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American Dream Pizza closed in 2024, was revived in 2025 as Original Dream Pizza, and, in 2026, it’s closing again.
“We took a big risk, reopening our favorite pizzeria after it had been closed a year,” the company wrote on social media. “We really tried to bring ‘The Dream’ back to life. Unfortunately, all of our efforts were not enough to justify staying in business.”
Original Dream’s last day of business will be Aug. 30. And while it will now require a drive down Interstate 5 south to taste American Dream’s signature braided crust at its two Corvallis locations, fear not: The legacy pizzeria space at 4620 NE Glisan St. will still be slinging pies.
Atlas Pizza will open its fourth location there by mid-September. The New York–style slice shop that started on Southeast Division Street in 2014 has grown into a bona fide local chain with four locations on the east side of the river—though another expansion wasn’t exactly the plan for co-owner Johnny Ricci.
Ricci originally came on as a consultant to help the Original Dream owners get their feet under them during a tumultuous first year, including a mechanical fire in October 2025 that shuttered the restaurant until January. Conversation turned to an Atlas takeover.
“I would leave there asking myself, ‘OK, how do I talk myself out of thinking this is a good idea for us?’” Ricci tells WW.
He failed, wooed by the promise of all the business that can come from Providence Portland Medical Center across the street, and the densely residential neighborhood all around.
During the flip from Original Dream to Atlas, Ricci and his team will bring in all the typical Atlas accoutrements: pinball machines, concert posters and pizza box art. Ricci says he’s getting close to sourcing a Simpsons video game, which is a must for him.
“It’s a spot that’s been selling pizza for 40 years, and we’re going to sell pizza hopefully for another 40,” Ricci says.
