Speaker 1: My investor buddy that I've known for a long time.
Speaker 1: He just showed up on my prav and he goes like, look,
Speaker 1: here's fifty riots.
Speaker 2: Is do it?
Speaker 1: I wait, do what? And he was like, I want
Speaker 1: you to open the shop. I know someone to do well.
Speaker 1: And that was the first step. He came with a
Speaker 1: plastic bag with fifty rock.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
Speaker 3: most influential brands and the teams that built them. If
Speaker 3: you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the
Speaker 3: power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week
Speaker 3: as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because
Speaker 3: the only way to truly understand success is to look
Speaker 3: at it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is
Speaker 3: a Will Packer Media podcast. In twenty sixteen, Scar Pimantel
Speaker 3: founded Scars Pizza, a classic New York City pizza rha
Speaker 3: on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the years
Speaker 3: that followed, Scars would become one of the hottest restaurants
Speaker 3: in New York and be crowned the best slice in NYC.
Speaker 3: But with these massive expectations would come unexpected challenges that
Speaker 3: would push the Scars team to their limit. On this
Speaker 3: week's episode of All Angles, we talked to founder Scar Pimantel,
Speaker 3: his wife and marketing director Megan Pimintell, as well as
Speaker 3: their close friend and collaborator DJ Clark Kent to hear
Speaker 3: the full story behind the rise of Scars Pizza. But
Speaker 3: before any of that happened, years before a collaboration with
Speaker 3: Nike or jumping into the world of Omakase, Scar was
Speaker 3: just a teenager in the Bronx trying to figure out
Speaker 3: his future.
Speaker 1: That was growing up. I mean I couldn't figure it
Speaker 1: out up until I don't know what third grade. I
Speaker 1: want to be a pilot. Then I'm afraid of flying.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, that ain't happening.
Speaker 3: This is Scar Pimantel, owner of Scars Pizza.
Speaker 1: Honestly, growing up here in that era was you know
Speaker 1: how they say, and you either play sports, you know
Speaker 1: you deal drugs. It was one of the other.
Speaker 3: Growing up in the Bronx, Entrepreneurship wasn't necessarily on Scar's mind.
Speaker 3: Survival was. But Scar's family was active in the service industry,
Speaker 3: and from an early age, Scar would get glimpses of
Speaker 3: life as a restaurant worker and owner.
Speaker 1: And then one day I was with my grandmother and
Speaker 1: I saw how she used to be a waitress in
Speaker 1: a restaurant in the Upper West Side and a dieting
Speaker 1: and I always liked that environment. My dad had a
Speaker 1: diner in the bron room kids for like a little bit,
Speaker 1: and I always liked restaurant environments. Wasn't a good student.
Speaker 1: I dropped out of high school, and it was that's
Speaker 1: one thing I always always liked. That was I knew
Speaker 1: I wanted to be in the food industy for the
Speaker 1: most part, so I just decided. I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to open up my restaurant. Even I
Speaker 1: don't want to own a restaurant, but I didn't have
Speaker 1: the money for it. Figure it out.
Speaker 3: Scar wanted to open a restaurant, but it felt more
Speaker 3: like a pipe dream than an actual possibility, so we
Speaker 3: continued to work odd jobs and hustle his way through life.
Speaker 1: I didn't like structure, like I didn't like going to
Speaker 1: school because I didn't like feeling like I was going
Speaker 1: to jail, like you know, line up here, do this that.
Speaker 1: I didn't like taking order some people or direction for people.
Speaker 1: I was, you know, I was a knuckle I think
Speaker 1: I saw some beepers that was selling beepers on to
Speaker 1: Fifth like a year and a half, two years, and
Speaker 1: then I liked that. But it was you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a career thing, you know, it was just something
Speaker 1: to make money with that was cool. Like I met
Speaker 1: like a lot of rappers there. I met Jim Jones.
Speaker 1: We still get this to him. You know, he probably
Speaker 1: doesn't remember. This is when Cameron first was blowing up,
Speaker 1: so he would tag along, you know, not tagling, but
Speaker 1: they I guess he was his hype man at the time.
Speaker 1: I don't remember, but no one knew who Jim was
Speaker 1: on outside of Harlem, so he would be with Cameron
Speaker 1: Cam was blowing up, and he would always he had
Speaker 1: his next wi I page it with us, with the
Speaker 1: people that were with us, So he would always lose
Speaker 1: it on to a that show or on the show,
Speaker 1: come back like the following week. We don't come up
Speaker 1: like you with dis kound like whatever, just keep it pushing.
Speaker 1: And we met Cam. We met I met before when
Speaker 1: he was blowing up one hundred and twenty Fifth Street
Speaker 1: at the time was like a completely different world to
Speaker 1: what I was because I lived on Want thirty eight time,
Speaker 1: so Harlem was like that was like my first real
Speaker 1: experience inside hall, Like I didn't grow up at home
Speaker 1: because we didn't consider Hamilton and Wan thirty eight calm
Speaker 1: at the time. We just called everything uptown and that
Speaker 1: was like my first taste and experience of living in
Speaker 1: Harlem and meeting new people and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Scar continued to search for an occupation, but nothing seemed
Speaker 3: to stick for me.
