Nothing starts the weekend like 12 different boxes of pizza from places around Troy and Watervliet. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, the Polytechnic staff congregated together to sample the taste from each of the 12 places that delivered large cheese pizzas to a specific location. With chips, soda, and rating papers at the ready, 14 hungry members of the staff took bite after bite of tasty—or not-so-tasty—cheese.
Every year, The Poly conducts its annual pizza poll, where various pizzerias are contacted to deliver a large box of cheese pizza. Each participating member would sample a slice and rate the pizzerias accordingly. Though staff members gradually dwindled by the 12th order, it was clear which places people liked and which of them they could have done without.
As far as ratings go, slices were ranked 1–10—with 10 being the best—according to the quality of the crust, the amount of cheese added, the flavors in the sauce, the temperature of the slice (whether the pizza was cold or not upon arrival), the taste, and the overall looks of the pizza before consumption. An overall rating was also calculated for each of the pizzerias.
According to the ratings calculated at the end, De Fazio’s Wood-Fired Pizza by far outshone the likes of usual favorite Big Apple Pizza with an overall score of 8.00. Not only did De Fazio take the overall rating, the venue also dominated with respect to its crust (7.14), cheese (8.21), sauce (8.00), taste (8.04), and looks (8.86). Big Apple Pizza managed to one-up De Fazio’s, however, on temperature (with a 7.95). Granted, it took 32 minutes longer for De Fazio’s order to arrive than it did for Big Apple, and at almost an hour De Fazio’s was still relatively warm.
Most of the pizza places charged around the same price for a large cheese, with the exception of Pizza Hut, which cost about $2.16 per slice—a big difference to Chris’ and Gino’s Pizzerias, which charge around $0.99 a slice. Pizza Hut was also one of the longest to deliver, with over an hour until its arrival. Rustey’s Pizzeria took the longest with 75 minutes; however, it needs to be noted that it might have been a shorter delivery had there been no misconceptions on the address.
The lowest-rated pizza was from Chris’ Pizza (4.09), since there were “odd spices” added to the cheese. Surprisingly, Pizza Hut was also counted among the lowest-rated, with it being third at the bottom (4.82). For something so expensive, one would think that it would have better ratings than what were given.
Pizza places contacted were Chris’ Pizza, Hoosick Pizza, Pizza Hut, Rustey’s Pizzeria, Dante’s Pizzeria, I Love New York Pizza (Downtown), Notty Pine, I Love New York Pizza (Hoosick), Gino’s Pizzeria, Red Front Restaurant, Big Apple Pizza, and De Fazio’s Wood-Fired Pizza. Compared to last year, there were two fewer pizza places sampled; however, this was mostly due to bloated stomachs and the loud pleas for no more cheese.
