By Rick Hynum
Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn has been making customers salivate and laugh for years. You’d be hard-pressed to find an independent pizza shop with a better reputation for both its food and its unhinged sense of humor. It’s a 65-year-old shop with Gen Z energy and spirit. In a word, as the kids say, it slaps.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when Vinnie’s became the GOAT of pizza marketing, but previous co-owner Sean Berthiaume certainly gave the internet plenty to bleat about. In 2016, PMQ Pizza spotlighted Berthiaume for viral stunts like the pizza box made of pizza and the pizza topped with slices of pizza. Not to mention his menu boards (posted here on Tumblr) touting weekly specials inspired by pop culture trends. Think pies based on Netflix’s Stranger Things (The Demogorgonzola, The Upsoy’d Down and the Stranger Wings, to name a few) and the South Park-inspired “Oh My God! They Grilled Penne! You Bastards!” (almost certainly the only pizza name in history punctuated with three exclamation points).
Longtime Vinnie’s employee Coby Chafets and chef Adam Richardson took over the reins at Vinnie’s in 2024. But if anything, they have dialed up the wit while shifting smoothly to Instagram and TikTok. On the latter platform, Vinnie’s clips have garnered more than 1 million views. Between the two platforms, the pizzeria has nearly 140,000 followers (Chafets calls them “Vinheads and Vinessas”).
It’s masterful social marketing, promoting the shop’s bounty of outstanding food with nutty and—this is important—good-natured humor. (You won’t catch Chafets and Richardson mocking or insulting their customers.)
Here’s a look at some of my recent favorites:
@vinnies.pizzeria duck confit pizza
♬ That’s The Way (I Like It) – KC & The Sunshine Band
Note that Vinnie’s reels don’t just deliver laughs. The haughty “Head Chef Adam” oversees a kitchen that produces masterpieces like the Duck Confit Pizza with an orange and cherry sauce. And that pizza special is what this reel is actually about. The chef, as we’ll see, has earned the right to be so haughty.
@vinnies.pizzeria Vinnie’s is Closing (on mondays and tuesdays)
♬ original sound – Vinnie’s Pizzeria
When Vinnie’s moved to a five-day schedule in January, Chafets somehow made that funny, too. A schedule change is a pretty big deal, but how do you make sure customers remember it? Start with a grown man riding a dolly and go from there. Chafets also makes sure to hammer the message home: “We don’t even wanna come to work on Mondays and Tuesdays anymore, so we’re not gonna do it. You can come here, but we won’t be open.”
@vinnies.pizzeria tiny lil figs and ricotta
♬ original sound – Vinnie’s Pizzeria
Is there anyone on the Vinnie’s team who’s not funny? Surely there’s some slack-jawed dullard who’s only good at washing dishes and just wants to be left alone. But you won’t find any fun-sponges on these reels. Instead, you get control freak Giuseppe and that dude who wants “tiny little figs and ricotta.”
@vinnies.pizzeria the butterfly. today’s special. open til 2am tonight
♬ original sound – Vinnie’s Pizzeria
Vinnie’s is the kind of down-to-earth joint that makes it easy for your standard hapless dork to order pizza. It might even cure your dorkiness, but not if Die Hard is your favorite Christmas movie. You’re hopeless.
@vinnies.pizzeria oops all filler but the special is delicious
♬ original sound – Vinnie’s Pizzeria
Sometimes the Vinnie’s team runs out of ideas. They just don’t feel funny, you know? They’re tired, for Pete’s sake. But there’s a new specialty pie called The Forest Fire to promote. They’ve gotta come up with something. “The special’s still delicious even though the video isn’t good.”
Nah bro, they’re both good. It’s all good. And we will share it with our friends.
Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor-in-chief. He wishes he could make funny videos, but he has zero skills. He is also too old to say “nah bro.”
