There’s a particular kind of heartbreak over losing a place that fed you right. For many Las Vegans, Guerrilla Pizza Company was that place, a dependable refuge for Detroit-style pies that showed up heavy, honest and so damn delicious—personal-sized squares with edges fried crisp in oil and cheese, an interior both thick and airy, crowned with a molten blend of cheese, fixings and a deliberate spoonful of sauce. It wasn’t flashy. It was just downright satisfying. And it became a cult classic because it never pretended to be anything else.
The story of Guerrilla Pizza isn’t one of overnight success or tidy timelines. It’s a story about resilience, repetition, and the refusal to quit. Founder and self-proclaimed pizza papi Robby Cunningham started slinging free pies out of his house in 2019, cooking for anyone willing to believe in him and tell their friends. From leaving his bartending job to hand-deliver pizzas for donations, to having a temporary kitchen, the operation survived on grit, word of mouth and the confidence that the food spoke for itself.
Now, with Guerrilla Pizza finally operating its own brick-and-mortar restaurant Downtown, the Weekly dished with Cunningham about what it takes to keep the dream alive.
How long did it take for you to develop the Guerrilla Pizza recipe?
Well, like a week … about three tries. I was really lucky with it. I just wanted to make a little all-star pizza of all my favorite pizza places, you know, like Little Caesars' sauce, this and that, Jet’s Pizza crust, just have some fun with it.
When I made my third pizza I remember having my old co-worker, Rob Cat from Artifice, over at my house, and I’ll never forget ... we both took a slice and we were like ‘alright, this is it.’ It was one of those Marvel montages; it was insane. I felt like I hit a jackpot. The next time I made it, I did the exact same recipe … it’s been the same since 2019.
Detroit-style pizzas, Caesar salad, garlic parm wings, wild knots and hot churro bread at Guerrilla Pizza Company in Downtown Las Vegas.
It’s crazy that this business all started with you giving those pizzas away.
I wanted to use my bartender mentality and give away a free pizza in exchange for a shoutout, you know? I’ll give you exactly what you want. I’ll deliver it to you. All you have to do is share it on your Instagram. And the cool thing is, I was actually putting out a good product. The food spoke for itself. I didn’t have to put a knife to anybody’s ribs to get them to do that. So, it blew up a bit and it was a really quick, wild ride.
Then in 2020, Hard Hat [Lounge] reached out to see if I wanted to set up. They needed food in the gaming bars, since they were lifting regulations. I opened up October 1, 2020 as Guerrilla Pizza in the Hard Hat Lounge.
You were operating out of the bar for two and a half years before you took a break. Can you tell us what you were up to during that hiatus?
Hard Hat had to shut down … they had to do all these renovations. When it shut down, I decided to walk away. I got to live out a little dream of living up in Northern Michigan, where it’s gorgeous in the summer, and I worked for one of my favorite breweries as a beer tender. I was only gone for six months, but everyone seemed to think I moved.
I came back and started working at Carl’s Donuts. I was trying to expand my knowledge of baking and things like that, just to take a step aside from the pizza life for a minute because it got overwhelming. I also started working at Jet’s [Pizza] and learned a bit of dialing in certain systems and processes and procedures. I got to go backwards and learn the craft a bit more under my competitor, if you will, but also my inspiration.
This location is quite the upgrade from your previous kitchen. Tell me about how the operation has changed.
Obviously, space. With pizza, there’s so much with the fermentation process. You have to bulk create, and you burn through product very fast. The Hard Hat kitchen is fun when you’re trying to put proof of concept, but it’s hard to have longevity in a space like that. It’s nice to be in a bigger spot where we can do high volume, because the demand was definitely something that was capping the ability.
I’m incredibly blessed to have generated that amount of traffic and love. I was only around for two-and-a half-years, and to have gone that long is kind of wild. Then to still have that loyalty is incredible, too.
You definitely have this very hungry community ready to support you. What are you most excited about with this new venture?
I’m excited and eager to get back out there and to get crafty and creative again. We have the product incredibly dialed in ... with pizzas coming out perfect every time, which is such a joy. Now, I really want to see this thing the way I’ve always seen it, with multiple locations in the Valley and to expand across the globe, hopefully, but at least across America.
GUERRILLA PIZZA COMPANY 900 Las Vegas Blvd. South #120, 702-444-0550, guerrillapizza.com. Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 a.m.
