Hakki Akdeniz is the owner of Champion Pizza, with six shops across New York City and Long Island. He boasts nearly 29 million followers on Instagram as well as celebrity fans like Mike Tyson and Courteney Cox. Not long ago, however, Akdeniz, 42, was homeless and desperate on the streets of NYC.
Whether the animated Akdeniz knows a person or not, crossing paths with this Turkish immigrant-turned-total NYC character entails being showered with greetings, food and the occasional reminder that God is indeed great — all before a guest can get a single word in.
The pizza man’s meteoric rise is captured in the new documentary, “Hi… I’m Hakki Akdeniz,” out this Friday on Discovery+.
Akdeniz first arrived on America’s doorstep more than two decades ago, in the middle of the harsh winter of 2001. He did so entirely by accident.
After unsuccessfully trying to migrate from his home country to Canada, Akdeniz wound up on a bus from Montreal to the Port Authority with just $240 in his pocket, not knowing a word of English and a promise of a spare bed from a buddy — the only person he knew in NYC.
“When I got to New York, I called my friend and he said ‘I’m coming, give me a few hours, I’ll be there, I promise,’” Akdeniz told The Post. “Then a full day went by and he wasn’t here. I slept on a bench at the bus [station] because I didn’t want to leave and miss him.”
One day quickly turned into two — the friend ended up ghosting him — and the hopeful Akdeniz was quickly becoming worried for his life in a foreign land.
Akdeniz was alone in the Big Apple with a third-grade education, and nowhere to stay or work.
After exhausting what little funds he had for a cheap hotel, Akdeniz was homeless — in February.
“I would spend my days walking around in the cold and then I would take the subway from end to end at night, it was the only way I could keep warm,” he said. “Then another homeless man from Senegal brought me to the Bowery Mission and I stayed there for a couple of months.”
Akdeniz’s luck turned around one day when a mission staffer was able to get him a dishwashing job at a pizzeria in Hoboken.
“I couldn’t believe I finally had a chance,” Akdeniz said. “But I couldn’t get back from work to the Bowery Mission in time, so I was sleeping on a park bench by the pizzeria for the first few days.”
When word of Akdeniz’s situation reached owner and fellow Turk Cumali Kurt — now a friend and “hero” — he invited his new employee to share his home.
“When I first got to his apartment I was so nervous. I remember the first morning after I stayed there I didn’t know how the shower worked and I was fumbling with the water to get done quickly. It kept going from burning to freezing,” he said. “Every time I take a warm shower now, I think back to that moment.”
Akdeniz was able to eventually save up enough money to get his own place, and in 2009, he even opened his own pizzeria — Hakki Pizza — on the Lower East Side. But, times were tough in the city, and the place didn’t make enough money for Akdeniz to pay rent for both his storefront and apartment.
So he let go of his home and slept on the floor of the pizzeria.
“I was in the store at night by myself. An employee would lock me in when we closed and unlock the door the next morning,” Akdeniz said. “I slept next to the oven and turned it on at night to keep warm. I could have gotten burned or started a fire, but I didn’t have many choices.”
Within a year, his luck began to turn.
Akdeniz made a name for himself by competing in the 2010 Las Vegas’ World Pizza Championship, winning awards — and international publicity — for his remarkable dough spinning tricks.
“My signature move was setting dough on fire and spinning it over my head. I remember it started burning my left hand but I couldn’t stop. I tried to win at this competition for years and never did well,” he said.
“When I finally won, that saved my life. I was on the cover of a magazine and everyone knew who I was. People from all over were coming into my shop now.”
The suddenly robust business quickly expanded to another store, then another and so on to the point that he owned a full-fledged chain across New York City. During the thrill of growth, Akdeniz decided to rebrand the biz as Champion Pizza — a tribute to the title he won in Vegas.
“I changed it because that became my nickname. People would say, ‘It’s the champ!’ when they saw me, so I had to make it the store name,” Akdeniz said.
Along with financial success came Akdeniz’s celebrity status.
Besides the massive Instagram following, Akdeniz has practically wallpapered stores with photos taken with A-Listers like savvy businesswoman Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank and Neil Patrick Harris.
Customers local and foreign are quick to pose in front of the photo wall.
Akdeniz says he is appreciative, and humbled to have found such a following, but he’s never forgotten where he came from.
On a weekly basis, he brings pizza to shelters and locations such as Bowery Mission and makes many financial contributions to the cause as well.
He’s even done a TED Talk at Rutgers about his life story, inspiring many to do such outreach.
“I know that feeling. I know what it’s like to have nobody, nothing, to be scared and alone in a place you don’t know, forgotten and invisible,” he said. “We all have the obligation to do more.”
Akdeniz is too busy with work, a happy marriage and two children to dwell on his difficult past. He’s even reconciled with the man who was supposed to pick him up that fateful day all those years ago.
“Life is beautiful and I’m so fortunate. If I got picked up from the bus terminal in 2001 then my life wouldn’t be so incredible,” he said. “I’m lucky, I’m happy, I’m Hakki.”