Category Archives: Pizza

10 Classic Movie Scenes Involving Pizza

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Pizza is such a staple of popular culture, it doesn’t take long to recall unforgettable movie scenes involving our favorite food. Perhaps it’s pizza’s portability, it’s communal nature, or it’s rich tradition that makes it such a great choice in cinema. It’s certainly one of the most photogenic of foods. (OTTO pizza, we have noticed, is photographed at alarming rates).

While this is not even close to an exhaustive list, we’ve compiled some great scenes involving pizza. We hope you’ll chime in with your favorites.

10. Back II The Future Part II – ‘Hydrated Pizza’
Hopefully this technology never sees the light of day:

9. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School – ‘No Pizza For Joey’
Dee Dee loves him some pizza:

8. Home Alone ‘Pizza Guy’
Leave it on the doorstep:

7. Talladega Nights ‘Pizza Delivery’
I won’t let it happen again:

6. Wayne’s World – ‘Product Placement’
I won’t bow to any sponsor:

5. Eat, Pray, Love – ‘Pizza Margherita in Napoli’
I’m having a relationship with my pizza:

4. Saturday Night Fever – ‘Struttin’ and Eatin”
You can tell by the way he walks:

3. Spider-Man 2 – ‘Pizza Delivery’
Joe’s 29-minute guarantee:

2. Crazy, Stupid, Love – ‘Ryan Gosling Eats Pizza’
Ryan Gosling and pizza, together at last:

1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High – ‘Right Here, Dude’
Learnin’ about Cuba, havin’ some food:

What are your favorite pizza-related scenes? Let us know in the comments.

OTTO’s BU Location Receives High Praise From ‘BU Today’: ‘Delicious…To Die For’

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OTTO’s BU location at 888 Commonwealth Avenue received high praise from BU Today, the university’s news and information website. OTTO Pizza, 888 Comm Ave, Boston

While we think our pizza is pretty great, we’re certainly not allergic to outside praise.

When someone mentions a dish containing mashed potatoes, bacon, and scallions, it’s unlikely that you’d think of pizza. But, in fact, at Otto Pizza, the Portland, Maine–based eatery just opened on Commonwealth Avenue in the former site of Upper Crust Pizza, the mashed potato, bacon, and scallion pizza has become its signature dish and best-selling item.

The menu at Otto is notable for pairing unique ingredients and flavors, among them butternut squash, ricotta, and cranberry; white bean, sausage, herbs, and red pepper flakes; pulled pork and mango; and zucchini, summer squash, and spinach. This is pizza for a new generation of foodies, and it’s delicious.

Wait, there’s more:

Despite our crowd of seven picky eaters, the consensus on the pizza was overwhelming approval. Every flavor combination was superbly planned and executed—no excess cheese here or lack of mushrooms there. And the Neapolitan-style crust was to die for—thin and crispy with an extra bounce of fresh flavor.

Read on at BU Today.
Warning: Accompanying photos may cause excess salivation.

OTTO TO GO: Pizza Delivery Available in the Portland Area

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Why order delivery from the big chains, when OTTO Pizza will come to you?OTTO Pizza delivers!

Now, of course we love to see you. Your smiling face brightens our day. But we also know there are times when it’s hard to get out of the house, or you just don’t feel like getting out of your pajamas.

If you live in the Portland area, you can order any of our deliciously different pizzas by phone or fax. Whether you’re in the East End, the West End, downtown, the Arts District, Old Port, or Munjoy Hill, OTTO will ensure your pizza is delivered hot and fresh from our oven.

Delivery times may vary, depending on volume, but you can expect to have our custom-topped gourmet pies within 30-45 minutes. Some of the big chains can’t even do that.

It’s OTTO-Matic. For the people.

WooHoo! It’s National Cheese Pizza Day!

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OTTO Pizza owners Anthony Allen and Mike Keon show the hosts at Fox’s “Good Morning Maine” how they make their award-winning cheese pizza. Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day. To see the full video of the spot, click on the link in the post.

Yep, that’s right! Today, Sept. 5, 2012, is National Cheese Pizza Day.

How it became National Cheese Pizza Day in America is something of a debate. There’s no Presidential or Congressional proclamation declaring National Cheese Pizza Day, if the historians are to be believed, but it seems to have evolved by virtue of widespread common belief. If everyone believes Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day, then ipso facto, Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day.

So in honor of National Cheese Pizza Day, we put together a few fun facts:

  • Americans eat 350 slices of pizza per second.
  • The average American eats 23 pounds of pizza each year.
  • 93 percent of Americans eat at least one slice of pizza each month.

