Boxcar Pizza

The vegan restaurant Boxcar Pizza serves Detroit-style pizza in the food hall of The Zipper, a mixed-use development on Sandy Boulevard in the northeast Portland part of Portland, Oregon's Kerns neighborhood. Pizza ingredients include coconut oil-based mozzarella, seitan bacon, gluten-free soy curl chicken, and vegetable protein sausage, as well as blue cheese and ricotta made with tofu.^[1]

The cheeseburger pizza has cheddar and mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, pickles, red onion, and burger sauce.^[2] The Ape Dos Mil has red sauce, basil, mozzarella, and parmesan.^[3] The Bianca has Good Planet mozzarella, an Italian sauce with fennel, and tofu-based ricotta.^[4][5] The Green Supreme has red sauce, Mama Lil's hot peppers, and kale, and the Jimmy Pesto Special is a tribute to the Italian restaurant owner on the animated sitcom Bob's Burgers with cheddar, mozzarella, jalapeños, pesto, vegetable protein "pepperoni", and hot agave syrup.^[6] The Steaky Break Heart has steak, cheddar, mozzarella, pickled red onions, and a cilantro lime aioli.^[3] The Strings of Nashville has vegan Nashville hot chicken nuggets, pickles, and ranch.^[7] Boxcar has gluten-free and "alternative diet" options.^[8]

The restaurant's seating capacity is approximately 100 people (which was reduced to approximately 40 people during the pandemic because of social distancing requirements.^[9] Boxcar's logo depicts Homer, the owner's Australian Cattle Dog.^[1]

Odie O'Connor opened Boxcar in August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1][10][11] Boxcar has been described as a Portland's first vegan Detroit-style pizzeria^[12] and a "sister" establishment to O'Connor's defunct restaurant Baby Blue Pizza,^[2] which closed in 2022.^[13] In 2023, Eater Portland said Baby Blue sometimes appears as a pop-up at Boxcar.^[14]

In April 2021, Boxcar closed for a weekend after a couple refused to wear face masks.^[15][16] For Pizza Week in 2023, the restaurant served a special called the Birria Pie, which had a plant-based birria, cheddar, mozzarella, cilantro, onion, and a side of consommé.^[17] For the same promotion in 2024, Boxcar served a special pizza called the Smash or Pass, which had vegan beef, cheddar, mozzarella, lettuce, onion, sesame seeds, and burger sauce.^[18]

Boxcar was nominated for best pizzeria by VegNews.^[19] The business ranked third in the Best Vegan Pizzeria category of the magazine's annual Restaurant Awards in 2024.^[20] Tasting Table included Boxcar in a 2024 list of the 24 "top-rated" restaurants for vegan pizza in the U.S.^[21]

In her 2020 review for the Portland Mercury, Suzette Smith wrote, "The crust at Boxcar (I got the regular, not the gluten-free) is a pillowy delight, but perhaps not crunchy enough to rival the true Detroit pizza crust. To be honest, that feels like the best of both worlds. Boxcar started as Detroit-style pizza, but landed on a cloud of puffy crust that is perfectly wonderful in its own right."^[22] Katherine Chew Hamilton and Karen Brooks included Boxcar in Portland Monthly's 2021 overview of the city's best new vegan restaurants, food carts, and pop-ups.^[2] Boxcar was also included in The Oregonian's 2022 list of Portland's ten best new "pandemic-time" pizzerias.^[6]

Waz Wu included Boxcar in Eater Portland's 2021 list of the city's "exciting" new vegan and vegetarian restaurants and 2023 overview of the city's "knockout" vegan pizza.^[12][14] Brenna Houck included the business in the website's 2025 list of Portland's eighteen best vegan and vegetarian restaurants.^[4] Boxcar was a runner-up in the Best Pizza category of Willamette Week's annual 'Best of Portland' readers' poll in 2024.^[23] Krista Garcia included the business in The Infatuation's 2024 overview of Portland's best pizza.^[24] Boxcar was included in a Yelp list of Portland's ten best vegan eateries in 2025.^[25]

• List of vegetarian and vegan restaurants
• Pizza in Portland, Oregon