Who cares what Dave Portnoy thinks about local pizzeria, Kentuckians?

Who cares if some degenerate doesn’t like the pizza?

It’s always great to see hometown staples get a little attention on the big stage. Day in, day out business owners all across the commonwealth give it their all and when the New York Times gives DV8 a nod or George Clooney takes the time to rave about Magee’s transparent pie, my smile just gets a little bit wider.

It’s these businesses that make up the fabric of our communities. They’re generally the ones sponsoring the little league teams so our kids can have better uniforms or who might let it go when someone is a dollar or two short.

Goodfellas Pizzeria has always been one of those businesses, as well as a staple of the downtown late-night scene. With fresh food, reliable service and a kind word to help you along your way. With thousands of dollars in donated product each year, they’ve proven they love their customers just as much as we love those pies.

So imagine my disdain when I saw Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy rate a local institution a 0.0 as bits of buttery crust spewed from a mouth as unrefined as the man himself proved to be.

Let’s take a look at ol’ Portnoy. Do you know why he was in town? He was putting on a grand display called the Rough N' Rowdy Brawl.

Now, I don’t have anything against wrestling, I mean I’m from Hazard where Macho Man Randy Savage is still a household name. But Portnoy found the most stereotypical pictures of Kentucky he could fathom — someone probably told them to turn that twang all the way up to 10 — had them put on a display that should’ve made anyone hang their head in shame. Just see the fighters’ bios and weigh-in videos.

It’s no surprise to me that a man who profits from exploiting the worst of us had nothing good to say about a wholesome local business.

Portnoy and his ill-gotten gain is more than enough to discredit absolutely anything the man says, but a deeper look at the man could make anyone’s skin crawl.

I could go on at length about Portnoy’s degradation of his young female employees or his trolling of sportscaster Samantha Ponder, instead I’ll take issue with something the man himself seems to take personal pride in.

In a recent “one bite review” video, Portnoy showed a clip of himself at a Red Sox game with a group of friends. Visibly drunk, he left the camera front to take on a few fans of the opposing team passing by — getting in their face, screaming belligerently.

While some are falling in line with the Goodfellas review, it only makes sense that followers of someone who gives us some of the worst of what this world has to offer wouldn’t recognize when others are giving us some of the best.

So while Portnoy keeps putting us down, I’ll keep on welcoming fans from all around to the Bluegrass. Heck, if it’s close enough, I may even get them a slice of Goodfellas, too.

This story was originally published October 14, 2018 at 2:41 PM.