It’s our birthday, and we have presents for you!

We’re 9!

On June 18, 2009, Mike Keon and Anthony Allen opened the first OTTO, a tiny slice shop on Congress Street. Nine years, 12 locations (soon to be 13!), and millions (yes millions) of pizzas later, we are so incredibly thankful for all the hard work and passion that our employees have put into making OTTO what it is today.  But none of it would be possible without you, our customers. When everyone told us mashed potatoes on pizza would never fly, you proved them wrong. You have been with us through thick and thin (not a crust joke, we swear!), and we greatly appreciate your loyalty over the past nine years.

New Menu!

As a way to say thank you for the past nine years, we have a present for you. Today, at all locations, we are rolling out a new menu, which, aside from featuring most of your OTTO favorites, includes:

  • New pie additions:
    • Mango Habanero Chicken (or Cauliflower), with House-made Pineapple Salsa
    • Arugula, Red Onion & Kalamata Olives
    • Jalapeno, Bacon & Ricotta
    • Pineapple Salsa, Bacon & Fresh Jalapeño
    • Sausage & Broccoli
    • Buffalo Cauliflower, Scallion & Blue Cheese

 

  • New salads:
    • Greek Salad
    • Chicken Cobb
  • Vegan Cheese Options
    • Violife Mozzarella-style shred may be added to any pie
    • Note: All non-meat toppings (with the exception of our butternut squash and mashed potatoes) are prepared vegan.
    • Our Mushroom and Cauliflower are now prepared vegan
  • Detroit Style Pizza (at select locations)
    • This delicious, thick, deep-dish, crispy-crust treat is now on the menu at our Brookline and Munjoy Hill locations
  • Everything Knots (at select locations)
    • Our dough baked and sprinkled with ‘everything’ seasoning
    • Available at several OTTO locations: All Portland and South Portland locations, Yarmouth, and Brookline

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Rising Tide Collaboration Beer!

Our fourth release of our Spring collaboration with Portland’s Rising Tide Brewing Company, Oscar Tango Tango Oscar, is currently pouring in ME locations, and will be rolling out to MA locations in the coming days!

Oscar Tango Tango Oscar is a crisp, snappy, and sessionable pale ale brewed with rice. The perfect thing to pair with one of our new pies.

New Box!

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Our new pizza boxes will be hitting the streets this week! The box cover design comes from Mali, a 7th grader at King Middle School in Portland. Mali competed with hundreds of students throughout New England, made it through the voting phase, and then was named the winner by our panel of judges. Mali’s school was given $1000 towards art education, and Mali and runners up received pizza parties, OTTO swag, prize packs from Artist & Craftsman Supply.

Come on out and help us celebrate nine years of OTTO!

Pizza Party & Prizes for ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ Winner & Runners-up at King Middle School

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Mali (left) is joined by Third Place Winner, Lilah (Right), to show off their check.

As part of the winners’ prizes for our 2017 ‘Draw Outside of the Box‘ contest, a pizza party was held at King Middle School in our hometown of Portland, Maine. This year, King was home to all three winning designs!

The fact that the students were able to celebrate together, with their classmates and teachers, was representative of the collective nature of this project and a testament to the school’s involvement in the contest.

Along with the pizza party, all three winners — Mali, Mattea, and Lilah received an OTTO gift card, various prizes from Artist & Craftsman Supply, an OTTO t-shirt, and an OTTO beanie.

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2nd Place Winner, Mattea, poses with her prizes

The first place contestant, Mali, will have her design printed on thousands of pizza boxes and distributed to OTTO locations throughout New England. We anticipate the boxes to be in-store in the coming weeks!

In recognition of Mali’s first-place design and art teacher Mary Wellahan’s dedication to her students, the King Middle School Art Department received a $250 gift card from Artist & Craftsman Supply and a $1000 check in support of art education from OTTO.

We decided it was only fitting to give the donation in the form of a giant check because hey, who doesn’t want to get a giant check? The students and teachers were as excited to receive it as we were to present it!

