East Village Pizza fired me – now I own the NYC parts joint

When Frank Kabatas first came to the United States in 1997 when he was 23 years old, he had only seen pizza in movies.

A quarter-century later, the Turkish immigrant, now 49, is the proud owner and operator of one of Manhattan’s most beloved pizzerias — the same one that fired him after a six-month stint as a delivery driver shortly after. his arrival in the Big Apple.

East Village Pizza, at the corner of 1st Avenue and 9th Street, was the first place that hired Kabatas after landing in NYC.

Not only was it his first job, which he used to pay for school, but it was also his first part—ever.

“I’ve never had pizza before,” Kabatas told The Post, recalling the then-owner giving him his first regular slice saying something like, “If you don’t make it right [cheese] piece… you are not successful.”

And success did not come easily for the would-be tycoon.

Being at the bottom of the totem pole meant eating his share of the dirt – including taking the blame for a mistake in the kitchen, which ended up getting him fired.

“After I was laid off, I still had to work. “I had to work to go to school and I had a goal to achieve,” Kabatas said. Keeping things in perspective helped, he shared.

“I was one of the luckiest guys — I ended up in the United States,” he said.

Fortunately, the owner of Ben’s Pizzeria on MacDougal Street was looking to hire him, but with his limited English at the time, Kabatas didn’t realize he was being offered a job.

Undeterred, the owner grabbed him by the arm, put him behind the counter and gave him an apron.

The Greenwich Village Pizzeria was where the young pie-san learned how to make pizza and sauce.

For the year and a half he worked there, he spent 12 hours a day for six or seven days a week at work, followed by five hours of night school.

But after two years of intensive, on-the-job training, he realized that his knowledge was still very limited.

“I knew how to make really good pizza, but I didn’t know how to sell… I had to learn how to sell,” he said.

Kabatas eventually landed a job at Domino’s, where it’s all about moving a certain list of products, he explained — that’s where he really started to learn the business side of things.

“It was probably the best decision I ever made, working with them,” he said, touting the Michigan-based chain as one of the best marketers in the world.

Kabatas worked at Domino’s until 2003 — and then he heard East Village Pizza was up for sale. There was nothing inherently unique or special about the place, he said, but the idea of ​​coming full circle was appealing.

“I talked to my brother and I was like, we worked hard, we made some money, should we go talk to the guy?” he recalled. “Maybe we can buy the store.”

Months later, he was the proud owner of the feta joint.

“It was just an ordinary pizzeria, but it was an opportunity for me to achieve my goal. I knew that if I worked hard, I would get something,” he said.

After taking over, Kabatas changed everything and made it his own — the recipes, the ovens, the way they made pizza — making it “as [he] wanted to be.”

“It’s not that he didn’t make good pizzas, but I wanted to put the things I learned into a passion that I can actually work in the kitchen every day,” he explained.

To this day, it is still practical.

“I still make pizza. I still play with my dough to see if I can make something better,” he said.

And he has “Margherita Pizza, Double Stacked Pizza and Cheesy Garlic Knots are a hit with Kabata’s 1.7 million followers on Instagram, where he learned how to grow an audience himself.

More importantly, he’s built a loyal base of local customers who will sometimes stop in just to see him and even call his cell phone to see if he’ll be there when they go.

And although Kabatas bought the place from which he was once fired, he made it clear that this was a goal to achieve for himself – not revenge.

“I don’t take revenge in my life because I know that life is too short and I had a goal to achieve. It was just an opportunity for me and it was great,” he said.

“I work more than ever before, but it’s nice to have your own pizzeria, to make your own decisions. I make mistakes, but I learn from my mistakes.”