Whether it’s the $1 slices that keep us upright during a Lower East Side bar crawl, the deliciously puffy Detroit-style squares at Emily or the Marta’s thin-crust Roman pies, New Yorkers love every kind of pizza. So people were never going to give up on the idea of a New York Pizza Festival — and it looks like the right organizers are making it happen this time.
The new, official, for-real-this-time New York Pizza Festival promises to bring together all five boroughs of pies on Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 6-7, at a location “in the Little Italy of the Bronx.” What’s on the menu? Some of the biggest names on the city’s pizza scene, but also top pizzerias from Connecticut and Chicago to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and even a handful from Naples, Italy. Think of this as the pizza version of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party.
The pizzerias were chosen by Pizza Today Magazine’s Peter Lachappelle, who’s also behind the largest pizza-centric industry convention the International Pizza Expo, and New York’s ultimate pizza expert Scott Weiner of Scott’s Pizza Tours, who organizes the annual Slice Out Hunger charity fundraiser with $1 pies from over 60 of the city’s best shops.
Locally, participants include Staten Island legend Denino’s, Williamsburg Pizza led by 2016’s international pizzaioli of the year Nino Coniglio, Lower Manhattan’s Keste Pizza & Vino, Bronx destination Zero Otto Nove and Neapolitan pizza reinventors Levante in Long Island City.
The full plans will be unveiled at a press event (yes, with pizza tasting) on June 27, which will also include an appearance by Italian Consul General Francesco Genuardi. We’ll update with more details then.
We know you’re still smarting from last fall’s failed New York City Pizza Festival. For what it’s worth, organizer Ishmael Osekre told Gothamist shortly after the fiasco that he is out of the pizza festival business. He was also behind the only somewhat less problematic African Food Festival in August 2016.
Want to be sure the next event you get excited about is legit? Check out our guide on how to figure out if your dream festival is the real deal before you show up to an empty parking lot.
The New York Pizza Festival isn’t the only round carb-related event coming to the city this fall: the Museum of Pizza, with its immersive art exhibits and even a pizza beach, is set to open Oct. 13-28.
