Edan Pizza Will Open in Downtown Portland

A new pizzeria is in the works for downtown Portland called Edan Pizza. It will be helmed by Edan MacQuaid, a very respected pizzaiolo know for his work in the Washington D.C. area. We first published a little blurb about his pizzeria in a recent Small Bites column. Since then, I’ve spoken with Edan to hear more about his plans—here is what I learned.

Edan MacQuaid

Over on the DonRockwell.com forums, Don Rockwell (@DonRocks) himself sung Edan’s praises as a pizza maker (he has participated there as pizza man). So I asked a little about his background.

First, he’s a native Oregonian, born in Corvallis. He was in Maine during his youth, as well as from 2013 until 2019, after which he moved back to Oregon. And between those two stints in the Pine Tree State, he was in the Washington DC area.

But back to Maine, and why he left. “I went to high school in Maine,” Edan explained. “Maine is pretty boring for a teenager. So I had some friends from high school and we all moved to D.C. And then I was just there for many years.”

Working on the East Coast

The first job he got in pizza was when he was 19, at Pizzeria Paradiso. “I was working for Ruth Gresser, who’s a pretty awesome and amazing person, and a chef in her own right,” he said. “I think it was one of the first restaurants to have a Wood Stone wood-burning oven. And, so I started right in there and was there for four years.”

He also worked as 2Amy’s, a Neapolitan pizzeria in DC. “It was a pretty well-known place,” he remarked. He was their head pizzaiolo/chef of day-to-day operations for about seven years. “From the opening day until 2007, I was there.”

He was also at Pizzeria Orso. “And that was my brainchild, basically. It kind of grew into something bigger than I wanted as far as what they invested in it,” he said.

He continued, “We brought over a real wood-burning oven from Naples, Italy, hand built a brick oven. And we had the best doughs. We did all the everything as a really, really authentic Neapolitan, old-world style. That was a good time. But that didn’t work out.

“Shortly after that, I was at Range for a little while with Bryan Voltaggio. And that was pretty fun. That was a big thing that he did there, and I just did the pizzas there for him. “

I asked him how he feels about his pizzaiolo, notoriety. “It’s pretty cool. It feels good!” he exclaimed.

Edan Pizza: What’s In a Name?

I could imagine why he decided to call it Edan Pizza, but I wanted to get it straight from Edan. “Well, there’s a couple couple of reasons,” he explained. “It [the phrase] sounds kind of funny, kind of like ‘eating pizza.’ And I’ve just been in the pizza business so long that it kind of made sense.”

He continued, “When my family and I were trying to come up with a name, we just couldn’t really think anything that was easier. And it was easy to get the the domain name!”

He added, “There was also a guy when I was about 12 or 13 years old that used to tease me and call me “eatin’ pizza.’ So I just felt like it was kind of prophetic.”

Edan and his wife Thea own and will operate Edan Pizza.

What Kind of Pizza at Edan Pizza?

I knew Edan has a reputation of doing Neapolitan-style pizza, so I asked him if he was going to do that here, too. He responded, “I’m just going to do my own thing this time. But it’s going to have a pretty heavy influence from classic Neapolitan stuff.” 


I also wondered what kind of oven he plans to use, and it turns out he is going to use the one he is inheriting from the space, which used to house a MOD Pizza. “It’s an EarthStone oven,” he explained. “It’s pretty big, kind of bigger than what I usually work with. And it takes a little bit longer to cook the pizzas due to the size—and the fact that it’s gas-fired.”

“It’s a big dome oven. It’s pretty nice,” he said.

When we spoke late last month, he had been making a couple pizzas a week. “It’s hard to get the thing as hot as I want it to be, but once I get it hot, it’s putting out some pretty nice pizzas,” he said. “But I have to be up over 700 degrees, for sure.”

He expects the pizzas to cook pretty fast. “The one I made the other night that I was pretty happy with took three minutes,” he said. “It’s going to be fast.”

And on that topic of how the pizza cooks, I asked him about his feelings about char on pizza. “I think that it can be overdone, for sure,” he remarked. “A little bit’s nice, but I don’t think a pizza should be covered in blisters. You really don’t want char on the bottom of your pizza. But I try to get some nice leoparding on there.”

He added, “I don’t want a uniform of color, but leoparding’s nice.” “Leoparding” is a new term for me, and it is truly evocative of the spots of char you find on some pizzas.

The Location and Space of Edan Pizza

As I mentioned earlier, this location used to be a MOD Pizza. And the fact that it was a pizzeria was beneficial to them. “We’re bootstrapping this one pretty hard,” he explained. “We don’t have a lot of money, so we’re fortunate to have the infrastructure and the equipment that it came with.”

