Tube Station, Pie Squared Tie To Punch Ticket to Finals

Michael Wester theBeijinger 2021-12-26

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One former champion and one perennial runner-up ended up tied in The Beijinger's Pizza Cup '21 Bracket A Final yesterday, chosen exclusively by live participants of our first Taste-Off of the season.

The tale of the tape

Both Tube Station andPie Squared garnered exactly 38 votes in our Taste-Off, which means they both head to the championship round. Two-time champ Bottega was the runner-up with 28 votes, while Kro’s Nest, our original 2011 Pizza Cup champ, was favored by 9 voters.

Tube Station's Bacon Cheeseburger pizza garnered a lot of love

Pie Squared, who was crowned champion in 2017, won the hearts of many at the event with their Detroit-style Motown Meatball pizzas. These pies come in the form of rectangular foccaccia-style base with plenty of crunchy, carmelized cheese along the edges and savory toppings to boot. They arrived early and were munched down in record time.

Four different pizzas: what's not to love?

Tube Station, which has consistently ranked high in Pizza Cup balloting but has never won a title, countered with their new Bacon Cheeseburger pizza, an innovative pie developed by American Jeffrey Powell, the wizard working in their test kitchen.

These two now move on to the finals match on Saturday, Dec18, where they will be pitted against the as-of-yet-to-be-determined winners of Brackets B, C and D. Those matches will be decided in the next three consecutive Saturdays.

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So much pizza it was hard to fit them on the table

Tickets are now on sale for the finals in each of the three remaining brackets:

Bracket B Taste-Off – Saturday, Nov 27
Forno意角
Pizza Saporita意块披萨
Gung Ho!叫板！比萨
Papa John's棒约翰比萨

Bracket C Taste-Off – Saturday, Dec 4
Annie's安妮意大利餐厅
Q Mex Bar & Grill库迈墨西哥餐吧
La Pizza那匹萨
The Local

Bracket D Taste-Off – Saturday, Dec 11
Great Leap Brewing大跃啤酒
Jing-A Brewing Co.京A
Pizza Show披萨秀
Pyro Pizza火鬼餐吧

Tickets for the finals are not yet on sale but will be offered to purchasers of earlier events first – and given we’re limited to a maximum of about 36 tables, you best act fast by scanning the QR code with WeChat below and purchase one of them:

Meanwhile, back to yesterday's Bracket A action: A packed house at host restaurant Georgia’s Feast spent the afternoon sampling pies from all four contestants, while knocking back beer from sponsor Brookyln Brewery and enjoying the cozy atmosphere and friendly service of the Dongzhimen restaurant.

Extra bonus: unfinished pizza could be taken home and enjoyed the next day

Between consuming mass quantities of pizza, guests participated in our Pizza Pentathlon: a set of five Olympic-themed table games, with gold, silver and bronze medals offered for the top teams in each contest.

Burning off some calories in the double-elimination Air Hockey tournament

The team representing Turkmenistan took home the gold in our Pizza Pentathlon, which is given to the team with the most overall points from each of the five disciplines. Fiji brought home the silver and Jordan and Nigeria tied for bronze in the combined event.

Meanwhile, the winners in each individual discipline were:

BING DWEN DWEN TOSS
GOLD: Sweden
SILVER: Kyrghistan
BRONZE: Tonga
BRONZE: Philippines

Pizza magnates from Bottega and Tube Station were in attendance, addressing the crowd

PIZZA TRIVIA
GOLD: Turkmenistan
SILVER: Nigeria
BRONZE: Fiji

OLYMPIC COIN SPIN
GOLD: Turkmenistan
SILVER: Fiji
BRONZE: Mexico

A Lace the Skate contestant races to complete the timed task

LACE THE ICE SKATE
GOLD: UK
SILVER: Jordan
BRONZE: Turkmenistan

Air hockey gold! The team representing The Philippines celebrates victory

AIR HOCKEY
GOLD: Philippines
SILVER: Fiji
BRONZE: Turkmenistan

The captain of Team Turkmenistan celebrates Pentathlon gold

PIZZA PENTATHLON
GOLD Turkmenistan (33 points)
SILVER Fiji (24 points)
BRONZE Nigeria (19 points)
BRONZE Jordan (19 points)

After all was said and done, of course, all guests cast a ballot for their favorite pizza by placing a sticker on the scoreboard for easy counting.