Neapolitan pizza nerds since 2014
About Otto
Who we are and what we do at Otto
Here at Pizzeria Otto we are Neapolitan pizza nerds and deep devotees of the city where pizza was born. We try to capture not only the taste of Naples, but the culture of the city and the people.
Naples and ‘Pizza Napoletana’
Naples is a rough and tumble port town, at the intersection of the historic waves of empire in the Mediterranean. With a diverse immigrant history that spans millennia, Naples is a working-class town that has never really had the respect of the more affluent regions of the north.
This rich history is reflected in one perfect dish that has conquered the world in its own way — pizza.
What we have learned in our many visits is that Neapolitan pizza is a distillation of the spirit of Naples: it is a working-class, no-frills food, made with the very best ingredients available, and presented with great love but without flair.
The unpretentious attitude with which Neapolitans approach food, and their passion for attending to the smallest details, humble us and inspire us to continually perfect our own pies.
A different animal
The locals have a passion for pizza that is unmatched — on our first visit, we asked some locals in a coffee shop for recommendations. After a heated discussion involving employees, customers, and even passersby from the street, the shopkeeper told us to wait for him as he ran a few doors down and brought us his favorite pie: Gino Sorbillo pizzeria’s Margherita di Bufala.
While we do slice our pizzas at Otto, you’ll never find sliced pizzas in Naples. The soft crusts and the generous toppings and sauce would never survive the journey from plate to mouth intact. Neapolitan pizza is truly a different animal — mostly, Neapolitans use a knife and fork.
This softness is a signature, and something that Neapolitans strive for in their pies. In fact it is common for Neapolitan diners to fold an entire pizza into a ‘booklet’ or ‘wallet’ (‘libretto’ or ‘portafoglio’) and eat it with one hand, like an American might eat a burrito.
How it started
We opened the first Pizzeria Otto at the stoplight corner of NE 67th & Sandy Blvd in 2014, having built the restaurant largely with our own hands (and entirely with our own money).
The space had been the “Pony Express Antiques” store, with a memorable color scheme to the exterior, but with charming original details that felt destined to be a pizzeria.
At the time, much of Portland, and certainly the Rose City Park neighborhood didn’t really have much in the way of good pizza at all (what a change 12 years makes!). The two great pizzerias of the day, Ken’s and A’pizza Scholls were almost impossible to get into without waiting in long lines.
We thought — wouldn’t it be great if we could make the highest quality traditional Neapolitan wood fired pizza for our neighborhood, in a well-priced, family-friendly, un-fussy environment?
The Otto philosophy
At Pizzeria Otto we honor the best elements of the ancient Neapolitan tradition, but what we DON’T do is import our ingredients from Italy.
The Vera Pizza Napoletana designation governs how authentic Neapolitan pizza is made worldwide, and requires the use of Italian products in order to receive the stamp of approval. But in visiting Naples, we found the spirit of the cuisine is focused more on ingredients from local farms and producers than on official designations. We floated this theory with the locals, and they all wholeheartedly agreed.
“The spirit of Italian food is to use the best of what you have growing around you, and to treat it with respect.”
— a vendor at the Campania Slow Food conference
With this in mind, we use 00 flour made from Northwest wheat, tomatoes from central California, and local meats & cheeses sourced whenever possible. We are lucky to live in a region that produces ingredients to equal the best that the world has to offer.
Growing with the neighborhood
Our original location on Sandy Blvd is very small — less than 1000 sqft for the whole restaurant! We had no idea if the concept would work, and didn’t want to overbuild — little did we know that the shop would become a “local institution”.
Even before we opened the original Sandy Blvd store, we had been looking at the Foster Road neighborhood to see if there might be a good spot there as well. It was another neighborhood ‘pizza desert’ at the time, and full of families who might like what we had to offer. We eventually found a great new space with a spacious 2600 sqft dining room and opened our doors on Foster in October of 2019 — just before the COVID epidemic shut down the city.
After buckling down, shrinking staff to just a handful, and switching our entire business model to takeout, we managed to hang on through the pandemic and we came out the other side… shaken, but stronger in our commitment to our neighbors and our community that we love.
Finally we were offered the opportunity to move our concept out of Portland and to Lake Oswego — another family-centric neighborhood where we hoped our concept would work. Highest-quality food at good prices, with family friendly vibes and no pretense. Happily it has been embraced by the LO community.
A small and super cute pavilion spot next door to our Lake Oswego location inspired us to finally move forward on a dream we had been considering for years — Otto Gelato!
Come see us
Visit any one of our locations to get a taste of what we are doing — bringing the food, warmth, and camaraderie of Naples to Oregon. We proudly work to import more than just a cuisine, but a culture. Come and feel it for yourself. Molto Bene!