National Restaurant Association

In early May, Chicago hosted the NRA show.  Nothing to do with guns, this is the National Restaurant Association show and it is one of the most enjoyable trade shows to attend, even if you have nothing to do with the industry.   I remember being fresh out of college, around 21 or 22 years old and never missing this show for years.  All the free, good tasting food you can handle, in addition to plenty of alcohol flowing.  It is after all in Chicago where food and booze are top priorities!  Sadly this year I was not able to attend, I was working one of the craziest weekends Chicago Pizza Tours experienced this year.  It was great though, because so many industry professionals that were in town for the show, took the time to take a pizza tour while they were in town.

Had a blast giving back to back to back to back to… tours.  You get the idea, but in there I had the chance to enjoy some really good pizza with a lot of really great pizza professionals.  Special thanks to Liz & Tracy from PMQ Pizza Magazine for spending a day on dough force one with me and then heading out to Lincoln Park on a special pizza trip to visit Pizzeria Da Nella Cucina Napoletana as it had only been open for about a week.  Good times were had.

I also want to personally thank Joe from Amadio’s World Famous Pizza in Ontario for taking the tour with Pizza Today writer Scott Anthony on Monday during a busy show.  They broke free from the show to devour tons of pizza and I am pretty sure Joe could have gone for 4 more stops.

Later that Monday night, John Arena of Metro Pizza called and extended an invitation to my family and I to head to Spacca Napoli for a private dinner in which John & Jonathan would be doing the cooking.  An amazing time to talk with many of the pizza industry professionals and the food was nothing short of amazing.  I also was the benefactor of hearing one of the funniest stories Pete LaChapelle the President of Pizza Today shared with me about his first experience with Chicago thin crust and the “square” cut.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am so grateful to work in the pizza industry with some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

Pics below are from the dinner Monday night at Spacca Napoli in which both John Arena, and Jonathan Goldsmith made pizza together, and then there’s my son doing what he does best… invading the kitchen and acting like he owns the place!

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