4741 Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland OR 97215 (at SE 47th Avenue; map); 503-233-1286; apizzascholls.com Pizza Style: Neapolitan-American Oven Type: Electric Bakers Pride Price: Apizza ‘Margo’rita, $20; Bacon Bianca, $22; sausage, $20
In my pizza book, A Slice of Heaven, the last chapter was devoted to the "Keepers of the Flame," people whose dedication and single-minded devotion to making great pizza made them worthy of inclusion in what could have been called the Pizzaiolo Hall of Fame.
I still get excited when I'm in the presence of pizza greatness. So I was psyched to be in Portland, Oregon, eating at Apizza Scholls. Even the pie that owner and pizzaiolo Brian Spangler had reluctantly FedExed to me was pretty delicious. (Even after reheating it at a pizzeria near Serious Eats headquarters.)
When we drove up to Apizza Scholls, the line was snaking down the block, but we got to his place early enough to snag the last table. Brian's warm, friendly, and smart-as-a-whip wife, Kim Nyland, greeted us and escorted me into the kitchen.
Spangler and his crew were in full pizza-making regalia and mode because the dining room was already full of the people who had been waiting in line for an hour and 15 minutes. I wasn't ready for what happened next.
"I've made pizza with wood-burning ovens, but here's what I've finally decided," Spanger said. "It's all about the BTUs. This oven makes pizza at 700°F, and that's plenty hot enough to bake my pies quickly and throughly and get my crust as crisp and airy as I want it."
Spangler uses his gun to make sure the varying DC current in his pizzeria doesn't wreak havoc with the temperature.
Spangler and I have had many conversations about pizza over the phone and via email, so without even asking, he had put in an order for us of a half-plain, half-sausage pie. He knew that's what I order as a litmus test when I go to a pizzeria I haven't been to before.
The pizza arrived at our table a few minutes later. Once I got a close look at it, I knew our pizza was going to be at the very least great. There were bubbles all around the rim of the pie, the sauce-to-cheese ratio was perfect for this kind of pizza, the cheese was a burnished golden brown, and there was plenty of char on top and bottom.
For non-fancy-pants Neapolitan-American pizza made with good ingredients, Spangler's pizza was paradigmatic. The crust has a crunchy exterior which gives way to tender bread dough. The cheese combination (Grande fior di latte and aged mozzarella) gave the pie just the right blend of creaminess and tang. When I took my first bite of this pizza I knew I was in the presence of pizza greatness.
I only wish I had gotten to try one of Spangler's Bacon Bianca pizzas (above). Who knows, maybe he'll FedEx another pie to us (for a birthday, perhaps).
Welcome, Brian Spangler, to the realm of the Keepers of the Flame. May you always put this much passion, this much heart and soul, and this much know-how in every pizza you make.
Is a charred crust and bottom seriously considered desirable? Once I get that taste in my mouth, I can't taste anything else. It ruins the pizza for me.
I guess it's a matter of individual taste, PerkyMac. I like a crust with a modest amount of char, in the same way I like grilled hamburgers to be slightly blackened. In the case of Brian's pizza, I thought there was just enough char to give the pizza the taste I like. I don't know what Brian would do if someone asked for a pizza without char.
Thanks Ed! I actually did ask for that one time and got a gloppy gloopy mess ('cuse the spelling - not sure if they are actually real words). I do cut off black crust and wipe off as much of a black bottom as I can - when I'm at home, that is. I want it cooked and crispy, but that charred taste overpowers.
I'm salivating...looks way better than anything i've seen in LA...just dont understand why most people baking with gas ovens set the temp to only 500-550 degrees...no wonder the crusts never really get done properly..time to pack the bags and head to the great north woods..is there always a huge line at this place?
I was in Portland last month, and being a stupid food blogger, I went without checking what days they were open. And of course I went on a Sunday. haha. oh man... That was a fun car ride though.
