Danny Stoller and Marc Schechter
Square Pie Guys | San Francisco
november 2022
Danny Stoller studied journalism at Northeastern University in the hopes of traveling the world and becoming a writer. On a break from school, he took a job in a kitchen, and realized his childhood love of cooking might just trump his writing dreams. He enrolled at the Seattle Culinary Academy in 2009, and worked his way through a number of kitchens following graduation, including Tilth under Rising Stars alum Maria Hines and Revel under Rising Stars alum Rachel Yang. In 2014, Danny decided he needed a change and was commissioned as a traveling chef at a startup supper club. In 2017, having settled down in the Bay Area, he brought his industry knowledge to a food consulting firm where he met future business partner, Marc Schechter.
A New York native with a love for pizza, Marc Schechter didn’t get his start working in kitchens. After graduating from the University of Miami in 2010, Schechter worked in the tech industry for nine years, before moving to Berkeley, CA in 2016. It was there he began to experiment with making his own pizzas at home. Inspired by the new hobby, he went on to work the line at Pizzeria Delfina and then PizzaHacker, eventually launching his own successful pop-up, PizzaMan.
In 2018, Stoller and Schechter joined forces, and began to discuss what they wanted for their own spot: a modern restaurant with an energetic, unfussy vibe. They would serve pizza, featuring the underrepresented Detroit-style, on the West Coast. In 2019, the duo opened their first location of Square Pie Guys in downtown San Francisco. Now with three locations across the Bay Area, Square Pie Guys is showing no signs of slowing down. Stoller and Schechter want to bring an unforgettable, nostalgic experience to their customers, and create employment opportunities for those who haven’t gone to culinary school, but have always dreamed of being in the kitchen.
2022 StarChefs San Francisco-Oakland Rising Stars Award Winner
