George Costanza gets George Steinbrenner hooked on calzones in the Seinfeld episode “The Calzone.” The food becomes a comic obsession for Steinbrenner, George’s eccentric boss and the fictional owner of the New York Yankees.
George initially buys an eggplant calzone from a local Italian restaurant as a gift for Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner enjoys it so much that he orders George to bring him one every day. George briefly gains unusual influence because of the daily calzone delivery, turning a simple lunch into a career opportunity.
The episode is the twentieth installment of Seinfeld’s seventh season and originally aired in 1997. The storyline is not about pizza, although the confusion is understandable: a calzone is an Italian dish made by folding pizza dough around fillings and baking it. In the episode, the eggplant filling is central to Steinbrenner’s newfound fixation.