Event organizer Emily Tintera helped put together a competition between local pizza institutions.
“We just feel like there’s so many amazing pizza places in St. Louis, but we felt like there wasn’t specific pizza events where we got to showcase all the amazing pizza places,” Tintera said.
Feast Magazine produced this second annual pizza competition for attending voters to determine the winners.
Tintera said fellow organizers and she produced the event in six weeks. They gathered 14 different pizza competitors and split them into four categories.
The four categories included St. Louis-style, wood-fired, frozen, and restaurant-style pizza.
Voters get a card with one perforated tab for each category. Voters can then drop a ticket at their desired stand. Each winner receives a plaque and bragging rights as the top-voted in St. Louis for their category.
At 9 p.m., Feast announced the winners. Dan O’s won frozen-style pizza. Guido’s Pizzeria and Tapas won St. Louis-Style pizza. Felix’s Pizza Pub in Dogtown won restaurant-style. Lastly, Peel Wood Fired Pizza won the category for wood-ired for the second year in a row.
Webster Student Pajmon Porshahidy said he admired when people innovated and experimented with different combinations of toppings, instead of traditional pizzas.
Porshahidy said he didn’t stay for the winners, but he wasn’t surprised Dan O’s won the frozen pizza category.
“Dan O’s pizza didn’t taste like frozen pizza, the ingredients were really the key factor,” Porshahidy said. “I wasn’t a fan of Peel’s lobster BLT, but the nacho one was really innovative.”
Peel Wood Fired Pizza won twice in a row. The pizza company showcased their wood-fired lobster BLT and ballpark chicken nacho pizza.
Manager of Peel Wood Fired Pizza Marissa Graves said she attended as a voter to support her brand.
“It’s made all of our hard work highlight how unique pizza can be,” Graves said.
Graves said what makes Peel’s pizza different than other companies is that they create everything from scratch. Marissa said Peel doesn’t copy traditional pizza brands. The company creates their own recipes, toppings, and dough.
“It’s an art of how a simple pizza can be everything,” Graves said.
This year 425 people attended, whereas in 2018, 350 people attended.
“Anytime we’re growing from an event, it’s a success in our eyes,” Tintera said.
Tintera said she plans to open more categories and expand on more pizza places in the future.
Share this post
