Our story

Josh and Jesse Jacobs grew up in Boston on a strict macrobiotic diet: brown rice, lentils, tofu, and seaweed. Their mom's version of pizza had a quinoa cracker crust, beet sauce, and fried tofu where the cheese should be. Then, at a seventh-grade birthday party, Jesse tasted the real thing. He still calls it his first taste of pure gustatory joy. That one bite stuck for life.

The tea years

Years later in San Francisco, Jesse opened Samovar Tea Lounge, a calm and generous place to slow down over a beautiful pot of tea. It almost never happened. Jesse pitched 72 banks for a loan and 71 said no. The 72nd banker sat down, shared a pot of tea with him, and said he believed. Josh came on as his business partner, and together the brothers grew Samovar into a beloved San Francisco institution for nearly two decades, plus a wholesale business that shipped tea to great cafes around the world. Those years taught them one thing above all: real hospitality and real craft turn a simple thing into a moment people remember.

A pandemic and an 8 by 10 pan

In 2020 the world went quiet. Samovar's plans to grow stopped overnight, and in time the lounges closed for good. Stuck at home like everyone else, Jesse started baking. He kept sourdough starters alive with his wife and pressed Detroit-style squares into a little 8 by 10 inch steel pan for family dinners. Night after night, that homemade pizza did something the headlines could not. It made everyone at the table happy. Josh and Jesse looked at each other and asked the question that started everything: could they carry the warmth and care of Samovar into a food that hands people joy the instant they taste it?

Familiar, and brand new

The answer was a square. Pizza is the most familiar comfort there is, and Detroit-style makes it feel brand new: a tall, airy focaccia-style crust, cheese fried into a lacy frico edge against the steel pan, and bright sauce striped across the top. It is the comfort you already love, served in a form most of San Francisco had never tasted.

Joyride is born

In July 2021, right in the middle of it all, Josh and Jesse opened two shops at once: theYerba Buena flagship on Howard Street and a Valencia Streetslice house in the Mission. People showed up, they grinned, and they came back. Since then Joyride has grown across the Bay Area, from theEmbarcadero waterfront to Barebottle taprooms in Walnut Creek and Santa Clara. See them all on our locations page.

Still chasing joy

The mission has stayed the same since that first pan of squares. We make food that feels familiar enough to be home and novel enough to make you smile, and we serve it with the kind of care that makes an ordinary day a little brighter. Every square is a small invitation to feel joy and to share it. Come pull up a stool. That is the whole idea.