F@$K you and the Stool you came in on

September 3, 2023 7:18 AM

“A restaurant is a lot of work… I’m not gonna give someone my satisfaction of judging all my work and the hundreds of hours my partner and I put in with one bite. It’s not fair. I was like, fuck that guy.” - Dragon Pizza owner Charlie Redd speaks to Rolling stone about his feud with Barstool Sports CEO and Tucker Carlson guest Dave Portnoy.
posted by Artw (40 comments total)

Ungated
posted by rossmeissl at 7:25 AM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

It’s like Mystic Pizza but with zombies.
posted by Kattullus at 7:35 AM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

fuck that guy

QFT
posted by chavenet at 7:44 AM on September 3, 2023 [8 favorites]

I would bet that Barstool Sports is a pipeline to white supremacy in the same way that Joe Rogan is. It’s really poisonous.
posted by gladly at 7:45 AM on September 3, 2023 [38 favorites]

Redd says business has been better than ever over the past 24 hours, and that the restaurant sold out of food well before closing. “We’re breaking records today,” he says. “Our community showed up in a big way to support us.”

In Somerville, a city with a big town/gown issue, and where bully frat boys are not tolerated, going up against Barstool was a brilliant business move. It's been a long time since the Winter Hill gang ruled the area, but those folks still live there. Redd should franchise, I think he'd do quite well.

Also basing your pizza on Fugazi is hilarious.
posted by Toddles at 8:01 AM on September 3, 2023 [21 favorites]

I needed an excuse to drive to the area today, looks like I found my lunch destination. This place is a few doors down from The Burren which, when you combine the two, would make a pretty good evening out.

Plus I’m sure they like the free advertising. Are they losing business because some MAGA guy from $Red_State isn’t going to buy a slice?
posted by Farce_First at 8:04 AM on September 3, 2023 [7 favorites]

I almost never get excited about pizza, there is so much bad pizza out there. But if I lived near Somerville I'd go buy a slice from this guy.
posted by emjaybee at 8:12 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Can verify that Dragon Pizza is good pizza, also do not sleep on the kale salad!
posted by chocotaco at 8:15 AM on September 3, 2023 [12 favorites]

His reasoning to take a stand — this format of review just harms small businesses with folks doing their best — was just so simple. And that somehow that doesn’t seem to matter to some who are ostensibly “pro” business. It’s “woke” apparently to not want to screw over small town business owners??
posted by R343L at 8:26 AM on September 3, 2023 [24 favorites]

I'd buy a slice from this guy any day.
posted by djseafood at 8:32 AM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Fascists gonna fash. Glad to see someone standing up to them and calling them out.
posted by kokaku at 8:33 AM on September 3, 2023 [10 favorites]

Well, I eat a ton of pizza and I’ve never heard of Barstool Sports, but yeah, fuck them. It sounds 1980s fratty and gives me the heebie-jeebies.

The internet sucks sometimes: guy you and your friends have never even heard of is apparently hugely influential at fucking America up, and probably rich.
posted by caviar2d2 at 8:55 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

I smear myself from head to toe in feces and then the WOKE MOB tells me I smell bad.

I’ll be on Tucker Carlson tonight to talk about how wokeness is destroying our country.
posted by chasing at 8:58 AM on September 3, 2023 [14 favorites]

It’s “woke” apparently to not want to screw over small town business owners??

Anything that inconveniences a shitty millionaire is woke.
posted by Artw at 8:59 AM on September 3, 2023 [57 favorites]

Anything that inconveniences a shitty millionaire is woke.

i will be repeating this publicly and often. great concise takedown.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:36 AM on September 3, 2023 [11 favorites]

A major bit of missing context. Barstool released the video of this confrontation the same day it was announced they are cutting 25% of their staff. Guess which story people are focusing on?
posted by The Gooch at 9:49 AM on September 3, 2023 [34 favorites]

When I first read the headline, I was worried that something had happened that would break my love for the truly incredible Dragon Pizza! Whew, if anything, I feel even better going there (which I do on a regular basis). If you’re anywhere near the area, I’d definitely go for the ricotta and sausage slice and the kale salad, as someone else mentioned. The vegan pie with almond ricotta is also bomb. Good job, Redd. I can’t imagine how stressful dealing with the fallout is, but it’s great to see that folks are coming through for the place.
posted by laikagogogo at 11:11 AM on September 3, 2023 [11 favorites]

Dragon Pizza is tasty and has always had a good vibe. (Charlie, if you're listening, more vegetarian options please!) Here's hoping they continue to come out on top.

