Pizza: light of our lives, food divine, perfection in a slice. It is said in Virgil’s Aeneid, that Aneas—exiled from his home after the destruction of Troy by the Greeks—ate pizza on the travels to the Roman homeland. Since that mighty spearman chowed down, pizza has sat at the center of the world’s table. Family, friends, lovers, all sit together to devour a slice in communion: vegans with their avant pies, meat boys with the pep and sausage, a fancy pie from a stone oven, or a child devouring free pie after some academic conquest—that’s pizza. 

Portland is famous for their local pies, which combine the rigorous technique of the New Haven craftsman with the unfussy creativity of the California sicko. This week, thousands celebrated  the Portland Mercury’s Pizza Week, where 68 separate locations offered experimental pies and slices for a populace of pizza maniacs. 

“Top three comfort foods, for sure… if you have pizza, it will brighten the day,” says Matt Colaith, seen taking down a slice of “Chimi Chimi Ya!” at The Dullahan Pizza Pub on SE Gladstone.

The Double Mountain Taproom in Woodstock went hard this year with their “Bánh Mízza,” a pizza adorned with the accoutrement of the bánh mì, a Vietnamese sandwich staple, itself a collision of Vietnamese and French culinary traditions.

“Life, nourishment, community,” says Leah, sitting next to the "Bánh Mízza," when asked what pizza means to her. Community was an important element of the pizza experience according to nearly everyone I spoke to about pie on my journey: a food to be shared, a food to be divvied, a food to be enjoyed with your fellow human in good spirits. As with Aneas, so with the Portlander.

“The best pizza I ever had was baked on a hillside in Italy, in an oven on the coast,” says Ian Wallace in reference to his slice. “It’s not far from this, though. This is pretty good.” 

Division Street punk-rock pizza stalwart Atlas Pizza is slinging "The Smokeshow," a stroll into Thanksgiving madness, anchored by rosemary potatoes and smoked turkey burnt ends. Dan, who comes to Portland by way of Chicago, talks about the pizza he grew up with: “We always had the triangle sliced pizza… like they cut it a million times so you get the perfect triangles; crispy, thin crust, Chicago-cut style.”

“I grew up in Los Angeles, and there’s a place in North Hollywood, Little Tony’s, that my dad went to,” says Becca, Dan’s tablemate. “Thin crust pizza, it’s been there forever. We still go there now.”

Virtuous Pie, the famed vegan pizza joint on SE Division, went deep with their "Spicy BBQ Chick'n Pizza," adorned with BBQ soy curls, blistered shishito peppers, and a generous helping of cilantro. 

“Pizza means a lot to me, I grew up making it with my family,” says Josiah, sitting on Virtuous Pie’s patio. “My family and I, in Southeast Portland, we built a little pizza oven where we were growing up. I love it, it's part of my childhood and identity. My dad has always liked Italian food, so he decided to build one as a family project. I was the oldest son so my job was to warm up the oven with wood, for like, six hours before. Then everyone would make their own pizza, kind of Subway-style. Everyone gets their own little personal pie, and we would share. My mom would usually make the dough… a Neapolitan style pizza dough, crispier. As I’ve gotten older, though, I think I may make the best dough in the family. It’s pretty good recipe, and a huge part of my life.” 

“Pizza saved my life, I love pizza,” Ben, Josiah’s dining partner tells us. “It brings people together, gives you something to look forward to. I love eating it with my friends, and it represents unlimited possibilities. You can put anything on it, you can put anything in it, you can make it out of anything. It’s a beautiful thing.”

To keep up with Pizza Week-driven demands, the world famous sourdough joint, Scottie’s Pizza Parlor in NW Portland, made an expanded dough-proofing station out of sheet pans and Lacroix cans. Many of these balls of dough will be fashioned into “Defiant Jazz,” Scottie’s Pizza Week entry created in collaboration with Bryson Wallace, a DJ on 89.1 KMHD, Portland’s premier jazz station. Three sauces, standard red sauce, vodka sauce, and pesto are daubed underneath aged mozzarella. 

Hope Tejedas, the GM of Scottie’s, was applying sauce to a pie while standing on a flour-dusted floor and sporting Aperol Spritz earrings when asked what pizza meant to her.

“Pizza means family to me,” she says. “A food you can enjoy with people you love, and the community in Portland circles around pizza is like a big family.” 

As in Portland, so in the world: pizza, a global food, that brings all to the table to feast in community. Maybe we're striving to model utopia with every slice. 

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The Mercury's Pizza Week continues through Sunday, April 20. More information here.