Slice Brothers Pizza opens at Dale & University

Best friends Adam Kado and Hosie Thurmond of Slice Brothers Pizza join Tommie Daye of Tommie’s Pizza as Black owners of St. Paul pizzerias.
Slice Brothers Pizza officially opened at Dale and University on Sept. 15, 2023, and serves New York-style pizza by the slice and whole pie.
Kado observed that he’d be lying if he said that when they opened their first Slice Brothers that he envisioned them operating three locations within two years. They’re also in Minneapolis at the Midtown Global Market and in Northeast Minneapolis at 519 E. Hennepin Ave. – and will open at the Mall of America this month.
“We came together with an idea,” remarked Thurmond, who moved from Chicago with his grandparents first to south Minneapolis and then the east side of St. Paul. “This is what hard work and dedication looks like.”
He knows that African American entrepreneurs don’t traditionally open pizzerias. But they focused on offering something different.
“We’re really proud of these entrepreneurs. They operate with a sense of integrity and community,” said Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) president and CEO Renay Dossman, which built the multi-story building at the corner that now houses Flava Coffee, Urban 29 and Slice Brothers Pizza (641 University), as well as the NDC offices on upper levels.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” stated Mayor Melvin Carter, who grew up in the neighborhood. He observed that during his campaign, people told him the city needs to do better at Dale and University. “Let me tell you, we are doing better,” he said.
“We love it when people choose St. Paul,” Mayor Carter added. In this case, it is a son of St. Paul who is returning and investing in their neighborhood.
“I was born and raised in St. Paul,” said Kado. “This is priceless to me.”
He observed that they will add 10-15 jobs at the St. Paul location, a statistic that is important to him. There aren’t really any pizza places in Frogtown. And anecdotally, he said, some neighborhoods in the Twin Cities that are predominantly Black, like Camden in Minneapolis, also happen to be outside delivery boundaries for certain pizza places. It almost feels like redlining, Thurmond said, a discriminatory practice that historically segregated housing and public services by race.
For Kado and Thurmond, Slice Brothers is about pizza and it’s also about empowering communities and fighting disinvestment in Black neighborhoods
“We can all do this,” said Kado, “one slice at a time.”