You’d probably never know it, but hidden at the back of Broadway Alley is a small bakery that hosts Blotto, a pizza pop-up, every Thursday. The “200ish”-square-foot space is a commercial kitchen for Paximadi Co., a local, wholesale Greek bakery, but once a week Jordan Koplowitz rents out the space to make and sell pizzas made with local grains, naturally leavened dough and seasonal ingredients.

The pop-up’s beginning came slightly after the release of a zine in July that featured recipes from Koplowitz’s friends throughout the food and beverage industry. Now sold out, sales from the zine raised $1,030 for the Seattle BIPOC Organic Food Bank. 

Koplowitz works with partner Christy Wyble, and friend Caleb Hoffmann to debut about four pizza choices every week, along with a salad and dessert option. The weekly menu drops online every Monday at noon for pre-order. Orders are available for pick up at the Broadway Alley bakery Thursday from 5:30 PM to 8 PM. So far, Blotto has been selling out every week.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

“It’s just a little door and inside is this funny little bakery space. It’s been there since 1996  actually,” Koplowitz said. “When I first started I wrote on my website that I was in Broadway Alley, and people would come by to pick their pizza up and call me like, ‘Where are you? I’m in the alley next to Broadway. Where’s your pizzeria?’ It’s hidden in the back on the main floor.”

Blotto features 14-inch pizzas that are a combination of New York and Neapolitan style, meaning the crust is thin and crispy, but the rim is puffy and chewy. Past pizza offerings included Briny Greens with taleggio, greens, olives and capers, Radicchio Hot Honey with pancetta, pecorino, mozzarella, and hot honey, and Sausage Mushroom with lemon cream, fontina, roasted mushrooms and Olsen Farms sausage. Koplowitz sources local ingredients like grains from Skagit Valley Grains, cheeses from Cascadia Creamery and Ferndale Farmstead, and meats from Olsen Farms. In the summer, he buys from local producers like Mariposa Farms at the Columbia City Farmers Market, but in the current cold and dark months he gets produce from Local Roots in Duval.

Blotto’s Caesar salad is also made seasonally, with chicory and kale for now. For dessert, Hoffmann makes curd bars every week. Pears are in right now, but later in the season Blotto will transition to cranberry and citrus curd bars.

Koplowitz admits he has “no professional experience” in the restaurant industry, but, he says, “I have been obsessed with pizza for a long time, both eating it and making it.”

“I’ve been a graphic designer, but I was tired of looking at a computer screen all day everyday, so I got more obsessed with food and ended up thinking about transitioning into more of a food and hospitality industry job.”

Last year he committed to upping his skills, taking online classes from pizza consultant Noel Brohner, and making pizzas for pop-up events hosted by friends at Capitol Hill wine venture Juice Club. Right before COVID, Koplowitz was working at Caldo, a kitchen basics company when he decided to leave design. Inspired by the successful pop-ups he had with Juice Club, Koplowitz was motivated to start his own pizza pop-up, seeing an opportunity especially when COVID forced people to order takeout anyway.

Blotto is old-fashioned slang meaning “really drunk.” Koplowitz thought the word was hilarious, and with its fake-Italian sound made a perfectly absurd name for a pizza pop-up. But first came the zine, a 26-page collection of recipes from his friends around town “who are involved in food or drink in some way. It was a way to keep busy during COVID. There’s some guides in there too about some movies, some wine suggestions. I just wanted to put something together to have fun designing and try to raise some money,” he remembered.

Koplowitz describes his design style as “bold and a little out there and a little different,” with big, wavy fonts. The aesthetic lives on at the Blotto website. While a second zine might be on the horizon, Koplowitz is focused on pizza for now. He noted that Cameron Hanin of Guerilla Pizza Kitchen has been an invaluable mentor, and Fremont pizzeria Lupo generously lends him the use of their mixer.

“I just DM back and forth with other pizza people in Seattle and it’s really great. I’m very thankful that people are so supportive of each other,” he said. “I’m pretty blown away by how thirsty people in Seattle are for pizza in general. The fact that we have all the pizzerias that existed before COVID, plus all these pop-ups… I didn’t expect to ever really have the response that we have. We sell out every week.”

Follow Blotto on Instagram here, and head to their website Mondays at noon to place a pizza order.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.