A Ledgered Meal: Cutie Pie Pizzeria, Portland
Let’s hear it for the local and unfranchised! Portland’s got no shortage of pizza joints, but we’ll always root for the little guys next to the dive bar.
Cutie Pie Pizzeria recently set up their ovens next door to the Mad Hanna, our neighborhood watering hole, and after hearing about their $8 10" cheese pizza, we stopped by the other day to try them out. Wednesday, a bit after 5PM, might be prime dinner time, but not necessarily for dining out.
We got a table after placing our order and watched other folks dine in or carry out while a fantastic playlist of 60's garage rock kept us nodding our heads (and singing along with The Creation as well as The Pretty Things). In a sea of vapid auto-tuned sonic wallpaper, hearing those fuzzed-out classics felt like a wink to anyone raised on Nuggets box sets (or even the original vinyl for the particularly privileged).
The half order of pesto knots arrived first, tiding us over with savory, doughy bites (yes, what goes better with pizza than... more dough?!) and the accompanying red sauce. A half order gets you four twists, hot and lightly charred, with just enough herby punch to feel indulgent.
The Evergreen is a potent slab of pesto, roasted whole garlic cloves, cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil. No red sauce, no mozzarella—and surprisingly, nothing feels missing. It’s a bold mix that delivers on flavor and freshness, and the garlic hits like Eddie Phillips' punchy guitar on "Painter Man." I hadn't been walloped like that with cloves since Star Pizza in Houston, over a decade ago, and boy did I miss the smackdown.
The monthly special is a combination of mushroom, ricotta cheese, bacon, arugula, red sauce, and mozzarella, which we opted to get calzone-style. It takes a few minutes for the chief pie chef to assemble and bake the orders, and they come in for landing piping hot. The calzone crust was blistered and golden, holding up to a generous, well-balanced filling.
Portland is graced with pizza joints that provide the panoply of options—from the Michelin-famous to the unabashedly utilitarian—and Cutie Pie is already halfway to becoming the kind of place you tell newcomers about like it’s always been there.
