Phoenix Pizza Festival

We arrived shortly after 11 when it opened and were able to walk right up to many of the vendors and order! The lines were very short, if any, in the beginning. We knew that wouldn’t last long since the event was sold out.
About 99%of the vendors served Neapolitan style pizza. Some had very different toppings but it would be nice to see different styles of pizza in the future.
The best was the dolce diavo from La Piazza Al Forno! It had San Marzano tomatoes, House
Made Mozzarella, Sopressata, Calabrian Chiles, Basil and Honey
I’ll attend this event again in the future, but I’ll make sure to get there early again!

Not a bad first go around. I would like to see more of the valley’s heavyweights at this event (i.e. Cibo, Pomo, Bianco, etc) but a decent lineup for an inaugural event. Some of the names that were here are well known while others were clearly using this event as a springboard. The event certainly had room to grow on a number of fronts, but overall the first time was okay.
The inaugural Pizza fest was held at Civic Space Park downtown, which was an awesome setup in my opinion. Its right on the light rail, steps away from ASU’s downtown campus for all those hungry college kids, and spacious enough to accommodate all the vendors (both Pizza & otherwise) this first time around. I counted ten pizza vendors this first time as well as over a dozen vendors of other products including beer, wine, & other miscellaneous stuff. I got here at the 11am opening & was shocked to see so few people in line (especially given that this event sold out days before). It worked out great for me as I was able to hit up each station with little or no line (though it got a lot busier after Noon). There was live music in the main amphitheater stage as well as a kid zone & game area with corn hole stations, supersized versions of Connect Four, & even supersized Jenga. But this is a Pizza festival after all, & I came for pies.
The event was advertised as $ 2 slices per station, but that was not at all the case. Some stations offered $ 2 slices while others offered $ 4 sample whole pies, while others said whole pies only and on and on. Festival organizers might wanna get their pizza vendors on the same page next time. Additionally, it would be nicer to pay for pizza tokens or sample tickets in advance rather than everyone digging through their wallets for cash. Most of the vendors I saw had Square for credit card transactions, but not all of them. The event did a good job keeping ample ATMs on hand, but perhaps sell pizza ticket samples next year to sample all the pizza vendors. Just a thought.
Alright, to the the pizza. I was able to wolf down pieces of pizza from six of the vendors this go around. The vendors I went with this time: Focoso, Charred, Il Bosco, Fabio on Fire, Dough Mama, & Saffron Jak. I avoided pizza samples that had pepperoni &/​or mushrooms so that somewhat limited my sampling options in spots. Overall, I felt the pizza food trucks served up a better pie than the non-​food truck pizza vendors (probably because the food trucks are used to serving large crowds on the fly).
First, Focoso. The only $ 2 pizza sample they were doing here was their margherita. It was a normal medium sized slice & paper thin, but didn’t have nearly enough cheese for my liking. Next up, Charred. The were only offering 8″ mini pies for $ 7 so no cheaper samples here. That said, I got their Mr White pizza & was super impressed. Ricotta, mozzarella, pesto, basil, & roasted garlic. Fantastic pie. Next, Il Bosco. I’ve heard great things about their restaurant in Scottsdale so I was excited for this one. Unfortunately, the $ 2 margherita sample here was pretty average. Tasted slightly undercooked as the dough didn’t have that crunch I was looking for. Hopefully their restaurant will turn out to be more worthy of the hype. Next, Fabio on Fire’s $ 3 margherita slice. Slightly better than Il Bosco’s as the crust was cooked through & there were nice chunks of mozzarella. That said, the slice was almost room temperature so it may have been sitting there awhile. Next, Dough Mama’s $ 4 sample pesto mini pie. Mozzarella, tomato, pesto, garlic, basil, & a touch of parmesan. Great taste profile except for a woefully undercooked crust. The crust was super soft to the point where it was tough to separate the slices. Finally, I went with Saffron Jak’s $ 2 sample. A tiny mini pizza called the Full Monte. Jak’s stands out for a couple of reasons. For one, the Full Monte has pork, chicken, bacon,& mozzarella. The second was that their pizza bread is more like a flatbread (apparently a Persian twist on pizza). It was a tiny piece, but it was definitely loaded with meat. It was good, just a different twist.
I was stuffed when all was said and done. All together I spent $ 10 on admission and a little over $ 20 once I got there. I didn’t get any booze, but I did get a bottled water. I left after hanging out for a couple hours, but was allowed to re-​enter if I wanted to after my hand got stamped. Overall, a good start for this inaugural event and a great outdoor space to showcase it. The pizzas I had don’t quite stack up to the Pomos or the Biancos or Cibos of the world (at least not in my opinion). But I will say that I have a newfound respect for the valley’s pizza food truck scene. The food trucks shined over the pizza restaurants at this year’s festival and I’ll know which ones to look out for going forward. Looking forward to trying the event again next year & hope the big dogs in the valley pizza scene join the party.

Great weather, good location and good time of year to have a festival.
It was a bit unorganized at first, not enough communication with ticket sellers and some inconsistencies among prices and offerings by vendors causing a perceived quality and value disparity with the pizza samples, slices and whole pies. The lines were long shortly after opening at this sold out event, but that was to be expected with a popular food such as pizza.
There was some great pizza, some not so great, so some was fresh and tasty, some was piping hot, some was cold and old. It would be nice to have more places to sit and enjoy the band or the company of friends and libations while eating pizza, sipping beer and wine and having ice cream or shaved ice. However, there were many happy faces, and the outdoor games were a nice touch.
The festival had a good mix of vendors and it was not too bad for an inaugural event. Next year the kinks should be worked out and vendors will be better prepared. Overall a job well done, looking forward to next year.