Pizza Today - February 2019 - 52

W

ith a name like Pizza
Jerk, you better have the
attitude and the pizza to
stand behind it. Luckily,
this two-unit pizza
company in Portland, Oregon, more than
holds its own in a city built on good eats.
Here the pies are large, crispy and
never perfect, and yet Connecticut native
Tommy Habetz has crafted pizza much
like he grew up with. As a former sous
chef for celebrity Mario Batali, Habez
learned a healthy respect for individuality
in the kitchen -- and pizza. He recalls
first obtaining his drivers' license and
commuting to New Haven, where
he visited famed Frank Pepe Pizzeria
Napoletana.
When he opened his pizzeria in
Portland in 2015, he partnered with Ben
Hufford and J.B. Tramholm. "We really
went out on a limb to try to do this,"
Habitz says. "We're just lucky that people
are enjoying it, too. There's so much that
I learned, too. People in pizza -- as you
know -- can be secretive about conditions
and styles and everything."
Habitz learned quickly that to succeed,
you have to form your own recipes and not
rely on the those of others -- even if you
5 2 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 9

have worked in other high-dollar iconic
pizzerias in town.
"There's definitely a competitive spirit
here, but there's also a really great spirit of
community here," Habetz says. "What I've
realized is that pizza is one of those things
... that you just hit a wider group of people.
Everybody loves pizza. ... It's one of those
things that you can eat every day -- or at
least a few times a week."
JUST DAYS AFTER BEING
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST
PIZZERIAS IN THE NATION AND
SIX MONTHS AFTER OPENING,

the flagship restaurant suffered a
debilitating fire in its dining room that
sparked from an electrical fire outside
and shuttered the restaurant. "The whole
dining area was gone," Habetz says. "It
was intense. ... It's a funny thing because
it was a blessing and a curse for sure. I was
walking up the street -- I was just down
the block -- and I see the whole restaurant
on fire. I almost started crying. What do
you do? I really thought that was it."
Luckily, the kitchen remained
completely untouched except for some
smoke damage. "Our insurance agency
was great," Habetz says. "We worked with

them; my partner Ben is an architect and
a contractor. We took over the project and
it was one of those things that when we
opened (originally) it was on a shoestring
budget. Actually, we were able to do things
with a nice touch like a new dining room.
We were down like three or four months. It
was pretty grim at first. I didn't think there
was any way we would be able to rebuild
it, and it seemed like such heavy damage."
During the downtime, they did some
pop-up events to remain top-of-mind, and
to the delight of Portland residents, the
pizzeria did reopen, and later a second unit
was built.
CHEESE AND PEPPERONI IS
THE TOP SELLER, AS IT IS IN
MOST LOCATIONS. The second top
seller is the "It's Always Sunny in Cully",
which features pepperoni, pineapple, hot
peppers, basil and local honey (an 18-inch
thin crust is $29).
The use of a dough press helps thin the
dough. And while it is not always preferred
in pizzerias, "we have to look at all the
traditions of pizza and then kind of throw
it out the window a little bit because ...
what it does is it activates the dough and
it's perfectly ready to go now," Habetz says.
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