Portland isn't New York, Chicago, New Haven, or Detroit. These cities have their own pizza culture and unique styles they are known for. Despite the Rose City's pizza scene blossoming in recent years, there is arguably no "Portland Pizza Style". If Portland will be known for a pizza style, unique to this great food city, my money is on Lovely's 50/50 blazing the trail. Lovely's pies are weird (Keep Portland Weird) and use hyperlocal ingredients. It's this combination of unconventional ingredients (think flowers etc on your pizza) and how close to home they are procured that makes their pies feel the most Portland of any place we have tried to date.
Lovely's pizza is also as beautiful to look at, as it is to good to eat. Follow Sarah Minnick (Lovely's co-owner) on
Instagram for an insider look into what I am talking about.
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| Margherita |
Lovely's is another one of many wood fired pizza shops in town. They utilize high quality flour from Central Milling, and naturally leaven their dough with a sourdough starter. Their menu changes daily as well. Check out what they currently have by clicking here.
We started with the Marga. The crust is what I dream of. The puffy outside crust, yet thin on the remainder of the slice. The dough was up there with Ash Wood Fired as the best we have had so far this year. Veggie Doughboy thought it had the best char that we have tasted this year.
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Wood Fired Oven
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| Marga Slice |
We thought the Marga could use more sauce and basil. As you can see in the pictures above both were a bit lacking. However, it was still a top notch Marga.
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| Spinach & Chard |
The spinach and chard was really unique. It is a beautiful pie, and the freshness was obvious with every bite. The flavors go together, and the dough really shines. However, the quantify of greens on this made it feel more like eating a salad than a pizza. Good pie, but not great in our opinion.
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| Calcot Onion, Potato, Yogurt, & Peas. |
Yay flowers! Our first pizza with flowers on it. This combination of flavors went well together. I wasn't sure if I should frame this or eat it. This is a Portland pizza! It's weird, local, and excellent. This pie was our favorite of the night.
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| Salami w/ Mama Lil's |
The lone carnivorous combo was the Salami w/ Mama Lil's and fresh olives. All the strong flavors from the toppings took away from the excellent dough on this one. I liked it, but the topping combination overpowered the dough and sauce flavors that I like to come through in an excellent pie.
Lovely's is putting out excellent pizza. This is a must stop for any pizza lover, and is certainly in the running for best pizza in the city. Regardless of how Lovely's finishes in our year long expedition, it is definitely the torch bearer for creating a pizza style that represents Portland.
Overall Score: #6 (Tie)
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