When Dave Portnoy, founder and president of media firm Barstool Sports activities, stepped into Baltimore-based pizza store TinyBrickOven, he did not know the shop was in its closing days — or that he would play an important half in saving it.
In a video posted on YouTube and social media on Monday, Portnoy ordered a pizza from TinyBrickOven for his One Chew Pizza Opinions channel, which has over 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube (and all people is aware of the principles).
Whereas ready for his meals, Portnoy chatted with the shop’s proprietor, Will Fagg, who revealed that TinyBrickOven was closing endlessly in a couple of days, on Christmas.
“We’re simply not making any cash man, it has been loopy,” Fagg mentioned, including that TinyBrickOven had been unable to get its liquor license, however a spot close by had, which put his restaurant at an obstacle.
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Portnoy paid for the pizza and took his chew exterior. His first impression of the slice was that it was a “excellent” New York-style pizza and that he “actually appreciated it.”
“There is no method this place needs to be going out of enterprise, none,” Portnoy mentioned. He walked again to the shop and requested Fagg, “How a lot cash do it’s good to keep open for a yr?”
Fagg mentioned $60,000 — and Portnoy mentioned, “Completed.” Portnoy rated the slice a 7.9 out of 10.
The free publicity that got here subsequent, reaching hundreds of thousands of individuals, could be priceless.
Barstool Pizza Evaluation – TinyBrickOven (Baltimore, MD) pic.twitter.com/hDqhclD45D
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 23, 2024
Because it was posted earlier this week, Portnoy’s video with TinyBrickOven has been considered 14.5 million instances on X and 300,000 instances on YouTube. The submit has nearly 70,000 likes on Instagram as of press time. Fagg advised CBS Information that on Christmas Eve, TinyBrickOven had a line out the door and the cellphone was consistently ringing.
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“It seems like a Christmas miracle,” Fagg advised the outlet. “We have by no means had a crowd like this.”
After Portnoy’s video took off, different donations got here pouring in.
TinyBrickOven’s web page on GoFundMe exceeded $120,000 in donations on the time of writing. Portnoy advised CBS that Fagg obtained his separate $60,000 donation by Wednesday.
Portnoy started filming pizza critiques in 2013 and now has a overview web site referred to as One Chew.
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