Social Media Star Lil Mo Mozzarella Talks CT Pizza + New York Rivalry

Introducing Mark Brucato, aka Lil Mo Mozzarella – the local legend who boldly claims, "Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt." With his signature line, "How ya doin'?", he's a personality that's hard to miss. If you haven't heard of him, you might be living under a rock!

Lil Mo is coming our way, playing the NY Comedy Club in Stamford, CT on Wednesday, March 19th and Thursday, March 20th. We got a chance to chat with the social media superstar before he got to town. Mo appeared on the Monday (3/7/25) edition of the I-95 Morning Show, this was our favorite moment.

Lou: You're coming to Connecticut for this show. Did you know that recently, in Connecticut our Governor claimed the Connecticut is the Pizza Capital of the World? He went so far as to put it on road signs as you enter the state. What do you think about that?

Mo: "I think that was aggressive. I think that was an aggressive move on his part. I mean, he self-proclaimed it. Listen, I might be an expert on this topic, and I'll tell you why. When I started doing social media, the only person I was aware of who was doing the pizza stuff was Dave Portnoy. That’s what got me into social media because I thought, 'Oh, I can do this stuff better than these guys.' The mentality of a New Yorker with pizza is that we have the best pizza. You can’t take it out of a New Yorker’s head that it’s better than anywhere else. An Italian New Yorker thinks New York has the best pizza, and we even go as far as to get into the borough beefs — who has the best pizza in the borough? Connecticut is so far off our radar that when people started saying that, we thought it was a joke. What happens then, almost like when a restaurant gets hyped, is that it's good marketing and stuff. I believe that kind of happened with CT pizza. I think what also happened is that it is good. But if your mentality is going into a restaurant that everyone’s saying is so great, when you have the food, you might be inclined to say it’s alright. If you're going in with the mentality that this place is going to suck, and then you try it and it’s good, you’re like, 'Man, that place is great.' The advantage of Connecticut is that it’s an underdog and it’s unexpected, and it might be oversold, like the stock market. I don’t think it’s realistic. I think there are better places in New York too. I think that, overall, there is a good standard in Connecticut, but to argue that it’s the best pizza in the country? I don’t think so. That’s my opinion. I think I just gave a pretty good argument. I started pulling statistics out — I’m in this game, you know?"

Check out the complete interview below.

Check out the Ethan, Lou & Large Dave Podcast on Apple and Spotify