If Doug Miriello has learned anything since opening Dimo’s Apizza five years ago on East Burnside Street, it’s that “the people of Portland always tell me what I am.” So a seasonal pizza with squash blossoms and burrata might be a hit. But get too fancy, and you’re just wasting your time.

“Portland really loves the dirtbag (stuff)”, Miriello said. “And so very early on, when I would try to run carciofi alla giudìa (Roman-Jewish fried artichokes) as a special, I would spend a ton of time and effort cleaning artichokes and making them beautiful, and they would just sit and sit. And then I would put on a buffalo chicken grinder and I would sell a million of them.”