NYC's Mercantile Mayhem: Asylum Seeker Turned Pizza Spinner Feeds The Hungry
A newsletter about the survival of independent businesses in New York City, with a special focus on immigrant-owned, storefront retail and CPG enterprises.
My favorite part of interviewing immigrant business owners, especially those who arrived in the US as teenagers or adults, is listening to their stories about acclimating—or not—to their new American surroundings. And what propelled them to take the crazy risk of launching a business. Hakki Akdeniz has one of the more dramatic stories, he arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal as an asylum seeker with $200 and quickly became homeless.
Today he owns a chain of pizzerias called Champion Pizza. I interviewed him for a New York Times story (free link, should work) about business owners who disclose personal histories in the “About Us” section of their websites or social media feeds: a bipolar disorder diagnosis, addiction issues, incarceration, or homelessness, among other issues.
Akdeniz, a Kurd originally from Turkey, has never forgotten what it feels like to be homeless and hungry. He donates pizzas every Wednesday night where he hands out food to those who need it. In addition, anyone who is too destitute to pay for a piece of pizza can usually get a free piece of pizza from one of his pizzerias.
When I was interviewing Akdeniz for the NYT story at his Little Italy pizzeria location, a man walked in wearing hospital slippers. Akdeniz looked physically pained when he realized he’d likely been released from a healthcare facility. Akdeniz jumped up, got the man some pizza, gratis. And after our interview, I tagged along on their shopping trip to Levis and Skechers around the corner, Akdeniz bought him a shirt, a pair of pants and sneakers. (Quick summery about Akdeniz’s legal status: he ended up getting the Exceptional Ability Green Card because of his theatrical pizza spinning skills.)
Immigrants as Pawns for Political Posturing
Issues around immigration become predictably heated as elections near, whether it’s DACA, EB-1 quotas, or taking in refugees. This election year some politicians will vilify those crossing the boarder who claim to be asylum seekers. While the number of people crossing into the US is astonishing and it’s not a quick or easy process to evaluate every person’s eligibility for asylum, but I hope voters use critical thinking when politicians use asylum seekers to score political points with their base. Akdeniz first arrived in the US as an asylum seeker and he’s now an asset to New York City. I know many adult children of refugees who have launched successful CPG businesses like sisters Vanessa and Kim Pham of the noodle and sauce-centric Omsom and Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply, which sources its beans, primarily Robusta, from Vietnam.
Yes, there are immigrants who commit violent crimes, but data shows immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the US. The US seems to be creating homegrown criminals without help from immigrants, such as the life-is-crazier-than-fiction case of a criminal justice reform advocate who recently committed a crime (click the link above if you want to be horrified) among others.
A Tingly Pallet Cleanser
After my true crime foray above (if you clicked the link) and delving into the unsavory practice of politicians using immigrants as pawns for political gain, it’s time for a tingly pallet cleanser: Tingly Toffee.
I first learned about The Tingles when reporting and writing a story for The Guardian about 50 Hertz Tingly Foods two years ago. Founded by Yao Zhao, 50 Hertz Tingly Foods imports high quality green and red Sichuan peppers and oil to the US from China where Zhao was born. Sichuan pepper gives tingly sensation, but it’s not spicy in terms of heat.
Zhao recently collaborated with NeoCocoa in the Bay area to create this outstanding toffee brittle with green Sichuan pepper. I was skeptical at first—do these flavors go together? Wow, yes they do. I first sampled the toffee when Zhao gave a talk at MoCA about the history of red and green Sichuan peppers.
Congratulations LuLo!
Social impact startup LuLo won the Community Betterment and Audience Award categories at the TechImpact Startup Competition on Monday night. The Tech Incubator at Queens College established this competition in conjunction with multiple sponsors like Accompany Capital. LuLo aims to streamline the WIC grocery buying experience so eligible mothers can buy food with ease and dignity.
