How to Make Money Selling Pizza in New York City

Evan Xenopolous (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

And I'm Tracy Alloway. We are eating pizza.

Joe Weisenthal (0:27)

We are recording this July 8th, and we've done back to back to back episodes, and we haven't had time for lunch. So I, too, am going to eat this bite of pizza.

Tracy Alloway (0:38)

It's really good.

Joe Weisenthal (0:39)

We're eating really good pizza in this video. It's really good. People are probably wondering what's going on, and why we're, all right, one sec, I'm gonna swallow my food. But I swear we're not gonna be sounding like we're eating pizza the entire time. Maybe we'll-

Tracy Alloway (0:52)

Speak for yourself here.

Joe Weisenthal (0:53)

Okay. Tracy, a few months ago, I noticed a new pizza restaurant had opened up in the East Village, and I thought to myself, what kind of person looks at the East Village and thinks, you know what, this neighborhood needs a new pizza restaurant. And I've always been sort of, I've been vexed by that question for a long time.

Tracy Alloway (1:11)

Wait, it's a saturated market, but on the other hand, isn't like pizza in New York is slam dunk? Everyone loves pizza. We come here for pizza, don't we?

Joe Weisenthal (1:20)

I guess that's true. It just seems like there is a lot of pizza in the East Village. And opening up a new pizza place, it's very capital intensive. There's the stoves, there's the risk, there's the brand. There's all these things. I would not have the guts to open up a new pizza restaurant. I would just assume that the market, I would just take the saturated view. Maybe you would be the more optimistic and entrepreneurial.

Tracy Alloway (1:43)

You can't go wrong with pizza.

Joe Weisenthal (1:44)

Yeah, it's New York City. I guess I could see it both ways. But I did find it striking. And it is, of course, one of the most ubiquitous businesses that you see at the ground level in New York City, Great Pizza City. And I don't really know anything about the business of pizza.

Tracy Alloway (1:57)

No. And we just spoke to a bakery business that is getting into the pizza business. So this is a really nice segue and natural evolution of the conversation.

Joe Weisenthal (2:08)

Yeah. I want to know how you make money selling a slice of pizza in New York City. I'm really excited. We actually have three perfect guests in the studio today. They brought us pizza. So there is a disclosure that we have to get out of the way, which we're eating the pizza that they brought us. So if you listen to this episode and you think like we've been like, you know, painfully bought off or whatever, then that's why it's because I had some pizza. But it's also an interesting one because A, this pizzeria is right by Bloomberg. So that's another excuse for why we're doing this one. But also two of the owners of the restaurant also own a deli or cafe near Bloomberg that I go to for lunch all the time, the Oxford Cafe. I don't really like eating pizza for lunch, if I'm being honest. It's a little heavy, but I love a chopped salad. And the Oxford Cafe, which is very close to Bloomberg, in my opinion, is the best chopped salad operation in the entire city or that I've been to. No, for real. So I'm sort of curious about that, how you differentiate there.

So I just want to learn about like lunchtime food, including pizza.

Tracy Alloway (3:07)

Let's do it.

Joe Weisenthal (3:08)

Our three guests, I'm going to introduce them. We're going to be speaking with James Shields. He is a restaurateur here in New York City. He involved in multiple things, but he is a co-founder of Xeno's Pizza, which is on 52nd Street between 2nd and 3rd. And then we're also going to be speaking with the other Xeno's co-founders, Alex Xenopolous, who also owns the Oxford Cafe, and his brother, Evan Xenopolous. So they're all involved in multiple things, including Evan and Alex in Oxford and James in Pizza, etc. And we are going to learn how to make money selling a slice of pizza. So I'll throw this out, James or anyone else, but James, I'll start with you. Why did you think there was capacity or a reason when you looked at this location at 52nd Street between 2nd and 3rd to think, you know what, this area could use another pizza place?

James Shields (3:52)