Last Thursday, I had the honor and privilege of leading the Third annual “Gotham Pizza Crawl,” this time held in Forest Hills, Queens.  One of my favorite aspects of the crawls are that each one is unique, special and different!

I’m going to share what I learned, give you a few pizza facts and then ask you two pizza questions, as this Crawl was a memorable event!  Looking at the guest list, I knew this would be fabulous.

What I learned:

Both Joanne Klein and Vincent Russo currently sit at the top of the class of pizza students! 

Just by looking at the pictures on the wall, Joanne hit on the common theme of our first 2 stops, Gloria Pizza and Austin Street Pizza!  Both owners were originally in the family food distribution business supplying restaurants before pivoting to pizza.

You may have heard of, “Tuesdays with Morrie,” we had “Thursday Letters from Corey,” as Corey Bearak’s family owned a liquor store across the street from Gloria Pizza, our starting point, directly across from The Midway Movie Theatre on Queens Boulevard.

The Midway Movie Theatre (formerly the RKO Midway) was named after the “Battle of Midway!”

I must try Justin Napolitano’s pork tacos, touted and Proud as a Peacock!

David Abeshouse must be in Fred’s top 3 of “wheelmen!”   He also got the Super Utility player award as he tells great stories and was our sommelier (excellent red wines, a Chianti and Montepulciano)!

I like blogging better than writing magazine or newspaper columns!

A few pizza facts:  

Americans eat 350 slices per second!

America consumes 60% of the world’s pizza!

In Cambodia, some pizzerias offer “Happy Pizza,” which is pizza topped off with high quality marijuana!

My questions to Gothamites:

What type of pizza slice is your favorite?

Name your favorite pizzeria and why?