On Saturday, September 23, the inaugural One Chew Pizza Fest was held in a rain-soaked ballpark in Coney Island. The competition was the topic of an enormous controversy, due to the determine placing it on: Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy.
Since 2017, Portnoy has hosted a sequence known as One Chew Pizza Evaluations on his YouTube channel, the place his 1.05 million subscribers tune in for his ideas on varied pizzas. Portnoy assigns a rating to every pie after taking a number of bites, and gives commentary on the crust, the sauce, and different components. The primary-ever One Chew Pizza Fest was Portnoy’s try and carry collectively his favourite pizzerias, together with Prince Road Pizza in New York and Sally’s Apizza in Connecticut, for ticket consumers who paid as a lot as $700 for the VIP expertise.
However forward of the competition, eating places who selected to take part have been criticized by meals media figures like J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Instagram influencer Joe Rosenthal for participating within the occasion, as a result of Portnoy has a well-documented historical past of offensive speech, and a number of ladies have accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment. He doesn’t make his opinions or attitudes a secret, and his habits is sufficient that many pizza followers are rightly involved to see their favourite outlets affiliate with him.
But, in line with Portnoy, at least 5,000 individuals attended the competition, regardless of the “haters” who tried to “destroy this occasion.” And judging by the storied pizzerias, together with Di Fara, Lucali, and Frank Pepe, who selected to take part within the Fest, and the truth that so many individuals confirmed up within the rain for bites of pizza, it’s clear Portnoy’s affect within the pizza world stays robust. However why?
What’s the take care of Dave Portnoy?
It’s not Portnoy’s pizza opinions that make him a controversial determine. In 2003, he launched the web site Barstool Sports activities, which earned an enormous following for its raunchy, blatantly offensive model of sports activities protection. As only a transient abstract of his offensive remarks, Portnoy has urged that some ladies who put on skinny denims need to be raped, condoned homophobic, misogynistic, and racist language, and used a misogynist slur to check with an ESPN host who identified Barstool Sports activities’ historical past of sexist remarks.
Portnoy denies that Barstool Sports activities is “anti-women.” In 2018 he informed Insider “I gave two ladies their very own radio present … We’ve employed woman after woman — they are saying it’s an ideal place to work.” Portnoy has additionally mentioned a few of these remarks have been made “off the cuff,” however has made little apology. “We’re sick of different individuals saying what different individuals ought to snort at,” he informed Insider. “Folks appear to have ethical superiority.”
Portnoy has been the topic of sexual misconduct allegations from a number of ladies, a few of whom say he engaged in “violent” intercourse and others who declare he filmed them with out their consent. Portnoy has vehemently denied all allegations of sexual misconduct, and filed a defamation go well with towards Insider, who printed the reporting in 2021. A decide dismissed Portnoy’s go well with in November 2022.
Portnoy has additionally been accused of threatening his critics. In early September, he posted a video trashing Boston pizzeria Dragon Pizza, which he described because the “worst pizza place in America.” Within the video, Portnoy has an encounter with proprietor Charlie Redd, who criticized Portnoy’s “one-bite” overview type. The 2 ended up in a heated trade, and each Redd and Portnoy addressed the incident on their social media platforms. Portnoy additionally appeared on Tucker Carlson’s X present to speak concerning the incident, instantly after which the pizzeria was flooded with dangerous opinions and harassing feedback. Weeks later, Portnoy stans are nonetheless leaving nasty feedback on Dragon Pizza’s Instagram posts.
Those that defend Portnoy’s habits level to his assist for small companies, that means the pizzerias that he bestows with good opinions. His devoted viewers of three million Twitter followers and 4.5 million on Instagram clearly trusts his pizza opinions. Portnoy additionally raised $29 million for small companies because the COVID-19 pandemic pressured eating places throughout the nation to close down. A pizzeria that earns overview from Portnoy also can, usually, anticipate a significant bump in enterprise. A New Jersey pizzeria proprietor informed Fox Enterprise that Portnoy “saved” her enterprise, whereas a Maine pizzeria reported being “overwhelmed” with orders instantly after Portnoy’s overview went up. (Notably, Dragon Pizza was additionally “packed” after Redd’s spat with Portnoy.)
Why is that this all coming to a head now?
Although all of this has been public information for a while, information of the competition reinvigorated critics of Portnoy, One Chew Pizza, and Barstool Sports activities. Meals author J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and mathematician and self-proclaimed “meals antagonist” Joe Rosenthal have complained concerning the pizza business’s ongoing assist of Portnoy on their Instagrams, with Rosenthal compiling knowledge about Portnoy together with allegations made towards him and writing — in response to the information and allegations — “Don’t let the meals world proceed to allow this hurt.”
