In early May, East Glisan Pizza Lounge, located at 8001 NE Glisan Street, reopened after a six-week closure with a new staff and an updated menu that retains many favorites, along with new options focused on continuing the 11-year-old establishment’s legacy in the Montavilla neighborhood. On March 17th, the restaurant and bar closed, posting on its Instagram page that it would temporarily halt service for an unspecified period. During that pause, owners Todd Dennis and Kristen Brown worked with a restaurant coach to rebuild a profitable business while retaining the community-centric environment that had kept the partners interested in working into the next decade of operation.

Fans of the NE Glisan Street pizza location were shocked that their favorite neighborhood spot showed any signs of trouble as it appeared busy with locals and attracted citywide accolades. Behind the scenes, the operators felt consumed by a daily struggle to maintain high food quality and prevent rising costs from inflating their prices beyond reason for their regular customers. “To be frank, we have not been profitable in the last several years,” said Brown. However, raising the prices alone would not solve their problems. Advisers had encouraged the owners to eliminate table service and adopt a counter-only model, similar to many other area pizzerias, along with other changes that would alter the establishment’s character. That advice did not sit well with Brown and Dennis, but they knew something would need to change. “We were talking about different options for a little bit, but there were a couple of events that happened in the last couple of days before we closed,” explained Dennis. “We just said, ‘We’ve got to do it now.'” Brown added the analogy that they had been trying to “fix an airplane midair, and we need to land it, or it’s going to crash.”

Brown and Dennis informed the staff that they had no idea when they would reopen and stated that all employees, except for the front-of-house lead Beth McClintock, had decided to take work elsewhere. That rotation of staff led the owners to reevaluate the business, starting with the question of why they wanted to remain open. They initially discovered the location in Montavilla during a region-wide search and were unfamiliar with the neighborhood when selecting the building. Dennis had worked as a bartender for 15 years in Tualatin, and Brown had some work history at Jake’s Grill and the Heathman but had since developed her career as a mortgage broker. “We both had a lot of front-of-house experience, no back-of-house experience, and very little management experience,” said Dennis. “We did our best, and I think that it went pretty well for quite a long time. It’s one of those things where the more you learn, the more you realize what you don’t know. After 10 years, it wasn’t running behind the scenes the way we wanted it to.” They felt that most guests did not notice the rough edges and appreciated how well their staff took care of customers; however, by the end of 2024, they knew that change was the only option.

What Brown and Dennis discovered is that some dishes were taking too much time to produce, and they were not selling enough pizza each week to cover payroll and material costs. They also felt that they could never take time away from the shop and their success depended on being there every day. “We were kind of becoming exhausted, and there were some staffing issues that were coming up. We decided that if we didn’t shut down on purpose, things would shut down without our control over it,” said Dennis. During that pause time, they removed specific items from the food and bar menus and sought replacement items that would require less labor and utilize more crossover ingredients. Sunday lasagna was a standout to remove from the recurring menu. “It’s very labor intensive. It’s both intensive to prep and labor-intensive to serve. It takes a whole other person during service just to handle that,” recalled Brown. They also changed the gluten-free crust to a Detroit-style instead of a thin rectangular polenta crust. “It was unique, kind of a big loss, but also very labor-intensive,” said Dennis. They removed the Spicy Eggplant and Capicola pizza, making room for a new tavern-style crust that they pre-make in a six-day process. “The tavern-style is a very thin cracker crisp cornmeal dusted pie cut into squares, very shareable,” explained Brown. These crusts keep well during the week, as they have a lower moisture content, making them an ideal option for streamlined preparation. The non-rising dough edge finishes slightly charred, making it crunchy.

They have remained committed to supporting a range of pizza options that cater to various dietary restrictions. “Vegan is something that we’ve expanded a little bit. We now have a Detroit vegan option. We’re using NUMU cheese, which is out of Brooklyn, New York. And we’ve got BE Hive pepperoni and BE Hive sausage,” said Brown. This option replaces the house-made vegan meat options, which required considerable cooking time, with a product that Brown and Dennis feel closely matches the flavor and quality. They have also added fresh pineapple to the menu. “We weren’t snooty about having pineapple,” Brown remarked, noting how a canned ingredient would not work. “But we have set up a process for the pineapple with as little waste as possible. So we roast the pineapple now.”

They also slimmed down the cocktail menu, focusing on bolstering longtime classics like the Old Glisan, Buffy Summers, and Yellow Submarine, but said that in most cases, they can still recreate an off-menu favorite if requested. Many of these changes came from seasoned professionals hired to guide the relaunch of East Glisan Pizza Lounge, including new chef Adam Maxwell, who came to us from Ranch Pizza and other acclaimed eateries. “He’s opened seven restaurants, He’s opened three Ranches, and he’s got a long pizza resume, including Cellarmaker, a Detroit Pizza place in San Francisco,” said Brown. Before hiring strong leadership skills in the kitchen, the owners worked with pizza consultant Alastair Hannmann, who helped with dough recipes and developed the tavern pie.

During May, East Glisan Pizza Lounge operated in a soft-open mode to give the new staff time to perfect their food service and learn to work together. Recently, the restaurant began accepting online orders for pickup and will soon introduce additional online ordering options. This cautious approach to relaunching the business should bring the behind-the-scenes operation up to the standards that Brown and Dennis can be proud of and give them confidence that the place will operate profitably without constant oversight. However, they feel these updates are only necessary to support the true goal of the business, which they only recently verbalized to themselves. “We articulated what we intuitively knew, that our purpose has always been creating a space where people feel welcome as themselves and are seen. A space for people to connect,” explained Brown. Eleven years ago, they made roots in Montavilla, not knowing that the community would be a critical ingredient in their business. However, they can no longer imagine it any other way and feel certain that these recent changes will help them stay open for their customers for years to come.

East Glisan Pizza Lounge is open for dinner Thursday through Monday, starting at 5 p.m. Sundays and Mondays, they close at 9 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays, they close at 10 p.m., with Friday service extended to 11 p.m. As they ramp up operations, they expect to adjust times and possibly open seven days a week starting in mid-July. They feel ready to start seeing everyone again and look forward to showing customers the updated menu. Prices have risen slightly, and people may need to explore new options, but they are happy to offer the full table service that guests enjoy and return as a valued community place.