And yeah, starting this feud to distract from the layoffs is shitty of Barstool, and it would not surprise me if Portnoy considers it a bonus.
posted by rednikki at 11:25 AM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

Oh...Portnoy filmed it weeks ago but held the video until the day of the layoffs. Yeah, he knew what he was doing.
posted by rednikki at 11:37 AM on September 3, 2023 [6 favorites]

That part wow. So gross. But I suppose if all you care about is your own money and power then it makes sense.
posted by R343L at 11:43 AM on September 3, 2023

Previously: Barstool. Hates. Women.
posted by Artw at 11:48 AM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

Now I want pizza. Can't go to Dragon Pizza, but I'm sending all the love.
posted by mumimor at 12:27 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

a city with a big town/gown issue

I'm not sure whether to parse this as "big town" or "big issue", but in either case, what's a "[big?] town/gown issue"?
posted by Flunkie at 1:18 PM on September 3, 2023

(also, thinking about driving several hours to have some pizza)
posted by Flunkie at 1:21 PM on September 3, 2023

what's a "[big?] town/gown issue"?

Town and gown refers to conflicts between people connected with universities and the rest of a town. Gown is a reference to academic gowns, those robes that people nowadays wear mostly at graduations.

Somerville is directly adjacent to Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts—it's on the Boston subway system, and you can easily walk or bike to several local universities including Harvard, MIT, and Tufts—and over the last couple of decades it's gone from being largely working class to seeing an influx of often wealthy students and graduates of the universities, especially as they've been priced out of Cambridge.
posted by smelendez at 1:32 PM on September 3, 2023 [6 favorites]

For the first couple of years it was open, Dragon was easily some of the best pizza in the region.

I think they've declined a bit since the pandemic, but it's still better than most Boston pizza places. Plus good gelato and cheap (for Davis Square) cocktails.

The vibe is also just really nice. Lots of fun classic DC punk and hardcore on the stereo, neighbors and kids hanging out, shuffleboard and pinball ... it's just a great neighborhood place that's a step above your average pizza and sub shop.

The problem is that they're threatened by development - their building has been bought by a consortium that has been trying to get a number of plans approved by the city, all of which would kick out all the tenants.

I'm going to be really fucking annoyed if Dragon is forced out in a year and the chuds start crowing about how they put it out of business. No they fucking won't have, Dragon was doing great business before (they just expanded a few months ago) and it will continue to do well.
posted by xthlc at 1:47 PM on September 3, 2023 [7 favorites]

rednikki: Charlie, if you're listening, more vegetarian options please

As a fellow herbivore I have good news for you - when we were there Friday night literally half the specials were vegetarian or vegan. The Nightshade pie is great.

If you haven't tried Veggie Crust you should - a few years ago an Indian restaurant bought the old Union Square location of A4 Pizza and now they make bomb-ass South Asian-themed vegetarian pies, with toppings like Impossible grounds and paneer.
posted by xthlc at 1:54 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

The pizza does look cheesy but that's a legitimate variety of pizza.

I see he also gave a mediocre review to Pinocchio's Pizza in Harvard Square after taking a bite out of a basic cheese slice. But Pinocchio's specializes in Sicilian pizza—they will sell you a basic pizza, but it's not their strong suit. It's like reviewing Nathan's Hot Dogs based on their burgers, or a Chinese restaurant based on their French fries.

Anyway, I guess I generally don't see the point of a critic with a national audience giving one-bite reviews of neighborhood pizza shops. It's not hard to find good pizza—ask your neighbors, or if you're visiting town, just walk into a bar or a coffee shop, buy a drink and say "hey, by the way, is there a good pizza place around here?"
posted by smelendez at 1:57 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

I would bet that Barstool Sports is a pipeline to white supremacy in the same way that Joe Rogan is. It’s really poisonous.

