Dave Portnoy reviews Ianni's in Delmont, Slice of NY in Murrysville during local pizza tour

Chad Kaylor wasn’t expecting to hand a pizza last week to Dave Portnoy, founder of media company Barstool Sports and one of the foremost amateur pizza reviewers in the country.

“He ordered it under a different name, so I was shocked when I saw him walk in to pick it up,” said Kaylor, 26, manager at Ianni’s Pizzeria in Delmont. “Then he went straight outside and recorded the video.”

Portnoy spent part of last week stopping at a half-­dozen pizza joints in the greater Pittsburgh area, including Rockaway Pizzeria in White Oak and Slice of NY just up the road in Murrysville. He has been in and around Pittsburgh before.

Portnoy generally orders a cheese pizza, then records his review while eating it directly outside the restaurant. His “One Bite Pizza” channel on YouTube has more than 1.3 million subscribers, and his local pizza reviews regularly gain hundreds of thousands of views.

“My generation has known him for a while because of Barstool, and I follow him on TikTok,” Kaylor said. “I remember when he started doing the pizza reviews. When he came to Pittsburgh a year or two ago, I remember hoping he’d come here, that it would be really cool to see him in Delmont.”

Barstool Pizza Review - A Slice of New York (Murrysville, PA) pic.twitter.com/O2lTOjnWuz

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 11, 2024

When he arrived, though, Kaylor was a little more nervous than he thought.

“He always orders a plain, traditional pizza, and we’re known more for our specialty pizzas,” he said. “But afterward I shook his hand, and when I asked what he thought he said it was ‘sneaky good’ and the flavor of the sauce made it stand out.”

Kaylor said the Ianni’s staff is not revealing the score Portnoy gave to the pizza. He typically ranks them on a 1-to-10 scale.

“We’ve had a lot of customers ask, but we’re waiting for the video. Supposedly the Slice of NY video is coming out this week, and then we should be the following week,” Kaylor said. “But, we were pretty happy with the review he gave us.”