AI Summary
5 min read"Exposure Therapy": How Hannah Ziskin and Aaron Lindell Built Quarter Sheets Without a Plan
The original full name of their restaurant was Quarter Sheets Pizza Club, and people kept asking what they had to do to join. "There is not actually a club," Hannah Ziskin explains. "The club is you just buy a pizza and then you're a member of the club." That spirit—something that feels like an inside joke but is genuinely open to anyone—runs through everything they do. Ziskin and Aaron Lindell, who are married and have worked together for 15 years, opened Quarter Sheets in Los Angeles without ever planning to. "This was not in the cards when we met," Lindell says. "We weren't like early on, 'We're gonna open a restaurant together.' We never said that. It was not a thing."
The Partnership That Grew, Not Started
The couple met working in a restaurant kitchen in the Bay Area. Lindell remembers being "very, very far out of my league" and had no pickup line—"it was just natural heat in the cold walk-in." What mattered was that they worked well together first. "I do think it's important that we knew that we worked well together first," Ziskin says. "We didn't meet, get married, then decide to open a restaurant." They've been cooking alongside each other for 15 years, and that foundation is what makes the intensity of running a restaurant together survivable.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:34) **Opening Banter & The Origin of "Pizza Club"** - The hosts introduce Hannah and Aaron, and the duo explains the restaurant's original name, "Quarter Sheets Pizza Club," was a playful pandemic-era concept where membership meant simply buying a pizza.
- 2 (02:04) **Why No Pizza Tonight?** - Hannah and Aaron explain their decision to serve a non-pizza menu for this special dinner, framing it as a deliberate choice to avoid being pigeonholed.
- 3 (03:18) **The Story Behind "Salad Ivan"** - Hannah shares the inside joke behind one of the night's dishes, a salad named after a former server.
- 4 (04:11) **On Marriage and Working Together** - The couple discusses the intensity of being married business partners, revealing their dynamic and how they make it work.
- 5 (07:10) **Yin and Yin: Defining Their Roles** - The couple outlines their distinct roles in the kitchen and the business, with a humorous disagreement on titles.
- 6 (08:41) **The Concept: Restaurant First, Pizza Second** - The duo clarifies the core concept of Quarter Sheets, emphasizing it's a full restaurant experience that happens to serve pizza.
- 7 (11:10) **What Makes the Cake and Pizza So Good?** - Hannah and Aaron break down the culinary philosophy behind their signature items, drawing on their fine-dining backgrounds.
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Show Notes
Hannah Ziskin and Aaron Lindell, owners of Quarter Sheets in Los Angeles, sit down with David for a live show recording! Hannah and Aaron talk about their meet-cute in a walk-in fridge while working at the same SF restaurant, which menu items are based on inside jokes, how the concept of Quarter Sheets started by selling pizza and cake off their porch, what it means to be a bread wizard, and so much more.
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