I was fired from an NYC pizzeria — now I own the slice joint

When Frank Kabatas first came to the United States in 1997 when he was 23, he’d only ever seen pizza in the movies.

A quarter of a century later, the Turkish immigrant, now 49, is the proud owner and operator of one of Manhattan’s most beloved pizza joints — the same one that fired him after a six-month stint as a delivery driver, shortly after his arrival in the Big Apple.

East Village Pizza, on the corner of 1st Avenue and 9th Street, was the first place to hire Kabatas upon landing in NYC.

Not only was it his first job, which he used to help pay for school, but it was also his first slice — ever.

“I never had pizza before,” Kabatas told The Post, recalling the then-owner handing him his first-ever regular slice, saying something like, “If you don’t make a good [cheese] slice… you’re not successful.”

And success didn’t come easy for the would-be mogul.