Who Has The Best Pizza? Our Trip To NY

About a month ago, I saw a little segment on CBS 2 Chicago news that Rachel Ray was doing a show about pizza and who had the best pizza: Chicago or New York. They asked us to vote for our favorite pizza joint. You could also enter to win two tickets to the Rachel Ray show, which I did. I never win, so I was surprised when I got the call last Thursday that we were flying to New York.

We got on the plane at Midway Airport on Monday around 3 pm CST. Home Run Inn Pizza won for Chicago. These guys are fantastic. They brought us pizza to eat while we were waiting to get on the plane. They brought us pizza to eat on the plane. We also got ice cream and cookies on the plane. We were on a charter flight, so all the winners and their guests were on the plane, and that’s it. It was the most fun plane ride I will ever be on.

We got to New York and our hotel at about 7 pm EST. We checked out our room. It was pretty nice. Our hotel was the Grand Hyatt, located right next to Grand Central Station. Let me tell you, that place is fantastic. After we got situated, we went and walked over to Times Square. There is no way to describe this place. I have some pictures that I will post later. It was almost like being in Vegas (but not). We bought some souvenirs and walked back to the hotel. We tried walking in the other direction from the hotel, but nothing exciting. It was just New York.

We got up about 7 am EST on Tuesday. We showered and got ready for the Rachel Ray show. All of our clothes had to be ironed. I thought they would be fine, so I am glad we gave ourselves extra time. We met in the hotel lobby and hopped on a bus for the show. We drove over to the studio, and boy, were we surprised. Bill and I had walked past the studio the night before. Since we weren’t looking for it, we walked right past the building. Next, we checked in with Rachel Ray’s people and went through security. Then, we were all put into a holding room. They had water and food for us while we waited.

They prepped us to go into the studio. The taping would be 4 hours. If you left the studio, you would not be allowed back in. Tell that to a pregnant woman who has to pee every 5 minutes. Needless to say, I held it. 🙂 What surprised me the most is how scripted everything is. We were told when to clap, when to laugh, etc. We got a snack while we there. I will actually be on 2 shows. The first show that I will be on will have Denny from Grey’s Anatomy. I might be on some of the audience shots.

The second show I know I will be on is the Pizza Contest. We watched some of the clips they got from the airport and the plane. I am in one of the clips eating pizza. I won’t tell you who won. You’ll have to watch the show. We also got a Rachel Ray hat when we left. And I almost forgot. Each audience member got a free round-trip ticket for virtually any place in North America from Delta to use in the next year!!! It was awesome. Since we didn’t know we were getting that, the cheering you will hear from the audience is real.

We had about two hours to spend in New York before we had to catch our plane. We decided to take a cab and see the WTC site. Then, we returned to the hotel, hopped on a bus, and went to the airport. And that was my trip to New York.

I have to give a shout-out to Home Run Inn Pizza. Not only is it great pizza, but the owners of this company are some of the nicest people I have ever met. If you are in the Chicago area, go eat at one of their seven locations. If not, you can order some of their frozen pizzas. They are the best! (And no, this is not a sponsored post.)