My first stop in 2018, and first ever without Veggie Doughboy was to Please Louise. Please Louise is located in the ever changing Slabtown neighborhood, located between the Alphabet District and the Pearl District in NW Portland. This was a really smart location for Please Louise to choose to open. There aren't many options for great Za in this area of town.
Scott Lawrence (Breakside Brewery owner), Brian Carrick, and Brian Lamback (former Wildwood, and Tasty and Alder chef) opened the doors to Please Louise in the Summer of 2016. Their goal wasn't to open a pizzeria in the traditional sense, rather a full service restaurant with a focus on pizza. They also didn't want to be an Italian restaurant, because they wanted freedom offer a variety of cuisines. I had a chance to visit with Brian Lamback, who was slinging pies the night of my visit. It was great to meet him and get an in-depth perspective of his restaurant.
Please Louise is putting out great pizza. This was clear from the first bite. Brian is drawing on years of diverse chef experience to create unique pizza in Portland. He has worked in many pizzerias over the years, which has helped define his favorite pizza style to make. Please Louise's pizza most closely resembles a Neo-Neapolitan (AKA Neapolitan American) style. This requires high gluten flour in the dough and high temperatures for the bake. Let's get to the pies...
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| Left: Wild Mushroom. Right:Margherita |
The Wild Mushroom is made up of chanterelles, pancetta, gorgonzola, sage, and honey. I loved this pie! For me, this pie is representative of Brian's culinary background. This is an example of an ingredient driven approach he learned in his time at Wildwood. It's creative, different, and excellent. In Brian's words, "I learned (at Wildwood) how to let the ingredients show me their potential." Every ingredient on this pie meets its potential in my opinion. Excellent combination! Excellent pie! This was my favorite of the night.
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| Marga |
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| Wild Mushroom |
Please Louise makes their own dough daily. They preferment for 24 hours to build flavor and don't refrigerate until the proofing needs to slow down. The quality shows through in their crust. The high heat bake creates a perfect crunch and chew. I prefer the crust a bit more airy and charred, but this is more of a stylistic quality I gravitate towards. If you are a Neopolitan lover, or more specifically Neo-Neopolitan, you will likely think this crust is pure perfection.
The Margherita was great. There was less sauce and more cheese than I expected, but it worked. They clearly use the best ingredients. The flavor of the sauce was excellent. I prefer a chunkier sauce, but this Marga was very good.
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| Bottom-Left: Bolognese, Top-Right: Fennel Sausage |
The Fennel Sausage is one of their most popular pies and for good reason. This pie consists of mozzarella, provolone, onion, sausage, and calabrian chiles. The sausage is house made and it is excellent. The pie includes generous portions of sausage and it goes really well with the other ingredients.
The Bolognese is their current special. Brian loves experimenting with ingredients. The Bolognese is a great example of this. Brian draws on his vast culinary experience to come up with fun, creative, and unexpectedly delicious pizza combinations. I love this approach! His take on a traditional pasta dish worked well. The charred broccolini on top was an excellent addition. I would order this again.
The Bittersweet is another example of their creative spirit. This one time special, now mainstay menu option, is made up of balsamic braised radicchio, smoked mozz, garlic, and walnuts. As Brian put it, "this combination yields so much umami that you can forget that you're eating a vegetarian pie." I definitely will try this one next time I visit.
Please Louise offers a full arsenal of artisan extras. Olive oil, balsamic, chili oil, chili flakes, and parm give the guest many options to tweak their pie. I love it when a restaurant provides extras to allow the guest to personalize their pie.
All in all, I loved Please Louise. I would highly recommend checking them out. Congratulations, you broke into my Top Ten!
Overall Rank: #10 (tied)
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