Nine years ago, Natalie DeSabato, a central Jersey kid who's now a fixture in Queens, worked behind the counter at a cute little coffee shop in Long Island City called the Corner Cafe. It was a neighborhood-favorite sort of place, sitting a block away from MoMA PS1 and across the street from the popular Murray Playground, in that pocket of LIC that's neither grimly industrial nor overwhelmed by glass towers.
Around this same time, DeSabato launched Traze, a roving pizza side hustle that, in the beginning at least, was extremely DIY. "I didn't have a car back then," she told Hell Gate, "so I was taking the train with my toaster oven in a giant IKEA bag, and my pizzas in a suitcase." DeSabato's most valuable cargo in those days was her four-slice falafel pies, a creation so ingenious and delicious that it allowed her to quit her barista gig and focus full time on her pizza pop-ups.
Then, in January, the owners of the LIC coffee shop decided they wanted to retire and alerted DeSabato that the space was about to become available. In a classic full-circle moment, she signed the lease, and Traze opened last weekend with a full menu of lunch and dinner pies, plus breakfast slices.