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Tackling community issues. Celebrating local voices.
When I order a large Sicilian pizza with sausage and black olives, Sy’s Pizza owner Josh Zweifler asks if I want Mike’s Hot Honey sausage. No, I say. He asks if it’s because I don’t like spicy. I love spice, I tell him. It’s just that today I want what I’m used to, and that’s the crumbled sausage that has been my standing order at Sy’s for the past 35 years I’ve been eating here.
That collision between old and new is happening on multiple fronts at Sy’s.
For nearly five decades, Sy’s Pizza has been a constant presence on the University of Oregon campus, serving up New York-style slices to generations of students. What began in 1978 as one man’s vision has evolved into a Eugene institution that has weathered changes in ownership, while maintaining most of its original character.
Sy’s original vision
The story begins with Sy Zeer, a New York transplant who came to Eugene seeking a place to raise his family away from the bustle of the city. In 1978, he opened Sy’s Pizza in the building which Zweifler says is now 112 years old. Zeer made authentic New York-style pizza at a time when it was hard to find on the West Coast…