Pi Pizzaria

This pizza place sums up Eugene. Entire shop is run by one guy who has devoted his life to the study of pizza crust. If you engage Todd in a conversation about pizza, dough, crust or his ingredients he will blow your mind with his depth of knowledge. The pizza is really great too. Place definitely has hours that cater to the night owl crowd. Everything is made by the hands of Todd, including the art on the wall.

I had pretty low expectations for this one — most new one-​man show pizza places don’t make it very far. It’s pretty funky both inside and out; not a bad thing but very Eugene. We got there right after opening and the owner was still setting up for the eve. Drinks were a bit tough as they had no ice, but we managed with a bottle of soda and a latte. We ordered one of everything on the menu — five slices in all, figuring we’d find one or two which were to our liking.
Well hot damn. They were all good — actually, really good trending toward excellent. Pizza crust is such a personal preference– thick /​thin, crispy /​doughy… I thought it was okay, the lady thought it was fantastic. A tad underdone for my taste, but I prefer thin crusts to be almost cracker-​crisp.
The toppings were quite simply awesome, The combinations sound odd (Pad Thai?!?) but worked great. Same thing for the smoked salmon slice with capers, tomatoes, etc. Great quality ingredients being used, especially for the price.
We will be back. Or maybe we’ll get a pie to go, and split it, with my half being baked just a minute or two longer.

I was so excited to see a funkier pizza shop open up downtown.
The menu sounds good!
The Aristocrat — pesto, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts
Fistful of Mushrooms — with green onions, Gorganzola, white sauce
Pepperoni — «lots of it» (not really) and Gorgonzola (smart combination)
Each medium slice is $ 2, $ 8 for a ten-​inch pie.
The Shamone is $ 3/​slice or $ 12 for a pie. It’s topped with smoked salmon, capers, red onion, tomatoes and white sauce.
They also have nightly specials.
In a word: bland.
We tried two pizzas.
The Aristocrat was topped with bland pesto. Didn’t know there could be such a thing. Maybe a little more salt and garlic?
The pepperoni was not much rendered and kinda flabby. Without any spice at all, this is closer to lunch meat.
I love Eugene and I love downtown, and I want better pizza here!

Just finished eating two amazing slices of Organic pizza & enjoying a 16 oz. ‘Mexican’ Mocha/​latte, made with organic café mam espresso: perfect!
This off to the side, almost hidden gem of a pizzaria is well worth the hunt. Although the hours are hard to track down, its almost guaranteed that if you stop by on a weekend between midnight and 3 a.m. you’ll be greeted by an eccentric wide eyed pizza artist who takes his trade very seriously.
There seems to be a selection of ‘staple’ pizza concoctions that are the regulars, and then weekly specials that are as creative as they are amazing. Tonight I enjoyed the ‘Pad Thai’ pizza, complete with a peanut sauce base, and roasted Tempe, cheese, and just a hint of ginger.
If you want something better than the average bar fare late night, at a extremely reasonable price, I highly recommend checking out Pi Pizza… you just gotta find it… hidden in plain sight, downtown Eugene, Or.