Vrooooom!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages!  Racing season is back! Get ready to rev your engines for the return of the Zucchini 500!

Every year, the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance holds its annual Zucchini 500 races at a few Farmers Markets around the city and we are proud to sponsor this year’s event. On race days, a veritable mountain of local zucchini awaits children of all ages. They can take as long as they like to make their own custom-built zucchini racers to compete against each other on the Market’s track.  The Market provides the zucchini, wheels and decorations. According to Claire Leamy from the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, the first Zucchini 500 was held at the Columbia City Farmers Market sometime before 2002 (no one can remember quite when) to celebrate the bounty of the local zucchini crop. It has since become a highly anticipated and very popular part of the summer market season.

We’re very excited to be sponsors of this fun event. We’ll be joining the races with a hands-on tossing demonstration.  You will have an opportunity to learn how to toss pizza dough like our cooks do. It’s great fun for kids young and old! After you build your Zucchini 500, why not try one of ours? We’ve created a special pizza to celebrate the races. Our Zucchini 500 Primo is only available for a limited time.

This year’s races will be held at the Lake City Farmers Market on Thursday, August 16^th from 3 pm to 6pm, the Magnolia Farmers Market on Saturday, August 25^th from 10 am to 1 pm, the Columbia City Farmers Market on Wednesday, September 12^th from 3 pm to 6 pm and the West Seattle Farmers Market on Sunday, September 16^th from 10 am to 1 pm. We’ll see you there!

We are very excited to report on the progress of our Madison Valley location.  It’s not much to look at now, but it is beginning to take shape. The piles to support the foundation of the building have been driven, and the footings and foundations will be poured this week! Framing will start soon…then it will start looking like a real building!

We hope to open sometime in the fall, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated on our progress!

Safety first. Please wear a lifejacket!

Today would have been Tyrone Fabroa’s 37^th birthday. To mark the occasion, his brother Kevin Sayson and sister Abby Manibusan reached out to Seattle Children’s Hospital for their help in organizing an event to raise awareness for drowning prevention and water safety. Kevin was delighted to hear that Children’s Hospital would help. The event was held today at the Marina Pavilion Park in Kirkland. After a few words of welcome from Kevin, Elizabeth “Tizzy” Bennett from Children’s Hospital and Deputy James Knauss from the King Country Sherriff’s Office each spoke briefly about the need for water safety education and the importance of wearing a life jacket. Deputy Knauss likened life jackets to bike helmets. “It wasn’t really cool to wear a bike helmet a few years ago” said Deputy Knauss, “but now you see them all the time. I’d like to see that happen with life jackets.” Two of Tyrone’s friends, Daniel Paet and Burt Javier, lightened things up a bit with an acoustic performance.

Many of Tyrone’s coworkers from Pagliacci were in attendance, and Kevin said he was amazed at the support that he has received from the Pagliacci family.

KING 5 and KCPQ 13 were there, and KING 5’s Meg Coyle will broadcast a report about the event on their 5 pm newscast.

A table full of life jackets for kids were collected, and $180 was collected to help fund efforts to raise water safety awareness. Thanks to everyone who came out!

A year ago we were devastated by the loss of Tyrone Fabroa, the General Manager of our Broadway Pizzeria. His tragic paddleboard accident on Lake Washington sent a wave of grief throughout Pagliacci. Tyrone’s 10-year legacy with us touched all of our managers, many of our crew and many more of our customers.  Tyrone’s ready smile and infectious laugh brightened the day of everyone that he met and he was a joy to work with. He was always up for anything, especially if good-natured mischief was involved. He was an outstanding member of the Pagliacci team and we will always miss him terribly.

In honor of his memory, his family has partnered with Seattle Children’s Hospital to hold an event on Monday, August 6^th (Tyrone’s birthday), to raise water safety awareness and help prevent drowning accidents. The event will include a life jacket drive (kids sizes only please) and will run from 1pm to 6pm at the Marina Pavilion Park in Kirkland.  All are welcome to attend the event.