When Randy Mclaren told his wife, Ashlee, that he wanted to open a slice shop in Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, her first response was, “What do we have to lose?”
But she also told him that the pizzeria, which came to be known as Cuts & Slices, somehow needed to stand out from the competition. “Usually you would see an Italian cooking and making pizza,” Ashlee told Eyewitness News 7 recently. “That is who usually makes the pizza in New York City. So I was, like, ‘What are you going to do that’s different?’”
Randy figured it out: craft an artisanal menu based on the exotic Caribbean flavors he and his wife loved. That meant, first and foremost, oxtail pizza. And a focus on building demand for his fare through shrewd marketing and an emphasis on exclusivity.
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“I’m Trinidadian,” Mclaren told Eater New York in March 2022. “I grew up eating West Indian food. I get a little creative.”
So creative, in fact, that The New York Times last year called it the city’s “most exciting pizza.” And fans like Odell Beckham Jr., rapper Jadakiss and singer Sean Kingston agree, helping to build the buzz via social media. Influencer Keith Lee, meanwhile, gave Cuts & Slices a 9.7 score in a January 2023 review on TikTok, further ramping up the hype.
“We’re a Black-owned specialty pizzeria [that’s] changing the pizza game,” Randy told the Times in an April 4, 2024 video feature. “When you think of pizza, you automatically think of Italians making pizza and putting sausages on pizza, but we’re changing that whole narrative of what people will actually think of what belongs on pizza.”
Randy, who hails from East Flatbush, learned to cook from his mother and worked in various restaurants before launching a sneaker concierge service—which he started out of the trunk of his car—that catered to celebrities.
A friend and client eventually suggested that Randy open a pizzeria/barber shop called Cuts & Slices. “And I was like, what? That’s stupid!” Randy recalled.
But the idea stuck in Randy’s head, minus the shave-and-a-haircut part. The pizzeria, which opened in 2018 and now has three locations (Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan), struggled for a while at first, and the Mclarens considered closing in the early days when business was painfully slow. But, over time, more adventurous topping combos led to consistent sell-outs, especially after Cuts & Slices started dropping new specialty pies like, well, high-end sneakers for the rich and famous.
“Twenty-five pies a day, every pie’s numbered,” Randy recalled to the Times. “The first 25 people to pull up and purchase a pie get a free drink.” That strategy created surging demand. “We needed to do something to market it to where [customers would say], ‘Oh, wait a minute, I’ve gotta be one of these 25 people to have this pie.’ Our pizza’s exclusive. You can’t order our pizza on Uber Eats or DoorDash. You can’t order it on any app. We don’t do any delivery. The only way to get our pizza is to pull up, beloved” (now a catchphrase for Cuts & Slices).
Sweet chili oxtail, curry oxtail, sweet teriyaki oxtail, brown stew oxtail—the Mclarens promote their slices as “flavors that are out of this world.” Other pizzas on the regular menu include the Shrimp and Lobster Black Truffle Alfredo, Sweet Chili Salmon, Lobster and Crab Black Truffle Alfredo, Fried Shrimp and Lobster Black Truffle Alfredo, Sweet Chili Shrimp—the list goes on and includes specialty vegan pies, too.
Randy is the culinary whiz behind the concept, and Ashlee is a former flight attendant who focuses on customer service. “I learned a lot from major airlines on how to communicate and how to handle employees and staff,” she told the Times. She was also hip to TikTok and persuaded her husband to use the platform as a marketing tool. Before long, Cuts & Slices was going viral, with help from Jadakiss and other celebrities.
The Mclarens were able to expand into the space next door during COVID-19. And, thanks to social media, they have never spent a penny on marketing. Instead, when business slowed down again, they started interviewing customers with their phone cameras for social media posts, and sales took off once more. Today, customers come from around the Northeast and other parts of the U.S. to check out Cuts & Slices.
Even Questlove stood in line for 30 minutes for a slice. In one clip, R&B singer Queen Naija declared, “There’s a party in my mouth. People are dancing in my mouth.”
The news media joined the dance party, too. “Anyone who’s tried the spicy-sweet oxtail pizza would understand the draw,” Eater New York’s Ryan Sutton wrote. “Cooks dole out the meat generously, allowing the braising liquids to stain the cheese in desert-like shades of terracotta and hematite. The softly crisp crust yields to a gentle bite, while the stretchy mozz and jiggly oxtail provide even more resistance. Salty, beefy juices enrobe the tongue quickly, before a jolt of sweet chile sauce resets your taste buds with a little zing of sugar and heat.”
That 2022 article went on: “In a city where Italian-American slices reign supreme, the Caribbean ethos of Cuts & Slices serves as a welcome outlier—while also functioning as a gentle reminder that one of the city’s quintessential forms of nourishment should more frequently expand past its more European roots. Or put more bluntly: This is damn good pizza, and, quite frankly, it better be if you’re paying $10 or more for the best slices here.”
As of early 2025, all of the oxtail-based slices have gone up to $12.50. The Shrimp and Lobster Black Truffle Alfredo will set you back $18.75 for a slice and $112.50 for a whole pie. But, as Willa Moore wrote in a review for The Infatuation last year, “When it comes to pizza loaded with jerk chicken and black truffle alfredo sauce, one triangle is essentially a whole meal.”
But what if customers want something a little more ordinary? Mclaren tries to nudge them toward the more avant-garde options instead. “If people come here ordering cheese…I’m, like, pick another slice out of the window that you just want to try,” he told Eyewitness 7 News.
Because Slice & Cuts isn’t about ordinary New York pizza. “I think we’ve all been brainwashed to think that only cheese and sauce belong on pizza. That’s all we’ve known,” Randy added. “But if you step out of the box for a second and try something new, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.”
