Old Town Pizza

I have three reasons for writing this somewhat random blog post now.

A. I really wish I was in Portland

B. I haven’t written anything for a while and am somewhat desperate for ideas for new posts

C. I ate pizza on three separate occasions today, and it was wonderful

Basically, Old Town Pizza is my favorite place to eat downtown. For those of my lucky friends who are still in Portland you should go there right now so I can be jealous of you as you bask in its glory and eat heavenly pizza.

You may be wondering why it is so awesome. There are, after all, an endless supply of pizza places. None of them are like Old Town though, largely because of the atmosphere. Old Town pizza is actually in the lobby of an old hotel from the 1880, and you order your pizza from the original reception desk. It has a really cozy atmosphere, with eclectic old pieces of furniture that don’t even match. I love it.

Even better, it’s supposed to be haunted. According to the story there was a girl working in the hotel, for a less than desirable profession, who was found murdered in the bottom of the elevator shaft, which now serves as booth that I have ate in. Her name is carved into the brick wall, supposedly by her, and people report seeing a girl dressed in a black dress while they eat (full, much better version of the story here).

It’s also located on top of the Shanghai Tunnels. The tunnels are located under Old Town and China Town and were used back in the day to kidnap drunken men and put them on boats, where they would wake up to find they had essentially been sold into slavery. Tours of the tunnels start at Old Town Pizza. I’ve always wanted to go, and someday I’ll suck it up and stop being so cheap so I can pay to do it.

But if you’re not into that stuff, the pizza is absolutely delicious.

Here are some photos I found on my computer from my many trips there so you can get a better feel for it. Trust, me you want to go there. Love, love, love.

(this last one is in the elevator shaft, in case you wanted to know. It took a lot of convincing to get everyone in there)