What does it really take to build a million-dollar pizza shop with no investors, no dining room, and only 900 square feet?

In this episode, Eidref sits down with Fred Santos of Square Pizza Co., a pizzeria quietly doing massive numbers out of a tiny shop in Pacific Beach.

Fred and his partner Bruno bootstrapped everything themselves, worked brutal hours for years, and built a cult following around square pizzas most people had never even heard of. This conversation dives into sacrifice, systems, dough philosophy, and the long grind behind building a real pizza business from scratch.

Highlights:
0:00 – A 900ft² Pizza Shop Doing $1 Million a Year
0:20 – Living Inside the Shop to Make It Work
0:50 – Massive Volume Without a Dining Room
1:20 – Why Staying Open Until 2AM Matters
1:50 – Winning First Place at Pizza Expo
2:20 – Going Viral Across San Diego
2:50 – Selling Hundreds of Pizzas After the Win
3:20 – Fred’s East Coast Pizza Roots
3:50 – Learning From Busy Sicilian Family Shops
4:20 – Bringing Square Pizza to San Diego
4:50 – Working 105+ Hours Every Week
5:20 – Bootstrapping the Entire Business
5:50 – Why Most Restaurants Fail Early
6:20 – Building a Business Like Planting a Tree
6:50 – The Dough System Behind Their Pizza
7:20 – Beach Pizza: A Style Most People Don’t Know
7:50 – The Unusual Techniques Behind Beach Pizza
8:20 – Why They Use Paper Plates for Dough
8:50 – Running One of the Tightest Small-Shop Operations
9:20 – Expanding After Nearly a Decade of Grinding
9:50 – What Fred Is Truly Grateful For

Follow them:
https://squarepizzaco.com/
http://www.facebook.com/squarepizzaco
https://www.instagram.com/squarepizzaco
https://www.tiktok.com/@squarepizzaco

Thank you to our show sponsors:

Bacio Cheese:
https://bit.ly/3FmQ3up

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Topic:
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