Pizza Today - June 2022 - 10

CONVERSATION
GABRIELE
LAMONACA
Unregular Pizza
New York City, New York
Concept:
Unregular Pizza is a fast casual
Roman-style pizzeria by the slice
located in the heart of NYC in
Union Square. The pizzeria offers
a wide range of creative and
delicious pizzas, sandwiches and
salads available in gluten free and
vegan options.
Pizza Style:
Our Roman-style pizza dough is
made with imported Italian flour
and it's fermented for 72 hours,
making the dough airy, light and
digestible.
Co-founders Gabriele Lamonac (at right) and Salvatore Gagliardo
What is the story behind your pizzeria's name?
Our pizza project was born, in fact, in an
Unregular way. I started making pizza at home
during the pandemic in 2020, experimenting with
different combinations of toppings in a creative
and unusual way. After posting pictures and videos
of my creations on Instagram, I grabbed the
attention of my friends who wanted to purchase
my pizza. However, instead of selling, I would
give it out for free, so that I could get as MUCH
feedback as possible. When I delivered a potato
pie (a staple of the Roman pizza tradition) to my
friend Federica, she gave me homemade cocktails
in return.
This brought me back memories of my
grandma, who back in the 1950's used bake goods
that she exchanged for other goods.
So I began bartering pizza from home - which
immediately created a community of barters -
while my pizza was being constantly fine tuned
and shared over and over with future potential
customers. We then decided with my business
partner and master pizzaiolo, Salvatore Gagliardo,
to open up a shop.
We found the perfect location in Union Square,
in the heart of Manhattan.
" Unregular " is an intended grammatical mistake
(should be " irregular " ), and was chosen to distance
ourselves from the low-quality $1 " regular " NY
slice. This was done to convey the originality of
our product.
What is this barter program and how does it
work?
Since we opened our brick and mortar store,
we have bartered pizza from it with anyone
who has something to share that he/she is
passionate about. People may go on our website,
unregularpizza.com, and sign up to barter. Our
team will get in touch to organize it.
Unregular Pizza has a unique design in the
pizzeria and its branding elements. Tell us a little
more about how the design was created?
Our pizza project was born out of the pandemic,
which was a very sad moment for everyone,
including the city and its restaurant scene. We
wanted to create a pizzeria that was different
from the traditional ones, and at the same time
was colorful and happy. We chose a throwback
90s design for our store in order to convey that
feeling. The final product is a combination of three
main artists. Italian street artist Federico Massa
(a.k.a. Lena Cruz) is known for his spray-painted
stencils and precise brush work. Melding imagery
of iguanas, landscapes, cultural artifacts, and local
graffiti gathered from trips to Mexico and across
the world, Massa has developed a unique visual
style. Indian born, New York-based multidisciplinary
designer Sourabh Gupta works at the intersection
of art, design and architecture. And last, but not
least, Italian store designer Federica Teso, founder
of Lessthan3studio, which blends perspectives and
fabrication techniques with European and American
design sensibilities in order to provide unmatched
elegance and quality at any scale.
10 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JUNE 2022
http://www.unregularpizza.com http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - June 2022

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