Speaker 1: Obviously, I would never be a cop. I would never
Speaker 1: be in the military, so I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: what else can I do? You know, I tried the
Speaker 1: office life. It wasn't for me, so I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: what could I do? That's different? And I had fun
Speaker 1: when I worked as a buswiy that was you know,
Speaker 1: That's when I was like, Okay, it's coool. I tried
Speaker 1: some other things.
Speaker 3: When I got older, scar renentered the service industry and
Speaker 3: instantly knew that he found his calling. He gradually made
Speaker 3: his way from busboy to the kitchen and eventually became
Speaker 3: a consultant, working with restaurants on their menus. This led
Speaker 3: to him making dozens of connections in the New York
Speaker 3: City food scene that would change his life professionally and personally.
Speaker 4: So I met Scar in two thousand and seven. One
Speaker 4: of my really good friends was dating his really good friends.
Speaker 3: This is Megan piminto Scar's wife and business park.
Speaker 4: When he was consulting his last consulting job, the whole
Speaker 4: like Pizza program took off. They were supposed to be
Speaker 4: like a farm to table type restaurant, like Seasonal, and
Speaker 4: then they had a pizza oven, and so they hired
Speaker 4: Scar to provide them with recipes, teach the chef how
Speaker 4: to make pizza, all of that, and then the pizza
Speaker 4: was the only thing making press or getting press from
Speaker 4: that restaurant, and so they kind of turned into a pizzeria.
Speaker 4: I think that's when we realized, We're like, oh, you
Speaker 4: should just do this on your own and like work
Speaker 4: for yourself.
Speaker 3: Scars broad dream of owning a restaurant suddenly developed a
Speaker 3: singular focus pizza.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's going to be pizza until
Speaker 1: I've worked at a pizzeria. That's what I was like, this
Speaker 1: is it because it's just the idea of a pizzeria.
Speaker 1: It's like when I used to work one back in
Speaker 1: you know, back then it was like he had everything,
Speaker 1: every walk of life, every race. Everyone would just burger
Speaker 1: wed the pizzeri had just made too much sense. That's
Speaker 1: the mostly your aspect of a slight shop. So that's
Speaker 1: so I was like, you know what this is, this
Speaker 1: is what I want to do. So I just you know, learned,
Speaker 1: got dood at it, and made a healthier version of it.
Speaker 3: There's no shortage of pizza in New York City, so
Speaker 3: for Scar to have success within a crowded market, he
Speaker 3: need to find a way to differentiate his slice. But
Speaker 3: instead of going for gimmicks and outlandish topping combos, Scar
Speaker 3: focused on the most important aspect, the quality of the
Speaker 3: pie itself.
Speaker 1: The plan was always we're going to do something that's
Speaker 1: healthy alternatives because people don't know a lot of people
Speaker 1: still don't want to accept it. Understand. They're like the
Speaker 1: pizza you eat even in your neighborhood spot. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to like downplay like neighborhood spot, but like they
Speaker 1: don't use good stuff ever, and they're charging you two
Speaker 1: three dollars for it. So I said, you know, and
Speaker 1: if I could charge it a little more and make
Speaker 1: it at least mostly organic, and if we can't get
Speaker 1: our getting stuff, make it all natural, which none of
Speaker 1: them are, like, at least it's a healthy option for people.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't about like crazy topics like Garada cheese
Speaker 1: and all this other craft. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's just straight up New York South pizza, like the
Speaker 1: stuff we grew up eating, simple stuff and make it healthy.
Speaker 3: Scar had his vision and his recipe, but he was
Speaker 3: still missing one vital part, the capital to open a shop.
Speaker 3: So we started seeking out potential investors.
Speaker 1: My family wouldn't they were like a pizza place. They
Speaker 1: none of them wanted him put no money into it.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, cool whatever, I figured it out.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't you know what I'm saying. They were
Speaker 1: like nah, you know, and ain't no banks lending you money,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's like, fuck it.
Speaker 1: I figured out on my own. I was supposed to
Speaker 1: be one of my best friends that I grew up with,
Speaker 1: and he backed out like twice off me, and I
Speaker 1: was like, bro, I'm like, you know, I've knowned since
Speaker 1: I was like nine. I'm like, dude, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: it for and he thought I was going after him
Speaker 1: for money and I'm like, nah, but like and then
Speaker 1: I don't know, he fell out of me, you know
Speaker 1: twice and I was like it was kind of, you know, disupporting.
Speaker 1: And then my investor buddy that I've known for a
Speaker 1: long time, he just showed up in my crib and
Speaker 1: he was like, look, here has fifty rackses do it.
Speaker 1: I was like, do what. He was like, I want
Speaker 1: you to open the shop. I know someone to do well.
Speaker 1: And that was the first step. And that was it.
