A Real-Life Pizza Place Stole Cosmo Kramer’s Idea

Over the course of Seinfeld’s nine seasons (plus that one episode of Mad About You), Cosmo Kramer sure came up with a lot of wacky business ideas — from the coffee table book about coffee tables, to his legally-dubious plan to pay sub-minimum wages to unhoused rickshaw drivers.

One of Kramer’s most intriguing proposals was for a “pizza place where you make your own pie.” It was also one of his earliest ideas, and was first brought up way back in Season One’s “Male Unbonding.” While hanging out with Jerry and George, Kramer outlined his idea for a restaurant where diners pound their own dough, apply a unique blend of toppings and then bake the pizza themselves. 

George argued that “you can’t have people shoving their arms into a 600-degree oven,” but Kramer assured him that it’s “all supervised.”

Years later, in Season Six’s “The Couch,” Kramer’s dream came very close to happening after he partnered with Poppie, the Italian restaurateur/public urinator. Unfortunately, their plans fell apart due to a disagreement over whether or not cucumber can be considered a pizza topping in a not-so-subtle allegory for the abortion debate. 

PMQ Pizza, the website devoted to all things related to the pizza industry, recently published an interview with the founder of the Evansville, Indiana-based chain Azzip Pizza, Brad Niemeier. He revealed that he owes a great debt to the fictional hipster doofus.

The company originated with a 2012 presentation at the Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition, which is “an annual contest that promotes student entrepreneurship.” His pitch, to create the “Subway of pizza,” literally began with a clip from Seinfeld. Presumably it was just the scene in which Kramer outlines his idea, not the part where he gets into a heated argument over topping autonomy. 

As a result, Niemeier won the $20,000 grand prize and eventually launched the business for real. But despite piggybacking off of Kramer’s ideas, the chain doesn’t let customers actually apply their own toppings themselves as he was envisioning. Although, this set-up does allay George’s concerns about people routinely suffering third-degree burns. 

This is far from the only time that a pizza place has taken its cues from Kramer. There are a number of businesses that similarly allow customers to make their own pizzas. For example, in 2015, Miami Beach’s Pizza Dude specifically offered a “Kramer Experience,” in which people could put their own cheese, sauce and toppings on a personal pie — although, again, the business kept patrons far away from the scorching hot ovens.

Come to think of it, a number of Kramer’s ideas that were dismissed and derided by Jerry and the gang are now real products. Ketchup and mustard in the same bottle? Say hello to “Tomusto”:

 Then there was Kramer’s idea for a fragrance that smells like the beach, which was famously stolen by Calvin Klein in the show. 

Well, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics sells a $90 perfume literally called “Beach.”

Give it a few years, and we may all be shaving with sticks of butter.