After designing a few restaurants, Demian Repucci had dreams of owning his own. In 2015 he made that dream a reality by opening Bruno Pizza in New York City’s East Village. But that dream brought with it a multitude of nightmare episodes he was forced to deal with, from crazy employees, and bad press, to antagonistic landlords, burglaries, and fires. Demian had to deal with it all. And many of these lessons he had to learn the hard way, by going it alone, making educated guesses, and learning from mistakes.

This book is full of stories of Demian’s experience searching for commercial real estate, negotiating leases, getting City permits, dealing with contractors, press, vendors, police, insurance, eviction notices, and lots of attorneys. As well as pizza! Along the way Demian also learned how to make some pretty amazing pizza.

Many of the chapters are full of tips meant to help those with dreams of opening their own business in New York City, so that they can learn from his experiences in commercial real estate, avoid the traps, pitfalls, and inevitable mistakes he made, and have a much easier and more successful experience. A few of the chapters are just plain crazy. And the remaining chapters are dedicated to food, making great pizza, and running a restaurant. The final section of the book is a collection of recipes from Bruno Pizza, because what book about a restaurant is complete without recipes?