Speaker 1: He came with a plastic bag with fifty rocks. He
Speaker 1: was like, yeah's.
Speaker 4: I was there when our friend came over and gave
Speaker 4: him the original money and it's every It's true. And
Speaker 4: a friend came. He's like, here you go. He knew
Speaker 4: it was a good idea. I knew it was a
Speaker 4: good idea.
Speaker 3: With fifty thousand dollars cash in hand, Scar searched for
Speaker 3: the perfect location for his shop.
Speaker 4: I remember one of his good friends, Mike Wench, who
Speaker 4: owns Bowery Paul Room. He told Scar, as long as
Speaker 4: you have the space, that's when people will take you seriously.
Speaker 4: And it was one hundred percent trough. The second he
Speaker 4: used to had a lease going, that's when people started
Speaker 4: being taking him more seriously.
Speaker 1: So Downtown's always been a big part of my life
Speaker 1: growing up. So like before my cousins got locked up,
Speaker 1: they used to come down to downtown. They used to
Speaker 1: do the hustle downtown, and they used to always come
Speaker 1: back looking fresh. They used to call it downtown. They
Speaker 1: used to either call it Downtown or the Ville when
Speaker 1: they used to come out here, and I used to
Speaker 1: go get phazed at Astrolayer. That's the place. Then I
Speaker 1: started going to my dudes on Hamilton, but I used
Speaker 1: to always be downtown. They used to drive me the
Speaker 1: Canal Jeans, the original location, which is where it blooming
Speaker 1: does this now on Broadway. I just fell in love
Speaker 1: with downtown. I worked in Blados. I always knew it
Speaker 1: was going to be Downtown. It was the universe, like
Speaker 1: the universe, and in terms of fashion, music or everything,
Speaker 1: it's the capital of that downtown Manhattan, not Brooklyn, not
Speaker 1: anywhere else. You know, nothing against no other neighborhoods. I
Speaker 1: always had a connection to downtown, so it always made
Speaker 1: sense for me to open up on it.
Speaker 3: With Downtown on his mind, Scar found the perfect space
Speaker 3: at twenty two Orchard Street in the Lower East Side,
Speaker 3: with a simple but classic sign on the outside and
Speaker 3: an interior complete with wood panels, movie posters, and other
Speaker 3: nostalgic touches. Scar's Pizza officially opened in twenty sixteen, but
Speaker 3: now came time to face the music and to see
Speaker 3: if his idea for a throwback pizza Rhea could actually
Speaker 3: survive in the competitive New York City food landscape.
Speaker 1: When we first opened, it was me Lows, Megan, and
Speaker 1: and like one or two my one of my vessels
Speaker 1: picked city wanted to work. He only lasted like a
Speaker 1: month tops. He was like in the same I can't
Speaker 1: work this. And then we had a hire employees after
Speaker 1: the first month. But we were there like one hundred
Speaker 1: hours a week and stuff like that, so crazy hours
Speaker 1: all of us. And my wife worked a job and
Speaker 1: then she would come at night to help pitch you.
Speaker 4: I was running social media at this luxury accessories company.
Speaker 4: That was what helped us survive the first couple of years.
Speaker 4: Just some mega corporation that had really cheat benefits, you know,
Speaker 4: paid well. I made good money, so I just had
Speaker 4: to do that in order to survive. In the beginning.
Speaker 1: Within the first six months, I was like, yeah, me.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll figure something else out. But you know,
Speaker 1: we did it. We got audited the first six months.
Speaker 1: I was like, its great, someone like routed us out
Speaker 1: to I know who rounded us out to, Like because
Speaker 1: I didn't know this, you could actually follow a complaint
Speaker 1: to the apartment attacks or whatever in the state like
Speaker 1: New Young Department IRSH for the New York State and stuff,
Speaker 1: and they called us and said that we you know whatever,
Speaker 1: and they started they audited me. I was like, wow, account.
Speaker 1: I was like, I've never seen anyone get audited their
Speaker 1: first year, you know, like wild stuff like that. You know,
Speaker 1: surveillance squads used to drive by the shop, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So like it is all good whatever. There's a part
Speaker 1: of things that other people don't go don't have to
Speaker 1: deal with that I had to deal with when we
Speaker 1: first open, Like we we overcame a lot more so
Speaker 1: than more people would.
Speaker 4: This like the first business that I've ever built from
Speaker 4: the ground up, So you really don't know what to expect.
Speaker 4: I don't think I had any expectations at all. I
Speaker 4: was obviously really happy in the first few months. It
Speaker 4: was super exciting. So even though you're like working nine
Speaker 4: to five, I was working up the office was in Kytown,
Speaker 4: come home, shower, and then work the back area to
Speaker 4: help break down all of that. You know, if they
Speaker 4: needed a body just to like be the cashier for
Speaker 4: the day, I was that person. After a while, I
Speaker 4: did get tired. Not gonna lie, but I think it's
Speaker 4: just so new and exciting that you don't know any
Speaker 4: of the issues. It's just kind of like it is
Speaker 4: what it is, And I think that's being so naive
Speaker 4: about the whole process also kind of its own blessing
Speaker 4: because you don't I guess you don't get really hung
Speaker 4: up on certain things because we didn't have like a
Speaker 4: safety net to fall back on. We put every penning
Speaker 4: we had into this, so you just have to do it.
