Godfather’s Pizza reigns supreme at Pizza Wars

A new pizza champion has been crowned following the 2019 Pizza Wars. Godfather's Pizza, which is sold at the local Pep Stop, took the prize this year after over 500 people showed up for the event, devouring close to 170 pizzas on Tuesday night. The annual Main Street event, organized by the Mt. Pleasant Chamber Alliance, invites local pizza shops to participate in some friendly competition and allows people to sample as many pizzas as their stomachs can handle and cast a vote for their favorite.

Pizza lovers, old and young, came out for the event to sample pizzas. 86-year-old Rosemary Burden, a Mt. Pleasant resident, said her favorite part of Pizza Wars was that she doesn't 'have to clean up” for dinner. In addition to the fact that she loves pizza, the event provides an opportunity for her to get out of the house.

'I figured it'd be a good supper for tonight, and I don't have to do any dishes … I enjoy pizza and seeing other people that I know,” Burden said.

Like Rosemary, Parker Thannert, a toddler from New London, could not get enough pizza as he nabbed his mother's piece after finishing his own. Along with his mother, Parker attended the event with his older sister and father.

'We're really impressed by the crowd. There's a lot of people out here,” Parker's mother, Kelly, said. Kelly noted that the family, who often eat pizza for family meals, found out about the event through the Chamber.

Justina Frazier, the general manager at Pizza Ranch, said the amount of people that showed up was larger than she expected.

'They said they only went through 15 pizzas last year. We brought 15 but we're already done. We're waiting for the next shipment,” Frazier said. Many of the pizza shops were through with their first batches within half an hour of Pizza Wars beginning.

'It's really about the community and getting to see people, show them what sort of pizzas we have,” Frazier added, explaining why Pizza Ranch continues to show up for the competition.

Jeff Fedler, co-owner of Pep Stop and Godfather's Pizza, noted that it was fun to see the community come out and for a chance to interact with regulars outside of the shop.

Like Pizza Ranch, Fedler had underestimated how many pizzas his shop would be serving. Feddler said his shop focused on making their most popular and most ordered pizzas for Pizza Wars, which included several specialty pizzas and a breakfast pizza.

'We made 25 with a plan to serve 5 every half and hour, but that obviously is too little,” he noted, when five pizza were gone a little too quickly.

Similarly, CJ Lord, the new general manager at Pizza Hut, said he was excited to participate in for the first time.

'It's a really great environment for people and it's great for all of the local pizza businesses,” Lord said.

'We get to see people and it's not just in a restaurant environment, speak face-to-face.”

Dale and Marjorie Beckman from Breadeaux Pizzas, have participated every year since the inception of the event and have taken the title of fan favorite the last two years. Dale noted that the event was great for a small town like Mt. Pleasant, especially because of its collective love for pizza.

'It gives everyone a chance to mingle. Some people haven't seen each other for a long time so it's just a nice social event for people to get out to, especially when the weather is this beautiful.”