Breadeaux Pizza wins again

For the second year in a row, Breadeaux Pizza took home the coveted pizza paddel and title of Pizza Wars winner Thursday.

Central Park was bustling Thursday evening as people strolled from booth to booth to sample all-you-can-eat pizza. Despite the original date being rained out Tuesday, all but one pizzeria in Mt. Pleasant was able to come out in full-force, armed with the classic pepperoni and sausage pizzas as well as some specialties like Hawaiian, BBQ chicken and chicken bacon Ranch.

As Breadeaux took home first place, they were followed closely behind by Paul Revere's Pizza in second and Jerry's in third.

Pizza Ranch General Manager Joshua Harrison was thrilled to be invited to the second Pizza Wars. While the premiere event last year only included downtown pizza joints, this year it was expanded to everyone who serves pizza in Mt. Pleasant.

Harrison, who is fairly new as the general manager, was using Pizza Wars as an opportunity to outreach not just Pizza Ranch, but himself as manager so the community knows who he is.

Harrison came prepared too, armed with 14 pizzas and 13 different varieties. He brought two pepperoni pizzas because it's everyone's favorite. Harrison said he brought pizzas that are often requested for the buffet by patrons and that he thinks he knows what people like.

'I do think we have the best pizza in town,” Harrison said as he served chicken broccoli Alfredo, buffalo chicken, Tuscan Roma and a Canadian bacon and pineapple he called 'sweet swine.” 'I wanted to set myself apart, and I can do all this on stuffed crust,” he said.

Two of Harrison's employees from Mt. Pleasant Community High School excitedly came up to where he was serving pizza. 'We do have a lot of different pizza joints in Mt. Pleasant,” Alee Goodwin said, adding she and Chloe Rice bought their tickets for all-you-can-eat pizza and immediately voted for Pizza Ranch before grabbing dinner.

Ken and Nancy Nelson sat serving Paul Revere's Pizza for their son, Nathan Quint, who owns Paul Reveres. Quint was working away at the restaurant across the street from Central Park making 45 pizzas, not only for Pizza Wars, but an additional 25 pizzas for a breakfast event and 75 pizzas for a business lunch Friday.

Paul Reveres was serving up their most popular dishes in the park, including a BLT pizza, chicken bacon Ranch and the classics of sausage and pepperoni.

'We think it's the best pizza in town,” Nancy said.

Chamber Ambassadors Melinda Huisinga and Karen Brimhall served up pizza from Jerry's Restaurant. Jerry's kept it simple, supplying the event with Canadian bacon, Canadian bacon pineapple, pepperoni and a couple unique dishes of the House pizza and Jerry's special.

'Pepperoni is the most popular,” Huisinga said. 'I've seen people take just a slice of pepperoni from all of them.”

Brimhall mentioned that Jerry's went through five pizzas in under half an hour.

Heather Trimble, of New London, inspected the crust of her pizza, discussing what she liked and didn't like with her son Joseph Carpenter.

'We started with the locals,” Trimble said as she held a plate with Jerry's and Papa George's Pizza.

While Trimble was planning on voting for Papa George's, Carpenter felt differently. His vote was going to Breadeaux.

Marjorie Beckman, with Breadeaux Pizza, was serving up pizza, defending their title of Community Favorite last year.

Breadeux baked the 'unique things that people haven't tried” in an effort to bring the heat to their competition. Their selections included Piggy Sticks, which is a cheese bread with bacon, chicken bacon ranch, and ham and pineapple pizza. Beckman said they hoped to win again, but would see at the end of the night.

Lisa Oetken, Main Street Director, said she would guess the turnout for Pizza Wars this year was even higher than last. Including the other pizzerias around town was helpful to take the burden off the downtown restaurants.

'I've seen people I haven't seen downtown before,” Oetken said. 'I'm just hoping we have enough pizza this year.”

Friday morning Oetken estimated over 362 individuals attended the event, which was part of Main Street Iowa's Restaurant Week.

Oetken said the event will be back in the square next year.