PIZZA WITHOUT BORDERS
Reporting international
trends, events and
cultural etiquette from
around the world
By Missy Green
Karachi, Pakistan
This Basement in Pakistan Delivers Authentic
New York-Style Pizza
When Omar Qadir went to New York for medical treatment in 2012, he didn’t know that pizza would change his life forever. Today, five years after Qadir’s first taste of New
York pizza, he has amassed a wealth of knowledge and launched
his own pizzeria out of his basement in Karachi. His mission: to
bring authentic New York-style pizza to Pakistan.
“At the time I went to New York, I wasn’t at a high point in my
life,” Qadir recalls. “I quit engineering school after two years, and my
parents’ company, where I worked after that, went under. I’d always
had pizza on my mind, so, while I was in New York, I Googled ‘pizza
tours’ and came across one by Scott Wiener.” Cruising the city’s land-
mark pizza joints with Scott’s Pizza Tours was a pivotal moment in
Qadir’s life. “Scott completely blew me away, seeing how he had built
his whole life around pizza,” Qadir says. “It was hugely inspiring.”
Wiener’s passion for pizza ignited a spark in the young Qadir. “I
must have gone to 150 pizzerias around New York after that,” he
adds. “Totonno’s, Di Fara, John’s on Bleecker Street, Paulie Gee’s—I
tried them all. I learned tidbits of wisdom from Scott, and I attended
Pizza a Casa Pizza School in New York.”
After his first trip to New York, Qadir returned with a pizza stone
and the lessons he had learned abroad. “;e local ingredients in
Qadir learned the craft of New
York pizza making from both
formal training and a number
of mentors, including Alex,
who works at Joe’s Pizza in
Greenwich Village.
