By Charlie Pogacar
Michael Pollack, who was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, spent two decades in the film industry. One day, on a lark, he joined his friend on a trip to visit the Banksy Museum of New York City, featuring work from the legendary, anonymous street artist. Pollack was moved by the artist’s messaging, but it was something else that really caught his eye.
“For me, the biggest takeaway was that [Banksy] did all of this art by just making some stencils and spraying,” Pollack. “Like, it wasn’t the most intricate art. It was more about the composition and the colors and the meaning behind the imagery—that’s kind of what made me think: Man, I think I could do this.”
Upon returning home, Pollack sat down and stenciled—what else?—the pride of New Haven: a slice of pizza. Just a few short years later Pollack has become a staple of the New Haven pizza community. His art is featured all over town, including on the wall of the original Sally’s Apizza, where Pollack grew up eating pizza. And, unlike Banksy, Pollack is hardly anonymous: He was recently invited to speak at a press conference at which Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont doubled down on the state’s claim to being the pizza capital of the U.S.
At the presser, it was announced that Pollack had been commissioned by the State of Connecticut to produce four pairs of pizza-themed Air Jordans to be auctioned off in June to benefit the Feeding Families Foundation—a cause that is near and dear to Pollack’s heart (more on that later). It’s all part of what Pollack has begun referring to as the “Pizza Capital Movement,” or the idea that New Haven’s pizza scene has never been hotter—and thus, never been more capable of creating meaningful change.
The above barely scratches the surface when it comes to Pollack’s overall impact in New Haven. His high-energy approach to art, community building and collaborating with local businesses led him to formally launch New Haven Pizza Club (on Instagram as @nhvpc). It’s a catchall brand for the variety of work he does to promote New Haven and its proud pizza scene, from the creation of his art to the philanthropic efforts he undertakes.
“It all ties back to this community that I love so much,” Pollack recently told PMQ. “I think people look and see pizza on the surface. But it’s pretty simple for me, everything I do is deeply rooted within my city. I’m combining culture, art and history to create strategic partnerships throughout the city.”
One of the most fruitful partnerships Pollack struck up was with Billy Pustari, owner of Modern Apizza. Just outside of Modern sits the piece of art that Pollack is perhaps best known for: a giant pizza-slice sculpture made of steel and concrete, designed by Pollack and created with help from Tancreti Construction. The sculpture was a sketch of an idea Pollack had—prior to meeting Pustari, he quite literally brought a pitch deck to Sally’s and Pepe’s to help outline what the sculpture would do for their Wooster Street businesses. While the marketing teams for both Sally’s and Pepe’s loved the idea, the idea was ultimately quashed, according to Pollack, by the “money people” behind the two brands.
It was David Salinas, owner of District NHV and a friend of Pollack’s, who introduced Pollack to Pustari. Salinas was a huge believer in Pollack and had given the artist free reign to hang his work all over District NHV, a 100,000-square-foot coworking space where Pollack’s studio can be found. Salinas called Pollack one day and told him he was with Pustari, and that Pollack should come down and pitch the sculpture to Pustari.
“So I’m sitting there with my pitch deck,” Pollack recalled, “and I’m pretty sure Billy had never seen a pitch deck from an artist before—I mean, who has?—but he immediately got it. And he said, ‘Whatever you need, man, let me know. You want pizza for the launch?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that would be great, but we’re talking like 200-300 people here.’ And he said, ‘Whatever you need man—just tell me how many pizzas.’”
Pustari even sweetened the pot, telling Pollack the first place the traveling sculpture should reside is in the parking lot of Modern Apizza—in the thick of the city’s storied pizza scene. The pizza sculpture was the first of several projects Pollack and Pustari collaborated on. A later endeavor that launched in late 2024, known as “H2Dough,” is an effort to allow home pizza chefs across the world access to New Haven’s legendary water, the ostensible lifeblood of apizza.
Here’s how H2Dough came to be: Grateful for his partnership with Pustari, Pollack was mulling over ideas that would create little-to-no extra work for Pustari while growing his business. He thought about something he’d been hearing all his life—”it’s the water!”—and wondered if there was an opportunity there. Leveraging a preexisting relationship he had with a local brewery, Armada Brewing, he was able to take a fully formed proposal to Pustari, who lent the Modern Apizza branding and recipe to the cans. In Pollack’s estimation, the unique collaboration between three local entities was just an extension of everything he’s been doing over the past few years.
“All I’m doing is putting a creative touch on something so simple and turning something that’s right there—under our noses—and making it look cool,” Pollack said. “Then, voila: that’s art. That’s how simple art is.”
Pollack’s energy and enthusiasm for New Haven and its pizza scene quickly caught the attention of many in the community. He’s developed relationships with New Haven luminaries like Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro—the woman who read Connecticut’s claim to being the pizza capital of the U.S. into the Congressional record last year—as well as Colin Caplan of a Taste of New Haven, the man who started that movement. According to Caplan, Pollack only knows one speed.
“Pollack’s gravity towards celebrating pizza through his art is comparable to the dedication of a ritualistic religious nature,” Caplan told PMQ. “In the fervor that has been created in declaring New Haven the Pizza Capital of the U.S., Mike has found a calling, an artistic inspiration, all proof that the culture of pizza here continues to morph and spin off forming new collaborations and intersecting interests across many fields.”
Those outside of New Haven have begun to take note as well. Pollack’s story came via a tip from Simone Hanlen, a pizza influencer who goes by @NYCMuncher on Instagram and was featured on the cover of PMQ in October 2024. Hanlen was drawn to Pollack’s “unmatched fanaticism for New Haven,” and the way he has “brought like-minded pizza lovers together with his New Haven Pizza Club.”
“Michael has tirelessly spread the word about New Haven apizza through art,” Hanlen said to PMQ. “He brings attention to the qualities that set New Haven apart. As he continues to seek ways to promote New Haven, he’s educating others about the history and significance of apizza and the city of New Haven itself.”
Pollack’s story isn’t complete without mention of his philanthropic efforts. Those custom Air Jordans he designed? They’ll be auctioned off in June, at a fashion show—Strength in Numbers—that Pollack is organizing with well-known Connecticut-based fashion designer Justin Haynes as a fundraising effort for the Feeding Families Foundation. One of Pollack’s closest friends, Jeff Dorman, founded the Feeding Families Foundation with his wife, Sam, after their daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. The young couple—who had two children with another on the way—were surprised to learn families had to pay for meals while they tended to their sick children in the hospital. Once they had gotten through the thick of things with their own daughter, the Dormans founded the Feeding Families Foundation as a way to feed the families of sick children.
“Everything that I do, every event that I have, there’s always a portion going to them,” Pollack said. “I’m also working hand-in-hand with them on their charitable efforts—to make it more engaging, they’re using my creative and my art.”
One final story involving Pollack and the Feeding Families Foundation helps illustrate some of the meaningful connections Pollack has been able to make in his local community in just a few short years. In an effort to bring hungry families some top-notch apizza, Pollack coordinated with Modern Apizza to run weekly deliveries to a local hospital. Unfortunately, Dorman ran into bureaucratic issues trying to take the pizzas inside the hospital. After two months of frustration, Pollack finally called his local congresswoman—Rosa DeLauro, now a friend and ally due to her appreciation of the work Pollack has done promoting New Haven and the city’s pizza culture.
“The next time Jeff made a pizza delivery,” Pollack said, “he was greeted by hospital staff with bells on, and has since been getting the royal treatment he deserves. So the net-net is that my art has inspired a congresswoman to take action and help an artist and his charity partners make a real difference at a hospital.”
“That was by far the most motivating thing that has happened to me since I started this project,” Pollack said.
