Certified Pizza Awesomeness: Slice Out Hunger 2014

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A few days back, Kim, Lucas and I headed into Manhattan for Slice Out Hunger. The event is known as NYC’s biggest pizza party. All of the money raised gets donated to an amazing charity, the Food Bank For New York City.

50 pizzerias from NYC (and a handful in NJ) donated pies with each slice selling for $1. Along with slices there were also beverages, snacks, ice pops and raffle tickets for sale. Every dollar spent gets matched by event sponsors. According to the event guidelines, every $1 ticket bought helps deliver 15 meals to New Yorker’s in need. Impressive stuff!

The event is organized by pizza expert and Guinness World Record Holder (for largest pizza box collection) Scott Wiener. Scott runs the fun and popular Scott’s Pizza Tours, visiting various pizzerias around NYC. If you’re a pizza fan I’d highly recommend taking his tour.

This is the second straight year we attended SOH. (Check out my recap of last year’s event here.)

a group of people standing on a sidewalk
The early line

Slice Out Hunger was supposed to start at 6:00 pm. The event is quite popular so we made sure to head into the city early. We arrived at around 4:30 pm (just like last year) and ended up around 60 people back in the line.

a group of people standing on the sidewalk
The pizza hand-off

While waiting online, I ended up chatting for almost 2 hours with another pizza fan waiting behind me. This made the wait go by relatively fast and I got to chat all about pizza, burgers and other fun topics like travel…

I also got interviewed about my pizza obsession. I’ll hopefully see the video about SOH in about a month from now seeing yours truly in it!

Doors ended up opening a bit later than schedule. I believe people started going inside at 6:30 which was kind of annoying. However this wasn’t really anyones fault. When you have 50 pizzerias bringing loads of pies, good luck getting everyone there on time!

a group of people in a room

Once we got inside, the room was crowded. There was a fun and enthusiastic vibe in the air. Maybe everyone was getting hypnotized by the smell from all of that pizza!

a group of people standing next to pizza boxes
One of our event favorites

This year we came to SOH with a plan. Rather just toss slice after slice into our pizza boxes like we did last year, we wanted to be more organized. We brought along wax paper and a Sharpie. As we picked up slices, Kim would write the name of the pizzeria on the paper and we’d then place the slice on top.

a slice of pizza in a box
Prince St Pizza

The plan worked out very well. The only problem we ran into was Kim not bringing along enough wax paper. We had to make due and use post-its for a few slices. A bunch of people took notice and even asked to photograph our boxes!

a pizza in a box
Our pizza haul

This year Slice Out Hunger changed the rules a bit.

Last year we were allowed to purchase as many tickets as we wanted and they were all good for pizza, drink and snacks. However to limit the amount of people getting turned away, there were 2 different tickets being sold. All tickets were $1 each. Red tickets were good for pizza and were limited to 10 per person. Blue tickets were good for anything else- snacks, drink, raffle etc.

Kim and I bought 10 pizza tickets each. We tried to not get pizza from too many that we’ve been to in the past but that wasn’t a simple thing to do. Out of the 20 slices we bought, I think we had tried 5-6 in the past.

Here are the pizzerias we got slices from:

  1. Rizzo’s
  2. Motorino
  3. Ribalta
  4. Pizzeria Cotta Bene
  5. Wheated
  6. Prince St Pizza
  7. Pizza By Cer Te
  8. Sam’s Restaurant
  9. American Flatbread
  10. Tony Boloney’s
  11. Razza
  12. Brunetti
  13. Via Tribunali
  14. Heartwood
  15. Williamsburg Pizza
  16. Best Pizza
  17. Luzzo’s
  18. Valducci’s
  19. Goodfella’s Pizza
  20. Not Sure

a man holding a child while eating pizza

Most of the pizza was cold by the time we started eating so it is hard to give a fair judgement of what we ate. However, there was still some really great slices to be had.

Here are the places that stood out:

  • Rizzo’s (one of our favorites from last year)
  • Prince St Pizza
  • Sam’s Restaurant (love this place, we had Lucas’ 1st birthday here)
  • Razza
  • Williamsburg Pizza
  • Best Pizza

We didn’t finish up all of our pizza so we  took home a good amount of leftovers. Most of these slices were heated up the following day.
a table full of bottles of sodaOther items for sale were tasty Boylans sodas and Brewla ice-pops.

a box with a sign on itThere was one disappointment during the evening. Rather than buy dessert right away we figured we could go back and get some of Scott’s Mom’s Cookies later on. Well by the time I went back to buy a bag or 2, they were all sold out! 

I guess I learned my lesson for next year.

a man and woman with a child in a stroller

While we were heading out we ran into this life-size slice of pizza. While waiting on the line outside, I believe that I heard her say “eating pizza is like cannibalism”!

a group of people standing on a sidewalkWhen we left Slice Out Hunger, the line was still going strong and almost the whole way down the block.  Dedicated pizza fans…

After checking out Slice Out Hunger for the 2nd year in a row I have to say that if you love pizza, this is a must attend event. You’ll get the chance to eat pizza from some amazing places in one place, for only $1 per slice and it’s for a great cause!

Til next year…

4 thoughts on “Certified Pizza Awesomeness: Slice Out Hunger 2014

  1. Raymond- I’d expect there be be a line around the block at 7pm and a long wait if you make it in. If possible, one of you should go early, like 4:30 or so if possible to get a spot in line. You’ll be waiting a while for the event to start, but you’ll pretty much be guaranteed of getting in relatively close to opening time.

  2. Hi! I’ll be going this Wednesday with some friends. My friends and I will meet up at 7pm. Once everyone is there, we’ll get on line. You think it will be a long wait by then. And will they have enough pizza too since it states ” Event ends when the pizza runs out. Any experienced information would be great. Thanks!

    1. Flyer On a Budget- I’m glad that you liked the post! You are asking a really tough but fun question. For Manhattan I’d recommend Rubirosa & Lombardi’s, Brooklyn- Paulie Gee’s, Sam’s, DiFara, Juliana’s & Pizza Moto. I doubt you’ll be making it to the Bronx, Quens or SI.

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