Pizza Thief, the acclaimed and pizza connoisseur favorite bakery, pizzeria, and bar in NW Portland is the new food partner of Great Notion Brewing (GNB) taking over the kitchen at their NW 28th location. But it won’t be just a direct port of Pizza Thief’s artisan take on New York pies and baked goods, instead it will focus on Sicilian-style pizza with a completely different menu.

Great Notion Brewing is known for their hazy IPAs, pastry and dessert inspired sour and imperial Stouts, and a broadening lineup of clean, clear, contemporary and historic styles. Great Notion expanded out of their original Alberta St. location opening a production facility and restaurant at 2444 NW 28th Ave, Portland, OR 97210 in 2019. Originally the GNB NW 28th pub had a morning coffee bar/cafe, and a full menu of gastropub dishes, over the years it pivoted to recently focusing on elevated drive-thru food like smashburgers, fried chicken sandwiches, and crunch wraps. GNB seems to be following the model of leasing out their kitchens to established food focused providers (the GN Alberta kitchen is operated by Matt’s BBQ Tacos since October 2022) and Pizza Thief is an excellent choice.

Pizza Thief, and their popular Bandit Bar, are known for their sourdough and Mondays only Sicilian-style slices, often partnering up with brewers, cider makers, winemakers for Meet-the-Maker events where the featured guest gets to collaborate on a special Sicilian slice of pizza. Pizza Thief’s daily pies are a West Coast spin on NY-style pizzerias with sourdough bread, imported cheeses, local farm fresh ingredients, and amazing baked desserts.

Great Notion had the idea to partner up after already having company meetings at Pizza Thief on a regular basis,

“Andy, James and myself all absolutely love the texture and true sourdough nature of Pizza Thief's slices! We regularly hold owner meetings there and fell in love with their pizza over the past few years. At Great Notion, we want to focus on what we do best - which is to make the best beer in the world. Furthermore - we want to partner with like minded companies that are the best in their class... and so Pizza Thief plus Great Notion is a major win-win for our guests!,” says Great Notion Brewing co-founder Paul Reiter, referring to his partners Andy Miller and James Dugan.

Starting with lunch service on Wednesday May 1st, Pizza Thief will be serving their delicious  Sicilian pan pizza (10” square pies), salads, fried roman style snacks, suppli and polpettes, and more sandwich options. Sandwiches built on Pizza Thief’s pizza biancos, there will be a meatball hoagie using their neighbors at Brewer’s Bread sesame baguette. The food menu will be paired up alongside Great Notion’s Ripe, Ledge, Blueberry Muffin and other beers.

“Great Notion will become our new Commissary kitchen space,” says Pizza Thief co-owner/pizzaiolo Darby Adalco. “Our mixer, current oven and dough bench will move to Gread Notion kitchen. A new larger PizzaMaster oven will be installed here, as well as a larger pizza line. This will allow us to increase production at Vaughn Street. Our Salad and sandwich line will improve as well, which will allow us to offer our Italian sandwich all day thru close. Once we settle into Great Notion Space, Vaughn will become a 7 day a week operation!”

Pizza Thief has previously been mentioned as one of the best new pizzerias in Portland by both local and national media outlets like Portland Monthly, PDX Eater, and Forbes Magazine.  Great Notion’s Ripe was named #1 IPA in America by Paste Magazine out of 350 beers blind-taste-tested, as well as #1 IPA in Portland by Willamette Week.  Customers can now easily enjoy both delicacies together. 

Great Notion was one of the early breweries to pop-up at Pizza Thief’s meet-the-maker Mondays, “When we were in the middle of our build out for Pizza Thief on Vaughn Street, we reached out to Pauly to ask him if we could feature Great Notion on draft as it has always been at the top of our list with regards to Portland’s legendary craft beer scene.  We’re so excited to be collaborating with Great Notion on this partnership,” said Pizza Thief’s co-owner and Chef  Darby Aldaco.  “There is no better pairing than beer and pizza!”

Pizza Thief at Great Notion NW (2444 NW 28th Ave, Portland, OR 97210) will be offering dine-in and pick-up/online ordering (no delivery from NW28th) starting May 1st 2024. Starting hours will be 12-9 Sun-Thurs and 12-10 Fri-Sat pizzathief.com.