TinyBrickOven — Restaurant in Baltimore

“Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy gifts $60K to save struggling Baltimore pizzeria: ‘Christmas miracle’

By Richard Pollina Published Dec. 25, 2024, 2:17 a.m. ET, New York Post.

Tis’ the season of giving!

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy gifted $60,000 to save a struggling veteran-owned Baltimore pizzeria from permanently closing as customers have since flooded the store with orders.

Portnoy was traveling to Maryland for the Army-Navy football in mid-December when he made a pit stop at TinyBrickOven in the Federal Hill neighborhood to wrap up a day of filming his viral pizza reviews, according to his producer Austin Jenkins.

Store owner Will Fagg, a Navy veteran, was working behind the counter when the pizza savant arrived and he shared that his beloved shop was closing for good on Christmas Day.

Fagg said the shop’s inability to acquire a liquor license and cash flow problems was forcing him to close down.

“We can’t get our liquor license here,” Fagg told Portnoy in a video uploaded on Monday. “Our politicians gave this market down here their liquor license, but they won’t give us ours… it’s really disappointing.”

“We’re gonna have to keep this place open,” the Barstool Sports founder said as Fagg was boxing up the pizza.

Stepping outside to rank the pizza, Portnoy took one bite, highly complimented the pizza, and was even more stunned that they were gearing up to close. This is a thin, New York kind of style. I really like it,” Portnoy said in his review. “There’s no way this place should be going out of business. None.”

He then read from a sticker on the box that explained the business was closing and that “every purchase supports a veteran.”

Portnoy then met Fagg at the door and asked him “how much money” he needed to stay open for another year.

Fagg, taken back by the question, wasn’t sure how to answer. “Well, if there’s somebody super rich right in front of your face who’s in the pizza business, and by serendipity is like, ‘What do you need to stay open for a year,’ you’ve got to give him some figure, because then he’s going to walk away,” Portnoy said.

“I know it. Listen, I think we could probably get our liquor license and continue to stay open if we had $60,000,” Fagg said.

“Done,” Portnoy responded, immediately shaking his hand to confirm the deal. Portnoy went inside to exchange info with Fagg and told him he rated the slice a 7.9 out of 10 — a solid score for the pizza grader. The viral review has been viewed over 12 million times on Portnoy’s X page since it was posted, and Fagg told CBS News that business at TinyBrickOven had exploded.

“We’ve never had a crowd like this,” the veteran said, noting that he had a line out the door and the shop’s phone was ringing nonstop on Christmas Eve.

Fagg also shared that a fundraiser already set up before the pizza review had skyrocketed past $50,000 within 24 hours of hitting the internet.

“People say it’s a Christmas miracle,” he said. “It kind of feels like a Christmas miracle!”

Fagg opened TinyBrickOven in Baltimore in 2019 and has frequently used his business to help others.

The Barstool Sports founder rated the pizza rated the...

This is a great neighborhood family restaurant. The pizza dough is tasty and fairly priced, they have meat, vegetarian and VEGAN options, are really great with picky eaters. It feels like a fun light-hearted atmosphere. (My kids love the dancing Elmo doll who sings the pizza song).Very kid friendly! I hear it's also a favorite among those who have a night life. I have kids, so I've only ever heard about that night life thing.

The gelato (which is Italian ice cream, except far better than ice cream and less fatty) is actually my favorite part. It's hard to find gelato in Baltimore, and once you do, you know what you've been missing. It's so refreshing and they have wonderful flavors. Dulce de leche? Yep. Chocolate? Of course. They also now carry Italian ice to give more options to those avoiding dairy or just want something new in summer. I keep meaning to try that, but maaaan, gelato! Gelato! I could stop there.

But I won't because actually, it's so much more. Will (the pizza enthusiast and one of the owners) is constantly working on ways to support the larger community, so patronizing this restaurant definitely pays it forward. (A few examples: when the pandemic hit, Will made DIY mobile hand washing units - some for this restaurant so patrons could wash their hands immediately upon entering, and brought some to homeless communities. He hosts fundraisers for local public schools and to meet other community needs, and provides free food to unemployed when he can, etc). Supporting this restaurant feels like I'm part of growing the good stuff going on in our local community.

And of course, it's great food without having to actually be the one to cook it. So thank you, Will, and thank you to all who also go check...

I hate that have to write this review, but my husband and I are so disappointed from our experience. I’m going to try to not sound like a whiny little prince as a write.

We went on a Wednesday night, not seemingly super busy. We ordered a pepp slice combo and received two very small slices (their menu says 9” and they definitely were not). The pizza was a cheese pie with pepperoni added in the reheating process, why not just make a whole pepperoni pie? Surely you would sell enough of a popular slice like that!

We had to order more because we were still hungry so we decided to order a whole pie. The following is what made me write this review. We paid $25 for a pizza were given a reheated cheese pie with pepperoni added for the reheating process. It wasn’t fresh. This is baffling because it’s not hard to make a fresh pizza for someone who just placed the order. Is this the standard? Additionally, there was a slice from a different pizza replaced in the pie and when we asked why they said it was because there was a burn hole. Okay. Thanks for wanting to give me a value for my money, but again, why not just make me a fresh pie? For $25.

Altogether we were just disappointed, we’re from Upstate NY and have eaten a lot of good pizza and the recipe here has a ton of potential. We can only assume the hype has worn down the service and noticed that the owner was training someone new who seemed run down and honestly like he was being rude to the owner. The relationship there is clearly strained.

We hope this...