By Charlie Pogacar
Sayed Seyar landed a tech job out of college. It must have thrilled his parents—the family had relocated from Afghanistan to the Bay Area when Seyar and his brother, Sayed Spehar, were teenagers. In other words, the elder Sayeds sacrificed a lot in order to give their children more opportunities.
So perhaps it horrified them—at least at first—when Sayed Seyar opened a pizzeria instead of starting his job with the tech company. He did so with his cousin, who had experience in the foodservice space. The pizzeria, Pizza Ponte—now an acclaimed slice shop located in the vibrant Temescal neighborhood of Oakland—struggled at first. Seyar had disagreements with his cousin and, with the shop failing and multiple years left on the lease, he looked for a way out.
“The thing is, it’s hard to sell a business that’s not making any money and you’re stuck in a lease,” Seyar told PMQ. “So, at that point, my brother [Spehar] was like, ‘I’d be willing to step in to help you and try to make this thing work.’ And I just thought, sure, why not.”
Related: Bow to the Green Goddess: Pizza Ponte Pays Homage to Bay Area Classic
The Rabbit Hole
Overnight, Seyar went from having a business partner he didn’t see eye-to-eye with to one who completely understood his vision and fed off his energy. The brothers went to work on turning the pizza shop around—a journey that started with the actual product. In order to improve the shop’s pies, the brothers went down a rabbit hole that will be all too familiar to modern pizzaioli. They consumed anything they could find on proper pizza making, from YouTube videos and Instagram reels to baking books and, of course, publications like PMQ Pizza.
“We have this thing where, whatever we do, it has to be perfect,” Seyar said. “We had a fitness phase where we went all in—it was two or three hours at the gym every day. So when it became pizza, we were here for 17-18 hours a day the first few years, every day. We might’ve got just five or six hours of sleep, but everything was about perfecting our dough.”
The brothers focused on dough inspired by the naan-like bread they grew up eating in Afghanistan. They wanted something fluffy and airy with a good crunch. The end result was a pizza style that’s hard for them to define: It borrows elements from Neo-Neapolitan-style, New York-style and even Roman-style pizza. (The shop has since added Sicilian and Detroit-style pies, too).
Another change was heavily influenced by Spehar, the younger of the brothers. He convinced Seyar that the menu was too big—that they would have more luck focusing on fewer items, as well as offering slices.
“I just knew the new trend is that people don’t want a lot of items in one place. They want one good thing,” Spehar said. “If you can focus on a few items and do them exceptionally well, people will appreciate that. We felt like if we just take care of the kitchen, we won’t have to do a lot of marketing. The kitchen will take care of the business.”
In what could be called a classic sibling dynamic, Seyar—the older brother—often has to reel in Spehar’s infectious energy and ideas. “I have to be the one who makes sure that we manage the shop in a way that we can survive the next few months,” Seyar said. “If it was up to him, he would probably just go all in: spend all the money we have on marketing and advertising and say, ‘Hopefully we make it next month!”
Revitalizing a Reputation
While Pizza Ponte does very little marketing these days, that wasn’t true when the brothers were trying to restore the shop’s reputation. As the pizza improved dramatically, the brothers recognized that they needed outside help to convince customers to either try the shop out for the first time or to come back in and see what they’d been up to. This led them to pay a PR agency to help them change public perception of Pizza Ponte.
“That was really the only time we did a big campaign,” Seyar said. “We posted on Instagram and TikTok, and the PR team brought in five or six local influencers—not even necessarily influencers with huge followings—to give our food a try and to spread the word.”
One big break for Pizza Ponte was when SF Gate published a story about how the shop had tripled its sales. The story pointed out that Pizza Ponte is surrounded by legendary Bay Area eateries, including Pizzaioli, a restaurant that opened in 2005 and quickly became one of the best-known pizzerias in the East Bay. More recently, Pizza Ponte was featured on the San Francisco Chronicle’s list of Top Pizzas in the Bay Area, putting them squarely in the company of June’s Pizza, Flour + Water Pizzeria and Tartine Manufactory.
Thanks to that PR agency, the shop also caught the attention of PMQ Pizza. Specifically, Pizza Ponte’s signature Green Goddess pie earned a story on PMQ.com about how the menu item came to be. Handcrafted with homemade pesto, fresh spinach, minced garlic and a creamy white sauce, the Green Goddess pie was, according to Seyar, inspired by the white pies often featured at Bay Area pizzas. It’s become a best-selling fixture at the shop, which typically only features five or six different types of pies at a time.
Going National
Not only have the Sayed brothers turned Pizza Ponte around, but they now possess a grand vision for the brand. In the near term, they want to become a Bay Area staple—they picture opening up a few more shops in the East Bay before branching out to other areas. But, at the ripe ages of 26 and 24 and brimming with confidence, their end goal is far loftier: They want to become a national chain—but maybe not in the way other pizza brands have done it.
“These days, it’s a little bit different,” Seyar said. “It’s not like we want to become Domino’s, with a shop on every corner. With social media, people know about things all over the place. So let’s say you have 10 really well-positioned locations. That’s probably better than having 100 locations that are on every corner.”
And the brothers don’t lack the work ethic to get there. They have grown accustomed to the 16-hour days required to grow their business. As they spoke to PMQ Pizza—on a Monday, the one day per week when their shop is closed—black paint was visible on their arms and clothes. They were in the midst of repainting the shop themselves, refusing to outsource things they can do on their own.
That said, there actually is one resource the brothers find themselves leaning on time and time again: ChatGPT has become their go-to expert for everything. They listed off examples: ChatGPT helped them reorganize their slice case and even told them how to get the slices under better light. The AI tool helped them fix a water leak, directed them to hire the PR team and told them what color paint they should use to repaint the shop. Most memorably, ChatGPT gave them the legal language necessary to help renegotiate a lease—and it worked.
Pizza Ponte’s landlord now knows something the world might soon find out: The Sayed brothers—with perhaps a little help from AI technology—are a potent combination.
“I don’t know if you’re going to include this or not,” Spehar told PMQ Pizza. “But this is for the people who might some day be investors [in Pizza Ponte]: Imagine you’re investing in Tesla in 2010 or Domino’s in 2000 or Microsoft in the 1980s. This is Pizza Ponte. It’s going to be greater than some of the companies that you know. Maybe not in the top 500 companies, but you never know.”
Let the record show: ChatGPT did not write that one.
Charlie Pogacar is PMQ’s senior editor.
