Entrepreneur. Co-Founder of North of Brooklyn Pizzeria.
“Making pizza can be a lifetime pursuit. Dough itself is a living thing with complexities and nuances. It leaves itself open to constant improvement in a way that salads just don’t.”
In a city full of Pizza Pizza’s, Josh Spatz was set on bringing something more specialized to the dinner table.
With a drive to start something of their own, university friends Josh and Alex set off to Toronto and created North of Brooklyn Pizzeria, bringing quality pizza by the slice to the big city.
With no formal training in culinary management, Josh and Alex relied on their innate confidence in their product. “There were so many things we didn’t know then, it is funny to say we were confident. But, we knew that if we could just make quality pizza with excellent taste, that would be enough.”
Their good idea was a start, but a whole lot of other ingredients went into the mix. Learning on the go, persistence, excellent staff and good timing were all essential in their journey.
In the early days, Josh and Alex were dumping flour and water into buckets just to get by. Now, they have refined their process into one that is highly technical and specialized.
“Making pizza can be a lifetime pursuit. Dough itself is a living thing with complexities and nuances. It leaves itself open to constant improvement in a way that salads just don’t.”
Josh and Alex weren’t just friends who worked together. They were friends who worked, lived and created something from nothing, together. And they’re still going strong. Now, with 5 locations of North of Brooklyn in Toronto, Josh and Alex can rest easy knowing their intuition was right.
“At the end of the day, we want people to be able to access good food. When we started, we thought the quality of pizza in Toronto was bad, and we knew we could change that. That’s exactly what we did.”
RANDOM RAPID FIRE WITH JOSH
1. Convention or Unorthodoxy?
2. Night owl or Early bird?
3. Billy Bishop or Pearson?
4. Last book you read? Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.
5. Useless talent? All of my talents are useful.
Josh Spatz was born in Halifax, and moved to Toronto in 2011. By 2012, North of Brooklyn Pizzeria’s first location was open. Since then, Josh and his business partner Alex have opened 5 locations, bringing high end pizza by the slice to Torontonians across the city.
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