Speaker 4: If there's no fallback plan, what do you do. You
Speaker 4: just keep moving forward and you just push throws. That
Speaker 4: was like the first couple of years too, until we
Speaker 4: started growing and getting proper staff.
Speaker 3: The Scars team fought on and soon the shop started
Speaker 3: to solidify itself as a neighborhood spot. As it grew,
Speaker 3: it also caught the attention of locals and celebrities.
Speaker 5: Alike my boy AUTI.
Speaker 2: I mean, this had to be like weeks into them opening.
Speaker 2: He was like, Yo, you got to come check out
Speaker 2: my man's pizza shop.
Speaker 3: This is hip hop legend and God's favorite DJ Clark Kent.
Speaker 5: And I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: And I was down there doing an event and I
Speaker 2: went by and I met him, but before I really
Speaker 2: even gave him the attention, it was I got to
Speaker 2: taste the pizza because I might never come back here again.
Speaker 2: So when I tasted the pizza, I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 2: now you got something. And then it struck me that
Speaker 2: this guy is he's not Italian, Like wait a minute,
Speaker 2: he wait?
Speaker 1: They look like me. He looks like me.
Speaker 5: I'm like, wait a minute, this ain't.
Speaker 2: Right for people who look like me to have a
Speaker 2: pizza shop that tastes better than everyone else's pizza. And
Speaker 2: we talked and and we automatically became cool because our
Speaker 2: ideals as people were the same, you know, and as
Speaker 2: as kids.
Speaker 5: Who came from the street. And you know, I looked him,
Speaker 5: I looked at him with a with a.
Speaker 2: Respect that I would give the kids that I came
Speaker 2: up with, the guys that I came up with. He
Speaker 2: was like a generation and under the guys I came
Speaker 2: up with, and his heroes were us. But I made
Speaker 2: sure that between him and I, it wouldn't be a
Speaker 2: hero situation. It would be a no, we're going to
Speaker 2: be friends, And we became friends quickly.
Speaker 3: The buzz around Scars kept growing within the neighborhood, and
Speaker 3: with the community behind them, Scars became the place to be.
Speaker 4: A big part of the success is our friends and
Speaker 4: the community that support, like our neighbors that support us
Speaker 4: and have like from day one, and they still continue
Speaker 4: to do so, so that'll always drive a restaurant, and
Speaker 4: like their success is just having the support of other people,
Speaker 4: especially your neighborhood. We didn't really get much press in
Speaker 4: the beginning, honestly, and we weren't even that busy. We
Speaker 4: get like local stuff, just like, oh this pizzeria opened,
Speaker 4: you know, no big deal, like in terms of what
Speaker 4: they were writing about. Maybe do like a photo shoot
Speaker 4: here or there at the shop because they liked how
Speaker 4: it looked. And then it just kind of picked up
Speaker 4: steam after a while.
Speaker 1: Seen we did some vice Thinglosa didn't want to do it,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, fuck, let's let's do it cool.
Speaker 1: Let's do one when no one's ever seen anyone doing drugs,
Speaker 1: because you know, they expect you to do those those
Speaker 1: foodie things and like smoke weed, get white. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like do some corny stuff. I told it,
Speaker 1: my mom is gonna watch. I want to Even if
Speaker 1: I did all that, I wouldn't want to put it
Speaker 1: on camera. So we did the device thing I think first,
Speaker 1: and that was whatever the chef's night out stuff. The
Speaker 1: second thing that happened was the bon appting.
Speaker 3: In Jude of twenty eighteen, bon Appetite published an article
Speaker 3: What's the best New York Slice? I ated thirty pizza
Speaker 3: joyts to find out? In the future, writer Alex Delaney
Speaker 3: dubbed scars the best slice in NYC. Putting a white
Speaker 3: hot spotlight on twenty two orchards.
Speaker 1: The thing comes out. I was like, what's going you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know what was going on. And then like
Speaker 1: we had lined out the door the next two days
Speaker 1: and I was like this is crazy. I was like, bro,
Speaker 1: you guys have to get my zempies do stuff like this,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, I wasn't prepared for
Speaker 1: this stuff because I didn't know, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: know they were doing stuff like that.
Speaker 3: The new attention quickly changed the dynamic of the business.
Speaker 3: It's one thing to be a neighborhood pizza shop serving
Speaker 3: up for locals and random passers by. It's another thing
Speaker 3: to operate as a hotspot and the always buzzing New
Speaker 3: York City foodie scene.
Speaker 1: Well. Fortunately I used to work in some of the
Speaker 1: busiest spots in the city, so I knew how to
Speaker 1: handle bungs. I mean, we just didn't the best we could.
