Pizza Battle (Throwdown?) - Details

whatever

aww, you don't like Indiana fillies or pizza? For shame, for shame.

I propose the following.

A panel of judges will try pizza from each of the pizza places. Judges will order their personal favorite pizza. Each judge is encourage to visit at least 50% of the participating locations. Once the scores are tallied, a final 3 places will be left. At that point all the judges are to visit those three places and tally the scores. Participating pizza shops should be willing to donate a $35.00 gift certificate to be auctioned off or donated to charity.

For people's choice, boxes could be setup on the counters at the locations and $1 buck = 1 vote -- again with money going to the charity of Robin's choice.

This also has its limitations, but I agree that pizza is best hot out of the oven!

I'd also suggest that you push the dates back to this fall to have more time to plan and promote as well as enjoy HOT and filling pizza!

I'd also suggest that you push the dates back to this fall to have more time to plan and promote as well as enjoy HOT and filling pizza!

After some more thought I agree with you on a later date,Sept/Oct. I still like the idea that was thrown out in the beginning,as having the vote done as a group thing/peoples choice....score cards or whatever. I think we should also reexamine the location for the event. Pizza really suffers in delivery. The folks that are farthest from the said location would be at a distinct disadvantage. As far a charity goes,I would tend to think that they would benefit more from a large group outing(take $ at the door) than the boxes on counters idea.Just my two cents. OH yeah, Im pushing for Alley Cats as the charity.

I propose the following.

A panel of judges will try pizza from each of the pizza places. Judges will order their personal favorite pizza.

My problem here is that pizza can be so subjective,judges ordering their favorites are already starting out with a built in bias. I say peoples choice is the way to go.

[Robin Garr]

After some more thought I agree with you on a later date,Sept/Oct. I still like the idea that was thrown out in the beginning,as having the vote done as a group thing/peoples choice....score cards or whatever. I think we should also reexamine the location for the event. Pizza really suffers in delivery. The folks that are farthest from the said location would be at a distinct disadvantage. As far a charity goes,I would tend to think that they would benefit more from a large group outing(take $ at the door) than the boxes on counters idea.Just my two cents. OH yeah, Im pushing for Alley Cats as the charity.

Strongly agree on all counts. Definitely a "people's choice," not a judging panel. And I love the idea of Alley Cats ... Mary supports them with regular donations already, and it's an extremely good organization, small enough that even our relatively modest contribution will be welcome. Food-related? Surely every eatery has an alley cat out back ...

After some more thought I agree with you on a later date,Sept/Oct. I still like the idea that was thrown out in the beginning,as having the vote done as a group thing/peoples choice....score cards or whatever. I think we should also reexamine the location for the event. Pizza really suffers in delivery. The folks that are farthest from the said location would be at a distinct disadvantage. As far a charity goes,I would tend to think that they would benefit more from a large group outing(take $ at the door) than the boxes on counters idea.Just my two cents. OH yeah, Im pushing for Alley Cats as the charity.

Strongly agree on all counts. Definitely a "people's choice," not a judging panel. And I love the idea of Alley Cats ... Mary supports them with regular donations already, and it's an extremely good organization, small enough that even our relatively modest contribution will be welcome. Food-related? Surely every eatery has an alley cat out back ...

Strongly support the idea of "people's choice".

I also think there needs to be an understanding going into this that no ones pizza is going to be publiclly slammed. Pizza is a VERY subjective dish and this can be a relatively influential forum...I would feel VERY badly if an idea that was originally my brain child in any way harmed anyone's livilihood. So whatever we do, lets keep it FRIENDLY and good natured. After all Pizza is probably one of the most "fun" dishs out there.

[Robin Garr]

Strongly support the idea of "people's choice".

I also think there needs to be an understanding going into this that no ones pizza is going to be publiclly slammed. Pizza is a VERY subjective dish and this can be a relatively influential forum...I would feel VERY badly if an idea that was originally my brain child in any way harmed anyone's livilihood. So whatever we do, lets keep it FRIENDLY and good natured. After all Pizza is probably one of the most "fun" dishs out there.

All this sounds worthy to me, Steve. Thanks for an excellent post.

i like the sound of where this battle is headed

we're certainly ready to help support Alley Cats with a $50 gift certificate

and i like the concept of a "people's choice" award (this has a bias towards the pizzerias with the most locations and highest population density...Wicks anyone?)

but i also think a qualified panel of judges would be great (a bias towards flavor preferences)

Tony from Boombozz has let me know that he's in.

I realize that Za's is right across the street from me (Ray's), with pizza oven. I'll check with Jim to see both if he wants to participate, and if we can use his oven for those travelling from a distance. Maybe that'd level the playing field somewhat. Actually, the new Boombozz taproom is just a couple blocks down, so that may work also if he's up for letting us use his oven for a bit.

Would you guys/gals want to vote on a time and day in a poll? Pushing it out another month is fine by me. August seemed like plenty of time, but I'm cool with whatever....

I'll check with my locals and report back in the next day or two regarding ovens....

Nimbus

Acknowledging that not everyone is a football fan, I just happened to notice that Indiana State plays at Louisville on Saturday Sept 5th at 7:30pm. On the same note Cincy plays Indy in preseason football on Thursday Sept. 3rd. What goes better with pizza than football. At the very least it would give folks a chance to wear their "colors". Too bad Chicago doesn't play the N.Y. Jets this year. That would be a PERFECT day for a pizza throw down. Just a thought.

Nimbus, ya really need to sweet talk "Z's"...that would be awesome if they were to open their oven to a good cause.

Acknowledging that not everyone is a football fan, I just happened to notice that Indiana State plays at Louisville on Saturday Sept 5th at 7:30pm. [. . .] Nimbus, ya really need to sweet talk "Z's"...that would be awesome if they were to open their oven to a good cause.

Meh, you do realize that was voted as one of the worst college football games next season. http://www.sportingnews.com/college-foo ... -bottom-10. Heh.

Re: Z's, I agree. That would be cool, and they have tons of space inside.

For Danny Mac - I am from Indiana - CPC's pizza rocks and if you want to call me a girl - go right ahead, but you should know they CPC has some of the best pizza around.

Sean from CPC suggested a panel of judges - I would love to be a pizza judge! For the record I eat pizza at most of the independents Wick's, Boombozz, Spinelli's, Sportstime, Impellizeri's and even Bearno's.
Pizza is VERY subjective - I am a carnivore so sausage is very important to me. Suce should have a hint of sweetness, cheese shoud have a bite to it. and all pizza is served best with beer.

If the throwdown is on, I would love to be involved.

FOR Kurt and all the Indianaians : I was just stirring the pot

I think it should obviously be a peoples' choice. I mean who is to say that "your taste is better than mine" or "my taste is better than yours?" True, if you do have some people who dedicate years or even decades of their lives to tasting one particular product (as some do in the coffee industry for example), then yes they are more qualified than the average joe. But I don't think we have many professional pizza tasters here who do it for a living (i.e. professional). I for one do not want to sit around and wait for the self-proclaimed (or chosen - but by who?) experts to tell us what is good and what is bad.

What is wrong with the general public deciding? That way EVERYONE can be involved and have a say in deciding the "best" pizza, which we'll simply call "People's Choice" which after all is what really matters anyway, isn't it?

My two cents....

p.s. Working a double today, so haven't had a chance to talk to anyone about ovens yet....