Blackbird Pizza’s Reubenesque is simple: It’s a classic Reuben, BUT ON A PIZZA! With tangy sauerkraut, thin-sliced pastrami, Swiss AND mozzarella, hints of mustard ‘n’ caraway, and a lot of olive oil and garlic, a Reubenesque slice is a hearty meal, with cooked-in nostalgia for the East Coast, the pizza equivalent of Proust’s madeleine for anyone who has ever looked back fondly on time spent in a New York deli and thought, I could really go for a pastrami sandwich right about now, only to be foiled by the knowledge, that, oops, you moved to the west coast YEARS AGO. O, REMEMBRANCES OF PASTRAMI PAST! Speaking of pastrami, it chills out on Blackbird’s strong, chewy, bagel-y crust with fellow toppings piled high enough to be visible in profile. The Reubenesque makes a few key deviations from its sandwich origins: Blackbird has swapped out traditional Russian dressing for Thousand Island, piped across the mounded sauerkraut in a neat orange zig-zag. And the sauerkraut is one of the last toppings applied, only AFTER the pizza’s done cooking. Yes, this is a Reuben, but it was made in a west coast kitchen.

Blackbird Pizza, 1935 SE Hawthorne, blackbirdpizzapdx.com. Blackbird's Pizza Week slices available April 18-24, Sun-Sat 12 pm-2 am. Dine-in or take-out, limit two slices per customer, whole pies not available. For more about Pizza Week, see portlandpizzaweek.com.