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't get mad at those like put my
Speaker 1: head down and they would have cooked and did what
Speaker 1: I could. You know, we ran out of pizza was
Speaker 1: two that week.
Speaker 4: I don't love seeing the line. It actually makes me
Speaker 4: super anxious because I don't want people like having to
Speaker 4: wait really like long time for their food. It happens.
Speaker 4: It's just there's only so much pizza the like our
Speaker 4: team can produce, and like within a certain amount of time.
Speaker 1: We're running out of pizza, like at five six. So,
Speaker 1: I mean it was tough. You know. The worst thing
Speaker 1: is just saying no to be like you don't have
Speaker 1: any food. I'm like people man, and I came on
Speaker 1: to you. I'm like, girl, I'm like, I have no mine.
Speaker 1: It's not about fat, It's not not gonna do. So
Speaker 1: what do you want me to do? Like we literally
Speaker 1: got no food. I'll ins fot out of the boy
Speaker 1: slice around the corner because I'm like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to I'm sorry, like I apologized,
Speaker 1: like I don't know what to do.
Speaker 3: The shop withstood the initial surge from their coronation as
Speaker 3: the best pizza in New York City, but as time
Speaker 3: went on, the hype didn't die down. Everyone who tasted
Speaker 3: the pizza or stepped foot inside the shop instantly became
Speaker 3: a repeat customer. Going to the shop felt like going home,
Speaker 3: and the people were hooked.
Speaker 4: We always said, it's like, you know, we're for everybody.
Speaker 4: The shop's for everybody. It's an extension of our living room,
Speaker 4: So come on if you want to hang out.
Speaker 2: I actually thought it was perfect because it automatically brought
Speaker 2: me back to when I was a kid and we
Speaker 2: had this. We had a place called Tony's Pizza rea
Speaker 2: up the block for me, and it looked like that.
Speaker 5: It was wall paneling and a few seats in the
Speaker 5: back and it looked like a.
Speaker 2: Real hood Brooklyn pizza shop and I loved it.
Speaker 3: As the Scars brand grew, Irl Megan, armed with their
Speaker 3: background in marketing, started to put more we're focused into
Speaker 3: their online presence. But just as they did with their
Speaker 3: physical store, Scar's social presence would be unlike any other
Speaker 3: pizza account out there.
Speaker 4: When we first opened, I would just make sure that
Speaker 4: everything was set up it looked good, like literally posting
Speaker 4: to Instagram whenever we needed to to, like, you know,
Speaker 4: talk about our updated hours, whatever we're closed this day.
Speaker 4: So it was whatever they needed. But then as we
Speaker 4: started growing, it was more focusing on the brand.
Speaker 1: She's good at marketing, that's her forte, so social media
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. Like I'd be like, oh, let
Speaker 1: me post this, and She's like, nah, no't do that.
Speaker 1: That's not a good look. I was like, Okay, Then
Speaker 1: it turns out it was right. We keep it to
Speaker 1: a minimum on purpose, like we don't post food pics
Speaker 1: on our Instagram because it's like every place does that.
Speaker 1: She tells me, shut up. She's like, hey, if you
Speaker 1: open up your ig feed right or you're whatever. The
Speaker 1: first thing that pops out of food people pulling pizza
Speaker 1: apart of burrogetarian burgers in half or takes it. Why
Speaker 1: don't you get tired of it? I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fucking annoying. Yeah. We were like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it. That's how we don't have any
Speaker 1: real posts and we don't never post anything on our Instagram.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I see a lot of places they focus so much
Speaker 4: on Instagram or link just social media in general, and
Speaker 4: then they end up becoming this company that like relies
Speaker 4: on Instagrams, like you have to post every day and
Speaker 4: you have to do this type of post and reels.
Speaker 4: And I was just like, well, yeah, obviously you want to.
Speaker 4: You want us to post every day because it makes
Speaker 4: you look better as an app. But I was like,
Speaker 4: what am I getting out of it in return? You know,
Speaker 4: if people don't want to see that kind of stuff,
Speaker 4: so what's the big Like why why do it? Then
Speaker 4: you just have to follow these arbitrary trends that the
Speaker 4: corporations them theselves set up. So now it's like everyone's
Speaker 4: like video, do video? Everyone wants video. It's like the
Speaker 4: apps are telling you this, but you don't necessarily need
Speaker 4: so if you build this whole program or if your
Speaker 4: success is dependent on like social media that I for me,
Speaker 4: I was just like, that's never what I wanted Scars
Speaker 4: to be. And it never started off like that, like
Speaker 4: you said, it started off as restaurant, sort of as
Speaker 4: a pizzeri. Yeah, and then the Instagram is just the
Speaker 4: easiest way for us to communicate stuff to people.
Speaker 1: Like if we actually did start posting photos of pizza
Speaker 1: and burgers and sandwiches and stuff like that every day
Speaker 1: where we have more followers. Yeah, but it's like, like
Speaker 1: she says, it's like, it's not about the amount of
Speaker 1: followers you have, it's about the point. It's the quality
Speaker 1: of the follower you have. You could be there's gonna
Speaker 1: be another pizzeria that's two hundred thousand fowers and we
Speaker 1: have fifty. She really explains to me that makes sense.
