Heirloom Tomato Pizza pops-up at Portland breweries: Ruse, Threshold, Assembly, & Double Mountain
For those obsessed with pizza and the ripe abundance of summer seasonal produce and the return of mouth-watering heirloom tomatoes, Double Mountain Brewing’s annual tradition of Heirloom Tomato Pizza is a highly anticipated treat. This year Ruse Brewing, Assembly Brewing, and Threshold Brewing, have all joined in on the fun to celebrate the summer bounty. Heirloom tomatoes make pizza and beer pairings even better, it’s the best combo since Barbie and Oppenheimer and neither are available at home, you have to hit your local brewpub to get in on this action.
Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery
Heirloom Tomato Pesto Pizza
Double Mountain's Heirloom Pie is a thing of beauty and is reason enough to visit Hood River, or the 7-year-old Woodstock neighborhood location in Portland, or the brand new Overlook pub in N. Portland. Since they have been makiing this special pizza for atleast the last decade, it has inspired a cult following and set the precedent for others. Trading marina sauce out, they use herbacious and zesty pesto as a base on this pie layered with medium cut tomatoes of all colors from yellow and green to blood red and purple to create a rainbow.
Double Mountain has specialized in East Coast New Haven-style pizza since they opened their original tiny brewpub in 2007. The style of pizza has now become a popular standard for gastropubs. The thin and not perfectly round shape with an interior chewy texture and crackery exterior is the signature, and it makes for a great pub pizza because of its high cooking temperatures that help in a fast turnaround. The slices, though thin, should be solid and not floppy, making for a great structure for fun toppings such as heirloom tomatoes.
For this seasonal pie, Double Mountain waits until fresh heirlooms are abundant, and available in quantities to feed all three pubs through the fresh hop season. Tomatoes are sourced from Royal Anne Organics, the pesto sauce is an undercurrent below layers of mozzarella and fontal cheese, a fresh grated and liberal dusting of pecorino and parmigiano cheese completes the preparation.
Three Double Mountain locations in Portland and Hood River, more info at https://www.doublemountainbrewery.com/
Ruse Brewing
Shapes of Nature + The Spurley
Ruse Brewing only started making pizza a year-ago at their second location in Vancouver, the Ruse Crust Collective. The success that shop has had on the waterfront with contemporary Detroit-style Pizza, meant that the flagship taproom and brewery in southeast Portland was able to add a small kitchen big enough to prepare a small variety of pizzas on weekends only (Fri - Sun.) Due to popular demand (mostly just me texting Devin and Shaun) Ruse Brewing is putting their first pizza special on at the Portland pub only, two different seasonal Heirloom Tomato Detroit-style flavors: “The Spurley” and “Shapes of Nature.”
Ruse co-founder Devin Benware was already a big fan of heirloom tomatoes, he grows them at home and calls them his favorite fruit. So when prompted to do a special, they jumped on the idea quickly and proposed it to their sous chef Oscar Suarez. Together, they dreampt up “Shapes of Nature,” an extra colorful popping arugula topped Detroit-style with fresh oregano, shaved parmesan and a house-made blackberry-balsamic dressing sweeted with maple sugar. The next day Oscar showed up to trial it and also found the ingredients to do the BLT inspired “The Spurley,” with bacon lardons melted into a thick skin of brick cheddar, topped with shaved ice berg lettuce, whole slabs of heirloom tomato coins, and topped with a spicy-creamy house-made jalapeno ranch and finely chopped parsley.
Both The Spurley and Shapes of Nature are available while the ingredients last on weekends only at Ruse Brewing PDX, 4784 SE 17th Ave, Portland, OR 97202.
Assembly Brewing
Summer Garden Veggie
Assembly Brewing probably makes the most authentic Detroit-style pizza’s in town, thanks to owner/brewer George Johnson coming from Detroit where he grew up with the pies and trained with the master. The brewpub is possibly best known for this, and Johnson is serious about using the proper deep square metal trays and right kinds of cheese, temperatures, and dough that are signatures of the regional favorite that has been taking the world by storm. For the first time this summer, Assembly Brewing is getting in on the heirloom tomatoes for two specials that should bring new fans and locals in for an appraisal.
Assembly’s seasonal heirloom tomato version recalls backyard cookouts and bottle shares, it’s grilling season with every bite. But instead of smoky meats, it’s all fresh summer veggies at their peak season. The kind of good eats you would throw on the grill and flip just once or twice to get that sweet Maillard reaction between amino acids and carbohydrates when they hit the right heat. Grilled Zucchini and corn and red onion melt and lightly char into the traditional Detroit-style Pizza cheese - Brick Cheddar. Once the pie comes out of the oven, they add thick cut heirloom tomatoes, and splatter a creamy chili-lime aioli that would make for a perfect elote sauce. You won’t even miss the meat on this pie that comes in either 4 or 6 slices, but if you do need some greasy protein Assembly also has an heirloom tomato BLT on the menu. The traditional interpretation of BLT keeps the three ingredients that make it so classic (bacon, lettuce, tomato), the only difference being the thick cut heirloom tomatoes over the much weaker greenhouse grown tomatoes we get all year. Served on shokupan bread from Xuyen Bakery and panini pressed with nice grill marks. Get them both while you can, as Assembly’s chef is planning to switch up the heirloom tomato pizza to a different concept (still with heirlooms) in the next week or so.
Assembly Brewing, 6112 SE Foster Rd, Portland, OR 97206
Threshold Brewing
Heirloom Tomato Zapiekanka
Zapiekanka is the Polish equivalent of pizza, prepared in a way similar to a pizza log served on an open-faced and toasted baguette. In Poland, the Zapiekanka is a popular street food with signature ingredients and preparation that require some extra work to realize in Portland. Threshold brewer/co-owner Jarek Szymanski hails from Poland and he and his wife/co-owner Sara Szymanski came up with the idea to bring Zapiekanka to their taproom during COVID-19 as an easy to prepare bar snack. However most of the hard work involves sourcing the proper Morski cheese and smoked Polish sausage, pureeing and spicing a specific flavor of tomato Zapi-Sauce, brining thinly cut cucumber coins, and simmering spiced mushrooms with the proper herbs. The most difficult part was finding the right bread, at first they had to rely on french bread, but it just wasn’t right. Recently Threshold was able to strike up a collaboration with fellow Montavilla business Fressen Bread to make a proper baquette that could hold the toppings without becoming too crusty or too soft.
Starting this Thursday, August 10th Threshold Brewing is introducing a new house-made garlicy white sauce similar to ranch, and a seasonal Heirloom Tomato Zapiekanka Special in honor of this special time of year. Inspired by the other great seasonal heirloom pizzas around town, Threshold’s zapiekanka is topped with sun-ripened Montavilla Farmers Market heirloom tomatoes.
Threshold Brewing & Blending, 403 SE 79th Ave, Portland, OR 97215
Get yourself to one of these four breweries in August before they sell-out of heirlooms, and keep your eyes peeled for more specials like an incoming one from Portland Cider Co.’s new kitchen that we hear is in the works.