Atlas Pizza is opening a fourth Portland location at 4620 NE Glisan St, taking over the space long known as American Dream Pizza. Co-owner Johnny Ricci confirmed the news directly to What Now Portland, saying the team is targeting an early September opening once the current lease transitions and OLCC permitting clears.
The space carries decades of local history. American Dream Pizza ran there for roughly 40 years before new owners took over and rebranded it as The Original Dream, keeping similar recipes since the founder retained legal rights to the American Dream name, which still operates in Corvallis. Ricci said the current owners approached him and his business partner, Eli Johnson, a conversation that eventually turned into Atlas taking over the location outright. The current operators will run the space through the end of August, and Atlas has already offered jobs to their longtime staff to help ease the transition.
Ricci and Johnson opened their first Atlas Pizza on SE Division Street in 2014, followed by locations on N Killingsworth Street and SE Foster Road. The duo also owns Dot’s Cafe, a Portland institution they are in the process of handing off to longtime employees, along with a stake in the 5 and Dime bar next to their Foster Road shop.
Atlas is known for New York style slices, including a rotating vegetarian, vegan, cheese, pepperoni and meat special slice each day, alongside stuffed garlic knots and large 18 inch pizzas. Ricci said the new location will run the same menu as Atlas’s other shops rather than continuing American Dream’s heavier, braided crust style.
The new spot sits directly across from Providence Portland Medical Center, and Atlas plans to offer discounts to hospital staff while working to build the same community ties it has built in its other three neighborhoods.
“We are very happy to hire amongst the community, to serve the people of the community, and really to do our best to be a major part of the community. And that’s really our emphasis on our business model.” Ricci told What Now.
