Portland pizza periodical
or how I find myself yet again talking about 'za
Somehow I’ve become a “pizza person”. While I recognize buying a pizza oven is a sure path to increasing your pie consumption, I did not expect it to become such a foundational pillar of my diet. Honestly, I wouldn’t even call it a "top 10” food of mine — but how you spend your days is how you spend your life, and it seems like more and more of those days involve something pizza related.
Welcome to the tavern
With Detroit- and N(YC)eapolitan-style pizzas firmly within our wheelhouse, Chicago tavern-style is the next logical additional to the repertoire. I hadn’t really thought much about the nuances of it in the past — my experience with the thin crust, Midwestern party cut pies has been fairly limited — but now that I’ve learned about the process it seems... kind of ingenious. Pizza dough is flattened and cured into what is essential a cracker (‘pizza skin’), and then baked at significantly lower temperatures than a Neapolitan style demands (more like 500°F than 900°F), which makes it easy to prep many crusts in advance, and possible to bake in any sort of conventional oven.
I usually do dough prep, but this is kind of Cris’s baby. I’ll admit I was skeptical, but initial results seem promising — all of the typical punchy pizza flavors melded to what ate like a crispy flatbread. I’m thinking that maybe we could do a couple of these as appetizers while the oven heats up for the more traditional bakes? We’ll see how much folks enjoy pizza cracker vibes.
Portland Pizza Week ‘24
The second item in this inane pizza news update: notes from Portland Pizza Week 2024. Themed food / restaurant weeks have historically not been my thing. I understand them in principle, in practice they’ve mostly been a bad vibe… with the exception of a lamb shank, pomegranate seed poutine I remember from MTL Poutine week circa 2012, or whatever, I don’t have many fond memories of my limited engagements.
One of the things that has become evident about living in Portland is that things that could very easily skew corny somehow work here??? It’s hard to explain, but the spirit of rallying around local businesses is kind of infectious, and results in a climate that is more supportive and enthusiastic than critical and entitled. Cris and I both happened to be free during Pizza week this year, and decided to make an effort to try ten different slices, across four different days, with the meta goal of perhaps finding some inspiration for our 2024 backyard pizzeria rotation.
Baby Doll Pizza - Chicken Shawarma!
Mozzarella Cheese, Chicken Thigh, Red Onion & Pickles. Topped with a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, a drizzle of Zesty Sour Cream and a touch of Parsley
Of the ten pizzerias we chose to seek out, Baby Doll is both the closest to our house and where we’ve eaten at the most often. Very glad to see such an excellent showing from our local slice shop — the reference was immediately evident, my first bite combined chicken and the classic shawarma pickle in a way that was unmistakable. It reminded me of some of the pizzas at Hapa Pizza, which perform the similarly miraculous feat of transfiguring pizza into something else entirely.
Paladin Pie - The Questing Taco
House-made vegetarian chili, cheddar, mozzarella, candied jalapeño crema, green onion and crushed Fritos
I’m a Frito pie lover so it’s no surprise that this was one of my favorite slices of the week. Really, anything that combines Fritos and beans becomes an instant classic for me. I’ve had an idea for beans on pizza rolling around in my head for a while now — more in the white / cannellini bean vein — and I’m thrilled to see it work so well here. Salty, crunchy, a little bit of relief from the crema, an all around great time.
Scottie’s Pizza Parlor - So What, No F*ckin' Ziti Now?!
Penne pasta, tomato and vodka sauce, fresh & aged mozz, pecorino romano, oregano and garlic oil, finished with herbed breadcrumbs, fresh parsley, and microplaned parm
Scottie’s was probably the most urgent restaurant on our pizza to-eat list, abstract of pizza week, so we also opportunistically grabbed a slice of pepperoni. By far the most New York-y pizza I’ve had in Portland. It’s quite the experience eating at so many pizzerias back-to-back. Inventive toppings can only take you so far if they’re not built on a solid foundation, and this slice showed a bonafide, seismically retrofitted, earthquake proof understanding of the fundamentals. Carb on carb is the exact type of bullshit I am here for.
