Our People
Wall Street to Rosa’s Fresh Pizza
by Gina Lee
“It’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday. Twenty-six-year-old Mason Wartman sits behind the counter of Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, the pizza shop he named after his mother. His back faces the entrance door and he’s completely engrossed in his laptop. When he finally emerges, he’s the epitome of a college student: a boyish figure dressed in gray shorts, flip-flops, and a black T-shirt that reads Brave New World across the top, Aldous Huxley across the bottom.
It’s early. But when you’re gearing up to make nearly 45 pizzas in one day, arriving at the shop two hours before opening to heat the ovens is a necessity. Wartman is no stranger to hard work or working in a shop. Prior to Rosa’s grand opening in December, before Wartman started spending his days manning a pizzeria, he spent three years on Wall Street performing sell-side equity research. Hand-picking stocks is a little different than hand-kneading dough. So how does one go from equity stock research to mastering the art of making pizza to be sold for only $8 per pie, $1 a slice? “With great difficulty,” Wartman chuckles.
You’ll find only three products behind Rosa’s counter: dough, sauce, and cheese, because unlike other pizzerias, fresh pizza is the only product this shop offers. But that doesn’t mean Wartman didn’t have to prepare heavily for his new business endeavor. He took cooking classes and did a lot of reading on how to make dough, and the “math” that goes behind it. Sitting at a countertop usually occupied by patrons, Wartman describes how he had to tweak the amount of cheese to get a perfect pie, and how he tried different variables to get the sauce just right. But Wartman notes that his dough formula has not changed at all and is kept on an Excel spreadsheet. Where else would a stock researcher turned pizza maker keep his dough recipe?
Opening a pizza shop wasn’t always the plan for Wartman, but after reaching a plateau on Wall Street, where most of the work he performed was product-driven, Wartman was ready to dive headfirst into the popular New York City “dollar slice” business, only he would open his shop back home in Philadelphia—a venture the ex-research associate felt would do well in the city. “I like business,” says Wartman, “and I like simple elegant businesses.” Word on the street: Philadelphians like pizza too. Now, Wartman and his team of seven focus on the perfect dollar slice and serving his loyal customers, many of whom come from the homeless community.
Situated on the quiet, underdeveloped block of 11th and Chestnut, the isolated Rosa’s sells about 50 pizzas a day, on average. “Our pizza is pretty good, I think,” Wartman says proudly. A true risk-taker, Wartman wasn’t afraid to open his pizzeria on the quarantined block, away from the heavy Center City foot traffic. Rosa’s also sits just a couple of doors down from another pizza shop, Paulie’s Pizza, that doesn’t sell dollar slices but does offer a more selective menu than Rosa’s. Despite the competition, Wartman ideally would like to see the block where his pizza shop sits turn into a “restaurant row.”
The allure of the dollar slice has people running to Rosa’s, but one step inside this pizzeria and the dollar slice is no longer the draw. What you’ll find are walls covered in colorful Post-it notes, part of Rosa’s pay-it forward initiative, which started about three months after the business opened. One Sunday, a customer came in after reading about the newly established pizzeria and its popularity among the homeless community. Through this customer, Wartman learned of a little tradition born in Naples, Italy called caffè sospeso, or suspended coffee, in which a customer pays for a cup of coffee in advance for a future customer who can’t afford a cup. The barista keeps record of all the donations. When a less fortunate customer walks in and wants to know if there’s any coffee available, he or she simply asks whether “anything’s suspended.”
At Rosa’s the idea is the same, but the Post-its represent the number of donations the shop has collected and brings a bit of life to the otherwise dull orange walls. When customers pay it forward, they’re given a Post-it and asked to write a small message to accompany their donation. Then they pick a place on the wall and hang their note. In just three months, Wartman’s shop has given away 1,700 slices of pizza. The walls of Rosa’s are nearly filled with bright sticky notes from people kind enough to pay it forward, as well as notes from some of the homeless, including one of gratitude from Bill Lindsay, “on behalf of the homeless population.” The written notes are becoming a great dialogue between the customers who pay it forward and those who benefit from the donations. 3M, the maker of Post-it Notes, based out of St. Paul, Minnesota, heard about Rosa’s pay-it forward initiative and graciously contributed $500 to the program, donating a huge box of assorted sticky notes.
