Tis’ the season of giving!
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy gifted $60,000 to save a struggling veteran-owned Baltimore pizzeria from permanently closing as customers have since flooded the store with orders.
Portnoy was traveling to Maryland for the Army-Navy football in mid-December when he made a pit stop at TinyBrickOven in the Federal Hill neighborhood to wrap up a day of filming his viral pizza reviews, according to his producer Austin Jenkins.
Store owner Will Fagg, a Navy veteran, was working behind the counter when the pizza savant arrived and he shared that his beloved shop was closing for good on Christmas Day.
Fagg said the shop’s inability to acquire a liquor license and cash flow problems was forcing him to close down.
“We can’t get our liquor license here,” Fagg told Portnoy in a video uploaded on Monday. “Our politicians gave this market down here their liquor license, but they won’t give us ours… it’s really disappointing.”
“We’re gonna have to keep this place open,” the Barstool Sports founder said as Fagg was boxing up the pizza.