Tis’ the season of giving!
Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy gifted $60,000 to save lots of a struggling veteran-owned Baltimore pizzeria from completely closing as clients have since flooded the shop with orders.
Portnoy was touring to Maryland for the Military-Navy soccer in mid-December when he made a pit cease at TinyBrickOven within the Federal Hill neighborhood to wrap up a day of filming his viral pizza critiques, in response to his producer Austin Jenkins.
Retailer proprietor Will Fagg, a Navy veteran, was working behind the counter when the pizza savant arrived and he shared that his beloved store was closing for good on Christmas Day.
Fagg stated the store’s lack of ability to amass a liquor license and money stream issues was forcing him to shut down.
“We can’t get our liquor license here,” Fagg instructed 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 activities founder stated as Fagg was boxing up the pizza.
Stepping exterior to rank the pizza, Portnoy took one chew, extremely complimented the pizza, and was much more shocked that they had been gearing as much as shut.
“This is a thin, New York kind of style. I really like it,” Portnoy stated in his overview. “There’s no way this place should be going out of business. None.”
He then learn from a sticker on the field that defined the enterprise was closing and that “every purchase supports a veteran.”
Portnoy then met Fagg on the door and requested him “how much money” he wanted to remain open for an additional 12 months.
Fagg, taken again by the query, wasn’t certain tips on how to reply.
“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 stated.
“I know it. Listen, I think we could probably get our liquor license and continue to stay open if we had $60,000,” Fagg stated.
“Done,” Portnoy responded, instantly shaking his hand to substantiate the deal.
Portnoy went inside to change information with Fagg and instructed him he rated the slice a 7.9 out of 10 — a offered rating for the pizza grader.
The viral overview has been seen over 12 million occasions on Portnoy’s X web page because it was posted, and Fagg instructed CBS Information that enterprise at TinyBrickOven had exploded.
“We’ve never had a crowd like this,” the veteran stated, noting that he had a line out the door and the store’s telephone was ringing nonstop on Christmas Eve.
Fagg additionally shared {that a} fundraiser already arrange earlier than the pizza overview had skyrocketed previous $50,000 inside 24 hours of hitting the web.
“People say it’s a Christmas miracle,” he stated. “It kind of feels like a Christmas miracle!”
Fagg opened TinyBrickOven in Baltimore in 2019 and has often used his enterprise to assist others.
Months after he opened, Fagg heard of a disabled Vietnam veteran who misplaced his dwelling in a home fireplace, and although his enterprise was getting off the bottom, he donated 20% of his store’s earnings one week to assist with repairs.
“I’m a Navy Corpsman and Navy Corpsman and Marines have a long history of helping each other so when I saw this story, it really broke my heart and I wanted to do something to help,” he instructed WMAR in 2019.
In response to the pizzeria’s web site, he has additionally used his enterprise to feed the homeless and lift cash for the Maryland Meals Financial institution.
