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Selling all 4,500 tickets in advance of the first Indianapolis Pizza Festival turned out to be a reasonable goal for organizer Tommy Barrett.
The festival, scheduled for Saturday on Monument Circle, was devised by online food critic Barrett as a “tangible event” for celebrating the quality of cuisine in the city. People love pizza—11% of Americans eat pizza daily, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture—and Barrett announced a sellout for Indianapolis Pizza Festival on Tuesday.
“It’s a day you can just go down to the Circle, enjoy yourself and not have to worry about anything other than trying to find the best pizza,” he said.
The festival’s mission is to determine the best pizza in Indiana by popular vote and the opinions of celebrity judges.
Saturday’s attendees can use their phones to access an online portal for voting. The roster of eight celebrity judges includes comedian Joey Mulinaro, YouTuber Young Mantis and Brooklyn-based pizza maker Frank Pinello.
“Every person’s opinion matters,” Barrett said. “If the celebrity judges and me—nine people—decided the festival, I don’t think that would be very fun. But what you think is the best and what I think is the best could be 100% different.”
About 30 vendors will participate in the festival planned for the southern half of Monument Circle. Attendees who purchased a $30 ticket can sample an unlimited amount of pizza, Barrett said.
Upland Brewing Co. made an official beer, a Vienna lager, for the festival.
Barrett said he contacted dozens of independent pizzerias with an invitation to participate.
“For them, I hope the risk of being a part of it is worth it in the end,” Barrett said. “With 4,500 people, maybe half and maybe more have never had your pizza. You may hear, ‘Oh my gosh, I can get that pizza ‘X’ amount of minutes from my house?’”
The lineup of pizza vendors includes Brooklyn Char, Byrne’s Grilled Pizza, Magoo’s Pizza, Puccini’s Pizza Pasta, Shin Dig and Zionsville Pizzeria.
Barrett concedes that every pizzeria on his wish list won’t be present from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday on Monument Circle.
“It’s hard to name the best pizza in Indiana when certain places aren’t there,” he said. “But some places, especially the smaller ones that don’t have a lot of staff, aren’t able to shut down for that long. I get that, logistically. I appreciate all the places that want to be a part of it.”
Barrett, an alum of Bishop Chatard High School and Purdue University, shares his opinions about central Indiana’s best tacos, best burgers and other foods in his “Starts with a Question” videos.
On his “Starts with a Question” profile at TikTok and Instagram, Barrett selected Ale Emporium as the spot for the best chicken wings and Goose the Market as No. 1 for sandwiches.
A percentage of the pizza festival’s proceeds will be donated to the United Way of Central Indiana. For more information, visit indypizzafest.com.
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Just stopped by to say Bazbeaux is super super overrated
I’ll help the process: Sam’s Square Pie.
Manhattan Pizza
So!, how did it go?