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1st place winner Mali and art instructor Mary Wellehan

We would like to congratulate all of the talented artists and designers who participated in our second ‘Draw Outside the Box’ contest, as well as thank all teachers, family, and friends that supported so many hard-working and diligent students all across New England!

 

OTTO’s ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ Contest, Stage 2: Meet the Judges

At 9am on Monday, December 18th, the voting phase of the Draw Outside of the Box contest will come to a close.  On that day, the 30 entries with the most ‘Likes’ in our Facebook ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ album will move on to phase two, in which a panel of esteemed creative professionals (and one former winner!) will review each finalist’s entry and choose the three best designs.

Our panel of judges certainly have their work cut out for them.  Their task will be to single out the very best pizza box design of the 30 finalists — entries which have been competing for public votes (‘Likes’) since the contest began.  This winning design will then be prepared for printing, will go to press, and will become the face of OTTO’s pizza boxes throughout 12 locations (plus delivery and catering services) in MA and ME.  The winner will also receive a pizza party (for up to 30 students) at his/her school, a $100 OTTO gift card, a $100 Artist & Craftsman Supply gift card, an OTTO t-shirt, and an OTTO cap. The winner’s school will receive a check for $1000 to support art education and a $250 Artist & Craftsman Supply gift card.  First through third place will also win pizza and OTTO swag.

It’s a tough job, but we believe our panel is up for the task. (We’d like to mention that these fine and talented folks have volunteered their services for this very special occasion.)

Ladies and gentlemen, our 2017 ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ panel of judges:

Scott Nash
Scott_Nash2As a founding partner of BIG BLUE DOT, Corey McPherson Nash and NASHBOX, Scott Nash has developed an expertise in the branding and creative development of products and programming for the entertainment, consumer product and publishing worlds. In addition to designing identities for Nickelodeon, PBS, ABC, Comedy Central, FX, YTV, Scott’s design clients include American Girl, Disney, Harvard University, Mattel, Milton Bradley, NFPA, The Boston Pops and From the Top.

Scott’s work as a designer and illustrator has been recognized by leading trade organizations and publications such as The Academy for The Arts and Sciences (EMMY award), PROMAX, Broadcast Designers Association, American Institute of Graphic Arts, Society of Illustrators and HOW, Communications Arts, Print and Publishers Weekly Magazines.

He has lectured widely and taught at Boston University, Northeastern University, The Art Institute of Boston. Currently, he teaches at Maine College of Art, where he helped establish the illustration department.

Scott has illustrated over forty children’s books, including Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp! and The Bugliest Bug, Betsy, Who Cried Wolf! and Betsy, Red Hoodie, the series Snow Day! Beach Day! Rainy Day! and Camping Day! as well as the Flat Stanley series by Jeff Brown.

Scott is also a writer, and is the author/illustrator of TUFF FLUFF, The Case of Duckie’s Missing Brain and The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay The Pirate.

Martin Sorger
hs_bwMartin is a designer and creative strategist with over 25 years of experience. He has successfully launched, branded, and rebranded companies and products as both the client and a creative consultant. He has held the lead creative position at the film production company Walden Media, ThingWorld, a developer of multimedia technologies, and Gaming VC, an online gaming operator in Europe. Over the years, Martin has worked with entertainment, sports, technology, and consumer brands including OTTO, Harvard Medical School, Roche Bros., Reebok, Disney, Finagle a Bagel, HP, MIT, NEC, NFL, WWE, and BCBS.

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Deborah Kovacs
Deborah Kovacs is Senior Vice President at Walden Media, a studio that produces films based on great children’s books, most recently WONDER. On behalf of Walden Media, she is responsible for Walden Pond Press, a middle-grade imprint published in partnership with HarperCollins.

