&TOUR Bus Tour

Came from a bachelor party in NY the night before and felt so so so so so hung over that I thought I wasn’t gonna go, but holy crap this bus made me feel so much better. Not only did I drink so much beer and wine, but I tried so many pizzas I would have never have imagined to order at &pizza. Also it was so cool hearing about the history and inspiration of the four locations we went to.
Huge Kudos to the &pizza team — SAM and founder Michael Astoria and the wonderful CM Kim for a great pizza tour. Best highlights were the personalized gifts In the end and beer chugging on the bus. The old school bus made it 10 000 times better and just so happy I got the opportunity to go. Well done &pizza well done!

Really cool event made even sweeter by the free coupon for the summer-​only bacon cheeseburger pizza (which I cashed in on yesterday!) Thoroughly enjoyed learning so many facts about the business and its origins, and in particular learning about how they sourced the photos in my own neighborhood shop — the original H&pizza.
The bus &tour is a great way to get the word out to social media personalities and I must say I was thrilled to be selected to represent the DC Unilocal community for the event. I hadn’t realized how many shops had opened during my out-​of-​country hiatus so it was a great way to hit up new locations.
The only considerations I’d mention for future &tours is that I noticed a marked difference in the pizzas they gave us versus what you purchase on any random day. Maybe that’s just a note for myself to ask the pizza makers to add more of every meat to my Maverick the next time I go in. And, it’s awesome that they let us sample the homemade &pizza wines and beers… but probably a better idea for the belly to serve wine before beer. ;-)

What a fantastic tour! I cannot thank the entire &pizza team enough, including Sam, our leader, and Michael, the founder. We got a fabulous inside look at &pizza and learned about its history, which was great.
I’ve been an &pizza fan since 2012, when the original h&pizza opened. It started as a way to get sober after partying, but it slowly became a favorite even when I hadn’t been drinking.
We visited four locations on the tour: H Street, Brookland, K Street, and Dupont. We tried something different at each location. My favorite stops were Brookland and K Street. At Brookland, because we got pair different pizzas with different beers from DC Brau, and some of the DC Brau team were on hand to explain. And at K Street, we paired the dessert pizzas (which I love), with the proprietary &pizza wine, which was good. We also got to try the &pizza beer in Dupont, and I’m a fan of the pilsner.
The generosity shown by &pizza was much appreciated, and the energy on the tour was amazing. I am quite grateful, and couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Thank you again.

I was ECSTATIC that I was invited and was able to join the &TOUR with &pizza!!! This is the first of its kind, and an idea that this local business wanted to test out. The purpose was to visit several &pizza locations (4 in DC, including the very first one on H Street!), hear from the Founder/​CEO himself, Michael Lastoria, and sample various bites and drink pairings. We all met up at the the Senate parking lot, a block away from Union Station, where we checked-​in with Sam, got acquainted with the rest of the attendees, and hopped on the big yellow school bus to be whisked around. We visited the first &pizza location on H Street, and tried the seasonal Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza — maaaan, this automatically became one of my favorite foods!!! That ramesco sauce — so addicting! Lastoria talked about the inception/​conception of &pizza, the history of it (how it was thunk up in East Chelsea), making DC its homebase, and its proud relationship with the community. The artwork in each of the locations are of/​by/​for the locals, which I thought was pretty neat! DC Brau had several type of craft beer samplings, red and white wine from &pizza, as well as the new &pizza beer (that had a slight sweetness to it). All the pours were quite generous, and the samplings of the pizza were plentiful (such as the Farmer’s Daughter, Moonstruck, the Maverick, and, even the Lori Lane!). Each attendee even received a small parting gift, an &pizza beer glass with a sweet handwritten ‘Thank You’ note: D All the staff at each location were so friendly and really made sure that we all had plenty of bites to eat and drink! It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday, learning all about &pizza with fellow pizza lovers: D
+Founder/​CEO Michael Lastoria: D
+Sam :D
+Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza (seasonal) :D
+H Street, the original location!
+visited 4 &pizza locations total in DC
+samplings of pizza, wine & beer
+started out in East Chelsea