Redemption For Pugsley's Pizza: Let's Win The #OneBiteContest
5th Year and the viceroy program are running the #OneBiteContest bracket right now trying to find the best college pizza in the country. Fordham’s representative is Pugsley’s Pizza – the #1 seed in the North region. We’re into the Sweet 16 right now facing off against LOTSA Stone Fired Pizza from West Virginia. There is absolutely NO world in which pizza from West Virginia can be better than pizza from the Bronx. It’s just not possible.
As a Fordham alum, Pugsley’s is of course special to me. But I feel especially responsible for helping make them win this competition. To this day, one of my biggest regrets is low-balling Pugsley’s in my pizza review debut back in March of 2018.
The fateful day was Tuesday, March 14th 2018. It was the last semester of my senior year. I was a social media intern here at the time, still mostly going by Alarmingly Stupid but I was making progress. Little did I know that two days later, I’d be calling NCAA Tournament games with Dave and starting the whole good luck run.
I was hanging in my room that Tuesday afternoon preparing for my 1:30 class when word started to spread that Dave and Frankie were here doing a pizza review. I was getting texts from friends and DMs from random Fordham kids. I scoffed at them all. “There’s no way they’d come here and not tell me. They know how I go here. We have a good enough relationship at this point.” Well, I was wrong. I showed up to Pugsley’s mid-review to see Frankie filming Dave and Jon Taffer outside in the snow.
I enter around the 5:20 mark.
I have two regrets: no napkin and only giving it a 7.2.
That pie was way better than a 7.2. But I didn’t want to come off as a Fordham homer and I was basing it more on its usual slice than the slice that day. Regardless though, I should have given way higher. Pugsley’s is a Fordham institution. It’s dinner during the week and drunk food on the weekends. Get you a pizzeria that can do both.
Cold cheese slices, chicken rolls, penne vodka slices, full meals, and much more – Pugsley’s has it all. More than the pizza, it’s also the culture. Sal, Peter, and everyone else make it an environment like no other and everyone always feels like family. That’s why I felt so guilty only giving it a 7.2. When I walked in the next time, Peter behind the counter immediately said “Only a 7.2?!? Other places on Arthur?!?” I felt awful for betraying them.
So now I need to make up for it and will Pugsley’s to this victory. Past West Virginia and past any other challenges in its way. The Round of 16 ends today at 3 PM. The Round of 8 is Thursday-Friday. The Final Four is next Monday-Tuesday. And the championship is next Thursday-Friday.
Dave will visit the winner’s campus and KFC has said he’ll do a live show from there if Pugsley’s wins. There’s plenty on the line. We have two championships to bring back to the Bronx this month, and this is one of them.
Tweet #onebitepugsleys and #onebitecontest over and over and over and let’s win this thing.