Bradley Alvelo says he runs the smallest pizzeria in New York City—so small that he can take it anywhere. And wherever it goes, even the most jaded New Yorker has to stop and take note…and try the tasty pies.
That’s because Pizza Pod NYC is no ordinary food truck. Alvelo tools around the city in a bright-green, pint-sized pizza-popping Smart car and serves pies out of the trunk.
“Sometimes I think the setup is a little bit like a circus or a magic act,” Alvelo explained in a recent article for CNBC.com. “I get to be the magician pulling hot, fragrant pizzas out of a teeny tiny car. Ta da!”
Alvelo launched Pizza Pod NYC in September 2025 after losing his job in corporate dining. “I was let go,” he recalled to CNBC in a video posted on August 22. “I was denied employment, tossed on the street by a company I was working for since 2011. I was having my first child. I had to rely on my savings. It really backed me into a corner. I had this Smart car, and I was like, it would be really cool to pull pizzas out of this tiny car.”
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a foodservice veteran, Alvelo decided to convert the car—which he purchased during the pandemic to make it easier to find parking spaces—into a mobile pizza unit.
That turned out to be a more fortuitous move than he ever expected.
“I’ve been cooking professionally for most of my life,” he said in the CNBC article. “But if you’d told the teenager peeling potatoes [in a restaurant job] after school that one day he’d have his own pizzeria—and operate it out of a Smart car, no less—I’m not sure he would have believed you.”
The Smart car is a two-seater, but Alvelo has made remarkable use of the space. He packs it with everything he needs to prepare and bake his pies, from olive oil, cheese and sauce to pizza boxes and, of course, portable ovens.
Since he’d already paid $5,000 in cash for the Smart car several years earlier, his startup costs were essentially $1,000 for his first portable oven (he now has two), $800 on the generator, plus license and permit and ingredients. He said gas for the generator costs him about $50 a week.
In return, his menu of nine 12” pies, priced between $16 and $20 and baked at 800° in the rear of the car, averages $12,000 a month in gross sales. He makes his dough, fermented for 72 hours, in a commercial kitchen. He has one part-time employee, and his food costs come in around $4 to $5 per pie.
“One of the more unusual pizzas we make is a guava pepperoni pie. It’s a small nod to my Puerto Rican heritage, with the sweetness of the guava playing beautifully against the saltiness of the pepperoni.”
As Alvelo told Eyewitness News ABC 7 in a separate interview, “This is New York City so people have seen it all. But I’ve noticed everyone has to stop. From truck drivers to kids coming out of school, [it] doesn’t matter. They’re like, ‘Hold on, let me take a second and see what’s happening over here.’”
In the CNBC video, a customer on the NYC streets exclaims to Alvelo, “This ain’t crappy pizza. It’s good-ass pizza. That’s the most important part. New Yorkers are unforgiving about [bad pizza].”
In addition to peddling pies on busy street corners, Pizza Pod NYC has become a pop-up favorite; Alvelo has partnered with a brewery, a wine bar and a coffee shop, among others. “Companies invite Pizza Pod to pop up or cater events,” Alvelo notes. “People share videos online. Customers tell other people about this strange little Smart car pizzeria. These interactions have helped grow the business.”
He even caters kids’ birthday parties.
And for now, at least, Alvelo is happy to stay behind the wheel—or peel pies out of his trunk—as a mobile operator. After all, he doesn’t have to pay a dime in rent. As he said in the Eyewitness News ABC 7 interview, “Before jumping into a storefront that’s charging anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000 a month, I want to make sure people are enjoying the product.”
Alvelo told CNBC he works harder today than he ever did for corporate America. “It’s a lot. But I’ll tell you what: I’m 1,000% happier now than any situation working in corporate kitchens in New York.”
“Everyone’s a human being,” he added. “We’re all just trying to get through the day. It’s just not pleasant. I think I just feel so much healthier. That stress [of a corporate job] ages you so much faster. Even though I’m working more, I’m working for myself…and that brings a sense of purpose and happiness to my life that I did not have.”