Wartman, the humble twenty-something with his very own pizza shop covered in sticky notes, doesn’t think any of this is a big deal, innocently stating, “It’s just a pizza shop.” But it’s his pizza shop, and as blasé as he makes that sound, Wartman’s fingers are crossed that he doesn’t start a dollar slice trend in Philadelphia. He’d like his shop to be that shop, and makes it clear that he doesn’t want to be in the business of selling “dollar pizza.” “We sell Rosa’s pizza,” he remarks , “and it happens to be a dollar.”
To say that the young ex-Wall Streeter’s stock portfolio looks pretty good is an understatement. It’s how he funded Rosa’s Fresh Pizza. “Nowadays, it’s easy,” he says. After sifting through the garbage stocks, calculating yields, and checking earnings, eventually you will find a couple of really good stocks. Sticking to what you know seems to be the way to go, which is why Wartman keeps his portfolio tightly centered around tiny commercial banks, generally with a market cap of $50 million or under, and of course oldie but goodie tech stocks like Microsoft, Xerox, and Cisco. “If I couldn’t pick stocks then I wouldn’t have financed this thing as comfortably,” he admits. “That’s the secret sauce, really, to the pizza shop.”
Outside of his shop, you’ll catch Wartman buried in the books. “Starting a business is a lot of hurry up and wait,” he says. So, reading has become his number one pastime. “Just in the six months that it took me to start and open up this shop, I’ve probably read thousands of pages. Tens of thousands of pages.” When it comes to business and finance, Wartman is into value investing reads by Warren Buffet and Benjamin Graham, but his current interest is in politics and presidential biographies. He’s currently reading Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s A Thousand Days, a biography of John F. Kennedy. Wartman thinks it’s pretty cool to read about former presidents, even those he didn’t like due to opposing views, admitting that after reading about them, their way of thinking seems perfectly reasonable. “I would encourage everyone to read biographies about presidents they dislike, except [Ronald] Reagan. Reagan was just terrible. He’s the only one that I disliked more after reading.” His innocent, boyish laugh rings out through his shop.
There’s one more thing that Mason Wartman thought we should know about Rosa’s: “We sell the best pizza in the city for only a dollar a slice, but coming in to learn about how we help the homeless is the most important part.”
To learn more visit their website www.rosasfreshpizza.com
Photography by Robert “Redstar” Harold
Lonyo Holmes is the 59 year old business owner of Q&A Wholesale Smoke Shop, the only African American owned smoke shop in the city, located at 2749 Kensington Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19134, the heart of the Kensington epidemic. Along side his wife Tiesha Chandler, they celebrated 8 years in October 2022, while defending his turf from would-be thieves, and illegal solicitors. Combined with the setback of having his store robbed during the pandemic and failing to secure all but a PPA loan for his business, he’s felt everything. To this day he’s struggles to pay rent due to the economic side effects of an unchecked drug epidemic that deters those interested in learning more about this unique community space.
“During the pandemic one of my folks hit my phone and told me “yo, someone broke into your store. They broke in through the window”. So, me and my wife Tiesha go check it out… Man, they hit my displays, shelves, they cleaned me out. They left me with over 20,000 dollars in losses.”
Long before 2022, Lonyo opened his store to build and promote events by community members. So far he’s held shows around spoken word, and hip-hop, while hosting givebacks to the community, meet and greets and more. “Everyday I’m fighting for my livelihood. If I don’t open this shop, I don’t eat.”
Despite the challenges, the fight to survive lives on. These days Mr. Holmes spends his time selling food outside to keep the rent paid. “I started selling more food and water ice because that’s the only reason people were coming to my store. I gotta do something if no one is coming here to even buy a lighter”.
One of Philadelphia’s local celebrities, DJ Dior, found inspiration at Q&A, using it as space to provide food for the homeless and a give back with donations provided by Unapologetically Imperfect and The YMCA (North Philly Branch).
Mr Holmes continues to innovate his space, despite his environmental challenges. This past yr he’s added a stage, speakers and more for those blooming artist, both visual and musical. “This area is still a great space. The sound is good, the people are good and spirits here are good as well.“
Bryan Carter: What kind of work do you do in the community?
