TCNJ

34 The College of New Jersey Magazine degree in architecture at Mercer County Community College, that aspiration faded and he instead went for a BFA at Trenton State, as a member of the first class to graduate from TCNJ. But he'd never, ever imagined becoming a restaurateur. "I'm an accidental pizza chef," says Bedon, sounding surprised. Yet, his path in life seems almost fated. Upon arriving in Princeton, Bedon met Tom Grim, a man with deep community roots in the area, who gave him a job at Thomas Sweet, the local's favorite ice cream parlor that Grim co-founded. It was the start of Bedon's 30-plus-year friendship and working relationship with Grim. Like Bedon's childhood, the creation of Nomad Pizza had elements of a community project. "We started doing more and more research, experiment- ing with the dough," Bedon says. And naturally they began to perfect their technique with that oven — a model capable of reaching the extreme temperature (800–1,000 degrees) you need for the famous and notoriously tricky Neapolitan crust, with its insane smoky charred spots and crackly-here- chewy-there texture, puffs of air, and complex flavor. "And then," Bedon says, "once a month, we would have pizza parties at Tom's house — about 50 people would come, like a potluck, and bring toppings and talk about what was good. Tom would make the dough and I would make the piz- zas. It was just a lot of fun to cook and drink and be merry." But pizza-making was just a social thing, until one night at their regular Tuesday pool game, after a few beers. Grim announced he wanted to do a pizza truck, to put a wood-burning oven in the back of an antique vehicle. Bedon's response: "No problem." He went online and found a gorgeous 1949 REO Speed Wagon on eBay, which he purchased for $5,000. "We both blame beer [for Nomad]," says Bedon. Next thing they knew they were in the catering business, arriving in their mini-café on wheels (complete with generator, refrigerator, awning, wood storage) at any event where people might want pizza. Which, it turned out, was pretty much all of them: festivals, birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, private parties, even funerals. But that truck couldn't satisfy an overwhelming demand for their delicious pizza. "When we catered events, we always got more jobs, and people would always ask, 'Where's your restaurant?'" Bedon says. So they searched until they found an old carriage house in Hopewell, New Jersey, a town they picked simply because it's beautiful, and opened their first stationary spot there in 2010. Today, their pizzerias serve organic salads, beer and wine, and a few desserts, along with standard pizzas and fancier fare like their clam pie, a special corn and truffle, and Bedon talks about the craft of making great crust as though the dough has tender feelings ("It's sensitive, like me"). Grim became both a mentor, who instilled in him the importance of caring about the customer, and a father figure, who helped Bedon pay for college when the time came and truly treated him like family. "I was a car nut," Bedon recalls, in his charming accent, laughing, still incredulous. "When I was in my 20s, I wanted money to buy a used Karmann Ghia, and Tom just loaned me $5,000. He was just really kind." In many ways, their early friendship resembled a traditional European apprenticeship — which is also a good way to describe how Grim and Bedon now treat their 90-odd Nomad employees, who tend to stick around in a business that usually goes through workers like paper towels. Since starting out, Bedon and Grim have gone on many pizza trips to Italy, to observe and taste. And they take their top workers with them, several of whom have been more than once. "We've been lucky enough to have employees that have been with us from day one," Bedon says. "They see how much care we put into our work. And then they care. And they know how to make a great pizza." ITALY, NATURALLY, is where this all began. In 2009, Grim had traveled to Naples and became completely obsessed with the pizza. When Grim imported a 3,000-pound, wood-burning Italian oven, it was Bedon, a landscape company owner by this time, who installed it in Grim's yard. Make Nomad at home Stalin Bedon shares with us his deceptively simple recipe for Nomad's Margherita pizza, starting with the dough. tcnj.edu/pizza.

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