Chef launches mobile pizzeria in a Smart car in New York
Chef Bradley Alvelo has launched Pizza Pod, a mobile pizzeria in New York, setting it up in a compact Smart car. The bright green vehicle holds two pizza ovens powered by a generator. The pizzeria operates near coffee shops, wine bars and breweries, as well as at street fairs, private and corporate events.
As CNBC Top News reports, Alvelo calls Pizza Pod New York's smallest pizzeria. Before starting work, he sets up a table, brings dough balls prepared in a commercial kitchen and fermented for 72 hours, as well as other ingredients.
Pizza from a compact car
Alvelo makes 12-inch pizzas, about 30.5 centimeters in diameter, in front of visitors. The menu includes cheese pizza, truffle and mushroom pizza, creamy artichoke and garlic pizza, ham and hot honey pizza, as well as burrata pizza. One pizza costs between $16 and $20.
Among the unusual offerings is pizza with guava and pepperoni. According to Alvelo, the dish is a reference to his Puerto Rican heritage, as the sweetness of guava combines with the saltiness of pepperoni. The dough uses a blend of Italian double-zero flour and bread flour, which, according to the founder, provides lightness and a strong crust structure.
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Sales and business operations
According to Alvelo, Pizza Pod has generated about $24,000 in gross revenue from card payments through Square since March. Cash sales, he estimates, account for about 65% of total revenue. He estimates the business's average monthly gross revenue at $12,000.
On regular days, the founder works as the cook, driver, dishwasher, mechanic, salesperson and accountant himself, and also manages social media. At large events, a small team helps him. Once, when the generator stopped working while pizzas were being baked, Alvelo temporarily connected one of the ovens to the car to finish preparing the orders.
Before creating Pizza Pod, Alvelo graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked in professional kitchens and corporate food service, including with the NFL and the New York Stock Exchange. He decided to start his own business because he wanted to directly see visitors' reactions to his food.
