I went to high school in Gig Harbor just across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  It’s a beautiful little town but it can be really boring when you’re a 16 year-old vegan, punk rock, know-it-all.  Luckily for me and my friends, the Vera Project was a car ride away.

The Vera Project has changed venues since then, and is now located on Warren Ave N. and Republican in Seattle Center.  Many Seattleites have heard of Vera because a number of mainstream bands have played there as well as our some of our friends and neighbors.  But for those of you who don’t know let me introduce you to Seattle’s longest running all-ages club.

Picture a place where young people can help create a welcoming and exciting place for their peers through volunteer work. A place where they can express themselves through music and art. Oh and by the way, this place is a non-profit, alcohol-free and smoke-free environment. It may seem like every parent’s dream, but it’s also many teenager’s dream! In all seriousness though, the Vera Project is an awesome venue where rock and roll transcends age and engages the community of Seattle and beyond.

The Pagliacci community is one in particular that has embraced the Vera Projects’ ability to put on a great event. When we first set out to hold our Battle of the Bands competition four years ago, we were in over our heads. Lucky for us, Garrett Lunceford, a past crew member at Queen Anne Pizzeria and guitarist for the band formerly known as The Divorce, recommended that we work with Vera Project to get the job done.  Since then Pagliacci has pledged to donate all of the Battle of the Band’s proceeds to Vera Project in an effort to support the goodwill that they promote in our community and the young talents that they inspire.

Check out their website to get a list of up and coming shows, bands and events!

http://www.theveraproject.org/

I am always amazed at how many of our crewmembers are in bands.  I guess you could say our flexible hours make Pagliacci a haven for many aspiring musicians.  Some take time off to tour and play in notable music festivals like Austin’s SXSW or our very own Bumbershoot.  A few have even had a brush with fame.  Imagine my surprise when watching SNL in January and seeing a former Bridle Trails crewmember playing with Fleet Foxes (although not a current member of the band).  There is even an urban legend that a member of Pearl Jam once applied at one of our pizzerias in the early 90’s.  Ironically, the story goes that he was not hired because he required too much time off to tour with his band.

It seems like every time I visit a store, someone is bragging about how great his or her band is.  Four years ago we decided to ask them to prove it by throwing our first ever Battle of the Bands.  Our criterion for consideration of playing at our event is simple – at least one band member needs to work at Pagliacci.  Every year we have the daunting task of selecting just eight bands to play.  Here is this year’s line up:

      9:00 pm – Mahaffey’s Dolls

      9:30 pm – Jesse Fox
         

      10:00 pm – Black Science

      10:30 pm – Waves of the Mind

      11:00 pm – Slackhabit

      11:30 pm – FatCat

      12:00 am – What What Now

      12:30 am – WormWood


The prize is noteworthy for any aspiring young band – two days of recording studio time at Woodinville’s Bear Creek Studio. 

Join us at Neumo’s in Capitol Hill next Monday, May 4th.  Tickets are $5 at the door with the proceeds donated to Vera Project.  Doors open at 8 pm.  The battle begins at 9 pm.      

Last year's winners, Rad Touch, at the recording studio.

On Saturday afternoon all of our finalists and several managers gathered at our Lake City location for the final round of our March Madness competition. Tension mounted as traffic on I-5 delayed the start of the tossing. Some competitors isolated themselves and some fretted over dough.

When it came time to compete, all were ready to step up and go. Paul Williams of Crossroads went first and got his pie in the oven in 39 seconds – his third consecutive sub-forty second pizza. Alex Henderson of the Commissary and Cameron Jackson from Stone Way followed next with 41 and 40 seconds respectively. Mike Young, the Shift Leader at Lake City, was last and showed that he had clearly been practicing the night before.

Mike tossed and must have laid down his dough in 8 seconds (the fastest cooks take between 15-20 seconds, typically). He picked it up, re-stretched it, and still made it in the oven in a blistering 32 seconds. When the pies came out and were sized it came down to Cameron and Mike – former co-workers at Sand Point, Miller and Lake City.

Cameron had a nearly perfect pie – just a little bit of a red ring and a flat portion of the crust. Mike’s pie was just about the same.  However, his 8-second advantage held up for a 6-point victory.

Mr. Young, the youngest and least tenured competitor (though he’s on his 8^th year with Pagliacci), showed that he made a better pie faster than anyone else in Pagliacci. The home crowd cheered him afterwards as he toured the store with his victory peel. It might not have been Greg Gumbel and “One Shining Moment” but it was very Mike Young.

A big “Congratulations!” goes out to Mike. And to all the cooks who didn’t make it this year – or those burgeoning cooks hoping to step up their game – there is always next year.