However, he did get a new mixer, they have painted the walls, “and there’s some other stuff we did, but we’re going to be just kind of building it up as we get going here,” Edan said.

They are also keeping the same footprint of the room itself, as they are not allowed to do any structural renovation at all. There are some built-in cabinets there, which will remain. 
They also have an induction burner along with the pizza oven.

Their kitchen will be open, and people can see it from the dining room, “almost from everywhere” said Edand. “There’s a big beverage cooler that kind of blocks one line of sight from the front door, but other than that, once you’re sitting down, you can you can see the whole kitchen.”

Also, it’s going to be a counter service place. “You’ll walk up in order and then we’ll either holler your name or bring it out to you when it’s ready,” he said.

Pizza and Not Pizza

Along with pizza they’ll have a few salads. He mentioned a shaved fennel salad, as well as blanched broccoli raab with a little bit of vinaigrette. They’ve got a roast lamb sandwich with roasted vegetables on top, with the aim of serving it on housemade bread, which will likely be made in the pizza oven.

I like to ask about menu favorites, and when I asked Edan that, he replied, “That’s hard to say.” However…

“I told you about Ruth Gresser earlier. I’ve got one that I’m calling ‘Ruth’s Pizza,’ and that’s pretty unique. It’s taken directly off the menu at Pizzeria Paradiso: It’s a base of tomato puree, like a San Marzonano tomato. And then it’s got some shaved garlic, marinated Sicilian capers, a lot of either Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano, and parsley.”

He continued, “Then you make a little well in the cheese, and you put an egg in there, and then when you take it out of the oven, it’s grated bottarga on top. What it winds up, you cook the egg soft enough that you can dip the crust in there. And then, the bottarga’s got like a nice saltiness to it. It’s a lot of bold flavors.”

It reminds me a little of Adjaruli khachapuri.

Drinks

They’ve applied for a Limited-On Premises liquor licence, which means beer, wine, and cider. “I’m hoping to have some pretty good beers,” he explained. “And then we’re going to have we got a big beverage cooler right up front and that’ll have sodas and water and stuff like that. That includes NA beers and other NA drinks.

Authenticity

Ever since I got understandably knocked down a notch or two by Andy Ricker when I asked a question about “authenticity” years ago, I’ve found the topic fascinating when it comes to food. (I spent a lot of time working with the concept of authenticity as a musician in the historically informed performance sphere of Baroque music). So I asked Edan about his thoughts on authenticity as it applies to his work.

“Well, I think I’ve put in the work to understand—just to me, really,” he mused. “I used to tell people I wanted to be able to make pizza in a cave. Because, you know, in the late 1800s or mid 1800s, these guys, they had carts that were basically a rolling fireplaces. The authenticity to me is the ability to just do it in the oldest fashion. The oldest-world style possible. That’s authenticity.”

He then asked, “So is it important? 
Probably after really obsessing about it for a long time, it’s probably not that important.

But, Naples and New York City (Ft. Chicago)

“I think you’d find an argument with pizza about authenticity maybe from the people of Naples. That’s just the birthplace [of pizza], and there can be nothing more authentic than Neoplitan pizza.”

I then told a story I have told many times, “And then you also have New Yorkers. You know, I remember walking in the park with a new friend. It was probably back in 2005. And I mentioned to her that I liked Chicago-style deep dish pizza. And she she basically ripped my head off, yelled at me, ‘That’s not real pizza! ‘That’s not authentic pizza!'” For a die-hard like her, the only real real pizza was New York style.”

Edan replied, “Did they tell you it was a casserole?” Yes, they did!

We also talked about how Portland is a great pizza town. “Portland is absolutely a pizza town. There’s so many good pizzas here,” he said. “It’s humbling to be here as a pizza maker.”

Opening Edan Pizza 


Edan says they hope to open this month. When they are open, it will be from Monday through Saturday at first. They hope to eventually open on Sunday, too, but he has to get the staff for that.

They’ll be open for lunch starting at 11:30am because that’s a really popular area for lunch. “We’re going to set a limited number of dough balls, no less than 100, and then we’re going to stay up until we sell out,” he explained. If they don’t run out, the closing hour will be 7pm.

And they’ll offer two sizes of pizza: 11-inch and 16-inch. 
His liquor license application is in process and he has requested the minors are welcome.

As for what makes Edan Pizza the place to be, he thinks their location is a real stront point. “We’re just going to make the best that we can and hope that we can just keep up with everybody else,” said Edan.

Also, look for Edan’s 25-year old son working there. He, too, loves pizza, and he’s grown up in and around restaurants, so this could be a really good fit for him.

Wishing Edan, Thea, and the whole Edan Pizza team all the best as they open the pizzeria downtown.

Edan Pizza [opening October 2025]
204 SW Yahmill Street, Portland
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