Prettyboy PIzza’s Grandma Pies and Pesto Bites Land at Little Beast’s Beer Garden

As of Thursday, April 24, Little Beast Brewing’s beer garden is leveling up: Prettyboy Pizza is moving in, slinging grandma pies, pesto bites, and salads. Pizzamaker Justin Moore worked at local shops such as Boxcar Pizza and Scottie’s Pizza Parlor, but now he’s striking out on his own, and Prettyboy’s grand opening proves he’s ready for pairing pizza slices with pints of Little Beast beer.

Moore started in the pizza game thanks to Boxcar owner Odie O’Connor. When Moore and his wife moved from Oregon to California, O’Connor, then running Boxcar as a cart, gifted him a beginner’s pizza book since he showed an interest in pizzamaking. Moore learned the basics while he was in San Diego, getting into some dishwashing gigs at pizzerias, he says, but when he and his wife moved back to Portland at the start of the pandemic, O’Connor brought him on to open Boxcar Pizza. Over four years later, Moore says being mentored by O’Connor really encouraged him to start his own business. “Getting to learn pizza from him, it became very clear that this is what I wanted to do,” Moore says. “There’s just something about the way Odie ran that shop, it reminded me that food can be really silly and fun. All his pizzas are named after goofy stuff, there’s always really loud music, and the wallpaper in the shop is really obnoxious and pink — it had been written in stone then and there that, yep, I gotta do pizza.”

Ron Scott

Moore slowly built up his own business and reputation over the last couple of years, baking pizzas out of his home kitchen starting in 2023, showing up to various friends’ music shows with stacks of pizza, and word slowly spread from there. But he still wanted to learn more, so he was introduced to Scott Rivera of Scottie’s through O’Connor, and Moore shadowed Rivera for a year until the Little Beast opportunity came up.

After working with different styles of pizza, it was eventually the grandma pie that won Moore over. “With a pan pizza, you can be just so ridiculous with it, because it’s such a hearty crust under it,” he explains. “I’ve worked in some serious kitchens, and it’s not my vibe.” What that translates to is wilder pizzas topped with buffalo chicken, onions, and sauce, for instance. His early experimental pies were round ones with “weird pickled things” and a vinaigrette glaze on top — “wacky things like that,” he says. Those were the early days when he didn’t know what he was doing, he says, and those early tries looked “heinous”; but it also became the origin story of the Prettyboy name. “When I first met my wife, I lied and said I knew how to make pizzas,” Moore says. “I made these ridiculous-looking … I hesitate to even call them pizzas. And that was her joke: ‘Whoa, these are some pretty boys you made me.’ And so that’s where the name comes from.”

These days, it’s harder to argue that these pizzas aren’t pretty. Moore’s core menu skews classic with cheese and pepperoni options, but with an added third pie that he intends to be “a goofball chef choice that either I make, or my friends make.” The Sinful Trinity showcases Moore’s sauces, with everything made in-house, and comes topped with red sauce, vodka sauce, and pesto. For sides, Moore also has cheesy garlic bread and pesto bites, these “cinnamon roll-looking things” that are rolled with pesto inside, he shares. For a hit of greens, the menu will also feature a Caesar salad and a seasonal chef salad, now currently a spring salad with poppy seed vinaigrette with hazelnuts and Parmesan. Moore also prides himself on ensuring that all the items on the menu can be made vegan, upon request, especially after working with Boxcar. He also promises a gluten-free dough option down the road once he gets settled in; he has a recipe for it, and Moore’s “contractually obligated,” he jokes, since his wife is celiac. Moore says he’ll eventually have a website, and maybe add on delivery, but for now, “It’s summertime, so you come in, enjoy some beer, or a NA beer, and sit on this cool patio.”

Prettyboy Pizza at Little Beast Brewing (3412 SE Division Street) debuts on Thursday, April 4, and is open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Ron Scott

Ron Scott

Prettyboy Pizza

Prettyboy Pizza