Seattle’s stand-up comedy scene is nationally recognized for it’s diversity and quality and Pagliacci Pizza is proud to be a fan and supporter. It started out with sponsoring the much-loved late night TV show Almost Live and continues to this day. Pagliacci sponsored the 2008 Seattle International Comedy Competition, sponsors People Republic of Komedy’s alt-comedy showcase Laffhole and has an all ages comedy show the first Monday of every month at the Broadway Pizzeria. This show gives comics an opportunity that they rarely have, the chance to perform in front of children eating pizza in well-lit room.  Most comedy shows are in dimly lit rooms with a 21+ age requirement and children are not allowed.  If there are kids there they have really good fake ID’s or moustaches. At Pagliacci’s Comedy Night children are legally allowed to be there and many children use this opportunity to enjoy live comedy. This can throw some of the comedians off. There are certain words that can’t be used around children (these words are too sophisticated for their developing minds and usually include four letters) because those words make them angry. Angry children are dangerous. Not being able to use these words means that comics have to tell “family friendly” jokes (a family is a pack of children usually led by one or two adults, even more dangerous when angered). For the last eleven months skilled professionals and talented amateurs have taken the challenge and performed at the Broadway Pizzeria. Each show consists of a handful of Seattle’s best local comics and a professional headliner. This weeks featured comedian is the very talented Brian Boshes. Comedy fans are encouraged to come and see this brave young man take the challenge not to anger the children. 

Emmett Montgomery is Pagliacci’s Catering Coordinator by day and a stand-up comic at night.  He is one of the founding members of the People’s Republic of Komedy and head writer for the monthly variety show Get Loweded. He hosts Pagliacci’s Comedy Night every month and will be performing at the Sasquatch and Bumbershoot festivals this summer and his face can currently be seen on the 11″ pizza box.

Today’s competition may not have been as tight as Syracuse and UConn’s 6 OT battle nor as classic as Hoosiers, but it made me think of both.

I always remember Shooter (Dennis Hopper) moving from a spectator to a coach – and then getting his shot when Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) gets himself ejected. It didn’t come to a technical foul, but when PSC’s Crystal Leahy (a former Sand Pointer) didn’t show and runner up Tim Ihlenfeld (a current Sand Pointer) came to root on his current and former co-workers we pulled him from spectator to participant.

Time – thus far the most important factor in placement – quickly became a non-issue. If you like tuning into nail-biters check out these times: 43, 42, 42, 42, and 41. Even after timing and pre-grading (dough temperature and size of pizza) only 1 dropped out – the top 4 all went into grading with 45, 45, 46, and 47 points ensuring that the final 2 spots would be ultimately decided on the quality of the pizza.

When all the grading was done Cameron Jackson and Alex Henderson moved on to the Final 4. Cameron’s flawless crust offset his cold dough and Alex’s cheese coverage and clean cook held off Luis Bibiano-Lopez. Luis, long-regarded to be the “Best Tosser in Pagliacci” now has to trade that title in for “Best Tosser to Never Make the Final Four.”

So like the North/East side of the bracket, the two competitors with the longest tenure staved off all the (relative) newcomers and move on to the Championship on Saturday afternoon. The four tossers have a combined 37 years with Pagliacci – so they have made their fair share of cheese pizzas. 

We completed half of our Final Four Wednesday afternoon but not without throwing a big curveball to the cooks. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

After one cook dropped out due to injury, Tony Schaffer from Bellevue stepped back into the mix. It seemed that there were some nerves judging by lack of conversation in the kitchen. The grading was ratcheted up a bit – the same criteria but just a little more stringent. Everyone knew that crusts had to be better, cheese coverage more complete and the size of the pizza had to be spot on. It never ceases to amaze me that our cooks can get a pizza to be the right size so quickly and so thoughtlessly. That is these cooks can just toss the pie out of routine, lay it on the board, top it, launch it and it comes out within half-an-inch of ideal.

But let’s get back to that curveball. I appreciate that we are a company that cares about the environment and pushes to lessen our impact in any way we can. Today this manifested itself in our Commissary delivery driver noticing that the ovens, which I had turned on early that morning for the competition, were ablaze much earlier than normal. Not wanting to waste any more gas, he turned them all off. Normally this would have been perfect, but it left us testing our cooks’ ability to make a pizza in a lukewarm oven. Everyone adapted and given that it was a level playing field no one complained.

It happened that the two most tenured competitors moved on. Paul Williams of Crossroads went first and once again set the lowest time of the day with a 33 second cheese. His daughter, Winter, looked on but wondered why he couldn’t have saved his 30-second effort for her spring break. Second place was tightly contested with Sam Kosola, Tony Schaffer, Bert Trotter and Amanda Johnson all coming close. But it was Lake City Way’s Shift Leader Mike Young who edged everyone out. His secret? Plopping his chosen dough ball on his heated leather car seat for the ride in. That’s not yeast you smell, Mr. Young, that’s victory. Enjoy the ride.

The other half of the Sweet 16 features the “Sand Point 4”. Two years ago Crystal Leahy, Cameron Jackson, Luis Bibiano-Lopez and Jason Legaspi were all co-workers at Sand Point. Reputed to have the best looking pizzas in the company, Sand Point built a stable of good tossers. Jason, Cameron and Crystal have all moved elsewhere to spread the knowledge but reunite as 2 look to move on to the Final 4. They will be challenged by Luke Sumpter of Magnolia, newcomer Romael Jacobs of Miller, Lisa Rossiter of Queen Anne and Alex Henderson of the Commissary.