Pizza in a college town always reigns supreme (or pepperoni). The Bloomington area has a vast number of pizza shops and that was evident by the number of pizza places listed in The Herald-Times' pizza poll — 46.
After casting a total of 14,624 votes, Cafe Pizzaria emerged the victor with 6,104 votes, or 41.75%, in the Crowd Signal survey that was open Aug. 1-8.
Co-owner David Webb said Cafe Pizzaria opened in 1953 and, as far as he knows, is Bloomington's oldest and first pizzeria.
"The local townspeople and IU have kept us going all these years and we sure do appreciate it," he said.
Webb's son, Crosby, has been working at the pizza shop since he was 8 years old. Now he's one of the owner/managers and is the third generation of the Webb family to work there. His grandfather, Larry, started working at Cafe Pizzaria in 1962 and purchased the shop in 1986.
Cafe Pizzaria's sausage sets it apart from other restaurants, Crosby Webb said. "It's a different kind," he explained, adding the family has kept the same recipe for years. Any pizza with sausage as a topping, or a stromboli with sausage, is a customer favorite.
What kind of pizza does Crosby prefer?
"I like mushrooms. I'll put mushrooms on everything, so that's my go to," he said.
Other pizza shops listed in the survey include second-place Bucceto’s , with 4,716 votes or 32.25%, followed by Mother Bear’s , with 2,210 votes for 15.11%. Pizza X received 535 votes for 3.66%, followed by Aver’s Pizza , with 445 votes for 3.04%, and Lennie’s with 101 votes for 0.69%.
The 'other' pizza shops that make Bloomington's favorites
The “other” category allowed people to vote for any pizza place not included in our list and 513 people added the place they think is the best. Here are all the pizza places that were added, in order of how many votes each received.
Baldy's Pizzera had 106 people who said the southside pizza shop is the best. The second largest vote, with 87, was DaVinci's Pizza and Pasta , with some customers scolding The Herald-Times for not including it on the list. Goodfellas Pizzeria received 38 votes, followed closely by Azzip, with 37.
Windjammer Grill at Fourwinds Resort & Marina had 34 votes. Rockit's Famous Pizza had 24 votes. Ellettsville's Pizza Pantry had 19, followed by Osteria Rago with 18. Eric Gordon's Greek's Pizzeria had 12 votes, followed by DeAngelo's with 10.
Trailhead Pizzeria had 7 votes, as did Nick's English Hut , Luca's Pizza Di Roma (in College Mall's food court) and Papa John's . Sahm's at Eagle Pointe received 5 votes. Big Woods had 4 votes, as did Hank's Pizza Mac , Pizza Hut and Domino's . FARMbloomington and Toppers Pizza both had 3 votes. Big Woods Bloomington , Chicago Pizza and BJ's Restaurant all had 2 votes as did Bubba's Pizza in Mitchell, Sam's Club and Swing-In Pizza, which is no longer in operation.
Others that had one vote each included Brady’s, Quarry, Porthole Inn, Monroe County Pizza Department (no longer in operation), Speedway gas station, Papa Murphy’s (with no Bloomington location), Max’s, and “my house,” and “homemade.” We don't have location information for the last two, so there's no way to taste test those great pizzas.
Contact Carol Kugler at ckugler@heraldt.com
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: One of Bloomington's oldest pizza shops gets most votes in Herald-Times' pizza poll
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