Eric Shogren

Eric Shogren (January 16, 1966 – December 24, 2025) was a Russian-American businessman, the founder of New York Pizza and Kuzina chains.

Early life and career

His grandfather, an immigrant from Odessa, created a fruit market in the center of Minneapolis, and Shogren sold fruit with him from early childhood.[1]

He was educated at the Blake School in Minneapolis.[2]

In 1992, Eric Shogren arrived in Novosibirsk to his brother Brad, who studied here in one of the educational institutions of this city.[3]

In Novosibirsk, he bought a hockey puck at a local store and was surprised by its cheapness. He decided to sell hockey pucks from Russia to USA, but this business failed.

New York Pizza

After the closure of the Novosibirsk supermarket, Eric Shogren returned to USA, where he met his future wife, Olga, originally from Novosibirsk, having come to the United States for an education. They were married and in 1995 moved to Novosibirsk, where in 1996 they founded The New York Pizza company. The New York Pizza later opened in other Russian cities.[6][7]

After the founding of New York Pizza, Shogren continued to create other restaurants in Novosibirsk: New York Coffee, New York Diner and New York Times grill-bar, where rock-n-roll and blues musicians performed.[8][9]

Klassika Restaurant

In 2000, Eric Shogren and a banker Igor Kim opened the Klassika Restaurant in Novosibirsk; the idea of its creation belonged to the Novosibirsk restaurateur Denis Ivanov (at that time, he was the director of the New York Pizza holding). In 2003, Shogren sold his share of the restaurant to Kim.[10][11][12]

Financial difficulties and criminal prosecution

In 2008, Novosibirsk workers of NYP held rallies to protest against delay wage.[16] In February 2009, the company employees also organized a picket in the city, Eric Shogren arrived at the picketers. He said that the company wants to return money to people and that debts are gradually being paid to many former employees.[17][18]

In April 2009, Shogren and the company's top manager Evgenia Golovkova were detained, but they were released on bail after 48 hours.[19]

In August 2009, Eric Shogren organized a press conference, he told reporters that bankruptcy trustee Vladimir Klopov attempted to raider the NYP pizzeria located in Akademgorodok on Morskoy Prospect. Shogren also expressed the opinion that because of the raider seizure, the company lost one NYP in Pervomaysky Square of Novosibirsk and one pizzeria in Barnaul.[20]

birth date	January 16, 1966
birth place	United States
death date	December 24, 2025
death place	Minnesota, United States
known for	founder of New York Pizza and Kuzina
spouse	Olga Shogren

Early life and career

New York Pizza

Klassika Restaurant

Siberian Farmer

Financial difficulties and criminal prosecution

Business after criminal prosecution

Minnesota

Death

External links

References