I had an amazing time at One Bite Pizza Fest held at Randall’s Island Park this past Saturday–not only was I able to try Pizza places from out of state I normally never would’ve gotten to visit, but I also met up with fellow pizza fanatics from all over the country. Letter the man behind one bite pizza fest is comedian and entrepreneur Dave Portnoy; he was on hand to meet and greet the large pack of pizza fanatics and I was lucky enough to meet with him in the VIP area. He seemed impressed that I was able to eat 16 slices at Pizza Fest before it was even halfway done. I admit that they were about 1/4 of the size of normal slices but that it still is quite a feat.
This year’s presenting partners included BILT, Pepsi, Saputo, Ninja, Hulu, High Noon, Marie’s Salad Dressings, Ferrero Foods, Marra Fornia, PHX Hydration Energy, Verizon, Delicato Family Wines, Sobellini Pizza Crunch (which I actually put on my slices at the event), ’47 and Flatiron Pepper Co. Many of these well-known names sponsored entire areas of the festival including the Italian dessert village featuring the legendary mini cannolis of Ferrara’s Bakery in Little Italy and an area of legendary NYC pizzerias including Di Fara (which just might be my favorite pizzeria of all time, especially the location in Midwood). I loved that there was an Italian ice cart from Sweetwater New York Ice Co. in the center of the Italian dessert village. Nothing is like a good old lemon ice on a hot NYC summer day.
The “extra VIP” area featured a long table of 50 ticket holders who got whole pizzas brought to the table by waitstaff and got to schmooze up close and personal with Dave Portnoy, the hero of the event. The regular VIP area featured some very special booths not available to the general festival ticket holder including a booth featuring three flavors of Eileen’s Special Cheesecake (blueberry, plain and salted caramel), and one celebrating and serving Francis Coppola of wines. (The Coppolas gave out fabulous logo T-shirts, by the way). The VIP area was the most shaded section of Pizza Fest, making it highly desirable place to just sit down and have a slice of pizza and a wine.
Speaking of Eileen’s Special Cheesecake in the VIP area, guests just could not get enough of these little four inch mini cheesecakes. I think that I ate six! If you want to try Eileen’s for yourself, they are now celebrating 50 years at 17 Cleveland Place in Noho. You can also visit the Eileen’s booth at the Feast Of San Gennaro until it ends on Sunday, September 21st and order their full size cheesecakes on their site, eileenscheesecake.com.
The One Bite Pizza Fest sells out every year and this year was the first time that I attended. I was so happy to be able to see the gang from Prince Street Pizza (that’s their booth pictured above) and get one of their pepperoni grandma squares. I then trekked over to Modern Apizza of New Haven, Connecticut’s booth. I will be catching up with Modern Apizza again when I take the Connecticut Pizza tour at the beginning of next month. I wonder if they could handle me asking so many questions about their legendary pies again, LOL! I was also so happy to finally try Ceres’ Pizza, one of the most prestigious pizza places in all of Manhattan. I was pleasantly surprised that it lived up to the hype; I had a slice of their simple margarita pizza which had the thinnest crust I’ve ever encountered but I loved the level of crispiness.
I look forward to going back to One Bite Pizza Fest next year. Not only were the pizzas phenomenal but I was so thrilled to encounter four or five great pasta stands (my favorite pasta being the spirals with extra spicy arrabiata sauce at the Lucali stand), and the aforementioned Italian dessert village. I was thrilled to be able to bring home a bag of classic Italian cookies from Sal & Jerry’s Bakery of West Babylon including the world-famous S cookie, which was popularized in the mainstream by Stella D’Oro back in the early 60s.
I left feeling full and happy, but I lost my nerve about asking Dave Portnoy why his YouTube channel is called One Bite Pizza when he always takes at least seven bites before reviewing, LOL! For more information, go to onebitepizzafest.com. I hope that this ultimate fest for authentic pizza lovers comes to other cities around the US in the I hope that it comes to other cities around the US in the future!
(Top and bottom photos courtesy of Alive for Medium Rare.)