Glad you finally tried it. What's amazing to me as a Portlander is that while Apizza Scholls is my personal favorite in town, there are three other pizzerias making damn good pizza in town, too, arguably as good: Ken's Artisan Pizza, Nostrana, and Tastebud. All three of these use wood-only ovens. All three of these are very bread-oriented, making doughs that have real flavor. There's also a fantastic pizzeria just an hour away in the tiny little town of Stayton, Oregon, just outside of Salem, called Apizza. The owners are from New Haven. We even have a place doing wood oven pizza that is mediocre and trying to be like these others (I'll leave them nameless) just to remind us that it's about the person making the pizza as much as the ingredients and equipment.
btw, you think that bacon bianca looks good, you should try the clams casino (bacon bianca with in-shell littlenecks) that used to be on the normal menu, but now is just a special occasion pie:
LA PIzza Maven, if you come up, I'll happily show you around to all the best pizzas in town and Scholls will be on me. Just contact me through extramsg.com's contact page or through PortlandFood.org.
Oh my God, that looks outstanding. I'm salivating all over the place. I don't have a pizza handy, so I'm reaching for the next best thing............chocolate
Little bit of char has always been delicious on pizzas. I loved charred bubbles going back to the '60s and going to Salerno's Pizza on Union Turnpike. Char was "in" then and it is in now.
The way I eat two or three slices--->>
I eat the bubbling hot parts of each up until where there is no tomato or cheese. Just crust.
Only after this to I attack all the remaining crusts which will be charred compared to what I just ate
After having seen this place on Bourdain's show, I knew that I had to go there on my next trip to Portland. So, last Labour Day, I and three friends drove from Vancouver (BC) and braved the queue. I don't know if it's still the case, but they didn't take reservations. We went on a Saturday night and it took two and a half hours for us to get seated. We had time to go to this hole-in-the-wall bar up the street and have a couple of beers and some really good hot dogs.
Anyhow. We ordered five pies (for four people, with the intent of having some leftovers). One bacon bianca, one sausage, one white, one capicollo and one margherita. The only pizza I've had that was better was from a place in Victoria, BC that closed down a decade ago.
It's all about the crust and the purity of the toppings. Not quite as sparse as a true Napolitano, with a local edge.
Looks like they've been bending their rules some: used to be that you couldn't order a pie with more than one meat on it, but now it's no more than two. Still no more than three toppings per pie.
@PerkyMac: If Ed would have taken an upskirt shot, we could have seen just how charred the crust is.
@suburbangourmet and @robyn: Sorry 'bout the greenish cast to the pix. I helped Ed with this post, edited his photos for balance. But the thing is, I'm colorblind, so I tend to overgreen pix while balancing for whites. Go figure.
@extramsg: WTF. All these great pizzerias open in Portland and the Willamette Valley after I move away? Had they been a few years sooner, maybe I would have stayed!
Apizza Scholls is the place the boyfriend and I most drool about, but we only go to once every other month or so. If you go on a Wednesday or Thursday earlyish (5.30-6), you can usually get in after 30 or 45 minutes. It is currently the best pizza I've ever had, and it's fun to sit in the room attached to the kitchen to get a good view back there. After reading this post, I talked the boyfriend into going next week. I'm excited already!
I moved out of the area, but I was lucky enough to go to the original store in Scholls and the store on Hawthorne. If you don't mind eating early, I recommend getting in line by 4:30 on a Saturday for the 5:00 opening. If you get in line around 4:50, you probably won't make the first seating. I haven't been there for a while, so the wait could be better or worse.
Looks and sounds like a really good pie - one that I'd like. But I'm curious about two things...
1) The texture of the crust was mentioned but what about its flavor? Did it have that little tang of yeastiness that some of us crave or was it just a carrier?
2) II cringe when I'm in a pizzeria and see a sign touting the use of "Grande cheese" because it seems ubiquitous in the current era generic NYC style slice places where the cheese and the pie is very bland. Is there more than one brand of Grande cheese or differing quality levels available? I assume that if a place like this is using it there must be some merit.
The crust has a wonderful bready flavor with a nice tanginess from a long ferment.
My argument for Apizza Scholls being the best of its style that I've ever had is that the overall pie is superior to those that I've had at, eg, DiFara's, Lombardi's, Grimaldi's, John's on Bleeker, and Patsy's. I preferred the cheese at Patsy's and some of the toppings at Grimaldi's and I liked the top of the pie at DiFara's possibly better overall, and I liked the flavor from the coal at most of these, that little bit of smokiness. But there were more significant problems at all of these. Lombardi's was a bland pie. DiFara's couldn't seem to cook the pies consistently, often truly burning the pizzas on large portions or undercooking them. Patsy's had similar problems. Grimaldi's fell short in the crust and the sauce. John's seemed to be outclassed by these others. Obviously my experience is much more limited with those that Scholls, however. And at some level it just becomes BS to talk about which is better. They're all damned good and it may just be a matter of taste and priority.