Speaker 1: He's like, your value is the polity. Like if you
Speaker 1: go through your people you follow who follow you, you
Speaker 1: have people that are creating directors at the top fashion brands.
Speaker 1: You have people that these people don't have that the
Speaker 1: other places they might have changed that, but it's all
Speaker 1: a bunch of FOODI people following other FOODI people or
Speaker 1: fake accounts following you, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: it's like you have actual, real quality followers, Like you
Speaker 1: have powerful people in the world following you. You have
Speaker 1: people powerful people in the Middle East. You have part
Speaker 1: like these are people I known for us. You know,
Speaker 1: you have powerful people in fashion couches like this is.
Speaker 1: You know, we have powerful people that don't sneaker like
Speaker 1: they all follow you. Like you know, it's like even
Speaker 1: though you don't post nothing, they still follow, you know,
Speaker 1: and that shows more than what that person that other brand,
Speaker 1: or that other pizzeria or that on the restaurant or
Speaker 1: whatever has two hundred thousand dollars, you know.
Speaker 4: If you're trying to chase the trend and then you're
Speaker 4: just competing with very similar product and then you're just
Speaker 4: noise in the background. Like a Scar always says this too.
Speaker 4: He's like, if we post photos of pizza every day
Speaker 4: and the next pizzeria next door to us is doing
Speaker 4: the same thing, what makes you different, Like besides your font,
Speaker 4: you know, it's like your style of photography or video whatever.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of businesses also try to like
Speaker 4: emulate and copy what other successful businesses are doing, which
Speaker 4: which can work. It's not to say you don't ever
Speaker 4: do that. You can always like pick up stuff, but
Speaker 4: I think you have an app saying like, oh, like
Speaker 4: they use this one brand as an example of like
Speaker 4: look how amazing they are, and then everyone just copies it,
Speaker 4: and then you all look the same, and then everyone
Speaker 4: gets tired of it, and then it's just onto the
Speaker 4: next trend, and so you're just constantly chasing something that
Speaker 4: isn't even you. So that's why I was like, you know,
Speaker 4: for us, Instagram was always just it's where most of
Speaker 4: like the people that we know are on, but I
Speaker 4: don't use it because it's like what it doesn't for us,
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter, you know. It's like we're a restaurant.
Speaker 4: We have a location and that's where all the action's at.
Speaker 4: It's not online. For us.
Speaker 2: We became people with each other and it became I
Speaker 2: care about your family, and he cares about my family,
Speaker 2: and I care about you know, his business, and I
Speaker 2: care about his friends, and I care about his I
Speaker 2: literally care about his family. Like his wife Megan is
Speaker 2: a friend. You know what I'm saying, Like, we're all friends.
Speaker 2: It's not just because you own Scots. It's because you
Speaker 2: are scot and because of that, we would end up
Speaker 2: talking about shit that mattered to us.
Speaker 4: You really have to just have like it's a human
Speaker 4: or human interaction. That's what it all comes down to.
Speaker 4: And I tell I tell the staff too. All the time.
Speaker 4: I was like, treat everyone like it's Scar's mom walking in.
Speaker 4: They don't always they don't always act like that. Sometimes
Speaker 4: some people really rub them the wrong way. But for me,
Speaker 4: especially when you operate a restaurant, it's like, you want
Speaker 4: people to enjoy themselves. They're coming to you, they're spending
Speaker 4: their hard earned money on something that you made. You
Speaker 4: don't It's like, you don't need to be mean to them.
Speaker 4: You don't need to be any type of way except
Speaker 4: just nice and polite.
Speaker 3: With a popping brand and physical location, but an indifference
Speaker 3: towards social media, Scars still wanted to grow the brand
Speaker 3: in other ways, so we started to explore the world
Speaker 3: of collaborations and find other brands to partner with. Little
Speaker 3: did he know that would lead to a six figure
Speaker 3: pair of sneakers.
Speaker 1: Let's do that. We used to work with another brand.
Speaker 1: Sneaker approached us. It was like, oh, whatever about doing
Speaker 1: a collab or some sort. So I was like, I
Speaker 1: didn't know if I wanted to do stuff like that
Speaker 1: at the time, so I told him politely. I was like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: let me think about it right now. I don't want
Speaker 1: to really really want to do it right now. I
Speaker 1: guess they took the drawnway fast forward a few months
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what, I feel like
Speaker 1: I hit the person. I was like, yo, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think we should Let's do a collab like whatever,
Speaker 1: let's just do it. And I think they kind of like,
Speaker 1: how do you say this? Kind of like geek me out?
