Portland is in the midst of a pizza renaissance
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Ken's Artisan Pizza has been on the culinary scene for years in Portland. Photo: Courtesy of Marielle Gibbons
Portland was once called the best city in America for pizza by prominent reviewers and has scored top marks from prestigious culinary institutions — recognition local pizzaiolos struggle to grapple with.
Why it matters: Portland's pizza scene has exploded in recent years. No longer dominated by New York-style slice shops, Rose City chefs have been applauded for leaning on seasonality and embracing a diversity of styles.
What they're saying: While other cities like Detroit, Chicago and New Haven, Connecticut, have rich traditions when it comes to pizza, "Portland has benefited from no rules," Craig Melillo, owner and chef of Gracie's Apizza, told Axios.
- "When you don't have rules, you can push the boundaries more."
Context: Portland's pizza discourse started in 2021 when Bloomberg proclaimed the city as having the best pies. Elsewhere online, outrage ensued. But many of us already knew the designation to be true.
- Portland has been home to artisan-style pizza for decades. Staples like Apizza Scholls, Nostrana, Lovely's Fifty Fifty and Ken's Artisan Pizza, all opened in the early-aughts — some of the first to bring wood-fired and Neapolitan-style pizza to the city.
- It was a much smaller scene back then, Peter Kost, owner of Ken's Artisan Pizza, which landed on the 50 Top Pizza list earlier this month, told Axios. Everyone knew each other, and pizzerias were spread out across the city, each serving a need in their neighborhood.
Dig in: Sometime in the last few years, the number of pizzerias in town started to grow, and so did the accolades.
- The city has welcomed new additions like Asian-inspired Hapa Pizza, vegan Detroit-style Boxcar Pizza, all-day destination Cafe Olli and NE Killingsworth's No Saint — all of which have gained local and national attention for their spins on the classic slice.
- "I do think that it creates more pressure," Gabriella Casabianca, owner and sommelier at No Saint, told Axios when describing how it feels to be in the spotlight. "None of those lists will help us in the day-to-day, but they will create more curiosity about what we're doing."
What we're watching: Kost doesn't think pizza has become synonymous with Portland in the same way New York has, but the newly-crowned "best" label, "puts us all on our toes, like we have something to uphold now."