The one down side of this restaurant is that they have not learned how to make enough dough to meet the demand. Multiple times I have driven down from Seattle to Portland to try their pizza and have waited on line for hours only to be told when I reached the door that they ran out of dough. They might make great pizza but that is no excuse for poor customer service.
Flaksman...Brian's unwillingness to whip up more dough last minute and serve so-so pizza is a mark of the control freak perfectionist he is. I call that thoughtful!
So arrive when I do...4.30 or so, wait only a little, enjoy a lot!
Incidentally, my wife, my ex-Brooklynite friend, and I have driven there for dinner—from Seattle! That's 3 hours one-way. Worth it? Yeah, and not just for nostalgia. That "char" (deliciously caramelized crust, that is), those bubbles....swoon-city, baby.
This is hard to say, but here goes: I grew up in New Haven, thought I could never find better. But I did back-to-back trips to Portland and New Haven, and have to admit that Brian Spangler's the winner.
We make enough dough to meet the demand of a complete 5 hour dinner service at maximum capacity. We generally finish making pizzas right around 10pm. If I made more dough, I would have to keep my doors open even longer, and at the moment, working 14 hours a day is plenty for me.
I am a little confused by your comment about standing in line for hours only to be turned away. The longest anyone has waited in line, before opening, was about an hour. On average, people start lining up for the first seating about half an hour before we open. After we open, those who have waited in line are sat and then there is no longer a line. If the restaurant fills up completely at opening, then people who come in put their name on the waiting list, and every one who puts their name on the list gets a pizza. If it is a busy night and we do pull the waiting list (we don't sell out of dough every night) it generally occurs at about 8pm, which is three hours after opening. That being said, I am curious to know what pizzeria you waited in line for hours, only to be told that they were out of dough when you finally got to the door.
Thanks for commenting! Your comment has been accepted and will appear in a moment.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it pleasant. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
Print
When we drove up to Apizza Scholls, the line was snaking down the block, but we got to his place early enough to snag the last table. Brian's warm, friendly, and smart-as-a-whip wife, Kim Nyland, greeted us and escorted me into the kitchen.
28 Comments:
Wait! Is Scholls across from Bar of the Gods and Sewickly's Addition? What used to be in the space that Scholls is now occupying?
Adam Kuban at 9:19AM on 07/24/08
Can you order this pizza online? Can you get it fedexed?
ryan86 at 10:20AM on 07/24/08
Is a charred crust and bottom seriously considered desirable? Once I get that taste in my mouth, I can't taste anything else. It ruins the pizza for me.
PerkyMac at 10:23AM on 07/24/08
photo has major white balance issues... mind if i fix it?
suburbangourmet at 10:27AM on 07/24/08
Unfortunately, Ryan86, you have to go to Portland to eat this pizza. We only got Brian to ship us a pizza under extreme duress.
Ed Levine at 10:30AM on 07/24/08
I guess it's a matter of individual taste, PerkyMac. I like a crust with a modest amount of char, in the same way I like grilled hamburgers to be slightly blackened. In the case of Brian's pizza, I thought there was just enough char to give the pizza the taste I like. I don't know what Brian would do if someone asked for a pizza without char.
Ed Levine at 10:34AM on 07/24/08
Thanks Ed! I actually did ask for that one time and got a gloppy gloopy mess ('cuse the spelling - not sure if they are actually real words). I do cut off black crust and wipe off as much of a black bottom as I can - when I'm at home, that is. I want it cooked and crispy, but that charred taste overpowers.
I love black hotdogs. Go figure.
PerkyMac at 10:38AM on 07/24/08
@suburbangourmet: I've returned the pizza to a more pizza-like tone.
roboppy at 11:16AM on 07/24/08
I'm salivating...looks way better than anything i've seen in LA...just dont understand why most people baking with gas ovens set the temp to only 500-550 degrees...no wonder the crusts never really get done properly..time to pack the bags and head to the great north woods..is there always a huge line at this place?
