After posting a video where he gave a check for $60,000 to a floundering Federal Hill pizzeria, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy released a video Monday visiting another Baltimore pizza shop — Frank’s Pizza and Pasta in Overlea.
“This looks good,” Portnoy said after flipping open the pizza box outside the restaurant at 6620 Belair Road. Second-generation owner Gennaro ‘Gerry’ Buontempo came outside from working in the shop to tell the media mogul how his father Armando Buontempo and his father’s cousin Frank Mastrantuono came together to open the restaurant.
After emigrating to the United States in 1981, the duo opened the pizzeria in 1985. A coin flip decided which of the owners’ names the restaurant would share – Armando or Frank. Four years later, a pharmacy robbery in an adjoining store tragically killed Frank, he said.
“A bullet went through the wall and it hit Frank in the back of the head and killed him on his 33rd birthday,” Gerry said. The bullet ricocheted off the oven, which still bears a dent from that day, he said.
A report in The Baltimore Sun in 2010, confirms his account, although Frank’s birthday appears to be in dispute:
“Back in January 1989, a gunman walked into a pharmacy in the same dingy Belair Road plaza where Blessed Productions now occupies a corner spot and demanded money. The drug store owner took out his 9mm pistol from his shoulder holster hidden under a jacket and fired twice.
“One bullet hit the hooded gunman in the buttocks as he tried to run. The other bullet went through a wall and hit the owner of Frank’s Pizza and Subs in the head. Frank Mastrantuono died on his 32nd birthday. The pizza shop is still in business; workers there this week declined to say whether the same family still owns the place.”
Another coin flip to decide where to move the oven a week before could’ve saved Frank’s life, according to Gerry.
“Whenever I tell the story, I always am remembering to, like, eat good first and live well. You just gotta do good to everybody. That’s really it because you never know when it’s your time,” he said.
Barstool Pizza Review – Frank’s Pizza & Pasta (Baltimore, MD) Bonus Cheesesteak Review pic.twitter.com/sWiwHMH6hL
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 6, 2025
“This pizza is spectacular,” Portnoy said, claiming he would’ve rated the pizza an 8.1 without the story, but deciding to up his final score to an 8.3 considering the “enjoy every bite” takeaway of the family’s tale.
After seeing the infamous dent in the oven, Portnoy got a cheesesteak and rated it a 9.
This is the latest pizza rating Portnoy’s done in Baltimore after he gave a 7.9 to Federal Hill’s TinyBrickOven while it was on the brink of closure.
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