Von Ebert East - Cubano Pie [Cris’s Favorite]
Spicy+tangy base, Swiss, Smoked Pork, Black Forest Ham, Pickles + Mojo Drizzle
I’m not really a Cubano guy, but true to his South Floridian roots, Cris goes wild for them. This was a VERY mustard forward pizza, true to the inspiration I suppose, with the smokey pork providing a nice barbecued counterbalance.
Reeva - Pizzaleada Mamalona [Remi’s Favorite]
Bean base, Reeva’s cheese blend, Pork Belly, Chimichurri, Crema
Another notable pizzeria we had yet to make it to… I can’t believe I get to have multiple pizzas with beans on them. What a treat. We kind of cheated a bit and got a whole pie instead of sticking to our slice manifesto, but I could have eaten the whole thing myself it was so good. The iconic pairing of pork and beans, a little bit of acidity from the chimichurri, perfectly wood-fired crust… 10/10, no notes. I’m fully bean-pilled in this moment, I need to put beans on a pizza immediately. I have another bean related bake I’m hoping to share soon, but I need to iron out the details a little bit more.
Von Ebert Beaverton - Korean BBQ Pie
Gochujang tomato sauce, Mozzarella, Kimchi, Bulgogi Marinated Beer + topped fresh kimchi + green onion
We have a friend who makes a couple of very good Korean inspired pizzas, so this had a lot to live up to. Very kimchi forward, the sweetness of the pork rounded out what I thought was a pretty delicious bite. I’ve been making a kimchi focaccia a lot recently and I think maybe it’s time to dip my toes in the pizza waters as well.
East Glisan Pizza Lounge - Thank You Verde Much!
Queso Fresco, Mozzarella, Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder, Chile Verde sauce, Cotija, house-fried Tortilla Strips, finished with Roasted Garlic Jalapeño crema
I loved the chile sauce on this pizza, and the pork shoulder was beautifully cooked. It almost had an enchilada vibe? Idk, I’m into it, only wish more of the fried tortilla strips came through.
Atlas Pizza - Homer's Hot Chicken Odyssey (Illegal in 42 States)
Garlic oil base, mozzarella, Nashville hot chicken, spicy pickles, scallions, honey butter, pub sauce
The third pizza featuring pickles we’ve had this week. It’s hard to argue with fried chicken, the honey butter achieved that nice sweet / savory / spicy thing I’m always on about. In my experience, most of the Nashville chicken I’ve had has been pretty hot, so I was expecting a little more heat here.
Humdinger Pizza - Charlotte's Revenge
Mouthwatering bacon, crunchy apples, onions caramelized to perfection, and tangy blue cheese on a canvas of olive oil
You know me, I love a sweet & savory moment. I think blue cheese / bacon / apple on a pizza isn’t necessarily something super novel, but this was a very well balanced example of it.
Boxcar Pizza - Smash or Pass
Mozzarella/Cheddar Blend, Beef, Lettuce, White Onion, Burger Sauce, Sesame Seeds
A vegan, hamburger inspired pizza is exactly the sort of thing only pizza week could bring into my life. Big Mac chic for sure, I thought the Detroit style crust was really good — light and airy, almost like a buttered and griddled bun, effectively rounding out the burger reference.
Via Chicago - Miss Vanjie
Poblano Pesto, roasted veggies, topped with a crunchy onion and chili oil sauce
I’m not going to pretend to know anything about Chicago-style deep dish pizza, but I was glad to have a different type of slice added into the mix. As a budding RPDR fan I also had no choice but to respect the reference. The poblano pesto was probably my favorite part.
Well, that was fun. It was nice to hit the town and stand in line with all the other pizza gremlins, of which there seem to be many in Portland. I think slice shops are an essential and important contrast to all the exceptional sit down / whole pie joints1 in town, and this little crawl made me appreciate just how many of them are around. Another win for the proverbial walkable city.
R