Most everybody loves dogs. Erik Gitenstein certainly does. The MF Tasty food cart owner grew up adopting boxers, and he and his wife have also adopted three rescues, including a boxer named Mister Rooney (he’s named after the principal in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).
One day, Gitenstein and Jason Kallingal, his N Williams neighbor and the owner of Life of Pie, were talking about how to help dogs like Mister Rooney, and they decided to team up for a pie that combined the best of what each business did and then sell it as a special. Sort of what like Lardo’s Rick Gencarelli did at Lardo with his chefwich series, complete with the proceeds going to a worthy nonprofit.
So they did just that.
Starting today and lasting until July 24, Gitenstein and Kallingal’s new pie—a red sauce and mozzarella pizza topped with chorizo and spiced kale—will be available to the public. They’ll cost $13 each, and each and every one of those dollars will go to the Northwest Boxer Rescue, which rehabs abused and abandoned boxers in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and California. In fact, the NWBR was the organization that found and mended Mister Rooney when he was beaten and left for dead in the southern dessert.
If Life or Pie customers like the pizza and its baked-in mission, Gitenstein says that he and Kallingal might ask other chefs to collaborate on future pies.
Life of Pie: 3632 N Williams Ave., 503.719.7321
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