SALT LAKE CITY — At The Pie Pizzeria location near the University of Utah, there was a lot of anticipation for a special visitor over the weekend.
“We've been a pizza establishment well known in the city for 45 years — right next to campus, right where he's going to be, so we figured he would end up stopping by,” said General Manager Brennen Davis.
And that’s exactly what happened.
With Utah's home game against Texas Tech seen as one of the premier games on the weekend's schedule, the FOX Big Noon Kickoff show set up shop in Salt Lake City, bringing Dave Portnoy along for the ride.
As part of his extremely popular One Bite Pizza Reviews, Portnoy showed up at The Pie to give it the once-over.
“For a campus pizza spot, I think it’s pretty good,” said Portnoy, as he took a bite of pizza in the video review he posted on his social media accounts, which reach 18.2 million followers.
On a scale of one to 10, he gave The Pie a rating of 6.9.
“Any review from Dave is a good review,” said Davis. "You want someone like Dave in your store from the amount of followers he has.”
Though Davis couldn’t put a hard number on the surge in sales since Portnoy’s, he said his staff has been working non-stop to keep up with demand.
But Portnoy’s review didn’t come without some confusion.
"When I saw the video, I didn’t realize they had a thin pizza on there, so like I’ve never seen a Pie pizza look like that,” said University of Utah student Gavin Beicher.
It turns out, the same thin cheese pie Portnoy reviewed has been on the menu a long time, with Davis explaining that a lot of customers never noticed.
“Lots of people want the Portnoy Special, which is something we've always really done,” he said.
Portnoy also paid the Villaggio Pizzeria in South Salt Lake a visit, and knowing Dave’s reach, owner Ricci Rondinelli immediately posted a picture of the two of them on social media.
“We've been selling almost 300 to 400 pies a day the past couple of days... we're running out of dough,” said Rondinelli. “He probably gave us an extra 30 percent, 30-40 percent on top of what we do.”
Rondinelli later updated those numbers, crediting the exposure Portnoy gave to the restaurant for as much as a 50% increase in daily sales. That bump in business comes with the restaurant’s rating still a mystery, since Portnoy has yet to release his review.
That said, some customers are beating him to the punch.
“That’s good pizza,” said customer Elizabeth Nielsen. “It’s got the New York style, I like it, I think I would give it a 9.1.”
