{"id":6536,"date":"2021-04-01T09:52:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T13:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6536"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:07:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:07:38","slug":"oronos-own-pats-pizza-announces-plans-to-rebrand-into-pas-piz-the-millennial-dining-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/04\/01\/oronos-own-pats-pizza-announces-plans-to-rebrand-into-pas-piz-the-millennial-dining-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Orono\u2019s Own Pat\u2019s Pizza Announces Plans to Rebrand Into \u2018Pa\u2019s Piz\u2019: The Millennial Dining Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The crown jewel of Orono\u2019s dining scene, Pat\u2019s Pizza, unfurled plans to rebrand on Friday. The marketing move was a direct response to a scathing Yelp review by a displeased customer. Following a long list of complaints, the customer lodged one final dig at the chain location regarding their ancient gumball machine. The once yellow letters that read \u201cPat\u2019s Pizza\u201d had faded, leaving a sickly pale \u201cPa\u2019s Piz\u201d in their place. That\u2019s a feat the customer deemed \u201can appropriate representation of the restaurant\u2019s decline.\u201d Though they were discouraged at first, the staff decided to embrace the new nickname. It began the store\u2019s millennial makeover. The staff are hoping to meet the college-aged customer base where they\u2019re at. Even if it means pulling out the paint\u2013something the store hasn\u2019t done in the better part of a century. \u201cThose kids in Portland are putting us out of business. We want to show them we can keep up!\u201d manager Sam said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A major part of the paint job is the development of new menu items. The staff are cooking diligently around the clock. And not in vain. The new pies are West Coast-themed and deemed \u201chipster worthy\u201d by many customers. A favorite of the trial period was the \u201cCould Be California\u201d pizza. It features imitation-imitation crab meat made from Maine lobster and is topped with Trader Joe\u2019s avocado. One customer called it \u201ca confused ode to the California roll.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Another winner was the \u201cOrono Oregon-o,\u201d a pizza that comes with a 1-inch-thick layer of Pat\u2019s original dried oregano. It\u2019s the forgotten green spice of pizza parlors everywhere. \u201cWe needed to put it somewhere,\u201d Sam said, as he admitted that most tabletop jars had solidified the untouchable herb into cylindrical blocks. \u201cIt really is original,\u201d he went on. As it turned out, the grand pat-riarch, Pat Farnsworth, had bottled it himself upon opening the store back in 1931.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re totally Instagrammable,\u201d raved repeat customer Jeremy Spencer, a marine biology major at UMO. Jeremy frequents Pa\u2019s often and likes the familial environment there. \u201cSam was the first person to steer me away from potato sciences. It was another major I was considering. He wants me to follow my passions rather than the crowd,\u201d he said. Orono neighbors Maine\u2019s own Spud Valley. It\u2019s the agrarian alternative to Silicon Valley in California (and the loving nickname for Aroostook County).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI really can\u2019t wait to see what else they do with the place,\u201d Jeremy added, gesturing to the new wall colors. They stick to the same palette used to sell everything these days, from magazine subscriptions to food delivery services: pale pink, bright orange and a deep green. A hand-drawn wall mural reads \u201c#PasPiz,\u201d followed by \u201c#EatME\u201d and some confusingly colored minimal pizzas. They\u2019re designed to encourage customers to post about their positive experiences on popular social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a publicity thing,\u201d Sam explained. \u201cIf you don\u2019t evolve with the times, you get left behind. We\u2019re willing to sacrifice our old stoner atmosphere. Especially if it means being the hangout of choice for a new generation of college kids.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The crown jewel of Orono\u2019s dining scene, Pat\u2019s Pizza, unfurled plans to rebrand on Friday. The marketing move was a direct response to a scathing Yelp review by a displeased customer. Following a long list of complaints, the customer lodged one final dig at the chain location regarding their ancient gumball machine. The once yellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8299,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions\/8299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}