With 24 Hours to Go in Round Two, A Look at the Dining Habits of Our Pizza-Lovin' Readers

With 24 Hours to Go in Round 2, A Look at the Dining Habits of Our Pizza-Lovin' Readers

Scott DeVoy Su | Oct 23, 2016 1:00 pm | Add a comment | 1366 reads

In a mere 24 hours the upper-crust in our pizza primaries will be set. Expect a mozzarella maelstrom, as half of the 32 establishments still in contention will move onto the Sweet Sixteen, while the other half will sadly see their pizza dreams crushed!

If you haven’t been keeping up with our 2016 Pizza Cup, fret not, as the Beijinger is here to help fill you in with cheese-laden commentary and a side of fresh statistics (garnered from the results of our opening round survey). But remember, the pizza polls close at exactly 2pm tomorrow (Oct. 24), so if you haven’t yet, please click here to cast your ballot.

Here’s a bracket-by-bracket rundown of all the deep-dish drama that’s unfolding:

Bracket A is very much the bracket of death in this year’s competition; it holds three Top 10 finishers from last year’s tournament, including two-time defending Pizza Cup champions Gung Ho!

Tiago Home Kitchen, very much the underdogs of the group, having snuck into the bracket as the 8th seed, faces a tall task against the reigning champs. Nevertheless, their showing is in itself a commendable feat; no doubt buoyed by their appearance at last weekend’s Pizza Fest, where they impressed with both gourmet truffle pizza and novelty pizza chuan’r.

Furthermore, the luck of the draw has pitted two of Beijing's most prominent square pizzas against one another -- Houhai's classic Hutong Pizza and Shunyi's Detroit-style Pie Squared.

Bracket B sees two classic bar pizzas fighting it out for a slot in the next round: The Tree, the Sanlitun stalwart that has been plying the pizza trade since at least some of you readers were still wearing split pants, takes on Ramo, a trendsetting (see their Pokémon-themed pizza), hipster-approved, Fangjia Hutong hangout.

The other intriguing Bracket B match-up sees Q Mex (a champion of our Pies for the People campaign) going up against Yummy Box, purveyors of pies that will satiate even the most hellbent of cheese cravings.

Bracket C pits a showdown of styles as pizza specialists Bottega faces against Fly Pizza, vanguards of Koreanized pies (it's actually becoming quite the craze). Also, Luga's Villa will see their thin and crispy, Neopolitan-style fare take on the home-cooking of Grandma's Kitchen. And lastly, Tim's Texas BBQ, and their southern hospitality (see their special brisket pizza) will battle against northern tastes (specifically New York-style) in Great Leap #45.

Bracket D may just be a resurrection of sorts for Kro's Nest (they remarkably snagged a one-seed despite finishing 33rd in last year's tournament); in order to progress, however, they need to surpass Beixinqiao favorites, and defenders of Romanized pies, Bocca Della Verita.

Also in Bracket D, fellow Roman-style dough slingers, Pizza View, goes up against juggernaut Pizza Express (or are they now to be referred to as Pizza Marzano?).

With thousands of votes cast in our opening round, the Beijinger is able to tabulate all that big data into bite-sized morsels, giving insight into our readers' dining habits. Here's what we discovered:

Your Lunch and Dinner Habits: How often to do you dine out (or order in) each week?
Collectively, our readers lunched out 3.3 times per week and dined out 3.4 times per week. Given the average month is 4.33 weeks, that's roughly 29 times a month!

Your Pizza Habits: In a typical week, how many times do you order pizza (for eat in or delivery) at Beijing restaurants?
Our average voter is chowing down on pizza 1.6 times a week, or 7 times a month. If these stats are to be believed, our pizza-loving voters order pizza for a little less than one out of every four takeout meals That's 84 pizzas a year. Sound like your habits?

Your Pizza Habits: How many different pizza brands have you tried in Beijing?
Our average voter has tried six different brands of pizza, while 35 percent are familiar with seven or more.