Did your favorite Pensacola pizza make it to the Elite 8? Second round voting starts now.
Round one of our PNJ March Madness pizza bracket has officially wrapped, and the Pensacola area’s pizza lovers have spoken. With 6,684 votes tallied so far, we’re getting a pretty good idea of the best places to get pizza in the Pensacola area. See how your favorite fared in our Sweet 16 match-up and vote in our Elite Eight round below. Our Sweet 16 matchups were compiled from over 600 reader nominations.
Sweet 16 results:
With 830 votes cast between Flour-ish and Fournaris Brothers, Flour-ish prevailed with 53.37% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 804 votes cast between New Yorker and Lost Pizza, Lost Pizza prevailed with 52.11% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 753 votes cast between O’Zone Pizza Pub and Rolling Embers, O’Zone prevailed with 70.52% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 829 votes cast between Tuscan Oven and East Hill Pizza, Tuscan Oven prevailed with 55.01% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 759 votes cast between Georgio’s Pizza and Jet’s Pizza, Georgio’s prevailed with 61.66% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 851 votes cast between Graffiti Pizza and Piazza Pizza, Graffiti Pizza prevailed with 88.25% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 913 votes cast between Papa’s Pizza and Santino’s Pizza, Papa’s Pizza prevailed with 65.94% of votes and will be moving into round two.
With 945 votes cast between Sky’s Pizza and Lillian’s Pizza, Sky’s Pizza prevailed with 81.80% of votes and will be moving into round two.
Voting is now open below for this week’s matchups. Voting will close at 2 p.m. on Saturday. At 10 a.m. every Monday, look for a new story announcing the winners and opening the next round of voting. We'll announce the final winner on April 8.
Meet your Elite Eight finalists:
Flour-ish Comfort Food Truck
Mobile food truck
Husband and wife duo Chase Gilroy and Jess McAtee launched Flour-ish Comfort Food Truck in 2022 to create pizza that not only tasted good but felt good in your body. This starts with sourcing high quality ingredients. One of the menu standouts, and the pizza that started it all, is the white pizza with a house black garlic ricotta sauce, smoked chicken, spinach and feta.
Sky’s Pizza Pie
5559 N. Davis Highway
Sky’s Pizza has been a Pensacola pizza fan-favorite since 2013 for its cheesy and wide-sliced pizza pies. If there’s one thing that’s true about Sky’s, it’s that you won’t leave hungry. While they prioritize locally sourced, high-quality ingredients and fresh dough made daily, they make a pizza that appeals to the masses because of their affordability.
Papa’s Pizza
18 E. Garden St. and 400 Pensacola Beach Blvd.
When you walk up to the counter of Papa’s Pizza, you’ll likely notice the hand-stretched dough being tossed high in the sky, and New York style slices being pulled in and out of the oven. The special thing about Papa’s Pizza is you can customize a single slice to your liking with unlimited toppings for about $5. If a full-blown specialty pizza is too much for you, you can recreate all your favorite flavors for just a single slice.
Graffiti Pizza
210 S. Palafox St.
Positioned in the heart of downtown Pensacola, there are few places more satisfying when late-night hunger hits than Graffiti. The dining room already stays open fairly late, closing at 9 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, at 10 p.m. on Thursday, and midnight on Friday and Saturday. But even after the chairs get stacked inside, pizzas can still be ordered one to two hours afterward from the bar outside, serving until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Specializing in New York-style pizza, Graffiti delivers pizza either by the pie or slice, with a variety of signature flavors and a rotating pizza of the month.
Georgio’s Pizza
3000 E. Cervantes St.
Georgio's has been a Pensacola fixture since 1984, and it hasn’t been by accident. The quaint diner-like restaurant, still with its original oven intact and black-and-white checkered floors, brings people back to old-school Italian eating. Be prepared for a thick pizza, reminiscent of a Chicago deep-dish, but not quite as deep. The crust, glazed with a garlic butter, is just as much of a treat as the fresh toppings and gooey cheese.
Tuscan Oven
4801 N. Ninth Ave.
The Tuscan Oven, inspired by the food scene in Southern Italy, is largely known for its signature zesty marinara sauce, homemade dough mixed fresh daily and wood-fired oven. Here, you will find high quality ingredients to load up on unlike anywhere else, including imported fontina cheese, spicy capicola ham, whole milk mozzarella, capers, lean prosciutto and anchovy.
O’Zone Pizza Pub
1010 N. 12th Ave.
Nestled in the basement of the Old Sacred Heart Hospital, the eclectic pizza joint is delightfully spooky, but still welcoming and friendly. You’ll likely see locals lining the bar and children’s coloring pages slathered over the walls. The shop makes a special Roman-style pizza dough daily, along with a homemade pizza sauce and special mozzarella cheese blend. Also worth noting, the shop offers a vegan cheese on any pie.
Lost Pizza
1200 Barrancas Ave.
An East Nine Mile Road favorite, Lost Pizza Co., opened its second Escambia County location in December in downtown Pensacola. Lost Pizza is a Mississippi-based pizza company that first made its way to Pensacola in 2018, marking the farthest South that the franchise had ever ventured. It has maintained a reputation across the country for its signature house-made dough, hand-cut vegetables and creative flavors. Even though it's a franchise, there is no uniform way of decorating at Lost Pizza, which gives each shop its own fun, unique identity.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Best Pensacola pizza bracket: Vote in second round of PNJ contest
