UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Indian pizza at last! At Haggarty’s.

If you are waiting for a table at BONOBO, one of Portland’s new pizza places, you can peruse a book of photographs featuring the large primates after which Bonobo is named, in various forms of sexual congress. Bonobo are popular in certain circles because of their reputation as being peaceful, feast-prone, sex-loving, matriarchal, and a little gay. Hippies are pleased to find an alternative evolutionary cousin to replace the violent, scheming, masculinist chimpanzee. Now Bonobo the restaurant hopes to benefit from an association of pizza and sex-positive communalism.

But what we know about the bonobo is mostly based on what happens if you provide them with lots of food. In their natural environment, where food is more scarce — wild bonobo live only in an isolated section of Congolese rainforest — the situation is much murkier. The females have a disturbing habit of ganging up on the passive males and slowly chewing off their fingers or genitalia. Perhaps the proliferation of new pizza places in Portland, in satisfying our appetites, will help us stave off our own gender conflict.

Bonobo itself is a fine place to ponder such questions. It’s warm in there, thanks to the brick oven, and with the room’s green and copper colors you could almost imagine yourself in the rainforest at sunset. A pesto pizza heightens the effect by arriving at table a little damp. This is mostly the result of a very good fresh ricotta that pools and blends into the mellow pesto. The resulting pie is creamy and rich. Flavors were more pronounced with the “smoky,” which is dominated by big chunks of butternut squash. A regular we chatted up agreed that the roasting really brought out the sugars of the squash, but thought that the sharp and salty Gorgonzola kept the pie from becoming cloying.

We appreciated that Bonobo does not over-crisp its thin crusts. There is so much praise for crisp pizza that bakers often cook them till they snap like a brown Dorito. But the bottom of a Bonobo pie is a more complex pattern of auburn and beige and it offers a more interesting chew that lets the starchy flavors of the bread accompany their pies’ thoughtful array of cheeses and toppings.

While Bonobo the pizzeria seems poised to thrive, bonobo the species is endangered. Poachers hunt them to feed the miners who have poured into the rainforest in search of coltan, a once-useless ore now prized by corporations for use in cell phones. Here in Portland SIANO’S PIZZERIA raises related questions about the relationship between capitalism and community. The Woodford neighborhood got Siano’s by organizing to keep a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise from moving in. When they barred doughnuts and coffee, the owner decided to open the pizzeria instead.

There are just a few signs that Siano’s is pizza by default. While the space is attractive, it feels a bit like a sports bar. The brick ovens look lovely, but the most comfortable part of the bar has you pointed at the television. The black tables are lined up in a utilitarian row reminiscent of Gritty’s, and the pizza also reminds you a bit of the sort you might get at a pub. Again the crust is not too crisp and offers a nice chew, but the edges especially were less thin and dense than the Bonobo crust. The tomato sauce was a little on the sweet side. Despite the tension that gave birth to Siano’s, they have given the pizzas neighborhood-friendly names, like "Pat’s Meat Market Pie" on a particularly (excessively) meaty selection. But the bartender told me he did not think the meat was from Pat’s.

Lack of neighborly collaboration nearly thwarted the most important of Portland’s recent pizza developments. A year ago I promised Portland Phoenix readers I would convince Portland Pie to work with Hi Bombay across the street to create an Indian pizza, a delicacy not currently available on the East Coast. It was slow to happen, and Portland Pie got so sick of me bugging them about it they finally up and moved away, a few yards down the street. But Peter Haggarty, owner of, well, HAGGARTY’S, heard my call and bought himself a pizza oven. He has been experimenting with Indian pizzas at his Brit-Indian spot and promises to put them on the menu in the new year.