May 10, 2024

Down North Pizza looks to the future with new frozen pie

The North Philly shop has released a pizza exclusively through GoPuff and sees grocery stores as the logical next step.

By Kristin Hunt
PhillyVoice Staff

Provided image/GoPuff

Down North Pizza, the mission-driven restaurant in Strawberry Mansion, has partnered with GoPuff to deliver a new frozen pie. The pizzeria also ships nationally on Goldbelly.

Fans of Down North Pizza's square, Detroit-style pies can now line their freezers with a beefy new variety.

The North Philly piemakers recently debuted a frozen pizza topped with all-beef sausage, pepperoni and bacon. The halal pie is called the Uknowhowwedu, after the Philly hip-hop artist Bahamadia's single of the same name, and is available exclusively through GoPuff, the Philadelphia-based delivery app. With this delivery option, the restaurant hopes to reach new customers — especially those unaware of its mission to reduce recidivism rates in the area.

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"I felt as though it was a great opportunity to partner with a local brand to further bring awareness to everything we got going on," said Muhammad Abdul-Hadi, the owner of Down North Pizza. "The mission, and also the great food that we're selling."

Social justice has been baked into the business model since Down North Pizza opened its doors in 2020. The Strawberry Mansion shop exclusively hires people returning from prison and provides them with resources to make the transition easier. Abdul-Hadi offers the two apartments above the restaurant to employees, who might otherwise face barriers to housing due to their records, and partners with organizations to offer transportation and mental health resources. By Abdul-Hadi's count, Down North Pizza has employed about 20 formerly incarcerated people, including its current executive chef Michael Carter.

As the company's profile has grown, it's expanded its reach across the city and country. In 2022, Down North Pizza started shipping its thick-crust pies nationwide on Goldbelly — its first official foray into frozen foods.

"It took months trying to perfect the process," Abdul-Hadi said. "But we had a good product and it was just a matter of getting the packaging, labeling, things like that. Because we stand by our product as far as freshness."

With two frozen pie partnerships now in the rearview, Down North Pizza has its sights set on another destination: grocery store freezers. While that brand extension has yet to begin, Abdul-Hadi says he'd like to eventually see his food in Philadelphia frozen aisles.

"That's the goal," he said. "Maybe after this to test it in different grocery stores. Start on a small scale, kind of build it up and see if there's a demand and go from there.

"We're not going to spread ourselves too thin. We're going to focus on something in Philly."

Down North Pizza has several other projects on the horizon, including a new cookbook slated for publication next year. The restaurant's nonprofit, Down North Treehouse, is also still simmering. The offshoot plans to offer free STEM classes to Strawberry Mansion kids in the former library at 2529 Lehigh Ave., but renovations are not yet complete.