2009 Silverlake Cheese Pizza Competition

Thanks to everyone who participated in this tremendous event last week. Admittedly this was a non-scientific assessment of the pizza delivery skills of our neighborhood. But I got some great feedback and made a lot of people eat a lot of pizza so the least I could do is to post the results here.

Arrival time:
Nikki D approx 20 minutes
Tomato pie 21 min
Hard times 31 min
Lucifer’s 37 min
Buena Pizza 39
Andiama 59 min
Il Capriccio 1 hr 1 minute
Garage pizza 1 hr 9 min

Bear in mind this was on high volume Oscar Sunday so in consideration of that I feel all the contestants did very well.

Sifting through the pizza stained ballots, I thank all the participants and apologize for this year’s slight sloppy event. I can tell we were a little under prepared since a few people had to use paper plates to record notations

Here is the judges’ feedback:

Nikki D; “good, light” 1 star “A” “Awesome!” “Good, soft crust, oregano finish, very pleasant” “doughy, smoky, so-so tomato and cheese” Oregano finish, cheese start, crust chewy and supple 8” “cheese yummy but fell off”

Tomato Pie: “Ok, pedestrian” 3 star “B” “good” “less taste, very straightforward cheese, not enough taste” “nice crust” “ Oily start, subtle sauce 7” “not enough sauce”

Hard times “ok” 3star “C” ”good” “Tangy cheese, in between Nikki D and Tomato pie,” “very tasty, good cheese, a little crispy but nice crust” “ rubbery and tasteless 3” “too sweet”

Lucifer’s, “good, hot, points for unique” 2 star “D” “too spicy” “too dry, not enough cheese, spiciness needs more cheese” “tastes like jalapenos, cheese is hard, crust dry, not enough sauce” “spicy, inedible” “spicy jalapeno”

Buena “good tough, first few bites great but dry crust at the end” “too salty, very salty” “ok, like pizza hut” “unremarkable, pretty bland, I’d put it in the middle” “good parts but cheese is light and crust too chewy” “cheese thick and fantastic crust, crunchy soft finish 9” “too salty”

Andiama: “Great, but weird crust” 3 star “canned tomato sauce” “terrible! Shite! I throw it up!” “Very tomatoey but in 2nd place” “sauce too sweet, cheese light, doughy crust, crunchy at edge but soggy. Illegible” “sauce tangy and delicious/crust cornmeal yuck 6” “crust bad, undercooked”

Il Capriccio: “Damn good” 2 stars “too salty” “ok, salty and cold” “could care less” “ tough, a little too much salt” “a blue cheese aftertaste but good crust 5” “salty”

Garage:” eh” 3 star “weird tasting sauce” “good but cold” “also unmemorable” “chewy, weird taste” ‘Good sauce, not enough cheese 5”

I disagree with some of these comments, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions I suppose. I for one enjoy a bit of saltiness in my pizza but it seemed to turn off many other participants.

An important factor seemed to be arrival time; a pizza hot out of the oven scored much much better than one sitting in the box. So pizza purveyors take note, be fleet of foot and do not get concerned if you approach a door and there are already 2 other pizza guys there.

If I had to declare a winner, I would say that Nikki D’s came out on top this weekend. I still will be ordering from some of these other places but it definitely gave me a different perspective on that classic across the lake.

Additionally I’ve learned that I clearly have too much free time on my hands and if you place your average group of friends in a critical setting they will become very judgey all the sudden and find something to complain about with everything! Seriously though, this was a lot of fun and I really appreciate everyone who indulged in my silliness.

Stay tuned for the next installment in Island Zero pizza challenges, The Great Pepperoni Adventure!