Buffalo Spree Magazine

The great pizza throwdown of 2006

By Elizabeth Licata; photos by Jim Bush

Photo by Jim Bush

Now it can be told. For almost two months, Western New York bloggers and pizza lovers have been waiting to hear the results of a titanic battle between no less than eight examples of pizza from Western New York establishments and two examples of pizza from the deep-dish bastions of Chicago. Held in the back room of Zetti’s Pizza and Pasta (in the University Plaza), this blind tasting challenged a roomful of judges to eat ten types of pizza, judging each on crust, sauce, toppings, mouthfeel/texture, and overall quality, with scores from one (lowest) to five (best).

The contest was organized by “Buffalo Pundit” Alan Bedenko (Spree’s restaurant critic), “Buffalo Geek” Chris Smith, and Spree, and included seven examples of pizza submitted by other pizza-lovin’ bloggers. It is a testament both to Zetti’s generosity and their confidence in their own product that they were happy to host the contest in their back room and even heat up alien pizzas in their ovens, so that all the submissions could at least start out hot.

The crust controversy

Some may ask: is pizza even worthy of a contest? Isn’t that something you order when you don’t have time to cook or when you have a houseful of volunteer movers to feed? Well, guess again; it turns out that feelings run strong and high when it comes to pizza, especially when it comes to the all-important matter of crust width. The hubris started rising sometime in September when Pundit and Geek traded opening ripostes on their respective blogs, buffalopundit.com and buffalogeek.com.

First Geek: As you know, Pundito is a fan of thin crust Neapolitan style and foldable NY Style … both are crimes against pizza.

The Geek and the Pundit, with their competing pizzas.
Photo by Jim Bush

I’m a fan of local Buffalo pizza for one reason only; it’s what I grew up eating. Nino’s, Bob & Johns, Bocce Club, Abbott, Avenue, Mister Pizza … all pizzas of my youth. While tasty and laden with crispy pepperoni memories, these pizzas fail the test of “Best Pizza in America.”

When asked who makes the best pizza in the country, my answer is very simple. Lou Malnati’s, a Chicago institution and purveyor of fine deep dish pizza.

If God came back to Earth and asked to see evidence of gastrological perfection, I would take him to Lou’s for a slice of buttercrust deep dish pepperoni with mushrooms and hot giardiniera.

Then Pundit: Dat rat BuffaloGeek said dat Noo Yawk pizza ain’t da best. Derrz only too-tree places in Buffalo dat do pies da way deys’pou-zda. Can you believe dis guy? He likes Chicago deep dish. Notice I din’t call it “pizza.”

He and I agree, however, that Buffalo pizza ain’t the best in the world. He likes it because he grew up with it. I like it when it’s literally the only food available. Otherwise, I’m going to Zetti’s, Romeo & Juliet’s, Trattoria Aroma, La Dolce Vita, or La Hacienda in the Falls. That’s it.

So, I suggest that we do a pizza taste test and maybe get it written up in the Spree, whereby we taste test pizzas from around the area, and judge them.

Then Geek: Bring it. I’ll order pies from Lou’s and Geno’s East in Chicago to measure up with your girly pizza with artichoke hearts and quarter inch crusts. We’ll include Mister Pizza, LaNova, and Bocce’s….

I’m willing to do the taste test anytime, anywhere. I’ll let the Pundit have home field advantage, he needs all the help he can get with his craptastic foldable pizza.

On like Donkey Kong

Pizza taster Elizabeth Smith.
Photo by Jim Bush

And so the battle was joined. True to his word, Geek did import, at some expense, two Chicago pizzas; Pundit purchased examples from Zetti’s and La Hacienda; and other blogger/judges submitted pies from their favorite dispensers of greasy goodness. (I use the G word advisedly; some of the ballots were barely readable.)

Posturing and trash talking aside, it was a very congenial group of eighteen judges who finally met in the back room of Zetti’s on Monday, October 2. The pizzas were lined up on a long counter and sliced, while beer, wine, and soft drinks were available on another table. The Spree marketing staff had put together a very professional-looking scorecard, and the pizzas were coded by number, as follows: #1 Bob & John’s La Hacienda, #2 La Hacienda (Niagara Falls), #3 La Pizza Club, #4 Dino’s Bocce, #5 Geno’s East (Chicago), #6 N.Y. Pizza, #7 Lou Molnati’s (Chicago), #8 Zetti’s, #9 Pizza Junction, #10 LaPorta’s. Now, you might think it would be physically impossible to do justice to ten pizzas in an hour and a half, but the group seemed to adjust easily to the challenge, taking small bites, and leaving most of the heavier crusty ends on the plate. Many even saved room for full-size slices of their favorites when they were through judging. The whole process was laid-back to say the least, with plenty of chatting about various topics that had nothing to do with pizza.

And the winner is ...

As it turned out, crust style or city of origin had nothing to do with victory in this contest. The winner was dark horse La Pizza Club, brought by blogger Mike in WNY. This entry was actually a blue cheese and mushroom pizza, which took the tastebuds of most of the group—even deep-dish fanatic Geek—by storm. Bob and John’s La Hacienda came in second, with Bocce third and Zetti’s fourth. Hardly a triumph for New York-style or Chicago-style adherents, these results do speak strongly in favor of Western New York-style pizza: medium width crust and cheesy, with mushrooms among the favorite toppings. (Though pepperoni—a tiny pool of grease punctuating each dark-red disk—is also popular.)

And therein lies the rub. This was far from a scientifically fair tasting. There were a variety of different toppings, leading to many apple-orange comparisons. Our small Spree contingent agreed that a strict contest would have only allowed cheese and sauce; we also felt that some of the more “gourmet” pizzas—such as those offered by Nektar, Caffe Aroma, and Romeo & Juliet’s—would have offered a better variety of thin-crust examples.

But who said life—or even that small fraction of life that includes pizza eating—was fair? Everyone at Zetti’s had a good time, ate some fine pizza, drank some so-so wine, and enjoyed some superlative company. Now we’re ready to move on to the next challenge. French fry face-off? Meatball melee? Clash of the sausages? Not to worry. Spree will be there.

Elizabeth Licata is editor of Buffalo Spree.

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