those that didn't sell. He and his family bring the toys to All Children's Hospital in St,. Petersburg. At Easter its baskets of candy and chocolate bunnies. He also contributes food and time to churches and charitable organizations. Not too shabby for a guy who'll harass you when you order his food or rip a napkin in half when you ask him for two.