James Spindler
5080-James_5X7BW-150x150James Spindler is a prolific creative director specializing in experiential, interactive and retail design projects with some of the world’s most innovative brands and cultural organizations. James’s projects include the critically acclaimed

Gagosian for iPad, a quarterly art application that provides unprecedented access to the global network of Gagosian fine artists and galleries, the Grammy® Award nominated Sting 25 music and tablet app project and collaboration with Maya Lin on ‘What Is Missing?,’ a permanent installation at the California Academy of Arts and Sciences. James and his team also developed the identity and interactive films for Mission Juno to Jupiter which received NASA’s Group Achievement Award.

James’s work has been recognized by the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, British Design and Art Direction, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the New York Art Director’s Club, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Clios and the Grammy Awards among others.

James attended Pratt Institute’s Master’s Communication Design program and has been a featured guest lecturer at the School of Visual Arts/New York, Parsons: The New School for Design, VCU Brandcenter and the AIGA/NY. He has also had the privilege of speaking at Nicholas Negroponte’s TTi Vanguard Conference, Design as Strategy.

He is a member of the Curator’s Circle at the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design and serves on the International Committee of the Russel Wright Design Center in New York.

Clif Stoltze
clifAs founder and creative director of Boston-based Stoltze Design Group, Clif has nurtured a highly collaborative environment that emphasizes a process based on research, sound strategy
and thorough exploration. This inclusive approach yields compelling communications that effectively articulate and reinforce the message or product.

His agency has been honored by AIGA, the Type Directors Club, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Graphis, and the Society of Publication Designers.

Clif has taught at Rhode Island School of Design and Massachusetts College of Art and frequently lectures at schools and design organizations around the country. He has served as AIGA Boston vice president and was honored as the recipient of their 2005 Fellow Award. Reflecting his love of music and album art, Clif’s book 1000 Music Graphics was published by Rockport in May of 2008 and he is also curator of POSTGIG, a traveling exhibit of contemporary music posters.

Ella Trout
image1As an eight grader, Ella Trout was the winner of OTTO’s very first ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ contest in 2013. Now seventeen, Ella has been taking college classes in addition to her high school courses, is painting “all the time” (she had a solo art opening last June), and has put her design skills to work by starting up her own clothing business, Yellowjacket.

Thanks to all of our judges! Best of luck to all our contestants!

Draw Outside of the Box: The Winners!

On September 18 of 2013, we began receiving the first entries in our ‘Draw Outside of the Box‘ contest, in which young designers from K-8 could compete for the opportunity to have their design grace thousands of OTTO pizza boxes throughout Maine and Massachusetts.

378 entries, thousands of votes, 32 finalists, and 5 judges later, we have our winners.

As we have stated before, everyone at OTTO was completely blown away by the talent on display in each of the wonderful entries (so many worthy designs that didn’t garner enough public votes to make it to the second phase of the contest). As Facebook commenter Julia Goldman so eloquently stated, “Life is short, art is long. Pizza boxes come and go. The influence of your art does not go away. Keep drawing. Keep playing. Keep giving your great humor and design sense and creativity to the world!” We couldn’t have said it any better. We look forward to seeing each young artist nourish their talent and creativity, and share their art with their communities, and with the world.

That being said, our esteemed panel of judges did have the difficult task of choosing their three favorite designs of the finalists.

The winners are as follows:

FIRST PLACE
Ella Trout
8th Grade
Home-schooled
Portland, ME
Ella Trout-Breakwater school
The judges hailed Ella’s entry as “whimsical” and “fantastic,” a “fully realized” design exhibiting a “great sense of Maine.”

OTTO’s designers are currently working on preparing Ella’s design for print. A version of her winning design will soon be printed on thousands of pizza boxes and distributed to all OTTO locations throughout New England. She will also receive a pizza party, a $50 OTTO gift card, an OTTO t-shirt, and an OTTO cap.

As outlined in our fine print, if a first prize winner is not enrolled in a school (i.e. home-schooled, etc.), or enters on behalf of an OTTO-approved non-school entity, “the $1000 intended for the winner’s school will be donated to an approved charity or organization with an art component. Charity or organization must be agreed upon by OTTO and the winner.” Ella has decided to direct the donation to a wonderful Maine-based organization, Spindleworks. Spindleworks, based in Brunswick, ME, is a non profit art center for adults with disabilities and a program of the Independence Association of Brunswick Maine, whose mission is to help children and adults with disabilities achieve full and inclusive lives in their chosen community.

