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Dave Portnoy Going 'Bigger' With 2nd Pizza Festival ... Hand-Picked Restaurants

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is gearing up for round two of his epic pizza party on steroids ... running back his successful One Bite Pizza Festival in the city that never sleeps -- New York City!!!

El Pres spoke with TMZ Sports about the upcoming event on Randall's Island in Manhattan -- which is slated to go down on September 14. One of the significant differences from last year is that there will be two sessions at a bigger venue -- allowing even more pizza lovers to experience all the great joints Portnoy raves about.

Dave said the first time around was better than he ever could have imagined. But if there was one thing he could change?

Mother nature!!!

"Hopefully, it's not a hurricane," he said. "That was the only thing that we struggled with last year. It was a vintage nor'easter day. So give me that 70 and sunny, and it will be an all-time event."

The main takeaway for Portnoy was the fact that every pizza tasted like the real thing ... which he took great pride in.

Pres teamed up with some big partners like Bilt, Ferraro Foods, Proper Wild, Beast Equipment, Flatiron Pepper Co and, of course, High Noon, for the bash ... and he's predicting another smashing result.

Portnoy did his first pizza review back in 2013. Since then, his One Bite Brand has exploded -- his YouTube channel currently has 1.3 million subscribers, and he even has his own app to track all the places he has reviewed.

He says all the great pizzerias are returning... along with some newcomers to the event!

"Rubirosa certainly is a New York legendary spot that will be joining. We have Fredi The PizzaMan from Detroit, I declared that the best pizza in the state of Michigan. We have Uncle Jerry's Pizza Company. Deep Dish, we didn't have a deep dish one last year. We're bringing in some couple outsiders to spice it up."

No word on if Miss Peaches will be attending, but Portnoy expects the event to sell out quickly ... so any pizza fanatics better hurry to snag their spot when tix go on sale later this week.

Now we're hungry.

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