A Slice of Pizza A Day Keeps The Waistline In Play

The inaugural Portland Pizza Week was in April 2016. Close to 30 local restaurants participated in the seven day event. Organized by the Portland Mercury along with various partner businesses, Pizza Week was a natural addition to the annual food events calendar which already features the extremely popular Portland Burger Week. 

One of the great things about Pizza Week, besides having an excuse to eat pizza every day, is the opportunity to go to restaurants I haven't tried before. When Greg and I go out to eat, we usually choose a particular style of cuisine that requires more effort or specialty ingredients to make at home. While I love to cook, it's a solo event, so I thoroughly enjoy being pampered with table service plus unique and delicious food that I didn't have to labor over when we eat out.

While many of the restaurants that participate in Pizza Week do not offer table service, they do make an effort to create interesting, sometimes unusual, concoctions just for this event. For the consumer, it's a low risk, high reward proposition at only $2.00 per slice!

This slice from East Glisan Pizza Lounge was a nice balance of sweet and spicy.

I have been lucky enough to partake in the offerings during all three Portland Pizza Weeks. In 2016, I managed to try nine different slices in three days. In 2017, I tried at least six slices (possibly more but I only have photo documentation of six) in two days. This year, I made it to 11 participating venues in two days.

What's my strategy? I go with a friend and split one slice at each place or, I get a slice (or two) to go and share at home with Greg and then have leftovers for a few days.

Greg and our friend Jeremy enjoy Pizza Week slices in 2016.

A few of my favorites this year include (in alphabetical order with ingredients list in italics provided by the restaurants):

Atlas Pizza "The Smokey Kernel"
Smoked chicken thighs, sweet corn sauce, fire-roasted poblano peppers, roasted red bell peppers, red onion, Hatch chili crema, and scallion garnish.

Baby Doll Pizza "A Slice of the Balkans"
Cevapi, ajvar, kajmak, and minced onion.

Rovente Pizzeria "Dilly Mostarda"
Creamy mustard sauce, whole-milk mozzarella, roma tomatoes, and dill chicken.

I think I liked those three the most because they were the most unique out of the slices I tried.

The others I tasted were:
East Glisan Pizza Lounge "N Du Ya Like Me Now"
Hotlips "Chévre, 'Shrooms and Whips" (but feta was substituted for the chévre because they ran out)
Pizano's "Stuffed Green Pepper"
Pizzicato Pizza "The Chimichurri Verde"
Sizzle Pie "Out of Step"
Slice Pizza Co. "Nicky's Holiday Sausage with Portobello and Shaved Parmesan"
Straight From New York "The Big Apple"
Virtuous Pie "Jalapeño Popper"

An assortment of Pizza Week slices waiting to be consumed at home.

I waited in line the longest (15-20 minutes) at Pizzicato on E. Burnside and they ran out of the special Pizza Week slices just a few orders after us. My least favorite slice was at Virtuous Pie, which happens to only offer plant-based items on their entire menu. The crust (and all of the ingredients) were quite dry and flavorless. My second least favorite was from Pizano's. It was the only slice that actually resembled a store-bought frozen pizza. The toppings were plentiful and seemed pretty fresh, but the crust tasted like cardboard. All of the other slices were quite good-to-delicious and I savored every bite!

If you'd like to read more about the restaurants and slices for Portland Pizza Week 2018, just click here. Now, off to the gym! 😋