Portnoy visited Pizzeria Baci at 2083 Albany Post Rd. in Montrose, meeting owner Chris Weisman during a One Bite Pizza Review video posted Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Before Portnoy took his first bite, Weisman shared the unlikely story behind the pizzeria and his decades in the business. He told him he has been making pizza for about 35 years after learning the craft from Gaetano Nardi, now 94. He later opened his first restaurant in Ardsley as an homage to the man who taught him.
But the road to Pizzeria Baci was anything but easy.
Weisman told Portnoy he had battled depression, suffered a serious knee injury, and survived cancer after once being given a year to live. At another point, he was on food stamps and had no money.
He eventually began making pizzas out of the back of a bar, where he built what he described as an unauthorized pizza room. Weisman said he put the pizza equipment in the backyard, built a shed around it, and created a passage through the wall, complete with a trap door to hide the operation from the health department.
What was supposed to last only about six months while he searched for another job took off. Five years ago, he opened Pizzeria Baci.
More recently, another setback nearly ended the business. Weisman suffered a torn patella that required surgery and kept him out of work for months. A GoFundMe launched in November 2023 said Weisman had also survived stage 3 cancer and three heart attacks. The fundraiser raised more than $18,000 and helped keep Pizzeria Baci alive while he recovered.
Weisman told Portnoy he has tried to repay that community support whenever possible. He recalled once spending about 30 straight hours making pizzas to raise money for a local family whose daughter was battling cancer. The effort raised around $16,000, he said, though the daughter later died.
“I really try to give back a lot because I’m very fortunate,” Weisman said, becoming emotional while telling the story.
After this came the pizza review. Portnoy immediately noticed that Weisman wasn’t serving a typical New York-style pie.
“Very interesting combo,” Portnoy said while trying the pie, adding, “The crust is very solid. You’re not biting right through it.”
He described the pizza as unusually thin and crisp: “It’s almost like a hard shell. It’s really, really good.”
The pizza guru said he struggled to compare the pie with others he had reviewed, calling it a “totally unique pizza” with a different flavor from a traditional “football style” pie.
His final verdict: 8.1. The score moved Weisman, who became emotional after hearing it.
He also explained a bit of his process, saying he uses buffalo mozzarella and a sourdough starter. He also told Portnoy he had arrived at the restaurant at 3 a.m. to prepare the dough, which he does not refrigerate after forming it into balls.
“It’s not overpowering sourdough,” Weisman said, adding, “I’m a dough nerd.”
After Portnoy’s visit, Weisman reflected on the experience in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“At first I was gonna decline the review, but I’m a pizzaman,” Weisman wrote, adding that regardless of how people feel about Portnoy, “he has done more for pizzerias than anyone I know.”
Weisman said the visit came during an emotional week as he dealt with his cancer and heart issues.
“To have so many pizzerias begging him to come and him show up at mine. Was truly humbling,” he wrote.
Weisman also described Portnoy as “a very nice and kind guy” and thanked him for stopping by, while joking that the famed reviewer couldn’t pronounce either Pizzeria Baci’s name or Montrose. And despite the attention that typically follows a high One Bite score, Weisman had a message for his longtime customers: don’t expect him to change the way he runs the place.
“Please I’m not changing anything. Just got a guy to cut pizzas. That’s it. No walk-ins. Preorder only,” he wrote.
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