Mimi’s Pizza has won the 2017 Best Pizza Around contest tonight, hosted by the Roselle Park Knights of Columbus Msgr. Loreti Council #3240.
The local pizzeria beat out seven other participants. This year had ‘blind tasting’ where each pizzeria was assigned a random number and none of the judges – the over 200 people who took part – knew which number corresponded to which establishment.
After all the votes were tallied, Bryan Peterson, the evening’s emcee who sported a “Vote For Pizza” shirt, revealed which number each pizza place was:
- Padonno’s Pizzeria, Union Township (link)
- Pizza Stop, Kenilworth (link)
- Valentino’s, Roselle Park (link)
- Pompeii Pizzeria & Restaurant, Roselle Park (link)
- Costa’s Restaurant & Pizzeria, Roselle Park (link)
- Little Caesars, Roselle Park (link)
- Mimi’s Pizza, Roselle Park (link)
- Fresca Pizza, Roselle Park (link)
During the evening, people could be seen those judging the event with the importance of wine tasting. They took sips of water between each slice; some wrote notes about the crust, the sauce, the cheese, or the overall experience of each entry. Then they looked over the voting ballot, made their choice, and then walked it up to the vote box.
In the end, the top three vote-getters were announced. In addition to Mimi’s getting the most votes, Fresca took third place and Pizza Stop came in with the second-most number of votes.
“I have to say the voting looked very different,” said the evening’s emcee about the new voting system in comparison to previous years, “It was much more spread out among the pizza places when you didn’t know the names.”
When the winner was announced, the room’s applause confirmed Bryan Peterson’s closing words, “Thank you, everybody, for coming out. It was a great night [and] a wonderful competition.”
Any leftover pizzas were delivered to the Roselle Park Police Department.