The Secret Pizza Society opened its vegan restaurant on NE Glisan Street in 2019. The owners recently reopened the shop after a week-long interior update that has become an annual event to refresh the front-of-house experience and give staff time off. As the team wraps up its fifth year serving customers from the Montavilla storefront, they also mark a decade of creating unconventional plant-based pizzas that don’t break the bank.
JR Holland and Bryce Hooper started this business as a pizza wholesale and catering company nearly a decade ago. They met as line cooks preparing brunch at the Road Runner Cafe and became friends. Holland has always worked in food service, starting at McDonald’s when he was 15. That career followed him to Portland, where he worked in bakeries and, eventually, pizza restaurants. “I worked at It’s A Beautiful Pizza, which is no longer there. That was on Belmont; I did dough for them. I worked at Apizza Scholls for three years, made dough for them,” recalled Holland. That experience and a desire to build a business that would support his friends and growing family led Holland and Hooper to take a risk on a new venture. “Apizza Scholls, for all its flaws, was a well-run business, so I just thought pizza was the logical conclusion,” said Holland when describing how they decided what they would cook.
The partners did not want to mimic the pizza options already available to Portlanders. While still planning their menu, they would work on recipes and try to find a standout approach. “Bryce and I, while making brunch, just sat there and crafted ideas. We would try and come up with a different way to do pizza because there’s a hundred pizza joints. They are all good to varying degrees and basically do the same thing. You know your meat supreme, your veggie supreme, this, that, and the other,” explained Holland. They both enjoyed a vegan diet with varying levels of commitment and wanted to rethink how a plant-based pizza could surpass its traditional counterpart. The foundation of that approach was not to just replace dairy cheese with a vegan version and find meat alternatives. They looked to other dishes and flavors to create a product that was not just pretending to be something else. “You know, it’s funny because at least two or three of our pizzas are [based on] scrambles that we used to make for the brunch joint,” remarked Holland.
They started small without a dedicated location. “We used to make take-and-bake pizzas for bars and venues. We did a few VegFests as a good way to get our name out there and build a customer base before we open the doors,” recalled Holland. “Revolution Hall was a big help to us. That was our first big account. We used to make tons of take-and-bake pizzas for them, allowing us to quit our jobs.” Needing kitchen space for the business, they found space in North Portland under the North Star Ballroom. Papa G’s Vegan Organics made tofu alongside Portland Fresh and Shoofly Vegan Bakery in that space. Holland recalled tight quarters in the subterranean commercial kitchen, but they made it work for each of these growing Portland brands until the building sold. JR Holland knew Michael Freeston, whose company, Grocery Getter Organic, was about to close its warehouse space at the 7201 NE Glisan Street storefront. The displaced vegan collective decided to relocate to Montavilla and share the former Grocery Getter space.
Holland and Hooper took over Papa G’s Vegan Organics, running the restaurant on SE Division Street and its tofu business. Eventually, Shoofly Vegan Bakery needed to expand into a bigger storefront, which opened up space for customers on NE Glisan. The partners had always wanted to grow the pizza business into a restaurant. They opened the Secret Pizza Society on March 31st, 2019. The name is an adaptation of their company’s original name, GSMP, which stands for Great & Secret Motion Pizza. It is an homage to Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show and a celebration of film. The name officially morphed when they had a small space below the Chapel Theatre in Milwaukie, Oregon. Holland recalled people referring to it as a little secret pizza shop in the basement of the theater, and the owners thought that the Secret Pizza Society would sound like a band or a vigilante unit of superheroes.”
Secret Pizza Society had its first anniversary at the start of COVID. They were able to make pizza takeout work with dining restrictions but ended up closing Papa G’s restaurant. They transferred the tofu business to one of their employees, who still makes it at the NE Glisan Street location. JR Holland gave Papa G’s deli case to another business owner who recently closed his location and offered to return the case. That prompted Holland and Hooper to close the shop this October and rework the front counter to include the deli case. They also replaced the mechanical system for their walk-in refrigerator, rearranged dining-room seating, and made other adjustments before reopening last week.
The small storefront still hosts Portland Fresh’s production kitchen, and Holland says having his friends working together is one of his favorite parts of running Secret Pizza Society. “When people say ‘don’t hire your friends,’ I say ‘balderdash.’ Everyone that works here is a longtime friend of mine.” He feels that this is what makes this such a great place for customers to visit. People enjoy coming to work there, and they reflect that joy in how they interact with people. JR Holland is proud of the food they make for people, noting that it is a destination spot for vegans and pizza fans across Portland. He attributes that to the fresh ingredients and their competitive pricing. “You don’t have to spend $30 for an organic vegan pizza. I’ve done the research and looked at every pizza shop not named Domino’s or Pizza Hut. Our pizzas are easily the cheapest ten-inch personal pizza,” said Holland. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays. On weekends, they open from 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday. The plant-based menu offers unique flavors that please vegans and carnivores equally. You can also order their pizzas at the Replicant bar down the street.
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