Pizza Thief Will Open in Southeast Portland

Pizza Thief, a popular pizzeria in Northwest Portland selling New York-style pies, is opening a second standalone location in Southeast Portland later this year. They’ll move in the old Virtuous Pie space. I spoke with one of the owners, Tony Pasquale, about the new spot and here is what I learned.

Pizza Thief’s: Background and Name Origin Story

On the Pizza Thief About page, they explain why they named the pizzeria “Pizza Thief.” And yes, it has to do with absconding with pizzas:

“In our formative years, we were notorious for stealing pizzas from our local pizzerias. At the tender age of 18 I (Darby Aldaco) was arrested for stealing a Domino’s pizza, charged $8 for my crime, and subsequently lost my date to prom. As a teenager, my brothers and I (Tony Pasquale) would dare each other to steal pizzas from stopped delivery cars in the neighborhood. Somehow, after our pizza bandit days, we found one another, became friends, then housemates and now are ready to start our pizza dynasty.”

They opened Pizza Thief on NW Vaughn in summer 2021. The SE Pizza Thief will be their third location, and their second freestanding location (they are also at Great Notion Brewing on NW 28th Avenue).

Pizza Thief at Great Notion Brewing

Speaking of Great Notion Brewing, they established a presence at the brewery’s Northwest Portland taproom last year (2024) in a mutually beneficial arrangement. “It’s kind of a dual purpose,” said Tony. “We needed a commissary kitchen because we had outgrown capacity at Vaughn Street. So we were looking for a commissary kitchen, and then we were friends with the owner, Pauly, at Great Notion.”

He continued, “He was looking for someone to take over his food service at the Northwest brewery. So it works out great because it’s got a huge kitchen—kind of the size of our whole operation on Vaughn Street.”

Co-Founder Tony Pasquale

Along with running Pizza Thief, Tony works at Lululemon. He has spent a number of years in the corporate world, working at Adidas as VP of Merchandising prior to opening Pizza Thief. “I left Adidas, but then after opening the pizzeria I was recruited back. So I’m there part time and then at the pizzeria part time,” explained Tony.

Co-Founder Darby Aldaco

Darby is the head chef at Pizza Thief. “Darby was heavily in the food business,” explained Tony. “He worked with Nancy Silverton in LA, and basically did all her pizza at Mozza and at Triple Beam Pizza. His last job was doing the dough and bread at Bub & Grandma’s in LA, which is one of the best bakeries and sandwich makers there.”

This New Pizza Thief Location

Of course I was curious to learn why they decided to open up in this space. I thought that the fact that it was already set up as a pizzeria no doubt was a selling point. “So we’ve been looking on the east side,” said Tony. “We’re from the east side.”

He continued, “I’ve been in Portland for almost 15 years, and we lived in Southeast Portland. So we always wanted to be in Southeast Portland. The reason why we opened up in Northwest Portland was because at the time Adidas had moved us all over to Montgomery Park while they expanded the campus. And we quickly realized it was a pizza desert over there in Northwest Portland.

“So we started there, but we’ve always wanted to be in Southeast, so it’s almost like coming home to the Southeast side.”

And here is the answer to my assumption that it was gonna be easy street to open a new pizzeria in a former pizzeria. “You know what? That was a thought,” remarked Tony. “But Darby needed to reconfigure the kitchen and everything. So we ending up gutting it.”

The Dining Room

Turns out they are also redesigning the dining room. “We’re actually increasing the dining capacity and reducing the size of the kitchen because we have all of our prep done at the commissary kitchen,” explained Tony. “So we don’t need much of a big kitchen. All we really need is space to make the pies and top the pies, and then obviously for the salad and stuff like that.”

Speaking of salad (which you know I love) Tony said, “If you like Nancy’s salads, you’re going to love our salads!”

Why NY-Style Pizza?

As someone who lived for over a decade in a city with a plethora of places making one of the most famous styles of pizza, I had to ask why they wanted to work with New York-style as opposed to other styles. Portland is a great pizza town because there is so much variety (e.g, Detroit, New Haven, NY, Neo-Neapolitan, Chicago, Midwest tavern) and NY-style is not the default here.

“So we’ve both been kind of pizza snobs—-like, all of our lives,” explained Tony. “So we’ve just always loved the thin crust of New York style pizzas. It’s just kind of been our passion over the years.”

