Pizzeria Otto, one of Portland’s few traditional Neapolitan pizzerias, will open a second location in Southeast Portland later this year, The Oregonian has learned. With more than 80 seats in a 2,300 square-foot space near Portland Mercado, the new restaurant will be roughly double the size of the original. But besides the bigger room, founding owner Clark Hale hopes to keep the menu and decor mostly the same, with wood-fired pizzas, salads and roast vegetables cooked each morning in the latent heat from a domed Forno Bravo oven that reaches 900 degrees each night.
That’s not where the similarities end. Like the original location, the new restaurant will open in a triangular building on the south side of a diagonal street, a setup that Hale hopes will catch the eye of drivers headed home. The new restaurant will offer Otto’s popular $6 margherita pizza happy hour special before 5 p.m. and after 8 p.m., a nod to the pricing at Naples famed da Michele’s pizzeria.