L.A. Pizza Maven at 12:00PM on 07/24/08
I was in Portland last month, and being a stupid food blogger, I went without checking what days they were open. And of course I went on a Sunday. haha. oh man... That was a fun car ride though.
foodinmouth at 12:23PM on 07/24/08
Glad you finally tried it. What's amazing to me as a Portlander is that while Apizza Scholls is my personal favorite in town, there are three other pizzerias making damn good pizza in town, too, arguably as good: Ken's Artisan Pizza, Nostrana, and Tastebud. All three of these use wood-only ovens. All three of these are very bread-oriented, making doughs that have real flavor. There's also a fantastic pizzeria just an hour away in the tiny little town of Stayton, Oregon, just outside of Salem, called Apizza. The owners are from New Haven. We even have a place doing wood oven pizza that is mediocre and trying to be like these others (I'll leave them nameless) just to remind us that it's about the person making the pizza as much as the ingredients and equipment.
btw, you think that bacon bianca looks good, you should try the clams casino (bacon bianca with in-shell littlenecks) that used to be on the normal menu, but now is just a special occasion pie:
http://www.extramsg.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album600&id=boudain_at_apizza_24&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
btw, where else did you eat while you were in town?
extramsg at 12:39PM on 07/24/08
LA PIzza Maven, if you come up, I'll happily show you around to all the best pizzas in town and Scholls will be on me. Just contact me through extramsg.com's contact page or through PortlandFood.org.
extramsg at 12:41PM on 07/24/08
This is the best pizza I've ever had. The anchovy and pepperoni was one of the best things ever to enter my mouth.
arbeck at 1:04PM on 07/24/08
The only restaurant I have ever been to where people stand outside and beg for your leftovers!
kathrine at 1:33PM on 07/24/08
Oh my God, that looks outstanding. I'm salivating all over the place. I don't have a pizza handy, so I'm reaching for the next best thing............chocolate
Boscompb at 1:36PM on 07/24/08
Little bit of char has always been delicious on pizzas. I loved charred bubbles going back to the '60s and going to Salerno's Pizza on Union Turnpike. Char was "in" then and it is in now.
The way I eat two or three slices--->>
I eat the bubbling hot parts of each up until where there is no tomato or cheese. Just crust.
Only after this to I attack all the remaining crusts which will be charred compared to what I just ate
gaffer at 2:58PM on 07/24/08
After having seen this place on Bourdain's show, I knew that I had to go there on my next trip to Portland. So, last Labour Day, I and three friends drove from Vancouver (BC) and braved the queue. I don't know if it's still the case, but they didn't take reservations. We went on a Saturday night and it took two and a half hours for us to get seated. We had time to go to this hole-in-the-wall bar up the street and have a couple of beers and some really good hot dogs.
Anyhow. We ordered five pies (for four people, with the intent of having some leftovers). One bacon bianca, one sausage, one white, one capicollo and one margherita. The only pizza I've had that was better was from a place in Victoria, BC that closed down a decade ago.
It's all about the crust and the purity of the toppings. Not quite as sparse as a true Napolitano, with a local edge.
Looks like they've been bending their rules some: used to be that you couldn't order a pie with more than one meat on it, but now it's no more than two. Still no more than three toppings per pie.
Going back again this Labour Day.
jimcowling at 3:28PM on 07/24/08
@PerkyMac: If Ed would have taken an upskirt shot, we could have seen just how charred the crust is.
@suburbangourmet and @robyn: Sorry 'bout the greenish cast to the pix. I helped Ed with this post, edited his photos for balance. But the thing is, I'm colorblind, so I tend to overgreen pix while balancing for whites. Go figure.
@extramsg: WTF. All these great pizzerias open in Portland and the Willamette Valley after I move away? Had they been a few years sooner, maybe I would have stayed!
Adam Kuban at 4:03PM on 07/24/08
Apizza Scholls is the place the boyfriend and I most drool about, but we only go to once every other month or so. If you go on a Wednesday or Thursday earlyish (5.30-6), you can usually get in after 30 or 45 minutes. It is currently the best pizza I've ever had, and it's fun to sit in the room attached to the kitchen to get a good view back there. After reading this post, I talked the boyfriend into going next week. I'm excited already!
devlyn at 4:59PM on 07/24/08
@jimcowling
They do take reservations, but only for groups of 8-12 and only one a night.
kathrine at 5:29PM on 07/24/08
If I ever start a pizza oriented rap band, I'm going to call it "All About the BTU's".
I like Spangler's approach. Coal is good because it's hot, not because it's coal.