In celebration of National Cheese Pizza Day, OTTO Pizza owners Mike Keon and Anthony Allen paid a visit to Good Day Maine, the Fox Network morning show in Portland, Maine, to show everyone exactly how OTTO Pizza makes a cheese pizza, which serves as the foundation for many of the OTTO Pizza flavor combinations.

Watch Mike and Anthony work their magic.

And you can bet we’ll be checking in with one of our favorite bloggers later today to see how she marks the special occasion.

OTTO Pizza to be Featured on Boston’s Wicked Popular Phantom Gourmet Show

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Phantom Gourmet segment producer Deb Hurley and videographer Greg Dole shot a piece recently at OTTO Pizza’s Coolidge Corner shop in Brookline, Mass.

If you live in the Boston area, you are undoubtedly familiar with an enormously popular television show called the Phantom Gourmet. If you don’t live in the Boston area, you might want to take a look at it anyway because the Phantom Gourmet consistently highlights the best in Food & Fun in Boston and beyond … including forays into Vacationland to shine their spotlight on some of Maine’s best offerings.

And yesterday, the Phantom Gourmet crew brought their cameras to our OTTO PIzza Coolidge Corner shop to get the story from that angle and show their viewers exactly how the magic happens.

Segment producer Deb Hurley and videographer Greg Dole spent four or five hours at OTTO Pizza, interviewing owners Anthony Allen and Mike Keon, getting a behind-the-scenes take on our specialty pies and shooting footage that will give their viewers a first-hand look at what inspires such fanatical loyalty among our OTTO Pizza customers.

Of course, the inimitable Masher — featuring mashed Maine potatoes, bacon and scallions — was on the menu, but so were several other OTTO Pizza specialties, including the Pulled Pork & Mango, the Butternut Squash, Ricotta and Cranberry (a very popular item with our vegetarian friends) and the often imitated but never duplicated Margherita, which features fresh Roma tomatoes and pungent basil, painstakingly prepared by OTTO Pizza’s kitchen artisans in a delicate chiffonade.

The Phantom Gourmet airs in the Boston media market on myTV38 on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., respectively. The show is also a feature on the WBZ4 Evening News. The Phantom Gourmet airs on CW28 in Providence Saturday at 10 a.m. and WPME-TV, the CW, in Maine, on Sundays at 11a.m.

Phantom Gourmet is live on 96.9FM Boston Talks Saturday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The OTTO Pizza segment is expected to air sometime in mid-August.

Win An OTTO Pizza Hat Just Like the Ones Worn by the Folks Behind the Counter!

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Here’s your chance to win an official OTTO Pizza hat, just like the ones worn by the folks who work there!

If you’ve been to OTTO Pizza, or had OTTO Pizza delivered to you, you’ve probably seen them — those sylish, white hats that the kitchen and delivery staff wear. Here’s your chance to get one for yourself!

To snag one, all you’ve got to do is visit our Facebook page, click on the “OTTO Hat Contest” link and fill  out the form by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, July 1, 2012. We’ll select a winner at random from among the entries on Monday, July 2, and the lucky entrant should be sporting that new cap by the weekend!

These are great hats, featuring the OTTO Pizza logo embroidered in black thread on the front of a 100-percent cotton, pure white cap, and until now the only way to get one has been to work at OTTO Pizza — which is a possibility. We’re always looking for good help.

But if you’ve got a job, or are otherwise occupied in that respect, this is your best bet to get an OTTO Pizza hat. We’ve got no plans to offer them for sale. So get on over to our Facebook page and enter! You can’t win if ya don’t play.

OTTO Pizza’s Deering Little League Girls Softball Team Closes Out Season

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OTTO Pizza coach Brian Carleton serves up some pizza to the members of the Deering Little League OTTO Pizza Girls AA Softball Team as they celebrate the close of their successful season with some pizza at OTTO Pizza’s Munjoy Hill location last night.

This year, OTTO Pizza sponsored a girls softball team in the AA Division of Portland’s Deering Little League. The girls, all seven and eight years old, wrapped up their season last night with a game at the Hall School field, whereupon the entire team adjourned to OTTO Pizza’s East End location on Munjoy Hill for a celebratory pizza party.

In addition to the pizzas, the girls enjoyed a special cake commemorating their season and tore into two packs of Topps 2012 baseball cards, supplied by Assistant Coach Danny Terroni.

It was a great year, and the best part of it was watching all of the girls improve as players as the season progressed. It was a real treat to watch them learn how to play the game and then put those skills to use on the diamond in the games each week.