He continued, “And then, we always wanted something to be more than that.” That “more” is their sourdough crust. “All our pies are sourdough,” said Tony. And while most of their ingredients are locally grown, organic, farm fresh from farms here in the Northwest, they do import their cheeses from France and Italy.

“So it’s definitely a very New York style pie with a truly West coast spin,” added Tony.

Pizza Thief Menu Changes

I wondered if there would be additions or deviations from the current NW Vaughn Pizza Thief menu. “The only things we’re adding are some of the things on the Great Notion menu that will complement the pizzeria menu,” said Tony. “It’ll be pretty much everything you see at the main location.”

They’ll be adding a couple of appetizers, but are removing sandwiches because at the Southeast Portland location they’ll be next to The Baker’s Mark. They make their bread and prepare sub sandwiches there, so competing didn’t make sense. “We love their sandwiches!” exclaimed Tony.

A Bar

They will have a full service bar at the Southeast PDX location. They’ll offer beer, draft beer, wine, and batch cocktails. They’ll also have some NA options.

For both food and drink, it will be counter service at this new location.

Pizza Thief Menu Faves: Savory and Sweet

Savory

It’s always fun to ask what a restaurant owner and/or chef is particularly enamored with on their menu. “Well, our cheese bread is just next level,” Tony said. “I think it’s really become huge.

He continued, “The meatballs are all made in-house. We do a meatball plate, but we also do the Baller Pizza.” This is, of course, a meatball pizza: It’s made with tomato sauce, fresh basil, ricotta, meatballs (pork-beef), mozz-provolone, grana, Sicilian oregano, and chili flake.

Apparently their meatballs are so sought after, people will ask if they can order sheets of meatballs. “The meatballs are big!” exclaimed Tony.

Sweet

Their ice cream is also very popular, and is available in half-pint containers. “All of our ice creams are made in-house,” said Tony. “They are becoming a huge part of the business, which is exciting.” And while these containers are meant for takeaway, people still eat the ice cream there, straight out of the package.

“And then our Closer Cookie is phenomenal,” said Tony. “It’s one of our trademarks at this point. It’s a triple chocolate hazelnut cookie. And this goes to Darby’s background in pastry.”

“It’s quite heavy,” he added. “Like a quarter pound. It’s a big cookie. When you taste it, it’s worth every bite. It’s just amazing.”

Pizza Thief SE Opening Timeline

They are hoping for November, but like to couch it as sometime in Q4. “It’s a little ways away,” said Tony.

Pizza Thief: Crust, Slices, and Growth

When I asked Tony what sets them apart from their peers, he gave me a thoughtful response. “I think that what sets us apart is really the way we’ve been able to mix a traditional pie—a New York pie—with everything we love about the Northwest,” he explained.

He also remarked that as we are seeing so the arrival of so many Neo-Neapolitan pizzerias in Portland, Pizza Thief’s dedication to sourdough NY-style pies alone sets them apart.

“We’ve always been pizza guys and we definitely want to continue to grow,” said Tony. “But we do it very slowly because we’re just so proud of being part of all these communities. Northwest Portland has been amazing to us and we’re super excited to introduce the Southeast to our pies.

“We’ll grow when we need to grow and when we don’t have to grow that’s fine because we’re just having a good time.”

Another notable thing that sets them apart is that they serve slices along with whole pies. “There’s not a lot of slice shops anymore,” remarked Tony.

“We know it’s labor intensive, but over a third of our business is slices,” explained Tony. “So we always have six to eight pies available for slices. We always have meat slices. We always have vegetarian slices. We always have vegan slices.”

And on that topic of vegan pizza, “Our vegan pie is phenomenal,” said Tony. “I would put it up against anyone’s vegan pie in town. And, yeah, we’re definitely going to make sure we give a nod to Virtuous Pie, which was a big hit. So we’re really excited to bring that to that location.”

“We’re just super excited right now!” exclaimed Tony.

So now we wait until late fall for the arrival of Pizza Thief in SE Portland. I’m looking forward to stopping by and seeing the place, ordering some pizza, salad, and meatballs, and enjoying their new location on the east side. All the best to Tony, Darby, and their team during all the work they’re putting in to bring their pizza and more to us.

Pizza Thief [projected opening November 2025]
1126 SE Division Street, Portland
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