Too bad I'm 3,000 miles too far away to grab a pie.
-----
And to the guy who doesn't like char, I've got news for you: you don't like pizza.
petey at 11:56PM on 07/24/08
I moved out of the area, but I was lucky enough to go to the original store in Scholls and the store on Hawthorne. If you don't mind eating early, I recommend getting in line by 4:30 on a Saturday for the 5:00 opening. If you get in line around 4:50, you probably won't make the first seating. I haven't been there for a while, so the wait could be better or worse.
gopie at 12:16AM on 07/25/08
Wow I live in the area and had never heard of it before. I will be trying it this weekend. Thanks!
cookingdunkinstyle at 9:00AM on 07/25/08
Looks and sounds like a really good pie - one that I'd like. But I'm curious about two things...
1) The texture of the crust was mentioned but what about its flavor? Did it have that little tang of yeastiness that some of us crave or was it just a carrier?
2) II cringe when I'm in a pizzeria and see a sign touting the use of "Grande cheese" because it seems ubiquitous in the current era generic NYC style slice places where the cheese and the pie is very bland. Is there more than one brand of Grande cheese or differing quality levels available? I assume that if a place like this is using it there must be some merit.
phaelon56 at 1:27PM on 07/25/08
If you want to see Spangler, along with other great pizza makers in town, Ken Forkish and Cathy Whims, talk about their pies, see here:
http://www.portlandfood.org/index.php?showforum=15
The crust has a wonderful bready flavor with a nice tanginess from a long ferment.
My argument for Apizza Scholls being the best of its style that I've ever had is that the overall pie is superior to those that I've had at, eg, DiFara's, Lombardi's, Grimaldi's, John's on Bleeker, and Patsy's. I preferred the cheese at Patsy's and some of the toppings at Grimaldi's and I liked the top of the pie at DiFara's possibly better overall, and I liked the flavor from the coal at most of these, that little bit of smokiness. But there were more significant problems at all of these. Lombardi's was a bland pie. DiFara's couldn't seem to cook the pies consistently, often truly burning the pizzas on large portions or undercooking them. Patsy's had similar problems. Grimaldi's fell short in the crust and the sauce. John's seemed to be outclassed by these others. Obviously my experience is much more limited with those that Scholls, however. And at some level it just becomes BS to talk about which is better. They're all damned good and it may just be a matter of taste and priority.
extramsg at 6:58PM on 07/25/08
The one down side of this restaurant is that they have not learned how to make enough dough to meet the demand. Multiple times I have driven down from Seattle to Portland to try their pizza and have waited on line for hours only to be told when I reached the door that they ran out of dough. They might make great pizza but that is no excuse for poor customer service.
Flaksman at 1:03PM on 08/07/08
Flaksman...Brian's unwillingness to whip up more dough last minute and serve so-so pizza is a mark of the control freak perfectionist he is. I call that thoughtful!
So arrive when I do...4.30 or so, wait only a little, enjoy a lot!
Incidentally, my wife, my ex-Brooklynite friend, and I have driven there for dinner—from Seattle! That's 3 hours one-way. Worth it? Yeah, and not just for nostalgia. That "char" (deliciously caramelized crust, that is), those bubbles....swoon-city, baby.
This is hard to say, but here goes: I grew up in New Haven, thought I could never find better. But I did back-to-back trips to Portland and New Haven, and have to admit that Brian Spangler's the winner.
pixelsNpizzas at 3:43PM on 08/15/08
Flaksman,
We make enough dough to meet the demand of a complete 5 hour dinner service at maximum capacity. We generally finish making pizzas right around 10pm. If I made more dough, I would have to keep my doors open even longer, and at the moment, working 14 hours a day is plenty for me.
I am a little confused by your comment about standing in line for hours only to be turned away. The longest anyone has waited in line, before opening, was about an hour. On average, people start lining up for the first seating about half an hour before we open. After we open, those who have waited in line are sat and then there is no longer a line. If the restaurant fills up completely at opening, then people who come in put their name on the waiting list, and every one who puts their name on the list gets a pizza. If it is a busy night and we do pull the waiting list (we don't sell out of dough every night) it generally occurs at about 8pm, which is three hours after opening. That being said, I am curious to know what pizzeria you waited in line for hours, only to be told that they were out of dough when you finally got to the door.
Brian Spangler at 4:33AM on 08/18/08