WIC is federal food program (not to be confused with SNAP, fka food stamps) that helps eligible mothers with babies and/or toddlers pay for groceries. The program has very strict—and seemingly arbitrary—rules about what WIC participants can buy. For example, green lentils are allowed, red lentils are not; specific cereal box sizes are allowed, other sizes are not. LuLo, explained by cofounders Dani Lopez and Sarah Stellwag, allows mothers to order and buy WIC approved groceries through a platform and pick up them up at participating markets. Streamlined purchases via LuLo helps grocery stores with their revenue as well as moms, as the WIC grocery buying process can be chaotic, having to replace items they find out at the register are not WIC approved. LuLo was launched last year and has several supermarket pilot programs in New York City.
Illuminating Conversation on Post-”P word” New York City
I think we’d all be fine never to hear the “P word” (pandemic) ever again. And while we’re at it, another “P word” (pivot) that business journalists used for a couple years straight—I’d be happy to never write that word again in a business story.
I highly recommend attending any event given by the Center for an Urban Future. Yesterday’s panel discussion held in the Greene Space was no exception. Moderator Eli Dvorkin asked New York City heavies about their “big ideas” for a thriving city. The conversation was frank and unvarnished, often hilarious, especially comments by John Wang, founder of Queens Night Market who kept on referring to the Cone of Silence when talking about a particularly juicy item.
Other panelists included Gregg Bishop, Exec Director of Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation's Social Justice Fund, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York Jessica Lappin, CIC’s Tim Rowe, Ben Sun, cofounder and general partner of Primary VC and architect Claire Weisz, principal of WXY.
A few highlights:
NYC needs more housing for low-income and middle-income residents. (My personal pet peeve, when people throw around the term “affordable housing” without numbers: What are the income requirements? What kind of tax breaks are owners/developers receiving for creating units at a reduced price? Percentage of affordable units in a building? Reduced by how much? And while I’m at it, holding developers accountable if, oopsie, the building ends up being all luxury housing.)
NYC needs better transportation, fixing transportation deserts, more bike lanes, reduced subway and bus fare so more people use it. The issue of congestion pricing was not really discussed.
NYC needs a more robust system to expose high schoolers to the city’s thriving tech startup ecosystem.
Difficult living for middle class people.
John Wang pointed out that minimum wage is $16 an hour, and many New Yorkers won’t think twice about spending $22 on a cocktail. Which is one of the reasons Queens Night Market vendors must cap their food at $5 or $6 an item, so people of all incomes can enjoy the market.
There were juicier opinions thrown around the stage, whether or not to do business with New York City and the state of SBS, but the Cone of Silence was invoked. Loose lips sink ships.
Opportunities & Happenings
Applications are open for the Whole Foods Local and Emerging Accelerator Program (LEAP) for emerging brands. The application window is March 7 to April 19, those accepted into LEAP will be announced in July.
Brooklyn’s 2024 PowerUP Business Plan Competition Virtual Kick-Off Orientation on March 25. This business plan competition is for Brooklynite entrepreneurs, who can win $20,000, $10,000, $5,000 and five merit winners get $1,000 each. I know several businesses that participated and won over the years, such as the ice cream shop Island Pops in Brooklyn, serving flavors rooted in Trinidad, like soursop, nutmeg and Guinness caramel, where the owners Shelly Marshall and Khalil Hamid grew up.
The list of this year’s Queens Night Market vendors so far looks amazing! This global food festival occurs every Saturday night during the summer (with one pause do to the US Open) starting in April, applications are still open. This link will tell you everything you need to know about being a vendor.
The Biomimicry Institute’s Ray of Hope Accelerator program focuses on nature-inspired startups. The six month program is geared to help startups with solutions for environmental and social challenges. Applications are open until May 3.
Food and agriculture startups anywhere in the world can compete in the Grown-NY startup competition. Three million dollars in prize money is awarded to seven winners, the first winner is awarded $1 million of it. Applications close May 15, 2024. There are restrictions and winners will have to have its primary headquarters in the Grow-NY Region, which is Central New York, Finger Lakes and Southern Tier.
Sponsorship
I plan on keeping this newsletter free by getting sponsorship from several organizations, which will be clearly stated, I will keep you posted. Some of you have paid, thaaaaaaank you so much! (If you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact me: ninarobertsnyc@gmail.com). Please feel free to forward to others.
Excellent information, a well written newsletter!
That LuLo clearly doesn't know the WIC program rules and is spreading misinformation. Btw, red lentils are allowed on WIC.