Speaker 1: It was like they were like nah, they kind of
Speaker 1: said and put like like, oh yeah, we could send
Speaker 1: some shoes and stuff like, you know, trying to like,
Speaker 1: you know, not want to do with me. I was
Speaker 1: like cool, whatever. So so I was like what else,
Speaker 1: you know, what the fuck it? I ain't do it
Speaker 1: doing it with fuck the money. Then I hit up
Speaker 1: Clock and I was I was like kind of mad.
Speaker 1: I hit up Clock. I was like, yo, Clock, let's
Speaker 1: do this, slick man, Let's figure out how to do this,
Speaker 1: like we gotta do it in the streets. We got.
Speaker 5: Like we all love air Force one.
Speaker 2: It was yo, we don't, but we did at Scars
Speaker 2: Air Force one, and I was just like, let me
Speaker 2: make a call to call and designed it and it happened.
Speaker 2: And I think what made it simple for it to
Speaker 2: happen is because of the story that I told Nike
Speaker 2: about how it's disenfranchised kids who opened up pizza shop
Speaker 2: and now it's going crazy. It's really it was rated
Speaker 2: the best pizza in New York for like two or
Speaker 2: three years straight.
Speaker 5: And we made this shoe to commemorate the story of
Speaker 5: these this.
Speaker 2: Ghetto kid who doesn't look like a pizza shop owner,
Speaker 2: but it's.
Speaker 5: A story to us.
Speaker 2: And we played off of what really matters to us
Speaker 2: we in New York, guys, and New York is what.
Speaker 5: The Sky's Pizza looks like.
Speaker 2: If you look at the logo, it's the logo is
Speaker 2: orange and royal blue like next and Mets.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, it's New York shit.
Speaker 2: And so I made the shoe, you know, responsive to
Speaker 2: our love for New York City.
Speaker 5: I put a New York City flag on the back
Speaker 5: of the shoot. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: But I did what I thought would be right for
Speaker 2: presenting this story.
Speaker 5: In this friendship. It was really about him and I as friendship.
Speaker 4: I was so proud of him because I don't know
Speaker 4: any other small, up and coming pizzerias that had that
Speaker 4: kind of opportunity. It was just really great to see
Speaker 4: him so excited. I just was just so proud of him.
Speaker 4: It's like, look at what you built, look at what
Speaker 4: you made. You know, Scar had this boss a long
Speaker 4: time ago. It's like when we were dating, who literally
Speaker 4: told him, you're never going to have your own business.
Speaker 4: You're too stupid to have your own business. Not that
Speaker 4: we took him seriously at all, but it's just he
Speaker 4: had a lot of people like that in his life
Speaker 4: that he worked with that he knew that try to
Speaker 4: always discourage him, and I don't know, look at what
Speaker 4: he made, you know, you can't help but be proud.
Speaker 4: I'm even even when I meet people for the first
Speaker 4: time and they tell me they've been to the shop,
Speaker 4: that makes me so happy. I'm so proud. I'm like
Speaker 4: honored that they even went there. So for the Nikes.
Speaker 4: I don't know it was I didn't realize it would
Speaker 4: turn into something this big again. It's like, you this
Speaker 4: is like first time handling something like this, you know,
Speaker 4: or like working with Nike for friends and family shoe.
Speaker 4: You don't really know what to expect or have any
Speaker 4: expectations whatsoever. So for it to still have kind of
Speaker 4: some momentum, it's cool to see.
Speaker 3: Momentum is an understatement. The Scars x Nike air Force one,
Speaker 3: limited to around forty pairs and gifted to close friends
Speaker 3: and family, quickly became one of the most sought after
Speaker 3: sneakers on the planet. Lebron James was seen wearing a pair,
Speaker 3: and one pair even made its way to Southerby's auction house,
Speaker 3: ending with a staggering sale price of one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty thousand dollars. However, the global recognition of the brand
Speaker 3: was starting to make the Orchard location feel a little
Speaker 3: too small.
Speaker 1: I knew we needed worthpace. I was actually a go.
Speaker 1: She didn't take the space next to us. We definitely
Speaker 1: Even this is like three years ago, people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: the place is small. I'm like, yeah, we're working on
Speaker 1: it takes time. COVID happened, you know, shit happens whatever.
Speaker 1: Then the landlord of the space for the new space
Speaker 1: came to mean. It was like, hey, this space is available.
Speaker 1: We want. I guess he was sitting empty for a
Speaker 1: few months and I didn't know, so I went across
Speaker 1: the street I saw it. I was like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: it's a huge space. This would be perfect. So that
Speaker 1: was it. We signed the lease and that was it.
Speaker 1: The new space is a different design, but the good energy.
Speaker 1: We're doing more of a sit down. We're gonna start
Speaker 1: taking reservations for like, We're gonna do it more like
Speaker 1: a pizza parlor. Stuff in the back, put the seating
Speaker 1: in the back of the bar, and everything is in.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna do like cow zones, not six, like
Speaker 1: you know, the simple things like small things. Maybe won't
Speaker 1: add another stylet. I just I'm not going to overcomplicate
Speaker 1: it because people are just going to the shelf and
Speaker 1: eat pizza anyway. Just a space where people could come
Speaker 1: groups of five, six, seven, eight, four, whatever, sit comfortable,
Speaker 1: order your pizza, have a good time. Keep it simple,
Speaker 1: like done.
