The owner of a Boston-area pizza restaurant recently got into a verbal altercation with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, and the viral video has led to some serious backlash.
Portnoy has become known for his pizza reviews since Barstool moved to New York City in 2017. He has parlayed the success of his video reviews into an app and frozen pizza product, all under the “One Bite” brand. The reviews often include celebrity guests and are usually lighthearted, but his recent trip to Dragon Pizza in Somerville, Mass., has been viewed millions of times for a different reason.
In the middle of the review, the owner of Dragon Pizza came out twice to chastise Portnoy and tell him he does not appreciate Portnoy’s “platform” or the way he judges small businesses. The two began trading insults the second time and things got really heated. You can see the video here.
Since the video was posted on Thursday, Dragon Pizza has been absolutely torn to shreds on social media. Their Yelp page was even shut down due to an “unusual activity alert” after Barstool supporters (aka Stoolies) left hundreds of 1-star reviews. They were up over 900 reviews after video of the incident went public, and their cumulative rating had dropped well below 2.0 stars.
You can see a sampling of the reviews below:
The Yelp page for Dragon Pizza has been frozen after hundreds of Stoolies flooded it with 1-star reviews pic.twitter.com/N0lfK2Mytl
— Steve DelVecchio (@SteveDelSports) September 1, 2023
Many of the 1-star Yelp reviews have already been removed, and Dragon Pizza’s total score was at 1.9 at the time this story was published.
The owner of Dragon Pizza also shared some posts on Instagram boasting that he told Portnoy off. The vast majority of the comments on those posts were pro-Portnoy and pro-Barstool.
“You and this pizza place are an embarrassment to Somerville…Yelling at a guy and blaming him for failed small businesses because you voted for a moron…Dave also gave $50 million back to small business…what did you do? Hope you business fails,” one of the top comments read.
“Watching dragon pizza absolutely bury themselves was funny to watch. How in the world did the owner think that was going to go well for him. Never seen anyone take a bigger L in my life,” another user wrote.
Portnoy is an extremely popular, albeit polarizing, public figure. The owner of Dragon Pizza was probably aiming to capitalize on that and gain some exposure for his business. He also revealed his bias when he referenced a New York Times piece that was written in an attempt to take down Barstool, which many media outlets have attempted to do.
Portnoy started the “Barstool Fund” at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to help small businesses survive. Many prominent people in the sports and celebrity worlds contributed to and promoted the fundraising effort. The fund raised $50 million, all of which was given to small businesses that were chosen as recipients based on struggles they faced during the pandemic.
Time will tell if the owner of Dragon Pizza helped or hurt his business by taking on Portnoy, but the early results do not look promising for him.
