TROY — Pizza-review legend Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, dropped by DeFazio's Pizzeria in Troy recently and issued a rave review — 8.2 on his Richter scale is considered excellent — for the legendary Fourth Street pizza shop.
Portnoy, who saw the print publication he founded in 2003 morph into a pop-culture following in which he has millions of followers on his website and multiple social media platforms, has been a fixture around Saratoga Springs over the past few weeks.
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He has given mixed reviews to a bunch of pizza shops locally but his experience at DeFazio's stood out; he dug into the famous haunt's generational recipe that offers a wood-fired pizza that touts an Italian bread crust.
"Any real pizza place, this is what their dining experience is like," Portnoy said, as his camera crew scanned the backyard courtyard that included tables and chairs with puddles of rainwater as Italian music played in the background. "And the second you open the pizza box, it's different. Like, this looks different."
Portnoy's pizza reviews have become the highlight of Barstool Sports, which throughout the pandemic had doled out money to save many restaurants and bars from closure, including in the Albany area and greater Capital Region.
Portnoy was served by Matt DeFazio, whose father Rocco DeFazio is listed as the owner of the family-run restaurant that has endured for decades — on a corridor of Troy that Rocco DeFazio pointed out to Portnoy had once been lined with eateries.
"What you're going to eat, is not pizza dough," Rocco DeFazio told Portnoy, as the famous reviewer stood at the restaurant's counter with a pile of DeFazio's merchandise and already sporting a black T-shirt flying the restaurant's logo. He went on to describe how he had learned the recipe from his mother, and then "tinkered" with it.
Portnoy, who posted his review of DeFazio's on Thursday evening, said that if he writes a book some day and has a list of the greatest pizza places he's visited, "this is on the list hands-down."
Portnoy finished his evening at DeFazio's with a piece of cake laced with three liqueurs. "That's a 9.4," he said. "That was (expletive) awesome. ... DeFazio's, must-stop place. Must-stop. If you live within two hours of here you have to come. That's our review."
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Pizza-review legend Dave Portnoy goes bonkers for DeFazio's in Troy - Albany Times Union
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