Speaker 3: Even with a larger space opening across the street, the
Speaker 3: Scars team is still keeping the original location but giving
Speaker 3: it a new take.
Speaker 1: We're doing Omakase spot inside the original Stars. We decided
Speaker 1: to keep those spots and we're doing it under one
Speaker 1: of Knakazawa's proteges. We're keeping the same design. We're just
Speaker 1: changing the seats to more comfortable seats were bags, and
Speaker 1: we're keeping everything else the booths, and then we're changing
Speaker 1: the movie posters to Japanese versions of the movie posters.
Speaker 1: That's it. Everything's going to be the same for the
Speaker 1: most part. It had a tasting, a couple of tastings.
Speaker 1: It was really good, so I'm happy. I'm happy with them.
Speaker 4: You know, like in Tokyo, you have to have walked
Speaker 4: through a hallway and there's like different restaurants in one
Speaker 4: little area. That was kind of like the idea. So
Speaker 4: in the back it's going to turn into amacasse, and
Speaker 4: then the front we're going to just focus because we
Speaker 4: have so many people that want vegans, We're going to
Speaker 4: focus on just like basically like a vegan sligh shop.
Speaker 4: So the new location, it'll be the same set up,
Speaker 4: just way bigger. So you have your slight shop in
Speaker 4: the front bar and seating in the back with like
Speaker 4: the regular menu, and then at the original spot that
Speaker 4: will focus on vegan.
Speaker 1: Vegan. I'm a simple dude, so it's like I want
Speaker 1: to keep everything as simple as possible. And if like
Speaker 1: I love going to Japan, like I love how fish
Speaker 1: in Japan is, and then and that's the same way,
Speaker 1: like I like how everything is super efficient, even everything
Speaker 1: from I ad mind that, everything from design to food,
Speaker 1: everything superfficient and simple and easy. I've always been that
Speaker 1: with I don't like to waste some time and stuff.
Speaker 3: With the restaurant having more success than Scars ever could
Speaker 3: have dreamed of, a new goal has emerged to be
Speaker 3: a beacon of hope for young kids like him and
Speaker 3: to be an example of what they can achieve.
Speaker 2: Well, because of where it is, it should be a
Speaker 2: beacon of hope for those who come from the Lower
Speaker 2: East Side, and then it also should be the same
Speaker 2: beacon or kids who come from anywhere in New Year
Speaker 2: or who don't look like what a pizza shop owner
Speaker 2: would look like. And it should be able to it
Speaker 2: should be able to give people the impression that you
Speaker 2: can really do anything if you really believe it, and
Speaker 2: you study it and you and you want to make
Speaker 2: it right, and then you get to do it, and then.
Speaker 5: When you do it, you do it properly, and then
Speaker 5: people can resonate.
Speaker 2: It resonates with people in a way that makes it
Speaker 2: a destination and.
Speaker 5: A place to go.
Speaker 2: It should be a beacon of hope for those who
Speaker 2: don't believe that things can happen like that, for people
Speaker 2: like us.
Speaker 4: I will say very proud of Scar for believing in
Speaker 4: himself and doing this, because he really did put this
Speaker 4: together on his own, and every wood panel and everything,
Speaker 4: every design, every recipe, it's all Scar.
Speaker 1: In the end, we just do it for people that
Speaker 1: come after us. You know what I'm saying. We want
Speaker 1: them to do better than using. You know, like Clark says,
Speaker 1: like I want you guys to do better than me,
Speaker 1: And then they get people to come after us, we
Speaker 1: want them to do better than all of them. And
Speaker 1: that's the goal. That's always been the goal. Try to
Speaker 1: help each out out like that.
Speaker 3: Scars story is one of persistence, authenticity, and community. When
Speaker 3: Scar couldn't figure out his career path, he kept at
Speaker 3: it and eventually found his way into restaurants and when
Speaker 3: the team went to open Scars Pizza, the goal was
Speaker 3: to make a space that was true to their vision
Speaker 3: and didn't try to be anyone else. And once the
Speaker 3: business was up and running, it was the community that
Speaker 3: helped them thrive and turned scars pizza into a New
Speaker 3: York City institution no matter how you slice it. If
Speaker 3: you've enjoyed this episode, please don't hesitate to like, comment DM,
Speaker 3: or tell a friend to tell a friend about Idea
Speaker 3: Generation and the All Angles Podcast. We can't do any
Speaker 3: this without your help, and honestly, your support means everything.
Speaker 3: We do this for you, and we can't do it
Speaker 3: without you. This episode was brought to you by Will Packer.
Speaker 3: Executive produced by John Valachik and Helena Ox. Original music
Speaker 3: by Valentine Fritz, edit and sound mixed by Nonsensible Production,
Speaker 3: and hosted by me Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan bever
Speaker 3: Idea Generations. All Angles is a Will Packer media podcast