MOUNT VERNON — The aromas of oregano, pepperoni and cheese made Country Club Retirement Campus smell like a high-class pizzeria on Monday evening. The free Pick The Pizza event drew seniors and others to sample the wares of 13 pizza parlors from all over Knox County.
“I’m just getting started, but I think they’re all good,” said Marguerite Lawrence, a senior who lives in Mount Vernon. All evening, Lawrence refused to pick one pizza over another.
“I’m having fun ... I’m eating,” said Georgia Pribonic. “It’s all very good. This is a wonderful idea.”
Tasters roamed from table to table, selecting different pizzas offered by Donato’s, Creno’s, Peppy’s, Mr. Pizza, Tiffany’s, Pizza Dock, Papa John’s, Pirates Cove, Toscana’s, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Frankie’s and Papa Murphy’s. Devils Den of Danville and the Gambier Grill were scheduled to participate, but had to cancel because of emergencies.
Tom Corrigan and his sister, Kathi Lore, served up two kinds of Pirates Cove pizza, even though their re-born restaurant won’t open until Friday at 11 a.m.
“We’ve been making pizza since 1978. We pride ourselves on this one,” said Corrigan, pointing to a Pirate’s Special “Hawaiian style” pizza. “We were in New York that year and had a pizza with pineapple on it. We thought it was weird because we’d never had anything like that. But we made it and the students [Kenyon students from the East Coast] who were missing that kind of pizza loved it. We’ve been making it ever since.”
But to call this pizza “Hawaiian style” is to downplay its uniqueness. Because, in addition to the usual pineapple and ham or Canadian bacon, the Pirate’s Special has bacon, plus mushrooms. Corrigan suggested asking for onion too, which he said is a great complement to the pineapple.
At the Tiffany’s table, people were grabbing slices of gyro pizza made with tziki sauce, feta and black olives. Toscana’s, based in Centerburg, offered its veggie pizza with green and black olives, banana peppers, green pepper and slices of fresh tomato. Staff of the Country Side Creamery, south of Mount Vernon on Ohio 13, raced to replenish their Italian ices, which were snatched up before they could be set on the table. CCRC staff refilled glasses of pop and iced tea. Michael Padula provided accordion music to accompany the feast.
Preston McCollum, who lives at CCRC with his wife, Iris, said he was impressed that Pizza Dock’s flour is imported from Italy. Iris said she was impressed by the fresh tomatoes on a Frankie’s pizza.
Mike Amheiser, owner of Pizza Dock in Fredericktown, explained how he makes his personal favorite deep-dish Mike’s Favorite pizza.
“The flour does come from Italy,” he said. “I make a homemade garlic butter with Amish roll butter and virgin olive oil and butter the pan with that. We use Romano cheese, fresh chopped garlic, onion, mushroom, green peppers, basil and more grated Romano, light bacon and a light salami. We even slice our own fresh mushrooms. I never get tired of this pizza.”
Amheiser was also serving a shrimp pizza made with a white sauce and plenty of garlic.
“It tastes like Lobster Newburg,” said Pribonic. “It’s really rich.”
Tasters voted as they left CCRC, jotting the number of the pizza shop on a slip of paper. Mary Gilland, marketing director at CCRC, said there were 155 votes, and Pizza Dock won with 50.
She noted how much fun the participants had.
“It’s wonderful to bring our seniors together with others in the community,” she said. “Our student volunteers from Kenyon and Mount Vernon Nazarene University were here too.
“We had 120 to 135 outside visitors,” said Gilland, “people who don’t live here at our facility. We had a lot of happy people. And we had just one complaint ... that there weren’t enough places to sit. That’s a good problem to have.”
Gilland said all the pizzerias ran out, except Pizza Dock, the staff of which made a late delivery from Fredericktown. She said Amheiser and company left the remaining pizza for the night employees of CCRC to enjoy.
“I’m moving to Fredericktown,” chef Everett Gasbarro told Amheiser. Gasbarro has been a chef and cook for 20 years and moved to Mount Vernon from Alaska to care for his senior-citizen mother, Jean Dorsey Gasbarro. He proclaimed himself a big fan of the Mike’s Favorite pizza.
As for Lawrence, voting remained impossible.
“I won’t be able to pick one,” she said. “They’re all very good. And I’m really full.”
The proceeds from the sale of the raffle tickets were directed toward the development of CCRC’s “Memory Bridge” Alzheimer’s program. Winners received free pizzas.
