Anyone can win a title. True champions repeat.
Grandma Tony’s will have a 16-inch, tomato-sauce-stained target on its back starting this week, when Pizza Madness comes back for seconds. The restaurant cut down the string-cheese nets last time, edging out Zona 78, Frog & Firkin and Rocco’s for the title of Southern Arizona’s best.
Repeating as Southern Arizona’s cham-pie-on will be tough. Pizza joints have popped up like mushrooms since Grandma Tony’s took our first contest. Pizzeria Bianco, considered one of the best pies in America, opened downtown this summer. Serial Grillers has gone from food truck to brick-and-mortar business, while Reilly Craft Pizza — a mortuary-turned-pizzeria — has established an identity: dinners to die for.
Dominick’s Real Italian and BZ’s pizza have rolled into our bracket, their cheeses mild and pizza cutters sharp, with hopes of taking down the champs. This year’s tournament features 32 restaurants, some of whom have names — Rocco’s, Renee’s, Grimaldi’s, Mario’s, Mama’s and even Schlomo and Vito’s — that are already practically a part of Tucson’s food family. There are Two Girls in the mix, and other numbers — Zona 78 and 1702 — all vying to be No. 1.
By now, you know how to vote: Go to tucson.com/mobilemadness and log in with Facebook. One vote per person please.
As for pizzas, feel free to try ‘em all.