SECOND PLACE
Reuben Pitchel
5th Grade
Dallin Elementary School
Arlington, MA
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Reuben’s design appealed to the kid in several of our judges. This “fun,” “bold,” “playful” design is “just so ‘out there.'” States one judge, “Ruben is a Surrealist at heart.”

Reuben wins a pizza party (for up to 30 students) at his school, a $25 OTTO gift card, an OTTO t-shirt and hat.
 
 
THIRD PLACE
Laney Towle
6th Grade
Berwick Academy
South Berwick, ME
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The judges found Laney’s design to be “whimsical,” “clever,” “iconic” and “highly original,” one that differentiated itself with its “limited use of color and focus on typography.”

Laney wins a pizza party (for up to 30 students) at her school, a $15 OTTO gift card, and an OTTO t-shirt and hat.

Congratulations to all of our finalists, and to Ella, Reuben, and Laney. We can’t express how much we loved each and every one of the wonderful designs that were submitted.

Stay tuned, as we will be displaying some of the designs at various OTTO locations over the coming weeks and months.

OTTO’s ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ Contest, Stage 2: Meet the Judges

At 9am on Wednesday, December 18th, the voting phase of the Draw Outside of the Box contest will come to a close.  Three months and 350+ entries into the contest, the 30 entries with the most Likes in our Facebook ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ album will move on to phase two, in which a panel of esteemed creative professionals will review each entry and choose the three best designs.

Our panel of judges certainly have their work cut out for them over the next few days.  Their task will be to single out the very best pizza box design from 30 entries — entries which have been competing for public votes (‘Likes’) for the past 3 months.  This single design will then be prepared for printing, will go to press, and will become the face of OTTO’s pizza boxes throughout 7 locations (plus delivery and catering services) in MA and ME.  The winning designer will also earn $1000 for his or her school for art education purposes.  First through third place will also win pizza and OTTO swag.

It’s a tough job, but we believe our panel is up for the task. (We’d like to mention that these fine and talented folks have volunteered their services for this very special occasion.)

Ladies and gentlemen, the ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ panel of judges:

Scott Nash
ScottNashPicAs a founding partner of BIG BLUE DOT, Corey McPherson Nash and NASHBOX, Scott has developed an expertise in the branding and creative development of products and programming for the entertainment, consumer product and publishing worlds. In addition to designing identities for Nickelodeon, PBS, ABC, Comedy Central, and FX, Scott’s design clients include American Girl, Disney, Harvard University, Mattel, Milton Bradley, and The Boston Pops.
Scott’s work as a designer and illustrator has been recognized by The Academy for The Arts and Sciences (EMMY award), PROMAX, Broadcast Designers Association, American Institute of Graphic Arts, and Society of Illustrators.
Scott has illustrated over forty children’s books, including Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp! and The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields, Betsy, Who Cried Wolf! and Betsy, Red Hoodie by Gail Carson Levine, as well as the Flat Stanley series by Jeff Brown.
Scott has lectured widely and taught at Boston University, Northeastern University, and The Art Institute of Boston. He currently teaches at Maine College of Art, where he helped establish the illustration department.

Martin Sorger
MSorger_web2Over 25 years, Martin has launched, branded, and rebranded companies as both the client and a creative consultant. During that time, he’s won some awards working as an art director and brand consultant for entertainment, sports, technology, and consumer brands including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Comedy Central, Disney, Finagle a Bagel, Harvard Medical School, Reebok, Walden Media, MIT, MLB, NEC, NFL, and WWE. (And OTTO!)

