Ask a Pittsburgher where the best pizza in the city is and you’re bound to get a different answer depending on which pie lover you ask.
For anyone looking to make an informed decision, more than a dozen pizza shops will come together May 14 for the second Steel City Pizza Fest in Lawrenceville.
Restaurants will be represented from Millvale, Bloomfield, Garfield and Lawrenceville – including Caliente Pizza, which was declared best in the world at "the Super Bowl of pizza."
“A lot of the shops make smaller slices at less price or they make their regular slice. Some places sell whole pies,” said event organizer Michael Devine. “Last year, we sold 100 pizzas an hour and three shops ran out of dough. It was pretty amazing.”
Garfield’s Spak Brothers will host a pizza-eating contest each hour. And Lawrenceville-based Hambones, which isn’t actually a dedicated pizza shop, will make specialty pies featuring its pulled pork and mac and cheese.
The event is part of Spring It On, a huge vendor event hosted by the Second Shift Crafters, featuring goods such as screen prints, artisan soap and jewelry, as well as live music.
Devine is also a screen printer and creates T-shirts for a number of local events. He said he can always tell how successful an event was by the number of shirts he sells and based on last year, this pizza fest should be popular.
“Last year I actually had to sell the shirt that I was wearing,” he said. “We sold out of everything. People were just buying any size that was available just to have a shirt for the event.”
