Fast Fashion Beer / Masonry Pizza collaboration at Portland’s Pizza Thief
Fast Fashion Beer founders Matt Storm (lower left) and Brian Strumke
Seattle, Washington’s vaporous Fast Fashion Beer is coming to Portland for a one night only pizza collaboration with Pizza Thief on Monday, February 6th. Fast Fashion founder Matt Storm is also the man behind The Masonry, a wood-fired pizza joint known for their extremely well curated beer lists and mastery of Neapolitan-style pizza.
NW Portland’s Pizza Thief is one of the best new pizzerias in town according to Portland Monthly Magazine, Willamette Week, Eater PDX, and the New School. Split into two spaces, the pizzeria cafe slings sourdough crust NYC adjacent pies, and their connected Bandit Bar is a loungey full cocktail bar with an exemplary beer, cider, and wine list. As Portland began emerging from the pandemic in late 2021, Pizza Thief events planner Gemma Fanelli came up with an idea to bring a new crowd in on slow Monday nights and that was the Meet-the-Maker series. Similar to a meet-the-brewer event, the Meet the Maker takes the even more fun twist of inviting the maker (brewer, winemaker, cidermaker, distiller) to collaborate with Pizza Thief chef/co-owner Darby Adalco on a one-night only Sicilian-style square pizza available alongside a handful of their beers or fermented beverages.
Left to right: Pizza Thief’s Gemma Fanelli, co-owners Darby Adalco, and Tony Pasquale
“Being a huge connoisseur of beer, especially here in the PNW, its really cool (in a geeked out sorta way) to meet the actual brewers of some of my favorite beers and getting to know about their backgrounds and the hows and whys they brew certain beers,” says Darby Adalco. “It’s also fun to see their takes on pizza and what flavor profiles they come up with.”
During each meet-the-maker outing, the guest of honor comes up with the plan for a dream pizza they think will pair up best with their beverages. Sometimes it’s inspired by a slice they enjoyed in the past, or it could be another culinary experience, or even just what’s in season from the local farmers market. Adalco gives his feedback on what pairs up well and works best on a pie, because not every food ingredient translates he says, “After all said and done, Our name is still attached to the pie, so the pie has to be great. Sometimes I need to edit their choices or reconfigure them to make sense form a baking/cooking sense.”
Gemma Fanelli
Adalco runs every single new flavor off of Gemma, a longtime foodie and industry pro who has worked in cider at Reverend Nat’s and as founder of the Pomme Boots Society, and in beer at Culmination Brewing and Lents Draft & Bottle. “She gives great feedback, she knows beer, she knows pizza, it helps me to look outside box,” says Adalco on his maker collaboration series dreamed up by Fanelli. “The relationships and friendships made thru these Maker series have been a really rewarding experience, for me personally and for our business. Being a new transplant to Portland and knowing nobody 19 months ago, and now being able to say I’m friends with just about every head beer/cider/winemaker in town is pretty cool. I gotta give a shout out to our Maker Queen, Gemma Fanelli, the series wouldn’t have taken off if it wasn’t for all of her close connections to the PNW beverage world.”
Most of the meet-the-maker events feature pizza making novices, for the Fast Fashion night this Monday they have a veteran of both pizzeria and beer in owner Matt Storm. The Masonry was opened in Seattle’s lower Queen Anne neighborhood in 2013, they earned a reputation as one of the best beer lists in town paired up with incredible hand picked ingredients on wood-fired pies. Outside of the pizza, Masonry built a huge following for their acclaimed meatballs.
The Masonry’s famed Meatballs
"People love our meatballs,” says Matt Storm. His idea for the meet-the-maker collab is bringing down meatballs made at The Masonry as well as calabrian chilis, shallots, basil, and fresh mozzarella, using their meatball marinara as the sauce on the pizza slice which will work much better on a thick Sicilian-style sourdough then Masonry’s thin wood fired crust. “At the bar we serve them with focaccia so we figured they’d do well on a Sicilian style crust which is more robust than ours,” says Storm.
The sourdough employed by Pizza Thief is one of the signature elements that make their daily pizzas special. Most of the time they employ them on thinner crust New York triangular pizza slices, but for meet-the-maker nights they bake a heftier square slice. It’s quite a bit different than most cooks are familiar with, and opens up a new challenge in the collaboration process.
Meet-the-maker series last May with Great Notion Brewing
“I definitely wouldn’t ask somebody to adjust their dough,” says Matt Storm on his out of the box collab with Pizza Thief. “I don’t think you really know your dough until you’ve worked with it for a long long time. It changes by day and season. Generally find it’s best to let those that do their dough work on the base and we can just talk about what seems fun to top it with.”
Matt Storm founded Fast Fashion Beer with Stillwater founder Brian Strumke in 2020 as a response to changing service industry business models and the challenges of the pandemic. Built around quick one and done can drops and cutting edge hops and utilization techniques, Fast Fashion established their own hop variety codenamed “Anchovy” and built a devoted following around NE-style hazy IPA’s.
Fast Fashion Hot Pizza Beer
“I brew like a cook,” says Storm, “Rather than a brewer, I tend to do a lot by feel and make adjustments by taste throughout the process. It’s fun to guide something from start to finish across 3 weeks to a few months depending on what we are brewing. Working a rush in the kitchen is exhilarating but also exhausting. Pizza is great for being able to instantly rectify mistakes though and especially in wood fired cooking it feels like you’re constantly chasing the perfect pizza which I love.”
Fast Fashion Beer’s collaboration Sicilian-style square pizza slices for meet-the-maker appear on Pizza Thief’s menu starting at 4pm on Monday, February 6th, 2023. Matt Storm, Darby Adalco, and Gemma Fanelli will be in attendance for meet-the-maker from 6-8pm and slices available until 9pm.
Fast Fashion TAPLIST:
Tulip Pils 5.2% ABV
Brewed for our pals at Tulip Shop Tavern, it’s hopped aggressively on the hot side with Seitz Farm Hallertau Mittelfuh and Freestyle Motueke. Floral aroma and flavor with a clean bitterness on the back end.
Reflection Schwarzbier 5.2% abv
Last beer packaged at our old facility, notes of bitter cocoa, maraschino cherry, dry and crisp finish. Hopped with Seitz Farm Hallertau Mittelfruh.
Temp Check 6.8% abv
Brewed with the amazing folks at Lowercase in Seattle, it’s got notes of guava and kumquat. Hopped with Citra and our own experimental hop Segal Ranch Anchovy.
Fast Fasion/The Masonry meet-the-maker
Monday, February 6th 6-8pm (pizza starts at 4)
Pizza Thief, 2610 NW Vaughn St, Portland, OR