We ranked our favorite Tampa pizza places that Dave Portnoy missed out on. Everybody knows the rules. Dave has one (1) bite to judge an authentic cheese pizza. We were all surprised by Dave Portnoy’s visit to the Tampa Bay area. He was here in early March for another round of his One Bite Pizza series. Dave visited about 18 local pizza places and since then their business has been BOOMING! But what were some of the places he missed?
Although Dave Portnoy may not be everybody’s favorite internet personality. The Barstool CEO does help support a lot of local businesses with his One Bite Pizza reviews. Just his appearance alone caused hundreds of people to check out a new Tampa pizza place. Don’t believe us? Just try to check out one of the places he visited earlier this year and you’ll be met with a huge crowd and long wait times. But trust us, the food will be worth it.
Related: Barstool President Dave Portnoy Pizza Tour Around Tampa Bay Official Rankings
We visited a couple places in St. Pete to try to see what the hype was about. First we tried The Violet Stone, who had an awesome 7.9 rating for their pizza and an unreal 9.2 rating for their Philly cheesesteak. Well, it was so busy there that they had to limit the orders to 2 pizzas and 2 cheesesteaks per order. So we ended up trying a pizza from Little Toby’s instead, and we were NOT disappointed.
We also spoke with the owner of Piper’s Scratch Pizza Shop in Palm Harbor. He told us that the weekend after Dave’s visit was the busiest they’ve ever been since their opening in 2020. Bruce also shared that just a few days after their video was released on YouTube, their sales tripled.
To accommodate all the new business, Bruce has been very open with his customers. They created a disclaimer on their website explaining that cook times may have increased due to volume. Bruce also told us that they had to take some menu items off to focus on pizza, hire more staff, increase their prep items, and tripled the dough prep. If you’re ever in the Palm Harbor area, we highly recommend trying the Piperoni or Twisted Marg.
So what about the places Dave missed? We knew he wouldn’t be able to make it to all the Tampa pizza places in the area. So we made a list of places you should check out and rate for yourself. And maybe put them on Dave’s radar if he comes back to the Tampa Bay area.