The members of OTTO Pizza’s Deering Little League AA Girls Softball team gather for a team photo at the beginning of the season.

Coach Brian Carleton did a great job teaching the girls how to hit, how to field and how to make accurate throws, and every game was well-attended by the players’ parents, friends and family.

“We had a great year because we had great kids and all the parents were involved, too,” Coach Brian said. “That makes a big, big difference.”

We’re proud of the girls, not just those who played on the OTTO Pizza team, but of all of ’em who played in the league this year. It was an honor to be able to be a part of it all and we’re looking forward to being involved again next year.

 

A member of the OTTO Pizza AA Girls Softball Team in Portland’s Deering Little League drives a solid hit up the middle as her teammates look on.

Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt Winner Claims the Prize at OTTO Pizza in Portland, Maine

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If you’re into skateboarding, or even if you’re not, you’ve probably heard of Tony Hawk, who is without question the most popular skateboarder in the world.

Craid Candage found the Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt box that had been stashed at OTTO Pizza in Portland, Maine.

Every year, Tony Hawk stashes a bunch of boxes, filled with swag — skateboard gear from his company, Birdhouse Skateboards, autographed items, and other cool stuff — at various locations around the country. You may have read about it in USA Today or on ESPN. This year, he hid 45 boxes in cities throughout the country and a handful in various other English-speaking countries throughout the world.

More specifically, he stashed one at OTTO Pizza‘s shop on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine.

And about five minutes after the shop opened this morning, Craig Candage, of Portland, Maine, walked in and asked for the “Birdhouse Special.”

He got it: a big ol’ box full of swag, courtesy of Tony Hawk and his skateboard company, Birdhouse Skateboards.

So, what was in the box? All sorts of cool stuff: some T-shirts and other apparel gear, some skate gear … too much to describe, really.

Craig Candage, who found the Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt box that had been stashed in Portland, Maine, as part of the 2012 event, displays the load of swag that had been packed into the prize box.

Check out the photo to get a sense of what the winner walked off with.

You can see a video of Craig unpacking his box here.

And if you want to see if you can find one of these wicked cool boxes next year, make sure you follow @tonyhawk on Twitter so you can track the clues.

Good luck.

What do the Maine High School Basketball State Champs Have in Common with OTTO Pizza?

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OTTO Pizza co-owners Mike Keon (L) and Anthony Allen (C) receive kudos from Portland Mayor Michael Brennan Monday evening at City Hall in Portland, Maine.

A lot more than you’d think.

F’rinstance, all of ’em are from Portland. For those of you who somehow didn’t see the news, Portland’s Deering High School boys basketball and McCauley High School girls basketball teams were both the best in the state this year — and OTTO Pizza is arguably the best pizza in the state, if not New England.

And all of ’em were at City Hall in Portland, Maine, on Monday night to receive commendations from the members of the City Council and Portland Mayor Michael Brennan; the members of Portland’s championship teams for their outstanding athletic achievement on the court, and OTTO Pizza for supporting the Portland Recreation Department’s after-school program.

And while we certainly didn’t set out seeking such recognition when we became involved with the Rec Department, it was an honor to receive it, nonetheless.

Thank you.

Anthony & Mike

OTTO Pizza to Open in Brookline, Massachusetts

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OTTO Pizza is coming to Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA.

OTTO Pizza is set to open a new store in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood in Brookline, Massachusetts.

“This is a great location,” OTTO Pizza co-owner Anthony Allen said. “Coolidge Corner is a fantastic neighborhood, and when the location opened up it seemed like a natural fit for us.”

The new shop, which received licensing approvals from the Brookline Board of Selectmen last night, will offer OTTO Pizza’s full menu of interesting and unusual pies, including the signature Mashed Potato, Bacon and Scallion pizza that has drawn national media coverage, as well as special creations featuring seasonal ingredients. The menu will also include several salads and desserts.

Allen said the new store, which will be located at 289 Harvard Ave. in Brookline, will have 60 seats when the build-out is complete and is on schedule to open in May  2012.

“We’re going to provide people with a place to come in, sit down and have an excellent meal without breaking the bank,’ Allen said.

Allen’s partner in OTTO Pizza, co-owner Mike Keon, said the new store will also feature a selection of beer and wine available by the glass.

OTTO Pizza is owned by Allen and Keon, both veteran restaurateurs with decades of experience between them, and currently has four locations: two full service restaurants in Portland, a delivery restaurant that is also in Portland, and a Harvard Square shop in Cambridge, Mass., that offers take-out service. The Brookline, Mass., store represents the fifth OTTO Pizza location.