Debbie Kovacs
IMG_3926aDebbie serves as Senior Vice President of Publishing of Walden Media, where she has overseen all editorial publishing activities and was instrumental in the 2005 formation of Walden’s publishing joint venture with Penguin Young Readers’ Group. She worked at Turnstone Publishing Group, Scholastic Inc., where she founded that company’s software publishing group, and Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), where she served as editor of Sesame Street Magazine. She is author of more than 30 children’s books, including Katie Copley, When is Saturday?, Brewster’s Courage, and The Tooth Fairy Book. Her work has been published by Viking, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic and others.

James Spindler
5080-James_5X7BW-150x150James has specialized in brand identity since 1990, giving unique voice and vision to worldwide brands across multiple platforms. His work has been featured in The New York Times, I.D., and Paper, and has been recognized by British Design and Art Direction, the Cannes Film and Poster Festival, the New York Art Directors Club, the Clio and Andy Awards, and the Broadcast Design Awards. James has served as a design director for Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, Deutsch Advertising, VH1 Music Television, and MTV Asia. He has been a featured guest lecturer at the Yale Graduate School of Design, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons: The New School for Design. James’ projects have included multimedia initiatives for NASA, the ONE campaign, and the artist Maya Lin. He has been on the juries of numerous design competitions, including those of the AIGA and the New York Art Directors Club.

Clif Stoltze
clifClif is Founder of Stoltze Design, where he also serves as Creative Director. He has taught at Rhode Island School of Design and Massachusetts College of art, and frequently lectures at schools and design organizations all over the US. Clif has served as AIGA Boston vice president, and was the recipient of their 2005 Fellow Award. A lover of music and album art, Clif’s book 1000 Music Graphics was published by Rockport in May of 2008 and he is also curator of POSTGIG, a traveling exhibit of contemporary music posters. His work is also in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

And the Winners of the OTTO Rocks! Record Cover Mash-up Contest are…

In early May, we invited you to salute OTTO’s 4th birthday (June 18) by submitting your own OTTO-themed record cover mash-ups on our Facebook timeline.

We promised to choose our three favorite entries on June 18 and award the following prizes:

1st place: $100 OTTO gift card & an OTTO T-shirt
2nd place: $25 OTTO gift card & an OTTO T-shirt
3rd place: 5 ‘free slice’ cards & an OTTO T-shirt

When we started the contest, we never could have imagined the level of creativity, wit, and talent that we would witness.  The submissions were comprised of mashups from a variety of genres stretching across several decades. Some covers we expected to see, some we never could have predicted.

It was not easy to narrow the entries down to three winners, and it was quite a task to choose the best of that bunch.  There were a dozen or so that were quite worthy of the top three slots.

Without further ado, we present the winners of the OTTO Rocks! contest.

First Place: Colby Knight
Colby’s take on Herb Alpert’s cheeky “Whipped Cream And Other Delights” hit all the right notes. The vintage aesthetic and font work, combined with the cheesy sensuality (groan), make this one as hard to resist as a warm dollop of ricotta.

Colby will be receiving a $100 OTTO gift card, and an OTTO t-shirt.

Here’s Colby’s version, and the original:

herb realherb

Second Place: Angie Grosso
Angie took Notorious BIG’s iconic hip hop cover art and title, and turned it on its head. Through a few simple tweaks, this young man’s bleak destiny is transformed into one of hope and, well, a lifetime of delicious pie.  Heck, we’ll hire him as soon as he gets his work permit.

Angie wins a $25 OTTO gift card and an OTTO t-shirt.

Here’s Angie’s version, and the original:

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Third Place: Mark Viens
Mark’s take on Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness” is a beautifully updated, OTTO-fied version of an already beautiful record cover. We were impressed by the seamless incorporation of a variety of signature OTTO slices, a nod to our abundant array of pizza ingredients, and acknowledgment of OTTO’s growing constellation of communities.

Mark wins 5 ‘free slice’ cards & an OTTO T-shirt.

Here’s Mark’s submission, and the original:

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Congratulations to our three finalists.

We had so many wonderful submissions, we urge you to take a look at the entire gallery.

Thanks to everyone who shared their creations with us. We truly love them all.