Final week on NJ.com, Jeremy Schneider puzzled aloud “why are N.J. pizzerias supporting misogynist bully Dave Portnoy?” and known as for pizzerias to drop out of the weekend’s competition. And in his e-newsletter the Lo Occasions, Ryan Sutton makes the purpose that though Portnoy’s habits is sufficient purpose to keep away from his content material, the One Chew Pizza Pageant wasn’t even deal. “Why pay the very best value you’ve ever paid for pizza — $150-$300 per individual — if the realm’s high eating places are feeding New Yorkers for simply $3 to $6 a slice?,” he writes. “And people Portnoy tickets don’t even get you alcohol! I hate to say this, however you’ve all been shaken down.”
The general public pushback appears to be getting louder, however none of this data is new, which raises the query: Why has it taken this lengthy for individuals to publicly communicate up? One purpose could be the sample of harassment that follows many who criticize Portnoy. Each Schneider and Emily Heil, writer of a current Washington Publish article chronicling Portnoy’s historical past and the controversy across the competition, are at present enduring harassment from Portnoy and his followers.
On his weblog, Portnoy says Schneider shouldn’t have “gone to battle” towards him, and “I don’t need to hear him cry about how the Stoolie bullied him after he threw the primary punch and that he deserves all the pieces he’s about to get.” (Portnoy followers are known as “Stoolies.”) He additionally issued what appeared like a imprecise menace to any pizzerias who might have pulled out of his competition: “Now, don’t get me flawed I’m not frightened about locations dropping as a result of I’ve shut relationships with virtually all of them and so they love me. However think about if I didn’t?” In a current pizza overview video, he additionally inspired followers to flip off J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.
A lot of Portnoy’s followers are identified to spam and harass anybody who criticizes him, whether or not it’s insulting detractors in Instagram feedback or doxxing individuals, and the proprietor of Dragon Pizza says quickly after Portnoy uploaded a video of his and Portnoy’s combat on-line, he started receiving loss of life threats.
It’s comprehensible that many eating places could need to hold their heads down. However others see no drawback with Portnoy, or in the event that they do, they consider his actions and private statements ought to don’t have anything to do together with his pizza opinions. Kevin Jackson, common supervisor of John’s of Bleecker Road, informed the Washington Publish he wasn’t conscious of any assault allegations, however “whenever you discuss enterprise practices, he was the man elevating thousands and thousands of {dollars} for companies throughout COVID. He’s been good to pizzerias and eating places basically. That’s my tackle that.”
On its Instagram, One Chew Pizza Fest participant Andrew Bellucci’s Pizzeria wrote “PIZZA and politics don’t combine!” And certain, most of us would in all probability be glad to by no means take into consideration our pizzaiolos’ political views. However Portnoy’s deeds are public, so supporters are pressured to reckon with them. He’s the one who introduced politics into the equation.
There’s no denying Portnoy’s affect and the income he can generate for pizzerias. However it’s maybe due to the risky nature of the restaurant business within the first place that Portnoy has amassed a lot energy. Margins are razor skinny, third-party supply firms are consuming up income, and inflation is making calculating simply how a lot somebody is keen to pay for a slice of pizza ever extra fraught. If one video can drive site visitors and income for months, even years, on finish, why look that present horse within the mouth?
Nonetheless, there’s loads of proof that pizzerias don’t have to be acknowledged by Portnoy to be able to survive, and even thrive. As Sutton writes, “A lot of the Tri-State space’s finest pizzerias didn’t attend Portnoy’s competition and possibly received’t attend future ones. Let that sink in.”
The place will we go from right here?
One factor appears abundantly clear: Portnoy has no plans to get out of the pizza overview enterprise, which implies that if pizzerias don’t need to be related to Portnoy, they might need to actively — and publicly — reject his endorsement. However as we’ve seen, that’s an motion that may have severe penalties — Redd says that he handled loss of life threats after Portnoy’s look on Tucker Carlson’s present, and his historical past of harassing reporters (and, sometimes suing them) is well-documented.
However for pizzerias who really feel voicing their distaste for Portnoy may harm their enterprise, there’s another choice: Simply ignore him. There’s no want for these institutions to affiliate themselves with Portnoy, even when he’s driving new enterprise. Don’t repost his opinions, don’t thank him, and don’t benefit from his platform in an effort to make a number of further bucks. There is probably not a lot pizzeria homeowners can do about Portnoy displaying up with a video digital camera and score their pies, however they will refuse to have interaction with the hype he’s making an attempt to create.
The identical goes for the remainder of us within the common studying public. Anybody can eat sufficient pizza to develop their very own style and experience on it. There’s no must ask Dave Portnoy the place to get good pizza, particularly when it appears as if his pizza competition sort of sucked. It was windy, wet, and overly saturated with massive photos of Portnoy’s face, for some purpose. There are many nice, truly well-researched pizza guides on the market, which aren’t based mostly on the opinions of only one man and don’t include a aspect of repulsiveness.
