Mason expertly making a pizza.
I spoke with Mason Wartman, the 29-year-old founder of Rosa’s Pizza. Here’s why his restaurant got Ellen’s attention.
Tell me about the idea behind Rosa’s.
You buy a pizza slice for a dollar and donate a dollar, which will buy a slice for a homeless person. For each slice that you donate, you write a post-it note for our wall, which symbolizes your gift. The program now feeds about 100 homeless people a day.
This all started when a customer offered to buy a slice for a homeless person. In Italy, he explained, one can donate a cup of coffee in a cafe. The shopkeeper keeps track with empty cups on a shelf behind the register. He suggested that we use paper plates.
I got post-it notes instead and started keeping track with those. I don’t know where this customer is. With all the publicity, you’d think he would have come out and said, “I came up with the idea.”
Reminds me of Broad Street Ministry, which offers free dinner for the homeless. Why did you start your own pizzeria?
After two years of working in New York, it became monotonous. I had always wanted to own my own business. The dollar-a-slice pizza places in NY were doing well and I thought about opening one in Philly. They have tables at which guests stand and eat.
Rosa’s is modeled on the NY pizzerias to such a degree that I didn’t have stools until recently. People can now sit and enjoy the post-it notes on the walls. At first I wanted it to be grab-and-go.
Why did you decide on Philly rather than NYC?
The competition in NY. I didn’t know how to make pizza, so I was going up against people who knew what to do. I couldn’t afford to start a restaurant in NY — it’s way more expensive than in Philly.
Me struggling to do the same.
Do you own this space?
I rent. Every business has to stay relevant and realize that its clientele is constantly changing. Rosa’s is changing. I’m opening another one at 40th Street. We’re moving into salads and getting a new storefront and furniture.
What is the size of your decision-making team?
It’s just me and six employees. Other than two who have been with us for a few months, everyone else has been here for two or three years. All my employees are from Back on My Feet, a national nonprofit organization combatting homelessness that goes into shelters and recruits homeless people to run at 5 or 6 AM three times a week.
They encourage the participants to compete in races. If you have at least a 90% attendance rate, the organization helps you open a bank account, receive training, and interview for jobs like at Rosa’s. Of my six employees, three of them were formerly homeless.
Back on My Feet vets these individuals over a span of several months. In the restaurant business, it’s hard to find good people. Most restaurants go on Craig’s List. I was talking to someone who runs a successful chain of restaurants. Most people whom he finds through Craig’s List don’t even show up for the interview.
Has the soda tax impacted you?
It has, but I like the idea of having more funding for education.
Who’s Rosa?
Rosa’s my mom.
Was it frightening to start a business, to take the plunge?
To some degree. If things hadn’t gone well, I would’ve moved back home and found a job. Fortunately, it worked out.
Back on My Feet is a national nonprofit organization that combats homelessness through the power of running, community support, and essential employment and housing resources. The program begins with running three days a week in the early morning. After 30 days in the program and with 90% attendance, members move into the second phase of the program called Next Steps, which provides job training, education opportunities, and access to employment and housing opportunities.