The Oakland slice shop that Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy declared the best pizza in the Bay Area is expanding. Mama’s Boy, which began serving New York-style slices in Oakland in 2023, is opening a new location in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset, as first reported by Mission Local, as well as one in San Leandro, co-owners Miles Palliser and Ezra Berman told SFGATE.
“When we started talking about opening a second store, San Francisco was the natural focus,” Palliser said. “When I moved to California, that’s where I moved 20 something years ago, and I lived there for 13 years. Ezra is also born and raised in San Francisco.”
In February, Portnoy, whose “One Bite Pizza Reviews” have been known to bring tons of exposure to small businesses across the country, visited Mama’s Boy. After the controversial media mogul declared their cheese slice the “best pizza in the Bay Area” in a video that received over 870,000 views on TikTok and many more across other social media platforms, Palliser and Berman said they saw a massive spike in business. Even seven months later, they are still seeing the effects, they said. While they were already considering expansion prior to Portnoy’s review, the “Portnoy effect” led them to look for larger spaces.
“I think once Dave Portnoy came, it really expanded us to a lot of new people outside of Oakland,” Berman said. “And so once we had that buzz related to that, I think it kind of turbo-charged our search.”
The Inner Sunset location will be at 801 Irving St. at Ninth Avenue in the former Reliable Rexall Sunset Pharmacy space, which closed last year after nearly 100 years in business.
“Ninth and Irving is such an iconic corner in San Francisco,” Berman said. “… It’s always had this great neighborhood feel that we’re really drawn to, and on top of that, most importantly, it doesn’t have any New York-style slices currently.”
As they convert a pharmacy into a restaurant space, the full build-out will take some time — they are estimating a mid-2027 opening. But the San Leandro shop, located at 1517 East 14th St., is one that they expect to open sooner: around this December or January. While the Mama’s Boy co-owners didn’t intend to sign two new leases at once, they also fell in love with the downtown San Leandro space.
“There’s a very natural flow to it because it’s kind of a neighboring town to Oakland,” Palliser said. “And having operated in the East Bay for a while, we know a lot of people who live in San Leandro.”
Both new locations are around 2,000 square feet and will serve New York-style slices, similar to the Oakland shop.
While 801 Irving is just steps away from the Ninth Avenue location of Arizmendi Bakery, with its thin-crust, seasonally rotating vegetarian pizzas, Palliser and Berman believe there’s room for different styles of pizza in the same neighborhood. Mama’s Boy is known for its thin-crust, large New York-style pizzas with classic toppings like pepperoni, sausage or mushroom, ranging from around $5.50 to $6.50 a slice. One of its most popular flavors is the burrata pizza, served with tomato sauce, mozzarella, burrata, basil, Mike’s Hot Honey and parmesan. Portnoy is also not the only one to recognize Mama’s Boy’s greatness: Italy-based culinary guide 50 Top Pizza declared Mama’s Boy one of the top 10 best slices in the country in 2026.
“If you go to New York, there’s practically a pizza shop on every every block,” Berman said. “There’s I think plenty of pizza to go around, and we can all exist together. The more delicious pizza, the better for everybody.”
