31 Mar 2025
“We want the Pizza Cult to be a mecca for people who love pizza,” said Denis Fisher, founder of Pizza Cult, the latest street food vendor joining the highly anticipated Clydeside Containers project. Speaking on the Clydeside Containers Podcast, to be released on Thursday, with host Billy Kirkwood, Denis confirmed he’ll be expanding his wildly popular Neapolitan-style pizza brand from its original unit in the Barras Market to a new permanent home on the Clyde.
The cult’s origin story began in lockdown. “Every spare time I had… I was making pizzas and breads,” said Denis. “I made seven batches of dough and had pizza every single day for seven days so I could see how it changed.” What started as a kitchen hobby quickly became an obsession—leading him from a sales job into full-time pizza making.
“I was let go from my job… I’d just turned 30 and thought, ‘I need to work out what I want to do.’” With zero professional kitchen experience, Denis hustled. “I made a CV with pictures of pizzas I’d made… and put ‘home pizza chef’ at the top,” he laughed. He eventually landed a job washing dishes at a Glasgow restaurant, where the head chef gave him a chance to train on the pizza section.
From there, Denis levelled up fast, eventually becoming head chef at Franco Manca, making up to 600 pizzas a day. That hands-on experience—alongside a relentless appetite for experimentation—laid the groundwork for Pizza Cult.
The leap into business came after a visit to Glasgow’s Barras Market. “It’s amazing down there… people that, maybe like I did, found a passion in lockdown and started a little business,” he said. “I saw there was no one doing pizza and just thought, ‘I’ll take it.’” The venue, a once-forgotten unit, was transformed by Denis into a fire-lit slice haven. “Now that corner is buzzing.”
Known for bold flavours and playful names, Pizza Cult's menu includes everything from truffle goat’s cheese to spicy ’nduja, with Denis confirming, “I always try and have a meaty, spicy one, a mushroom one, a veggie one and a vegan one.” His signature slice? “The Cultist – Ventracina salami, ’nduja, cheese, chilli flakes and extra hot honey.”
Denis is also planning big things for Clydeside Containers. “We’re not just doing Neapolitan style—we’re doing Detroit style on weekends, and we want to move into New York slices too. We want people to be able to try all different styles—Neapolitan, Detroit, New York, Grandma pie, Roman style.”
As for the name? “It came from everyone saying pizza places have a cult following… and I was watching loads of cult movies like Midsommar, The Wicker Man, and playing Cult of the Lamb. It all came together.”
Pizza Cult will open at Clydeside Containers soon. “It’s going to be crazy… going from just two days a week to something people can have pretty much 24/7.” When asked what people should expect from the new spot, Denis summed it up simply: “Join the cult before it’s too late.”
