After years in the food service industry, Jordan Tolley struck out on his own, opening Fatboyz Pizza & Badazz Bitez about three weeks ago.
Tolley, a 33-year-old Unadilla resident and Milford native, runs the eatery at 6730 state Highway 23 in Oneonta with his parents.
The name, he said, comes from the family’s charity motorcycle ride, founded 12 years ago to honor his late uncle.
Tolley said he has been “cooking ever since I got out of high school and always loved it.”
“I bounced around from place to place, managed this restaurant and that restaurant, and finally I was like, ‘OK, I’m just going to do this for myself,'” he said.
Tolley said Fatboyz is focuses on pizza, but has a wide-ranging menu including smash burgers, subs, pizza rolls and salads, and even a few Italian-style entrees, like chicken riggies, penne vodka and baked ziti.
“My mom started this ‘shamelezz’ thing that’s lower-carb and diabetic(-friendly) options of things on the menu,” he said.
Popular items, Tolley said, have included his specialty pizzas, his hand-cut and hand-breaded chicken tenders and breaded and deep fried lasagna dippers.
“It’s like a mozzarella stick on steroids, and that’s really popular,” he said, “and our chicken-bacon ranch pie and the Ronda Rousey — it’s buffalo chicken (pizza) and she’s a buff chick — and our smash burgers are really popular.”
Through fall, Tolley said, he plans to offer specials and seasonalize the menu, adding more comfort food items. He also wants to pursue a liquor license.
“My long-term goal is to put a bar in here and make it more of a gastropub,” he said.
Tolley said his customer base is proving mixed.
“It’s a lot of people from the charity event and our close friends and family, but it’s a lot of people from over on this side of town that live on Old Southside, or Davenport and Davenport Center,” he said. “It is pretty family-friendly and it’s young professionals like myself and also some older people, so it’s pretty across the board.”
Everybody loves everything, he added, citing the five-star rating on Google and many mentions on Facebook.
“It just feels really good to do what I love and have people enjoy it,” he said. “I’ve always liked that, to cook for people and make them happy.”
Fatboyz serves lunch and dinner and is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Tuesday. To order, call 607-267-4239.
For more information, find “Fatboyz Pizza & Badazz Bitez” on Facebook.