Forno Runs Away with Pizza Cup Bracket B Championship, Moves on to Finals
Forno, the Roman-style by-the-slice pizzeria that's called Beijing home for over a year, ran away with the title of Best of Bracket B yesterday in Pizza Cup Taste-Off action.
Despite facing stiff competition from two former champions and an international chain juggernaut, Forno garnered 56 of the 104 votes, more than double the total ballots of ’19 champ Pizza Saporita (21 votes) and Pizza Cup three-peater Gung Ho (20 votes). Papa John’s, the only international chain to make it into the Sweet 16, brought up the rear with a mere 7 ballots.
Yesterday’s winner wowed the crowd by serving their new La Regina pie, a Roman-style flatbread pizza topped with sauce, mozzarella, arugula, tomatoes and Italian ham.
It’s a rapid rise to the top for Forno, given they’re less than two years old. Last year they were the highest ranking newbie in the Pizza Cup, landing at #10. With an entry into the Final Five (last week’s taste-off resulted in a tie), they’re already guaranteed to best their '20 finish.
Forno is now lined up to meet Tube Station, Pie Squared and two more as-of-yet-to-be-determined contestants in the finals Saturday, Dec 18. Those matches will be decided in the next two consecutive Saturdays.
Tickets are now on sale for the finals in each of the two remaining brackets:
Bracket C Taste-Off – Saturday, Dec 4
Annie's安妮意大利餐厅
Q Mex Bar & Grill库迈墨西哥餐吧
La Pizza那匹萨
The Local
Bracket D Taste-Off – Saturday, Dec 11
Great Leap Brewing大跃啤酒
Jing-A Brewing Co.京A
Pizza Show披萨秀
Pyro Pizza火鬼餐吧
Tickets for the finals are not yet on sale -- but attendees from the previous rounds will get first stab at tickets to the finals. Given we’re limited to a maximum of about 36 tables, you best act fast by scanning the QR code with WeChat below and purchase one of them:
Meanwhile, more on Bracket B: Georgia’s Feast once again played host for 100 tasters sampling pies from all four contestants, along with beer from sponsor Brooklyn Brewery.
Aside from offering up their taste buds for ranking the four Bracket B finalists, guests participated in the Pizza Pentathlon: a set of five Olympic-themed table games, with gold, silver and bronze medals offered for the top teams in each contest.
The team representing Laos dominated the field, taking home gold in our Pizza Pentathlon, which is given to the team with the most overall points from each of the five disciplines – in the process scoring gold as well in Curling, Lace the Skate, and Pizza Trivia.
The winners in each individual discipline in our Pizza Pentathlon were:
AIR HOCKEY
Gold: Cambodia
Silver: Korea (South)
Bronze: Mexico
4th Place: United Kingdom
TABLETOP CURLING
Gold: Laos
Silver: Norway
Bronze: Syria
4th Place: Denmark
BING DWEN DWEN TOSS
Gold: China
Silver: Georgia
Bronze: Belgium
SKATE LACE
Gold: Laos
Silver: Mongolia
Bronze: United Kingdom
PIZZA TRIVIA
Gold: Laos
Silver: Canada
Bronze: United Kingdom
Bronze: Puerto Rico
PIZZA PENTATHLON (FINAL POINTS):
1 (Gold) Laos (33 points) -- Gold
2 United Kingdom (22 points) -- Silver
3 Mongolia (17 points) -- Bronze
4 Belgium (13 points)
4 Denmark (13 points)
4 South Korea (13 points)
5 China (12 points)
Scroll down for more pics of yesterday's action:
Images: Uni You
