What does a Bay Area pizzeria do when a controversial media personality with a long history of inflammatory remarks drops by and praises its award-winning slices to the heavens?
In the case of uptown Oakland’s highly regarded Mama’s Boy Pizza (opens in new tab), which had a visit this week from Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, the answer is: “Take it in stride.”
Portnoy and his team, in town for the Super Bowl, dropped into Mama’s Boy unannounced around 1 p.m. Tuesday, steered there by commenters on X who said it is one of the best slice shops in the Bay. Although he has yet to drop his “One Bite Review (opens in new tab)” on YouTube, Portnoy posted his unequivocal thoughts to Facebook (opens in new tab). “I found the best pizza in the Bay Area, and it’s not particularly close so far,” he wrote in his pizza-reviewing “El Presidente” capacity.
Mama’s Boy owners Ezra Berman and Miles Palliser. | Source: Astrid Kane/The Standard
While quick to acknowledge Portnoy’s extensive rap sheet of abuse allegations and provocations — including claims of sexual assault (opens in new tab), calling for the murder of former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll (opens in new tab), and comparing former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to a terrorist (opens in new tab) — Mama’s Boy owners Ezra Berman and Miles Palliser recognized that his endorsement carries considerable weight.
“Him coming in and saying good things is better than him coming in and saying bad things,” said Berman.
Receiving a glowing review doesn’t mean endorsing any of Portnoy’s non-pizza beliefs, Palliser added. “You can probably tell from where I live and what I choose to do in my life that I probably don’t align with his politics,” he said. “But the truth is I don’t know enough about his politics to completely judge a person. We don’t talk politics. We talk pizza.”
As fewer than 24 hours have elapsed since Portnoy’s Facebook post, the shop hasn’t seen a bump in business, but the owners are hoping for a boost from the forthcoming One Bite Review. To their knowledge, no other celebrity of Portnoy’s stature had ever visited their 12-seat restaurant near the bustling corner of Grand Avenue and Broadway. “If they did, we didn’t know about it,” Berman said.
Still, Mama’s Boy has received no shortage of acclaim, as framed plaques on its walls attest. Berman and Palliser won seventh place last year (opens in new tab) in the Top Pizza Slice USA competition — better than any other pizzeria on the West Coast. Palliser credits their success to high-quality ingredients, consistency he attributes to low staff turnover, and the fact that the two partners once ate 44 slices of pizza in four days as they figured out their business plan. These days, the fan favorite is burrata pizza with hot honey.
Mama’s Boy wasn’t the only Bay Area pizzeria on El President’s radar. On Monday, Portnoy stopped by The Pizza Shop (opens in new tab) in the Mission, giving it 7.2 out of 10 during a review (opens in new tab) in which he erroneously called it “Slice Shop” and embarrassingly referred to the city as “San Fran.”
“It was a good review, not great,” The Pizza Shop employee Paul Wanushek said. “I’m an abrasive East Coast guy like he is, but obviously with the SF progressive soul. It is what it is. He seems like a nice enough guy. We just talked the Patriots.”