Barstool Sports Founder Reviews Popular Meriden Pizzeria

MERIDEN, CT — While he has declared New Haven the “Pizza Capital of the World,” Barstool Sports founder, and noted pizza aficionado, Dave Portnoy said The Little Rendezvous in Meriden should be another destination spot for pizza lovers.

Portnoy visited The Little Rendezvous at 256 Pratt St. in Meriden during his recent stop at several pizzerias in Connecticut as part of his New York to Boston I-95 “Pizza Tour” last month, but just posted the eagerly anticipated review on Wednesday.

Portnoy's popular “One Bite” pizza reviews have garnered a cult following. He'll visit a pizzeria or restaurant, sometimes unannounced, try a cheese pizza and score it on a 0-10 scale. His video reviews receive hundreds of thousands of views, and the highest-rated pizzerias often get swarmed by fellow pizza lovers in the days after a review is posted to social media.

In the video, Portnoy noted that customers inside The Little Rendezvous have a little rivalry with New Haven and said its pizza is better than New Haven pizza. He also appreciated the 120-year-old coal-fired brick oven at The Little Rendezvous.

Portnoy said the owner was focused on making pizza and didn’t seem to care that he was there, which he respected.

In the review, Portnoy said he loved the crust and noted that the undercarriage wasn’t charcoaled like he expected.

After taking several “one bites,” Portnoy said. “That is a 9.1 pizza.”

“It’s a little different than New Haven,” he said. “Doesn’t have that coal, that fire, but it still feels like well-done. I don’t know if sometimes I get swept away in the 120-year-old story, and looking at the oven, and looking at the place, and the history of it all, but this to me is a 9.1.”

Portnoy said that if you’re at Boston Logan International Airport, or JFK in New York, you “have to hit this.”

“If you’re going to New Haven, and you’re doing Sally’s and Pepe’s, you have to make the extra half an hour trip for here,” he said. “No questions asked. This has to be on your itinerary.”

Portnoy previously declared New Haven the “Pizza Capital of the World” and said Sally’s was the best he’s ever had.

Portnoy gave Sally’s a 9.2, Modern Apizza on State Street an 8.8, Pepe’s an 8.5 and Bar on Crown Street a 7.4. He said Modern and Pepe’s were very close in quality and noted that Bar was more of a nightlife pizza, but was still good.

The impressive review made an immediate impact at The Little Rendezvous, which ran out of pizza just hours after it was posted.

Owner Steven Chehotsky told WFSB 3 that they had no more dough left as of 5:30 p.m., and “we planned for a busy day.”

“We basically did Friday’s business in a few hours,” he said.

Watch the full review here. (Note: there are some expletives in the review).

For more information about The Little Rendezvous, visit its Facebook page here.