Black-owned Brooklyn pizza place owes success to eclectic toppings
On a residential block in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, a nondescript eatery has become all the rage by putting an inventive twist on a New York staple.
The Black-owned Cuts & Slices on Howard Ave. attracts celebrities and regular crowds alike thanks to its unusual pizza toppings: oxtail, jerk chicken, jerk shrimp, chicken and waffles and black truffle alfredo shrimp. The white and red pies sell from $21 to $100.
Opened in 2018 by Randy Mclaren, a former high-end sneaker “concierge,” the shop has over 100,000 followers across social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter, and has catered to such celebs as model Chanel Iman, hip hoppers Pharrell Williams, Lil Yachty, The Lox and Jim Jones, as well as pro football stars Victor Cruz and Sterling Shepard.
The VH1 reality show “Black Ink Crew” has scheduled a taping at the venue this week.
But McIaren particularly enjoys keeping his local clientele fed and happy.
“I’m here for the community, and this community don’t have nothing like it,” Mclaren told the Daily News. “All these kids just running into the Chinese restaurant, which is kind of what I grew up on ... We don’t get to try new things. We don’t get to expand our taste buds. So you got to think about these people that’s in Bed-Stuy. Ninety percent of my customers didn’t even know what a truffle was. I want to change that.”
On an average day, 100 pies are sold, and on weekends, cars are double-parked from one end of the street to the other. About 90% of his customers are New Yorkers mostly from Brooklyn, but he recalled a group of Brazilians coming in every day one recent week and trying different slices.
A native of East Flatbush, Mclaren runs the shop with his wife, Ashlee. He learned the restaurant business working at a local pizzeria in his teens and then toiling for national chains such as IHOP, TGI Fridays, Friendly’s, Red Lobster and even Brooklyn favorite Junior’s.
Mclaren then launched a successful sneaker resale business that flourished on social media, attracting clientele like British Formula One superstar Lewis Hamiltonand music stars Rihanna, Cardi B and Offset. But when the business started to fade, a friend approached him to open a pizza shop.
“If I put my name on it, we got to use the best of the best ingredients and we’ve got to come up with something different because we’re in New York City and we’re off the beaten path,” he said. ”So I started thinking outside the box.”
He first hit pay dirt making 20 pizza pies loaded with lobster and shrimp and selling them for $100 each. He sold out in four hours.
The oxtail pizza soon became a menu favorite. “It took about two or three times to get it where I thought it would be perfect,” he shared. It takes two staffers up to two hours to debone 30 to 40 pounds of the juicy meat daily, he said.
While his social media savvy has helped grow his business, Mclaren credits his customers for being willing to try something that’s “new and different.”
“I think it’s due to the fact that it’s something so unique. No one else actually has oxtail pizza, or has actually put lobster, shrimp and black truffle alfredo on pizza.”
“It’s something different that draws people from all over the country,” he said. “And once they try it the first time and pretty much blows their mind, they fall in love with the pizza. And they keep coming back and tell all of their friends about it.”
