While Tom may have Irish roots, he’s also a South Shore guy and he LOVES his bar pizza which is hard to come by in these parts. Until he met Roy MacDermott, a fellow South Shore-ian who makes his own Bar Pizza that’s damn good. So Tom and Roy are bringing this delight to the pub for one night. It’s a limited batch so you’ll want to come early and claim your pie. They’ll be coming out of the oven starting at 6pm and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
Where did this all begin? It’s a murky history but it is said to have originated in Massachusetts pubs and taverns, likely in the 1940s, with Cape Cod Cafe in Brockton often cited as the birthplace, featuring a thin, buttery crust with sauce and shredded cheddar spread to the edges in a 10-inch pan, designed for quick service alongside beer. Its popularity spread via old trolley routes, becoming a beloved regional tradition characterized by crispy, caramelized edges from being cooked in deck ovens in steel pans, creating a unique, savory flavor. It’s a proud blue-collar culinary tradition in the pubs, taverns, dive bars, and working-class watering holes found throughout the communities south of Boston.
There’s really not one particular thing that makes South Shore bar pizza unique; it’s more a combination of many cultural curiosities and culinary idiosyncrasies that make it different from most any other pizza on the planet. From its size and history to the odd locations and the local lingo one must know to get an order correct, it all comes together to create what has, for quite some time now, been a phenomenon peculiar to the South Shore.
There are some rules: First and foremost, one bar pizza feeds one person. It is not meant to be split amongst a group and you don’t order it by the slice. While trading slices is fine, the pies are relatively small, so the first rule of bar pizza is: one person, one pizza. Any more than that and it disorients South Shore sensibilities, much like taking the Red Line past Park Street Station. Some say they’ve even seen newborn South Shore babies with a pie to themselves. Two parents, one baby— three pizzas.
As ironclad as the one pizza per person rule, the next oddity of bar pizza separates it from all other pies. South Shore bar pizza is a pan pizza. It’s ALWAYS cooked in a small steel pan and the best pans are old, weathered, and seasoned to perfection. Some local bar pizza joints have been cooking their bar pies in the same pans for decades. Literally 40 or 50 years, and they only get better with age.
So now you know. Come taste it for yourself and see if you agree that it’s worth all the fuss.