Pizza Appreciation Thread

[brandon.cottrell]

Let me paint you a picture:

It's a dark and stormy night in the middle of build season. You look at your fellow classmates as they lay on the floor in agony, struck by a hunger. The empathy drives you to save your team from destruction, and possible starvation. Venturing off into the dark abyss outside, the team waits and hopes for the best.

. ..

Moments before your team members begin revert to a primal state and stoop to cannibalism (eating the programmers first, of course), you kick open the door and brandish several boxes of pizza. The distribution of the pizza has returned everyone to their normal human states, and the work process continues. The day is saved, all thanks to the circular masterpiece we know as pizza.

If this story is far too familiar to you, share some pizza experiences you've had in your years of FIRST. What was the best pizza you had? What pizza do you remember the most? What specific kind of pizza appeals to you?

[Pault]

Papa Gino's. It just has that build season taste (maybe because we had it 5 days a week for the 2013 build season ). Of course, it only tastes good during the build season. I will take Dominoe's for the other 320 days of the year.

[mman1506]

In 2013 we spent 2 X the money on pizza than we spent on the robot. We banned spending any money on food after that.

[sanddrag]

Blaze fast fired

[DonRotolo]

I post here with trepidation. Here in Northern NJ we are blessed to live in the finest pizza market in the world. Our proximity to NYC, the predominance of Italian-Americans, and relative affluence* combine to bring serious competition. Places like Domino's, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns go out of business becasue people here won't eat that (stuff).

If someone makes a kind of pizza, we have it here.

That being said, different pizza places have their specialty. Martio's in Nanuet makes the best Sicilian around, but Ray's in Montvale makes a better plain round pie. Marc's in Park Ridge has the best delivery and a decent pie. Phil's in Montvale is also great for their specialty pizzas (like salad, buffalo chicken, bacon, that kind). Nanuet Pizza & Bar (in Nanuet, oddly enough, a block from Martio's) makes a great bar pie, with a thin oily crust that's just so bad for you but so very tasty. Then there's Kinchley's Tavern in Mahwah - too far for build season, but absolutely the finest super thin crust pizza anywhere.

I travel a lot for work, and try pizza wherever I go. Yes, you CAN find good pizza not near here, but it is more rare than you might believe.

[cadandcookies]

Team 2220 has a pizza place within walking distance of our build space, which means lots of pizza during build season.

Best pizza though...

locally, I'd say Punch Pizza is the best Italian-style pizza around in the Twin Cities-- specifically I had a pizza there after we won RCA in 2013, which was probably the best I've had.

After that, I was in Boston last fall and the Upper Crust in Beacon Hill is probably the best walk-in pizza I've ever had. It was thin, looked like it had no sauce on it, but it was one of the richest pizzas I've ever tasted.

Great stuff, pizza.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

If someone makes a kind of pizza, we have it here.

I don't quite think so. Beu Jo's isn't anywhere near ya, being local to Colorado. That pizza pie is very filling for quite a few people. On the other hand, I only ate there once in the 5 winters I spent in range of one. Not exactly cheap, but well worth the price.

Little Caesar's... let's just go with "you get what you pay for" and let it go at that. Ate enough of those to last a while in college.


On the robotics team... The teams I have been a member of typically avoided pizza quite successfully, other than the occasional slice at the local small shop. When I was on 330, there were usually at least 3-4 non-pizza places within 15 minutes walking, and only 1 pizza place. On 1197, food is generally brought by parents or someone makes a run to the Taco Bell just beyond the far end of the school.

[Wayne Doenges]

Oley's 10 pound pizza. Each of the 10 slices are a pound each

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by EricH

I don't quite think so. Beu Jo's ...

Broadway Pizza in Westwood makes "stuffed" pizza like that. One slice is a meal. So yeah, we got it, but with a different name.

As for Little Caesar and all the other chains: eech. Life is too short for bad pizza.

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

Oley's 10 pound pizza. Each of the 10 slices are a pound each

OK, that I haven't seen...but then again I haven't weighed one of Broadway's 'stuffed' slices. I gotta do that.


Pizza is the universal food, containing all of the food groups: Grains, Dairy, Fruit*, vegetables, and meat. And, depending on how you configure it, you can be very healthy about it too.

And then there's Calzones....


*Tomatoes are a fruit, right?

[Lil' Lavery]

Pineapples are certainly a fruit.