All Over Albany

TOP 2010: Round 2: Troy

The second round of the 2010 Tournament of Pizza, sponsored by Sunmark Federal Credit Union, moves on to Troy. And we have clash of titans here:

DeFazio's vs. I Love

First, how we got here: DeFazio's topped Giuseppe's 75-54 and I Love moved past Pop's 72-30.

So, two shops put up very solid scores in the first round. Can they do it again?

Pizza, please. We head back to EMPAC for the tasting...

A quick note about how all this works: The four judges -- Renee, Albany Jane, Joe and Daniel B -- taste the pizza blind. That is, they don't know which pizza they're tasting during judging. They taste the competitors side by side. The scoring is on a 100 point scale -- each judge represents a quarter of those possible points.

DeFazio's vs. I Love

Post game:

This was impressive display by DeFazio's, which posted the second highest score on the 100 point TOP scale. The judges praised the "airy, pillowy goodness" of the "charred" crust. They loved the "bright" sauce with herb flavors that one judge called "so freaking good." And DeFazio's sausage -- which was a combo of hot and mild -- made a mark on the judges. They called the sausage "meaty" and liked the "good heat" the hot sausage brought. One judge gave DeFazio's a 24 -- a near perfect score.

I Love turned in solid effort -- it just wasn't enough. The judges actually preferred its crust by a slim margin. But it took a hit in the sauce category -- the judges said the sauce was too sweet. And I Love's sliced sausage didn't work for everyone on the panel. Two of the judges liked it, calling it "rich and fatty" -- but it didn't work for the other two. Still, I Love scored narrowed victories on two judges' cards. It just wasn't enough.

Up next

So DeFazio's heads into the round of four with a boom. The south Troy favorite is cruising right now. It will face Nunzio's, out of Saratoga, in the semi-finals.

Tomorrow: the Tournament of Pizza wraps up Round 2 in Albany.

Many thanks again to the ever-impressive EMPAC for providing us space to taste pizza. Even the conference rooms there are nice.

Earlier:
+ Results from Round 2 in the Schenectady bracket
+ Results from Round 2 in the Saratoga bracket
+ Steve's picks for Round 2
+ Results from Round 1 in the Albany bracket
+ Results from Round 1 in the Troy bracket
+ Results from Round 1 in the Schenectady bracket
+ Results from Round 1 in the Saratoga bracket

The 2010 Tournament of Pizza is sponsored by Sunmark Federal Credit Union, which now offers banking from mobile devices. They even have an app for iPhones and Android phones.