TULSA, Okla. — A local pizzeria is looking to give you a break from cooking, Umberto's Pizza has been a staple for pizza lovers in Tulsa since 1998, but now they need the communities help.
The owner, Moses Okoro is a man of few words but he speaks through his passion to make each pizza with care for customers that have become more like family.
He models his pizza style after slices you'd find in the burrows of New York like The Bronx, Queens, Harlem, and Brooklyn. It's a easy style for him to make because he lived in Jamaica, Queens for years after moving to America from Nigeria, but if you ask him where home is, he'll say Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"I came to Tulsa on a weekend and I got here and just loved it, everything was so nice and interesting here," Okoro said. "I just fell in love with the city it was so great."
Okoro gets to the pizza shop every morning around 6:30 a.m. to make the pizza dough.
"Moses puts his all into this," Dwayne Jackson, Umberto's oven man said. "He works so hard and he's just got genuine kindness."
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Okoro's business hard.
"Since the pandemic business has been cut by about 75 percent," Nicole Lewis, the businesses social media manager. "It's been really hard for all of these mom and pop shops like his."
Despite the blow to business, Okoro is still holding on to all of his employees.
"He just treats them like family just like he treats his customers," Lewis said. "He's the most genuine person I know, I wish everyone would run their business like he does."
Because of his model of kindness and work ethic, Okoro's employees are staying strong and supporting Umberto's with a positive attitude as they continue to offer curbside pick-up and to-go orders.
"We put our heart into the pizza, honestly," Jackson said. "That's why we are different, you can taste the heart in our food, period."
To order a slice or a pizza, call 918-712-1999.
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