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 sold 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.
Months after he opened, Fagg heard of a disabled Vietnam veteran who lost his home in a house fire, and though his business was getting off the ground, he donated 20% of his shop’s earnings one week to help 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 told WMAR in 2019.
According to the pizzeria’s website, he has also used his business to feed the homeless and raise money for the Maryland Food Bank.