Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy gets into fierce argument with pizzeria owner: ‘F–k you!’
ByAriel Zilber
September 1, 2023 9:42am
Updated
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy got into a shouting match with the owner of a pizza joint who was angered that the loudmouth mogul was giving his restaurant a negative review.
The 46-year-old Portnoy was in the middle of one of his customary pizza reviews that he offers to his legion of sports bro fans online when he was confronted by the owner of Dragon Pizza in Somerville, Mass.
In a videotaped segment that he posted for his “One Bite” series, Portnoy, who judges the food based on one bite, is seen walking out of the shop with a pie of eight slices.
Portnoy took a bite of a slice of pizza and declared: “This pizza is trash.” He gave the pizza a 6.4 out of 10 rating, declaring that the slice he ate was a “floppy mess.”
That prompted the owner of Dragon Pizza to accost Portnoy and tell him that he didn’t “appreciate what you do, coming in and judging a business in one bite.”
“F–k you,” Portnoy said, calling him an “a–hole.”
The unidentified owner then referred to the Barstrool founder as a “f—ing b—h.”
“Just go f–k yourself and the whole f–king platform you’re on,” the owner said before threatening to call the police.
Portnoy’s “One Bite” pizza reviews have attracted a cult following that numbers nearly 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
“Dave went to Dragon Pizza and discovered the worst pizza shop owner in the history of reviews, and he and Dave got into a shouting match on the street,” read the caption on the YouTube video.
Earlier this week, Portnoy announced layoffs at Barstool Sports, which he recently reacquired from Penn Entertainment for $1.
“I’ve been very clear. Anybody that’s paid attention, we are going to have layoffs and cuts, and they’ve started and it sucks,” Portnoy said on Barstool Radio.
“And people who know me from the beginning [know] I hate firing people. You can be incompetent, not work and I generally don’t fire because I hate it so much. It’s the worst thing to f–king do.”
“Having said that, we’re in a position, it’s a no-brainer. It’s not like I have that moral — ‘Well, you can’t do it because nobody will have jobs.’ We’ll all not have jobs. So we have to get back to a break-even thing. We’re losing a lot and it sucks.”
Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in 2003.
He sold a majority of Barstool to The Chernin Group in 2016.
Earlier this year, Penn Entertainment finalized its acquisition of Barstool for a total of $551 million.
Warning: Graphic Language
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Penn lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 million on Barstool, which the company had originally hoped would boost its sports betting business by tying into one of the most recognizable brands in sports media.
Following the sale, Penn Entertainment announced it was partnering with ESPN to rebrand its existing sportsbooks.
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