Lonyo Holmes: We feed the community as much as possible, primarily Friday and Saturday with our nonprofit Samaritans of Service. If we see someone in dire need, we’re here to help.
BC: What are you doing, or considering to rebuild your business?
LH: We are considering a way back – come to our establishment, get ya hair cut (Mr. Holmes is a certified barber), get your ID, or gently used clothes to get employed so folks can get on their feet. We also work with Take Back Philly and Momma Love Soulfood with a Twist where we give out large platters of food. DJ Dior was instrumental in meeting Alicia Joyner, CEO of Take Back Philly. Start between 4:30 and 5:30pm for an hr or until the food is gone. The donations we receive from The Rock Ministries and Richards and Friends United in the Community allows us to bless the rest of the ppl in line. We also deliver to different clothing outlets around the Aramingo area, and to orgs who share our donations with their audience.
BC: How can others get involved?
LH: I’ll tell you how to help our people and our city… Show up. We’re out here every Friday, 11am to 2pm unloading trucks, packing cars, delivers etc. and any help from you would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to support Mr. Holmes and his community work, check out his event space, and more? Please visit 2749 Kensington Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19134 or call (267) 584-8354.
Go to school. Get a good education. Get a good job and open a bank account. Does this sound familiar? Most of us heard this from our parents. Most of us have been indoctrinated to believe that this formula would lead us to our dream life. How has that worked out? I refer to this as a covert poverty mindset. Our parents taught us this because that’s all they knew. If we don’t learn something different then we will most likely teach this to our children, and that covert poverty mindset will linger in our communities for at least another generation. Now, more than ever, we need effective and relevant financial literacy education.
- Establish an emergency fund: You should have 3-6 months of your financial obligations saved up for the purpose of protecting against unforeseen events. Studies show that more than half of American families have less than $1000 in savings and therefore struggle to survive the occurrence of even a minor financial emergency. (CNBC.com, “Here’s How Much Money Americans Have in Their Savings Accounts,” September 13, 2017)
- Get proper income protection: The industry refers to it as life insurance. I prefer the term income protection because many people believe that insurance will repair or replace the item that is insured. However, life insurance can not and will not replace a life. It will replace income. Many families lost loved ones due to COVID-19 and since many of those lost were not properly covered, their families had to endure an additional hardship trying to finance the cost of final services for their loved one.
- The last concept that I work to teach families is, “Pay yourself first.” By that I mean prioritize and put money away for retirement. Learning concepts like the “high cost of waiting” and the “time value of money” help create the necessary urgency around investing. True financial freedom occurs when your investment income matches or exceeds that of your earned income. 75% of Americans admit to wishing that they had started planning for retirement earlier than they did. (2016 Wells Fargo Retirement Study)
When I work with families, I use these concepts, along with some others: like the rule of 72 and dollar cost averaging, to help them. I’ve found that many people because of the lack of information are unable to take advantage of, and benefit from the knowledge of the rules of the money game. It doesn’t matter what game you play, if you do not know the rules you are a lot less likely to win. Therefore educating families about the strategies to win, positions them in a much better place to do so. I believe the solution to better finances starts with education. The next step is to develop a plan and lastly to get a coach to help you implement and stick to the plan.
There are financial coaches, like myself, who are actively looking for individuals and families that want to succeed at the money game. Actively looking for people who are willing to open their minds to trying something that may be different. In this regard, financial health is very similar to physical health. When you need to assess or verify that your physical health is in order, you go see a doctor or health care professional for a checkup. They may ask you to change your diet or prescribe some medication to help remedy or enhance your condition. When your finances are in need of a check up, you need to go see a financial professional. They may ask you to change some of your spending habits or put you on a plan that will help or remedy your financial situation. As a parent I feel very strongly that you have to model for your children the importance of appropriate financial planning and to start creating positive financial habits at an early age. Sean Covey says in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “First you make your habits, then your habits make you.” When children and young adults begin to incorporate the strategies mentioned above, they maximize the time value of their money and more importantly create habits that become lifestyle.
Asante Sana,
Marc L. Wilson
Fresh Prince of Finance
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