Shop Penn

How did Pitruco Pizza come to be?
I was getting a PhD in psychology 14 years ago, and it wasn't going well. Some of my experiments weren't working, and I started to think more and more about pizza making. I built a brick oven in my backyard at the time, and I just got really passionate about pizza.

Meanwhile, my childhood best friend was looking to change careers. He wanted to start a food truck in Philly. I was in Boston at the time, and he kind of just propositioned me to join him in this food truck idea and I knew I had to do it. So I finished my dissertation and three days later I moved back to Philly, and we started this new truck together called Pitruco.

Pitruco kind of sounds Italian, but it's a totally made-up word. It's a portmanteau of pizza truck company. You know, it's kind of inauthentically authentic, like we are. We'd never been to Italy when we started this truck. So we're trying to make a really authentic Neapolitan pizza, and kind of end up with, you know, something that's more like Philly Neapolitan, which is very awesome.

How has your business grown and evolved over the years?
The truck is thirteen years old, and we opened here in the food hall when they re-did it six years ago. Our truck is still going strong. It's still kind of the beating heart of our brand. We've done a couple other projects over the years; we partnered in opening a restaurant in Fishtown. It's still open called WM Mulherin’s. We ran a little pizza pop-up up the street in West Philly at a bar called Smokey Joe's, and kind of turned their kitchen into a New York style pizzeria called Enjay’s Pizza. We don't run that anymore, but you can still get our pizza there, and yeah there's now two locations of Pitruco. Hopefully a third on the way in the following year.

What motivates you to do what you do?
I really like pizza. I really like the craft. And I feel like the craft of pizza making is like an infinitely long quest that, like, you can always keep getting better at. And so part of what I love about showing up every day is just practicing that craft. I also really like working with the team. There's something very social about this work, and it feels really good to be a part of something with other people who are also passionate about doing a good job.

How would people in your life describe you?
I'd be described as kind and friendly. Passionate about food. I think one of the most salient things about being a friend of mine is knowing my interest in food, like making food for people. There's something very social and connective about food to me. I also just spend a lot of my life thinking about how to make things delicious.

What is your favorite thing about University City and Philly in general?
Philly continues to have this identity as an underdog city. I grew up here, and so I feel like Philly is like a family member of mine. When I left for thirteen years, I just stayed connected. And a part of me knew I'm going to come back. I didn’t know how, but I knew Philly would be home for me.

This is my second University City endeavor, and we really connected with the Penn student and academic body. I feel like this is a really good home for us. People get what we're trying to do and respond well to the food, and we continue to grow here. We're so glad that we ended up planting a flag here and the student body has been really good to us.

What is a Shop Penn business besides your own that you like to frequent?
There's a couple of bookstores that I love. Last word. Especially when I was at Enjay’s Pizza. That was like a second home in University City. It’s super cool and earnest and really well curated. I also spent a lot of time in Barnes and Noble too.