Since 1978 Sy’s Pizza, located on 1211 Alder St, has served Eugene residents and students authentic New York style pizza. The new owner, Josh Zweifler, seems committed to honoring the 46-year-old establishment’s legacy and building its future.
“I know a good thing when I see it,” Zweifler said. “The location is great, the pizza was great. I just couldn’t see anything that would hold me back.”
Sy’s Pizza was opened by Sy Zeer in 1978. Zeer eventually retired to Florida and sold the shop to its last owner, Louis Olsen, who suddenly passed away in 2023. When Sy’s hit the market, several local pizza places were targeting the prime location a block away from campus.
“But the advantage I had over them was I’m willing to pay for the name,” Zweifler said.
Zweifler, 35, has been working in kitchens since he was 13. Six months ago, before he moved to Eugene, Zweifler was working in a restaurant in Scotland, but now he’s looking to settle down.
“I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of this legacy, and I plan to continue it on,” Zweifler said. “This is not a buy it, fix it up and flip it. I’m not here to make myself rich or anything like that. I’m here to be a part of a legacy and to continue that legacy. I wanna have this place for the rest of my life.”
What makes New York pizza so distinct is highly debated. Answers can range from the NYC tap water to the flour, and Zweifler spent weeks researching to find the answer. While ingredients certainly make a difference, Zweifler said he thinks the magic comes from the air and atmosphere. While he wishes to protect the atmosphere of Sy’s, he has had to make some necessary changes.
“Originally, when I came in, I was very adamant about not changing the recipes. I wanted to carry on that legacy and changing the recipes is in some ways changing the restaurant,” Zweifler said. “But if I wanna survive for the next 45 years, the recipe has to be something that people want to eat for the next 45 years.”
Zweifler is invested in getting the New York style pizza — and Sy’s Pizza — right. He has kept the sauce recipe, layout and aesthetic at Sy’s the same, but nearly everything else has been overhauled.
“I don’t know what the standard was 45 years ago, but if the recipe here was what the standard recipe was of New York pizza, then it’s changed by leaps and bounds,” Zweifler said.
The two changes to the pizza recipe have been re-engineering the crust that was made “wrong in almost every way,” according to Zweifler, and an upgrade to the cheese. The menu remains the same in all the other ways with new additions to boot.
The restaurant now has a full week specials menu and a slice of the day. Desserts like churro bites and donut ice cream sandwiches with Prince Puckler’s ice cream have been added to the menu as well.
On the other side of the counter, all of the out of date equipment has been replaced.
“I was expecting everything to kinda be a slow fix, but he instantly fixed a bunch of stuff,” Sariah Thrapp, who has been a cook at Sy’s for seven months, said. “That fridge is completely new, and I love it. Before, I had to go all the way around the corner and go to the reach-in for cheese and dough and toppings. Now I get to just reach down and grab it.”
Zweifler said his favorite part about owning Sy’s is seeing customers, on average twice a day, come in and reminisce about their college days. One customer and his wife had come into Sy’s 25 years ago for their first date.
“Even if the customer doesn’t know, I know that if I hadn’t bought this place, all those experiences that I’m seeing happening wouldn’t have happened,” Zweifler said. “I consider myself to be the luckiest freaking person in Eugene right now.”
Zweifler said he wants to make it clear he is not competing with the artisanal pizzas of the world: Sy’s is a traditional New York pizza.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love that type of pizza. I love interesting flavors and combos that you never would have thought of. I think it’s great, but it’s not what we do here,” Zweifler said. “I wanna give students food that they can afford to eat and enjoy. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I just wanna give people something good and consistent.”
Zweifler still has some plans for the restaurant. He hopes to overhaul the back of the restaurant — a massive empty space roughly three times the size of the dining area — and has a few different ideas on how to do it. One of them being a convenience store close to campus, but it will likely be over a year before anything gets put in.
The new change of ownership seems to be putting the beloved establishment on the right track. “He’s been here for a month and the store is 10 times better,” Thrapp said.
Sy’s Pizza is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
