PNW Relocation Blog

Well, for the final day of Pizza Week I decided to keep it simple, but make the trek (drive) out to the St. Johns neighborhood for the offering at the pizzeria LoveVerona. Day 7 of 7 pizza eats were: Pizza Name: The Butcher Pie What's on it?: Tomato Sauce, Pepperoni, Bacon, Prosciutto, House Made Italian Sausage, Romano Cheese The Inspiration: Speaking of our employees, we have an incredible (mostly) female-powered staff who make workplace and restaurant so special, warm, and inviting. Because of their amazing attention to detail, customer service, and passion for good pizza, our business thrives every single day. We wouldn’t want to be working with anyone else in any other city, and we can’t wait to continue expanding our Portland footprint for many years to come.  I called in the order to pick up as a late-ish lunch (was a semi-productive lounging/laundry/#homehaircut morning/midday) , and ordered the pizza plus their Pera Italiana salad.  It was 30 ...

So, Saturday's Pizza Week exploration ended up going entirely differently than I had planned.  I was thinking of doing a possible twofer today (like yesterday), but ended up only checking out one place for Pizza Week, and it was one that I had NOT planned to hit during this event.  Sometimes you just have to follow through on a recommendation... Saturday mornings generally start early for me these days with an 8-10am volunteer shift at the Lan Su Chinese Garden, which is about 0.5 miles away from me, across the Burnside Bridge over in Old Town.  It was during my shift, chatting with the horticulturalist, that I ended up with the recommendation that I followed up on.  Turns out she also was hitting all the Pizza Week places, but hitting all the ones with vegan options (as she is vegan).  I happened to ask specifically if she had checked out the vegan pizza place (Boxcar Pizza) that's kind of near me for their Pizza Week special, and she emphatically indicated yes...

For Pizza Week Day 5, I ended up doing a twofer -- pizza for lunch, pizza for dinner. Lunch pizza was a slice of Chinese BBQ Pork Brisket Pizza, from Danwei Canting.  I needed to drop off my loaner laptop to the local organization that runs the IRS free tax preparation service I was volunteering at for this past tax season, and just so happens that Danwei Canting is within 2 blocks of that place, and doing a Pizza Week special. With laptop dropped off, plan was to grab a slice, a few meat skewers, and a pint for a quick lunch.  Everything went according to plan and was really tasty.  I have Danwei Canting on loose rotation for good eats, but I get lazy sometimes cuz it's ~0.5 miles way on foot, and to drive there, parking sux. So, about the pizza: What's on it?: Fatty Pork Brisket slow roasted in Chinese Spices, Sweet Peppers, Mushrooms, Red Onion, Mozzarella & Cheddar Cheese, BBQ Sauce, baked fresh on a Focaccia Crust. The Inspiration: When Marco Polo trekked t...

Thursday, April 21, 2022 For today's Pizza Week exploration I landed on Gladstone Street Pizza, for their Pizza Week creation named Now I Actually Love Kale.  (Notable that I actually like kale already, but was very interested in what they're doing with it...) I had never been to this place nor ever driven by, although I'd been to the Safeway on Powell & Cesar Chavez Street that is a few blocks up and over a few times, so the general area was familiar.  Gladstone St. Pizza is in SE Portland, in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood. I ordered through their link off their IG, and ordered for pick up in 35 minutes. Turned out parking sucked and I had to circle over 1/4 mile to still end up parking 2 blocks away for street parking. Pizza wasn't ready but staff person was apologetic and offered that I could grab drink for free for inconvenience.  I declined but appreciated the gesture.  Really was just like 4 minutes total before I was out the door with pizza...

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 Wednesday's pizza week adventure was to Red Sauce Pizza, a place way out in NE on Fremont Street, for their Big Daddy Bolognese. Per the establishment, the Big Daddy Bolognese breakdown is: What's on it?: Mozzarella, pecorino, grana, fresh basil, pepperoncini, bolognese sauce The Inspiration: Our pizza week pie is the Big Daddy Bolognese. This pie features bolognese made with Pat N Tams pasture-raised beef. The beef is raised in Stanfield, Oregon and dry-aged 17-21 days. Pepperoncini and fresh basil balance the bolognese sauce and make for a stand out pizza. This pizza adventure was also a meetup and catchup with my Portland State University friend, and while we were expecting it to be a full dine-in opportunity, it turned out they were only doing takeout through their side window, but had a few pub height tables and stools set up out front for ppl that wanted to eat in-spot.  That worked for us, although we adjourned a bit quickly becaus...

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 After a day of RT leftovers and other casual eating at home, I checked in officially for Pizza Week with ordering the Me and Luigi, from Meta Pizza, for dinner takeout. More on the Me and Luigi, from the establishment: What's on it?: Red sauce, Calabrian chili, garlic, rapini, Italian sausage, seasoned ricotta, pecorino romano The Inspiration: On a trip last year to New York to visit family, we scouted a bunch of pizza shops in Brooklyn. But there are so many, how do you narrow it down? Well, we asked local bar owners! After chatting with the owners of Hinterlands Bar in Kensington, they sent us to Luigi's, an old school shop in South Slope. I got a square slice with broccoli raab, mozz and pecorino. It was so damn good I had to riff on it. Our version is a bit more hearty, with Italian sausage and Calabrian chili and garlic punching up the flavors and textures. I had driven by Meta Pizza and remembered its name catching my eye, bu...

Sunday, April 17, 2022 So, I decided to start blogging random things I'm doing and otherwise taking part in here in Portland, since my plans to blog my whole relocated life kinda... didn't happen.  But, LIFE did happen, and a fair amount of it pretty good, so there's that. Anyway, for this series of blog posts, I'm commemorating my 2022 Portland Pizza Week adventures.   Put on by the Portland Mercury, Pizza Week is an event where local spots create a specialty pizza offered at special pricing, at $3/slice and/or $20 a pie. I decided to treat myself to a pre-Pizza Week Easter Sunday pizza favorite, so headed out to SE 82nd Avenue, to my current fave Round Table Pizza location for take-out. XL Pizza + garlic parmesan twists will last me well through tomorrow, but am thinking I will grab a slice for dinner manana at one of the spots I've bookmarked for the week's hit list. In the meantime, salami & mushroom pizza goodness to finish out the Easter evening (I sh...