Barstool's Dave Portnoy hits 3 Pittsburgh-area pizzerias, tries Turner's tea

Famed Boston-based pizza reviewer Dave Portnoy descended upon Pittsburgh recently to review three pizza places, Beto’s Pizza and Fiori’s Pizzaria in Pittsburgh and Juliano’s in Robinson. He came away impressed by all three.

Portnoy is well known as the celebrity founder of the sports and pop culture website Barstool Sports (and more recently, as a stock day trader, using his $100 million net worth). But his “One Bite with Davey Pageviews” pizza review videos has built a dedicated online following.

The concept is pretty simple. The camera rolls as he walks out of a pizza joint, opens a box and starts chowing down. He then rates the pizza on a scale of 1 to 10. There is no apparent editing as he munches and talks about the pizza (with liberal use of locker-room profanity), standing and pulling cuts out of the box.

The very concept of the “cut” seemed to confuse Portnoy as he stood outside of Fiori’s.

“I thought this was gonna be square,” said Portnoy as he held up a triangle-shaped piece of pizza. “Everybody in there is calling this a cut. So is that a cut? So, they just call slices ‘cuts’? That can’t be right.”

Barstool Pizza Review - Fiori's Pizzaria (Pittsburgh, PA) Bonus Iced Tea Review pic.twitter.com/dtJWg6BOUI

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 17, 2020

Then Portnoy takes a bite of pizza and has to spit it back out because it’s too hot.

“That burned my face and I had to let it go. I had to throw it back in the ocean, as they say.” But it’s clear that Portnoy likes what he is eating. “This kinda tastes like New Haven pizza. It’s a little greasy but overall very good.”

After wondering if it’s too greasy to give it an 8, Portnoy settles on a 7.8 score. But he has an even higher rating for a carton of Turner’s Premium Ice Tea.

“I hear everyone in there saying, ‘Give me a carton of ice tea,’ like recycling has not hit this area. So, finally I say, ‘Give me a carton of ice tea.’ Something has to be up with this ice tea. I’m looking like is this gonna be local? And what do we got? ‘Pittsburgh’s favorite ice tea since 1972.’ Have you ever heard of a carton of ice tea? They’re ordering it like it’s gold. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Portnoy ends up giving the tea a 9.2 score, as he winks at the camera.

Fiori’s 71-year-old owner Fiori Moscatiello, who was born in Italy and moved to Pittsburgh in 1972, said he had never heard of Portnoy and was so busy in his basement office that he never even had the chance to meet him when he showed up on Tuesday. The next day Moscatiello said he noticed that a lot of young people were showing up and ordering a cut of pizza and a carton of Turner’s tea but otherwise was unfazed by the attention. “My Pizza speaks for itself. My customers like it and they come in.”

Moscatiello’s son Luciano took exception to Portnoy’s comment about the pizza being greasy.”We use quality cheese. If it’s fake synthetic cheese there’s no grease. Besides pizza making is not a competition, it’s an art form.”

Earlier in his Steel City travels, Portnoy visited Beto’s, which is famous for not putting cheese on their pizzas before baking them. Instead, the cold, shredded provolone cheese goes on after the pizza comes out of the oven.

Portnoy liked it.

“It’s good and fresh. I’m going with a 7.2.” He then proceeds to interview a female employee at Beto’s who made a TikTok video about Portnoy. “Dave from Barstool Sports saw my TikTok and he’s eating Beto’s pizza right out there. Oh my God!” she says on the video.

As for Juliano’s, the restaurant said on its Facebook page that “due to the overwhelming response we have received from the Barstool pizza review we have been featured in, our dining room will be temporarily closed to allow us to keep up with the added take-out and delivery orders.”

In his review of Juliano’s, Portnoy mentions that he loves how Juliano’s posts a list of former employees and what they’re doing now.

“Joanna Reed, restaurant owner, Anthony DeFalco, executive chef, Joe BeIinsky, CPA, they’re everywhere. I love that! You were at Juliano’s and it’s like you are on the wall of fame.”

He also likes the pizza. “It looks like a basic pizza, 7.5. Pretty good solid people.”

But in his typical style, Portnoy, a New Englander, can’t resist taking a parting shot at the Steelers.

“I respect Steelers fans, I always have, Terrible Towels, some of the best fans in the country. Maybe the world,” he said. “So, I feel bad when we beat ‘em every time.”