Meet Mun's Pizza, a New Pizza Popup
I interview Dan Tomcik of Mun's Pizza, a new pizza startup in the city who is working out of the Northside and hitting up the rest of the city.
Last week I mentioned Mun’s Pizza was a new pizza popup getting started outside Government Records on the North Side. I wanted to learn more about Mun’s pizza so I reached out to Dan Tomcik. We met at Constellation Coffee and chatted about his history of pizza for about 45 minutes. It’s a great conversation and I have the entirety of it in a podcast here.
Getting to Know Mun’s Pizza
Hopefully by the end of 2024 Mun’s will have something special going.
Dan was recently at Government Records for their fifth anniversary, he’s pretty tight with them so he volunteered to sling pizzas. In fifteen degree weather. Pretty brutal way to start the world of popups. The road to pizza legend isn’t traversed over night and Dan is eager to get his pizza out to the masses. He’s been building up to this for years.
He got his start when he was a maintenance man for an art school in Fayette County, Touchstone Center for Crafts. His best friend from high school is the head chef and offered him the opportunity to do pizza nights at the school. So in 2016 he worked on dough recipes, developing technique and honing his craft on a bread oven at this school.
Dan is an artist. He took the job as a way to stay in touch with his craft of pottery. Working as a maintenance man was one of his first non-pizza jobs. To his friend’s and family it looked like Dan might be giving up on his pizza dreams. While he taught pottery and worked in maintenance he never lost sight of his drive to make pizza. From the moment he took the job he was targeting 2024 to launch his pizza empire. The stars aligned and Dan is getting Mun’s pizza up and running.
Getting into the pizza world has never been easier - with the advent of Ooni’s, electric ovens, and access to websites and YouTube videos of showcasing how to make pizza, it’s a cheap way to build a startup. But buying the equipment is one thing. The hardest part is developing that skill, and honing that craft. Really understanding what makes pizza special and making it your own. This is what Dan has been working on the past seven years.
Dan is working to develop a pizza akin to what you’d find in a classic Pittsburgh pizza shop, but also incorporate the lessons he learned from working at Badamo’s and Driftwood Oven. He’s honing in on a pizza with an airy crust with a New York crunch.
We are a collection of our influences and growing up here will bias you towards a certain kind of pizza. Dan is trying to make a pizza someone from Pittsburgh could recognize, but with modern sensibilities. Plus a level of care and passion that some of those legacy places may take for granted.
One of Dan’s favorite pizza shops is Beto’s which is maybe the most polarizing pizza place in existence. No one leaves Beto’s without a reevaluation the concept of pizza. In the same way Beto’s challenges our perception of pizza, Dan hopes to do the same with his style of pizza. Not quite Neapolitan, not quite Pittsburgh pizza. Maybe not overflowing with cheese, but hidden among the pizza are little bubbles of nostalgia and memories.
Throughout the conversation, Dan’s background as an artist comes up often. His work with pottery, working with his hands, sculpting something unique, but accessible. Those lessons are incorporated into his work where he wants to build a community, make something great, but connect and be a contributing member to the pizza culture.
The name “Mun’s” comes from a friend of Dan’s that passed away. He also has a “joke” product called Pizza Boat Pete’s named after a “friend” who used to steal his pizza boats in college. Dan is an artist who finds inspiration from those around him, always looking to weave in a human element into his venture. He’s not just making pizza, he’s making pizza inspired by everyone around him.
Look for Mun’s at Allegheny Brewing on every second Monday of the month and his long-term plan is to be the house pizza at Government Record sometime in the future. Hope that works out because that venue is becoming a one-stop-shop for anything awesome and interesting in this city.
Alright! Big thanks to Dan for taking the time to talk to me about his pizza journey. Always excellent to get to know an up-and-coming pizza maker in the city. I see big things in the future.
Pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist