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The Pizza Grand Prix III had a great turnout. During a Saturday of way too many choices (good weather, Gallery Hop, The Fitness Expo and etc), 60 plus people came to dine on a plethora of pizza pies.
A few pizzas may have have been missed coming through the door at the beginning. I am not sure how many Bono Pizzas arrived. Few pizzas lingered around for long. My official count was 50 pizzas from 28 places. My highest headcount of the night was 62 pizza eating souls although many people came and left during the night. We raised $51 for the Haiku Help Fund.
This is what we ate or tried to (pizza place and topping) in order of appearance:
Zach and Mary’s Venison is for Lovers Pizza x2
Hounddogs – Meat Lovers
Hounddogs – Veggie Pizza
Portofinos II – Pepperoni
Mellow Mushroom – Bacon
Dewey’s – Southwest BBQ Chicken
Dewey’s – Wild Mushroom
Dewey’s – ?
Dewey’s – ?
Dewey’s – ?
Catfish Biff’s – ?
Cafe Daniella – Bianca 
Cafe Daniella – Mahgerita
Bono to Gone – San Rolando
Bono to Gone – Pesto, Tomato, Basil
Gatto’s – Sausage and Onion
Mellow Mushroom – ?
Adriatico’s – Cheese
Yosick’s (yes the German Village Chocolatier) – Vegetarian
Yosicks’s – ?
Rocketmaster Mike’s Bacon Baccahanalia 1.0 (Homemade)
Rocketmaster Mike’s Bacon Baccahanalia 2.0
Rotolo’s – Tomato and Garlic
Cowtown – Mediterranean
Rotolo’s – Sausage
Massey’s – Pepperoni
Pizza Primo – Supreme
Rubino’s – Pepperoni
Stoned Pizza – Cheese
Stoned Pizza – Pepperoni
Stoned Pizza – Pickles and Pepperoni
Surly Girl Saloon – Surly Girl Pizza x2
Surly Girl Saloon – Chuckwagon (a breakfast pizza) x3
(Delivered by Amy from SGS)
Panzera’s Pizza – Pepperoni, Mushroom, Onions, Sausage, Banana Peppers x2
High Beck Tavern – Pulled Pork, Beef Brisket, BBQ sauce x2
Northstar Cafe – High Street Veggie x2
Hounddogs – Olives and Feta, Smokin Joe’s Style (Spicy)
Fabian’s – Chicken Rustica
Mama Mimi’s – BBQ Sauce, Pepperoni, Bacon
Belleria – Sausage, Pepperoni, Green Peppers, Onion
DiCarlos – Pepperoni
Enrico’s – Pepperoni, Sausage, Mushroom, Peppers
Angie’s Pizza – Pepperoni
We made a run at voting this year. However, I should mention some disclaimers. Pizza comes in at various times during the night. Few people could have tried all 50 pizzas, it all depends on when one arrives and how quickly a pizza gets eaten. In the case of Bono – those pizzas lasted 8 minutes and were sampled by about 10 people at the most. Our inaugural categories:
Best of Gran Prix
Winner: Dewey’s Buffalo Chicken
Runner Up: High Beck Smokehouse Combo
Best Homemade
Winner: Rocketmaster Mike’s Bacon Baccahanalia
Best Topping Combo
Winner: Mama Mimi’s BBQ Bacon
Runner Up: Surly Girl Blue Cheese Cranberry
Best Vegetarian
Winner: Northstar High Street Veggie
The best comment in the voting cards – “Hounddogs Feta and Olives Soooo F**king Good!”
A trend I noticed among the winners …Bacon. Bacon is still the new black in Columbus. Also, my favorite was the Hi Beck Smokehouse combo. It arrived later in the evening, a few more votes and it could have won two categories.
Thanks to: Everyone that came, Wild Goose Creative for hosting as well as setting up and tearing down,
Dewey’s for donating some pizzas, Surly Girl for donating and delivering pizzas, the Hounddogs delivery guy I forgot to tip because I was multi-tasking, Bill from Bono for making pizzas just for us, Walker Evans and anyone I missed.
More from CMH Gourmand can be found at cmhgourmand.wordpress.com.
More Photos!
Thank you, Gourmand, for another fabulous taste adventure! When’s Prix IV? :)
(And I have a sneaking suspicion about who wrote that Hounddog’s comment…)
The commented Hound Dog’s pizza is a menu item called the Pesto Pizza.
Also had pesto & tomato slices on it… I personally wasn’t as happy with it as I had been in the past as the crust was just short on being completely finished.
Thanks for the writeup, Jim. And thanks a TON for being both the brains and the brawn behind such an awesome event! I had a lot of people coming up to me and saying it was cool for CU to hold such an event and I constantly was pointing over at you and saying that you were the real guy they should be thanking for making it all happen. ;)
I had to leave in a hurry right at 8PM and forgot to cast my vote on the way out the door, but I did enjoy both the Dewey’s Buffalo Chicken and the High Beck Smokehouse, so I’m cool with those winners. I think the Briggs Venison pizza was my favorite of the homemades though. I’m a sucker for the rustic flavor of bambi meat. ;)
I forgot to get my entry registered properly, which was some of the focaccia bread pizza with vegetarian toppings from <a href=”http://www.northmarket.com/meet-the-market/merchants/pastaria-seconda”>Pastaria Seconda</a> at the North Market. I cut it up into very small bite-pizza bits if anyone recalls trying it. I thought it was pretty tasty, but I previously had different toppings on it and liked it more. Unfortunately, this was the only kind left during the madhouse day at the North Market during the Arnold and I got their last two slices available. ;)
And lastly… big props to Eric at Dewey’s for providing us with four free specialty pizzas, and Amy & Liz at Surly Girl for hooking us up with lots of free Surly Pizzas Too!
Hooray! :D
I have only eaten about half a salad today and I’m still full from last night. Thanks again to Jim and Walker for pulling this off. If anybody is interested in the audio edition of the event, I just posted it here.
http://www.columbusfood.tv/index.php?post_id=441095
I am glad everyone liked the Smokehouse Combos, that is one of the best kept pizza secrets in town…until now. When I was picking them up I checked to make sure they were right and a guy saw and smelled it and asked the bartender to change his order.
I was VERY impressed by the Smokehouse Combos! Just enough spice to get my attention without making me dive for a glass of water.
Zach and I missed the Grand Prix. However, he made a huge pizza at home from scratch. It beat a bono pizza. Not sure we’ll ever be able to re-create it, but it was AMAZING.
Wasn’t able to make it. Oh well, maybe there’ll be venison pizza at #IV.
we werent able to make it either, kinda bummed, but at least y’all got to experience the pizza we were gonna bring – the pickles and pepperoni from Stoned Pizza…
I had a great time, thanks Jim!!!