There are many mediocre comedians selling out arenas these days because they sprinkle in punching down dog whistle jokes into their set. Rogan, Trump and Portnoy are their role models.
posted by any major dude at 2:02 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?"

"Delivered pizza. Why?"

-TWD
posted by clavdivs at 2:12 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Barstool released the video of this confrontation the same day it was announced they are cutting 25% of their staff.


Wait. So the guy who's bragging about selling his business for $400M and then buying it back for a dollar, that guy's first move is to lay off a quarter of the staff?!
posted by thecincinnatikid at 2:25 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Christ, what an asshole.

Did this review dude seriously go to Pinocchio's and judge them based on one bite of a cheese pizza? A plain, shallow cheese pizza? The fuck is wrong with this dude? I left Boston before Dragon Pizza existed but I sure do have some good memories of pizza from Pinocchio's, and they sure weren't of a plain-ass cheese pizza like the video smelendez linked to shows him eating. I'm pretty sure I'd have an opinion on Dragon if I was still in Boston, I lived in Somerville and hung out at Davis Square a ton.

Also, this is neat: Dragon Pizza's page on Yelp currently won't let you leave a review, because Yelp now has a "some asshole influencer has attempted to get their followers to review-bomb this place over politics" lockdown mode.
posted by egypturnash at 3:38 PM on September 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

One of the more frustrating things is that despite loathing the Stoolies (which is pretty much "Do you wish sports talk catered to stump humpers?"), I agree with 90% of the pizza takes, and the other 10% are where Dave's ego makes him tank a rating to prove he can. But plain cheese should be where a pizzeria shines.

Also, am I just so old that I assume every article about this should include a Portnoy's Complaint joke about jerking off?
posted by klangklangston at 8:10 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

For what it's worth, Redd likes to explode at things.

In 2018, he closed his Southern restaurant in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood after first kvetching about Ayanna Pressley, back when she was still a Boston city councilor.

Redd had spent something like $339,000 for a liquor license for the restaurant, due to the way the state legislature likes to keep a thumb on Boston and restrict the number of liquor licenses the city can give out, which drives up the prices. Pressley somehow convinced the legislature to give Boston a bunch of "neighborhood" liquor licenses, which could not be resold but which had to be given back to the city if a restaurant closed, in an effort to help the outer, poorer neighborhoods watching most of their licenses sucked up by downtown and waterfront steak places and the like, then started campaigning for more of the licenses - which Redd said would destroy the value of his liquor license in Roslindale, an outer, if not quite poorer, neighborhood.

He decided to do this a few months after the city licensing board rejected his request to let him sell his license, then give him one of the "neighborhood" licenses - saying that would subvert the whole point of the neighborhood licenses, to help people who could not afford the open market in them.

Had Redd not shut down, though, and held onto his license, it would now be worth closer to $600,000, because the legislature has since declined to give Boston more licenses to dole out.

But don't worry, Redd isn't some MAGA type. In January, 2017, he basically announced Trump better not try to enter his restaurant.
posted by adamg at 8:39 PM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

What sort of pizza guy is this if his "worst in America" is a 6.4?
posted by kschang at 3:04 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Maybe it’s in the games review scale…
posted by Artw at 7:15 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

But don't worry, Redd isn't some MAGA type. In January, 2017, he basically announced Trump better not try to enter his restaurant.

I mean, OK, but he still kinda sounds like an asshole.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:27 AM on September 4, 2023

Though there is a strong correlation those two things are on different axes (how the hell is that the plural of axis).
posted by Mitheral at 10:29 AM on September 4, 2023

Dave Portnoy’s Sausage Fest A - rain-soaked afternoon eating pizza with the Stoolies.
posted by Artw at 6:33 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Journalistic malpractice not to include a photo of the "This Pizza Fucks" t-shirt. Also, $175 to get in — $700 for the VIP area? Let me say this with all the gusto someone from Exit 10 can muster: Get the fuck outta here.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:54 AM on September 27, 2023