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Toronto restaurants offering controversial Barstool Sports pres. Dave Portnoy pizza

When controversial Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy announced he'd be coming to Toronto, you'd think at least some people would be telling him to stay away... but a surprising number of restaurants are offering him food. 

Barstool Sports is a media company with a raunchy angle that's intended to be humourous but often ends up toeing the line of what people consider offensive. 

Portnoy is its president, and there are currently some revolting allegations against him which he's denied in a Twitter video

He announced he'd be visiting Toronto in a video posted to his social media, to the delight of many restaurants and food lovers.

One of the things Portnoy is particularly known for doing on those channels is reviewing food, specifically pizza in his "One Bite Pizza Reviews."

It's possible some Toronto restaurants just aren't aware of the controversy swirling around him and are offering him food in the hopes of getting some promotion on his super popular social media channels.

"Yes!!!!" Mark's Pizzas commented. "Hope to see you Dave," commented Ambassador Pizza

"Hey Dave hit me up my guy," wrote Patterson's Pizza. "I got the best 6.7 you'll ever have." Local restaurateur Adrian Niman tagged his restaurant Blondies Pizza, Dino's Pizza tagging itself.

"Hey Dave, come give our pizza a try," wrote mainstay Pizzeria Libretto.

"Come by Rosina's," wrote Rosina. "We've placed 2nd in the world at the Las Vegas pizza expo this year." Associated restaurant Taverniti tagged all the restaurants in their group, writing, "let's goooooo."

Italian bakery San Remo had offered Portnoy food in a comment, but changed their mind about it after blogTO reached out, and the Taverniti restaurants were also unaware of the allegations. 

"We were unaware about the allegations," a rep from San Remo told blogTO when asked about inviting him to come over for a bite, saying they had been following his pizza adventures. "We are no longer interested in having him come after you have brought this to our attention."

"We would not have invited him to come by as we are a family operated and oriented restaurant," a rep from Rosina tells blogTO.

Dino's owner Dino Ari is less concerned, though also said he wasn't aware of any allegations.

"I like him because he promotes for local pizza stores. I don't know what are the allegations about him," Ari tells blogTO.

"If he did anything bad and guilty the court will punish him. For pizza, I would like him come to my pizza shop and try the best wood burning pizza in Toronto. I would like to know his comment because he is an expert."

Portnoy arrived in Toronto on April 25, again posting a video about it on social media, with lots of commentary from people recommending pizza places.

Lead photo by

Dave Portnoy


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