Blind Onion Pizza Opening New Portland Location in 2022

Love the look of this twisty crust.

While perusing city documents I came across an indication that Blind Onion Pizza & Pub, a popular pizzeria on NE Broadway near 33rd Avenue, is opening up a new Portland location—in the old Cheese Bar space on SE Belmont.

I reached out to the Blind Onion folks and they responded with this:

“We are opening a new location on Belmont. Super excited about it. We are looking at a February or maybe March opening depending on how fast we can wrap up the build out. It will basically be the same menu as the Broadway location with maybe a couple little differences.”

It’s the Crust

There are a lot of pizza joints in town—Portland is, of course, one of the best pizza cities (if not the best) in the US. We’ve got Life of Pie’s Neapolitan-style pies; the Detroit-style pies at East Glisan Pizza Lounge; the Roman pinsa flatbreads at Montesacro; beautiful seasonally-inspired pies at Lovely’s Fifty Fifty; the NYC-style slices at Escape From New York; New Haven apizzas at Dimo’s; and many others in town. But Blind Onion holds their own with a pizza crust style that is different from that at any other pizzeria in Portland.

Their crust has a flavor and texture that is just plain enjoyable to eat, and the pizzeria has a devoted following. I sometimes crave their pizza just for the crust—it’s crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and a little sweet. Some describe it as a soft-pretzel. Willamette Week in 2012 is right on the money when it describes the crust like this: “It’s basically baguette dough, thick and soft with a twisty outer ring.”

I find that twisty look to be visually appealing. As for its breadiness, that is part of its charm. It really does scratch an particular kind of itch.

Blind Onion History

Blind Onion is a small franchise located in southwestern Washington (Vancouver) and northern Nevada (Reno and Elko)—plus the original location on Broadway in Portland, located on the ground floor of a house. That space was home to a number of things over the years—a bar in the 1930s (Cubby Hole); a knick-knack shop (Weird Old Harold’s), a coffee shop, and pizzeria (General’s Pizza). Additional history:

“The two partners in anticipation of opening were in a quandary as to a name so they went on a fact finding trip to San Francisco, the hot bed of cool in the 50s. They visited many bars, clubs, restaurants and coffee houses and really liked the name of two places. The Purple Onion and The Blind Lemon. After a week of vacation and untold amounts of booze they split the names and The Blind Onion was born. The rest ‘as they say’ is pizza history.”

I’ll be happy to see them open this new location in SE Portland, offering pizzas, salads, sandwiches, and more, and I hope they will really enjoy being in the Mount Tabor neighborhood.

Blind Onion Pizza (opening 2022)
6031 SE Belmont Street, Portland
blindonion.com | Facebook