What Has Four Tasty Right Angles and Comes in Regional Styles? Frederico Santos of Square Pizza Co. Feeds Us the Answers

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

Success in business often requires thinking outside the box. Although in the case of Frederico Santos, he achieved a commercial goal by setting his sights outside the circle.

Santos is a spirited entrepreneur who founded Square Pizza Co., which has locations in the East Village and Pacific Beach. Both eateries offer three styles of pizza originating from different regions of the country, plus a gluten-free option. None of the pizzas are round. So naturally they are all cut into square slices that many traditionalists find novel.

Aside from filling a local niche in pizza-making, Santos is a crusader of perseverance. He arrived in San Diego from his native Brazil via Boston, where he spent his young-adult years learning English (complete with an engaging BAW-stuhn accent) while also studying and working in the computer industry. He eventually made a radical career switch.

His story is not only enticing to pizza lovers, but it is particularly uplifting to wishful entrepreneurs caught in 9-to-5 traps. As we clearly saw after chatting with Santos, anything is possible as long as you have a genuine taste for whatever it is you are pursuing.

Downtown Condo Guys: At what age did you leave your Brazilian homeland for Boston? And what led you there?

Santos: I was 20 years old. I went to study computer science at a school that no longer exists. It is also where I learned English from scratch.

Downtown Condo Guys: Did you eventually find computer work in Boston?

Santos: Yes. I worked for a little bit with computers but I could see how unhappy people were with the profession. For myself, after working at a desk in an office with no windows and sitting looking at screens all day, I realized it wasn’t for me. But never in my life did I think I would end up making pizzas for a living.

Downtown Condo Guys: How did that career switch happen?

Santos: I had picked up a summer job at a place called Sal’s Pizza. I was happy to be standing on my feet, using my hands and seeing people eat what I just made them. It was nice getting their happy, immediate feedback.

I eventually became a franchisee of Sal’s. At one point I had three locations, all in the North Shore area of Boston.

Downtown Condo Guys: Did you take an interest in cooking before that at any point in your life?

Santos: No, not until I started working at Sal’s and becoming a franchisee. But when I was growing up in Brazil, my mom and her sisters would get together and cook for the whole family and the community at my grandparents house. My mom grew up in a small village in Brazil, so she cooked from scratch and would make cakes and other baked goods on the side. And my dad had grown up on a farm, so we were used to eating organic, free-range foods.

Downtown Condo Guys: Did you learn all of your cooking skills from Sal’s?

Santos: No. During my last year as a franchisee at Sal’s, I enrolled in Tony Gemignani’s International School of Pizza in San Francisco. It was a very intense two-week program where I put in 12 hours a day. After that I took a one-week course at King Arthur Baking School in Vermont. I wanted to learn as much as I could about bread and how to make my own dough and sauce. Both of them had been given to me when I ran the Sal’s locations.

I also learned from my training experiences that you have to use quality ingredients. We’re not magicians. We can’t make awesome stuff from shitty ingredients.

Downtown Condo Guys: How did you end up in San Diego? And when did you launch Square Pizza Co.?

Santos: My friend and business partner, Bruno Lippi, had been working at a pizzeria across the street from Sal’s. He’s also Brazilian. So after I got out of the franchises on the East Coast, we decided to take what we knew about Boston’s North Shore beach-style pizza elsewhere. After many winters, we thought San Diego was a great choice. It’s very homelike for us Brazilians because of the climate.

We opened our first Square Pizza Co. in 2016 in Pacific Beach. Then we opened our second one in 2025 in the East Village. It made sense for us to open in the East Village because the space was previously a pizzeria, and we had so many people from downtown who came to our Pacific Beach location saying we should open one downtown. It is also bigger with indoor/outdoor seating. And we serve beer and wine there, which we don’t in Pacific Beach.

Downtown Condo Guys: Tell us about ‘Boston beach pizza’ and the other types you offer.

Santos: Boston beach pizza covers the basics for people who like New York-style pizza. It is thin. The dough is rolled out with a rolling pin, so you end up with a flaky crust that isn’t so chewy. And the tomato sauce is slightly sweeter compared to our other pizzas.

Our Detroit-style pizza has the traditional fried cheese crust along the sides. We make it super digestible because the dough has a high water content, so you’re consuming more water than flour. And it is fermented properly. It’s a thick pizza but not heavy. Also, the sauce is the final ingredient. It goes on top of the cheese and toppings as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven.

The lightest pizza we have is our ‘upside-down Sicilian.” It’s a finicky pizza to make because the cheese goes down first, then the sauce and then the toppings. The crust is thicker than our other pizzas, but it melts in your mouth. We always joke that even if you don’t have teeth, you can chew it.

And our gluten-free pizza is between thin and thick. It has a little fluffiness and crunchiness to it. We use a gluten-free flour mix that we import from Naples. The pizza gets a lot of good feedback.

Downtown Condo Guys: Which of the pizzas take the longest to bake?

Santos: The Detroit pizza because the cheese on the sides has to caramelize.

Downtown Condo Guys: Out of the four different pizza styles you offer, which is your personal favorite?

Santos: It varies. Right now it’s the Detroit—but it was the thin Boston beach for a long time. I always go back and forth.

Downtown Condo Guys: What are the top sellers at each location?

Santos: In the East Village it is any of the pie styles but with chicken as a topping. In PB, it’s the Detroit style with pepperoni.

Downtown Condo Guys: Do you use any particular type of cheese(s) on your pizzas? And tell us about your sauce.

Santos: We use whole-milk mozzarella from Wisconsin. And our sauce is made in-house with California tomatoes. We want nutrition back on the pizza. We also have white cheddar, Grana Padano, Provolone and ricotta, all from Wisconsin as well.

Downtown Condo Guys: Was San Diego overdue for sheet pizzas cut into squares when you came onto the scene?

Santos: Yes. It took a little time to catch on. Detroit pizza wasn’t as known as it is today. When we first opened, a lot of people would come in and say they never heard of it. We wanted to create something that was fun and different. And it was a way of coming into the market without direct competition.

Downtown Condo Guys: Any plans on opening an additional location in San Diego?

Santos: We always think about it and would like a third one, for sure. When we find the right location and at the right time, we probably will.

Downtown Condo Guys: When you’re not in pizza mode, how do you like spending your free time?

Santos: I love motorcycles. I own…maybe five [chuckle]. And I like riding in the mountains and on curvy roads. San Diego is probably the best place to ride a motorcycle.