Get ready for plenty of debate, discussion, and passion to be placed on the table in the form of some Pizza. That’s what we expect as the Greater Des Moines Pizza Tournament prepares to announce their final 32 selections & seedings in two nights for “Selection Sunday”.
With the idea of GDMPT hatching just this week, the group is backed by a simple concept that has contagiously taken off in popularity since being announced Wednesday. By placing 32 local restaurants into a bracket format and four divisions of the Des Moines metro (North-east, NW, SE, SW), the search will start to find this city’s #1 option. They will now set out to bring some serious heat from the 32 kitchens who will be throwing down their best stuff as survival will depend upon it.
In addition to the bracket set-up, what could be another thing simple about this? That would be the ingredients themselves. Just ask GDMPT’s newest supporter, local top Chef George Formaro, who has been announced today as the Honorary Grand Marshall for the event:
“The fact that you take a pile of ingredients that are often times not that special on their own, and transform them into something as beautiful as the pizza in a matter of moments, is almost magical. The aromas bring back memories from our childhood and innovative creations make new ones for our future.”
Besides the glory of a local kitchen advancing and the potential of upsets (could a #8 seed really knock out a #1 pizza powerhouse?), I’ve found one other potential accomplishment of this. As I follow the tourney, I’ll try to use it to find myself a taste to my liking. In four years of living in Des Moines, this has not happened yet and nothing has come close to matching the many great pizzas I grew up with in Buffalo.
Would I be wrong to hold such strong opinions on the pizza I love -versus- the pizza Des Moines loves? According to Formaro himself, he says:
“People all over the country could make an argument that their favorite pizza is the best, and here is the best part: THERE IS NO WRONG ANSWER!”
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Can’t wait to taste the results! I ate at Gusto today with a friend and we really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation.
No problem Caron, I have a feeling Gusto will be on the Final 32. Checked out your own blog, good luck with your Eat-down!
Who will be doing the voting? I am higher than a pizza aficionado. I would call myself a pizza connesuouir. Also, if I actually make it as a judge, do I have to buy a slice, or is it discount? I’ve judged salsa tournaments before, so I’m slightly familiar with what is supposed to be done. I’m super cereal you guys!
Great to hear your enthusiasm Rob. I believe the judges have been announced on their webpage http://gdmpizzatourney.posterous.com/ However, you can always check back with them and they have options on their posts to comment back direct to their website.
Thanks a lot. I only found the Facebook and no other sites.
Its unfortunate the way these restraunts were picked, most of them werent even aware of the tourny. Think there should have been a different way of getting nominees. So quite a few wont be involved, that rightfully should be. So I believe it wont be a fair representation of the Quality pizza around, not to say most of them on there are great places. And i do stress most. Some shouldnt be.
I know the guys worked hard to set this up on short notice. There’s always room for growth, maybe they could do a future Tourney with 64 restaurants to include more of the ones you mentioned were left out!
Scott – I hear you. But, I believe the restaurants were picked via recommendations from fans of certain restaurants. At least that is the way I recall it happening, I know they Tweeted about it for some time. I think it might be more a representation that the restaurants not picked were not privy to the contest or on social media platforms to hear about it, which I realize is partly your point. I would implore those restaurants, or their fans, to get on social media sites to avoid any issues going forward.
Plus, I happen to assume a few of the restaurants you are speaking about and agree they should have been involved as they have great pie!
Scott – We had no idea the tournament would take off the way it did. This started three weeks ago from one tweet. A few hours later we wanted to know if any of our Twitter followers would be interested in a pizza tournament and which places they like. We had over 60 different places on the original list. The list was narrowed down to the top 32 votes (tweets). You will see improvements in the future.
Tsk! Tsk! No Encore Pizza Co. in Johnston? There have been odes composed to the pizza crafted there. In fact, it’s so good, folks as far away as foodie capitol USA (a.k.a. Portland, OR) rave about how unique their take is on the pepperoni/jalapeno staple of the Southwest. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Portlandiers know 4 things: rain, weird, bikes and food and the fact that I don’t have Encore to root for is nothing short of heartbreaking. Makes my bike ride home in rain even more disagreeable than usual…..
Allow me to add that I’d be more than willing to give the Alamo back to Mexico solely for their contribution to the sordidly tasteful affair.
Eric, the Pizza joints were chosen by recommendations so not all places were considered, sadly.
Eric – Anyone that loses in the first round will have to sit out of next years tournament. Encore Pizza Co. will be on the list next year for sure.
Just wanted to give you guys a quick rundown on how the pizza places were selected. We took nominations on facebook and Twitter, as well as just asking random people. When it was said and done we had almost 70 spots nominated and nobody made the field of 32 without at least 9 nominations. The judges then had the final choice on the last 8 or so in.
Sure, there were slot of great spots that didn’t make it in, including a personal face of mine, but popularity plays a large part in this contest from start to finish. There will also be a chance for 16 new spots to join the field next year as all first round losers have to sit out a year…
If anyone ever has any questions, feel free to contact us. We look forward to seeing you all at our events!
Mark
mark@gdmpt.us
While everyone has their favorite restaurant what we are trying to do is break your normal habits. Des Moines has so much to offer and the number of places that offer pizza is just a small sample. We highlighting places everyone is familiar with or wanted to try. When we started working on this list I thought to myself “I haven’t tried these places before?”
We hope everyone will join us this Sunday at El Chesieme for the first stop from 2-7. Stop in try one of their pizzas and help us judge!
Thanks for clarifying the selections guys, I can tell a lot of our readers look forward to seeing some of the new pizza places featured next year. Best of luck getting things kicked off Sunday!