{"id":262414,"date":"2026-06-10T21:27:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/262414\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T21:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:27:54","slug":"bronx-house-pizza-st-augustine-workers-charity-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/262414\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx House Pizza St. Augustine: Workers, Charity & Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Northeast Florida\u2019s crowded Italian food scene, Bronx House Pizza<\/a> has managed something rare: rapid expansion without sacrificing the intimacy of a familiar neighborhood joint.<\/p>\n

Since opening its first location in Ormond Beach in 2019, the brand has grown to 14 locations across the region<\/a>, with more on the way. But according to Adam Calandra, co-owner of the St. Augustine location, the secret ingredient is not just the sublime crust<\/a> or the bubbling mozzarella.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Bronx House\u2019s unique ownership structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t just punching a clock here,\u201d Calandra said from the company\u2019s reliably swarmed St. Augustine location. \u201cYou\u2019re building a career. If you prove yourself, you can actually become an owner.\u201d<\/p>\n

That philosophy has become the engine behind Bronx House Pizza\u2019s explosive growth. Rather than staffing stores with traditional managers, founders Bruno DiFabio<\/a> and Mike Bennici promote longtime employees into equity partnerships, giving them a stake in each location\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Calandra climbed that ladder himself. Originally from New England with family roots in Queens and Brooklyn, he spent more than a decade working for Bennichi at Joe\u2019s New York Pizza & Pasta in Palm Coast before joining the Bronx House team. Along the way, he helped open multiple locations before becoming co-owner of the St. Augustine restaurant when it launched last April.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe care about the stores because they are our stores,\u201d he said. \u201cThat changes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Calandra, co-owner of the St. Augustine Bronx House Pizza, said the restaurant\u2019s success is rooted in employee ownership, community support, and a neighborhood pizzeria feel.<\/p>\n

\"VanillaVanilla Ice performs during Bronx House Pizza\u2019s annual Little Smiles fundraiser, which supports critically and terminally ill children and their families.<\/p>\n

The model has yielded clear dividends. Despite expanding quickly, Bronx House has cultivated unusually loyal employees and customers alike. Every location operates with the entrepreneurial pride more common to a family-run pizzeria than a growing regional brand.<\/p>\n

And family roots run deep here. Bennichi grew up in the pizza business, learning the trade from parents who owned pizzerias before relocating to Florida.<\/p>\n

DiFabio, meanwhile, brought his own larger-than-life r\u00e9sum\u00e9 into the partnership. Before helping build Bronx House, he owned multiple pizza restaurants in Connecticut, New York, and even London. In pizza circles, DiFabio is considered an impresario \u2014 known both for his industry pedigree and his outsized personality.<\/p>\n

But ask Bronx House leaders what matters most to them, and the conversation quickly shifts from celebrity to charity.<\/p>\n

Across Northeast Florida, Bronx House has quietly built a reputation for giving back with the same intensity it brings to its pies. Many of the company\u2019s fundraising nights donate 100 percent of sales directly to charitable causes \u2014 not just a unspecified portion of profits.<\/p>\n

\"ABronx House Pizza\u2019s pies are known for their crunchy-chewy crust and bubbling mozzarella.<\/p>\n

\"BronxBronx House Pizza\u2019s marinara and meatballs. <\/p>\n

In St. Augustine<\/a>, Calandra\u2019s location partners with Ketterlinus Elementary School for school spirit nights, donating all revenue from the evening back to the school.<\/p>\n

The restaurant also organizes canned food drives, rewarding classrooms that hit donation goals with pizza parties while helping feed local families.<\/p>\n

Other efforts stretch even further into the Old City. Bronx House regularly supports Port in the Storm, which serves homeless youth, and participates in food outreach programs that provide meals at shelters across the region.<\/p>\n

\"BrunoBruno DiFabio, co-founder of Bronx House Pizza, with Vanilla Ice, who headlines the company\u2019s annual Little Smiles fundraiser supporting critically and terminally ill children.<\/p>\n

One of the company\u2019s largest annual events benefits Little Smiles,<\/a> a charity supporting critically and terminally ill children. The fundraiser has become a major community gathering \u2014 complete with appearances from amiable hip hop icon Vanilla Ice, who volunteers his time to meet families and support the cause.<\/p>\n

According to Calandra, the most recent event raised over six figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do it because we care about the community that supports us,\u201d he said. \u201cThose aren\u2019t just words. As we\u2019ve grown, we\u2019ve been able to help more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrunioBruno DiFabio, co-founder of Bronx House Pizza, holds up The Fat Paulie sandwich at one of the company\u2019s Northeast Florida restaurants.<\/p>\n

That community-first mentality may explain why Bronx House has expanded so quickly without losing the intimacy that many fast-growing restaurant groups struggle to sustain.<\/p>\n

Customers are not just buying slices, he said. They are buying into a culture that still feels personal.<\/p>\n

In an industry where chains scale by standardizing everything in sight, Bronx House Pizza chose a different path: grwo quickly, stay rooted locally, and treat the people behind the business as stakeholders, not serfs.<\/p>\n

Like a good New York pie, it is a formula that seems deceptively simple \u2014 until you realize how hard it is to pull off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Northeast Florida\u2019s crowded Italian food scene, Bronx House Pizza has managed something rare: rapid expansion without sacrificing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,1058,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-262414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-featured-1","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}