I’ve been cooking professionally most of my life. But if you told a teenager who was peeling potatoes after school that he would one day own his own pizzeria and run it out of a Smart car, you don’t know if he would have believed you.
As a sophomore in high school, I had no intention of running a kitchen or running a business. I was a kid seeing for the first time how a real restaurant worked.
There was pressure, noise, heat, and constant movement. At the end of the night I would leave exhausted, but always so full that for some reason I couldn’t wait to get home. That environment taught me early on that the kitchen can be both intense and incredibly alive. There was a rhythm to the chaos, and I fell in love with it.
I continued to cook, eventually graduating from the Culinary Institute of America and building a career in professional kitchens and corporate dining. I worked with organizations like the NFL and the New York Stock Exchange.
But somewhere along the way, cooking started to become less personal. With corporate dining, you can prepare a great meal for the most powerful people in the world and never actually see them enjoy it.
I realized I had missed that connection. I wanted to make my own decisions, be attached to the product, create something that people would remember, and watch it all unfold before my eyes.
So when I started Pizza Pod, I went small. It’s really small. I would like to call it New York City’s smallest pizzeria.
Serve pizza from smart car
Pizza Pod started with a very silly idea. What if you could turn a small smart car into a mobile pizzeria?
The car immediately attracts people’s attention. It’s a bright, glossy green color and just large enough to hold two pizza ovens that run on generators.
Pizza Pod founder Bradley Alvero says that when customers try his pizza, “you can tell by their reaction whether they like it or not.”
Mickey Todiwala
If you park outside an affiliated coffee shop, wine bar or brewery, or pull up to a street fair or private or corporate event, most pizzerias are already there. We set up a table, unpacked the dough made in an off-site commercial kitchen, fermented it for 72 hours, and brought in other ingredients.
Then I make fresh 12-inch pies in front of people, including cheese, truffle and mushroom, creamy artichoke and garlic, ham and hot honey, burrata, and more, and sell them for $16 to $20 each. One of the most unusual pizzas we make is Guava Pepperoni Pie. The sweetness of the guava pairs beautifully with the saltiness of the pepperoni, paying a little homage to my Puerto Rican heritage.
Sometimes I think this setting is a bit like a circus or magic act. There, I’ll be the magician who pulls out hot, fragrant pizzas from tiny little cars. Free!
Connect with the community
I didn’t want Pizza Pod to be successful because of cars. The pizza had to be good enough for customers to come back, and they did.
Bradley Alvero missed human connection when he worked in corporate dining, and he found it again at a small pizzeria.
Mickey Todiwala
People walk up and ask questions. The children watch the pizza being put into the oven. Customers can talk to you while cooking. Someone comes once, comes back the next week, and suddenly you know their name and their order. People who initially stopped by because they were curious about the sight of a man taking pizza out of Smart’s car have now become regulars, bringing their friends with them.
That connection is probably my favorite part of this business.
Some of the best opportunities came directly from those relationships. Businesses invite Pizza Pod to pop-up or cater events. People share videos online. Customers tell others about this strange little smart car pizzeria. These interactions led to business growth.
Bradley Alvero says it’s all about the ingredients. “We use a blend of Italian Double Zero flour and bread flour. That gives our pizzas this great balance, this lightness, and this strong structure.”
Mickey Todiwala
Since March, Pizza Pod has generated approximately $24,000 in total sales through card payments on Square, and estimates that cash sales typically account for 65% of total sales. According to my calculations, the average monthly gross sales will be approximately $12,000.
Finding purpose and happiness in pizza
On some days, I’m not only the chef, but also the delivery driver, dishwasher, mechanic, salesperson, accountant, and social media department, all before lunch. Also, when we have big events at Pizza Pod, we work together in small teams.
Running such a small business means there is no department you can call when something goes wrong. For example, the other day, while I was baking pizza in the oven and hungry people were waiting, the generator went out. I quickly hooked up one of the ovens and drove around in the car long enough to finish these half-cooked pizzas.
“You don’t need the perfect space or unlimited resources to get started,” says Bradley Alvero.
Mickey Todiwala
Pizza pods can be tiring. But it’s also mine. I’ve spent years working inside systems created by others and helping them realize their dreams. Now, even when the day is difficult, it’s because I’m building my business and growing a community around it. It makes me happy and gives me purpose in a way that corporate meals never did.
My almost 3-year-old son, Axel, loves cars and has designated himself as my number one taste tester, a job he takes quite seriously.
I hope that someday he learns the lessons I learned by starting this business. You won’t become an expert at something right away, but you will learn more every day. And you don’t need a perfect space or unlimited resources to get started. Sometimes you just have to take what you have and make it work. For me, that happened to be a smart car and a pizza oven.
Bradley Alvero is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef and founder of Pizza Pod. He grows his business through pop-ups, private events, and partnerships while serving handcrafted 12-inch pizzas made with slow-fermented dough in customized Smart cars. Follow Pizza Pod at @pizzapodnyc or visit pizzapodnyc.com.
