CityView Magazine

34 | July/August 2015 Brooklyn Pizzeria's, The Brooklynator THE CHALLENGE: Two people must finish a 30-inch pizza, within 60 minutes, with no bathroom breaks. e pizza must contain three different top- pings, with two of the toppings being meats of the customer's choosing. THE PRIZE: $100, a refund of the $50 deposit and your picture on the wall. Aer 26 years of business, owner Pete Reneo said he and his partner Matthew Cecil have seen everything. at is, eve- rything except for a pair of Fayetteville customers who can meet their restau- rant's Brooklynator Pizza Challenge. "We have seen a lot of crazy things," Reneo said. "But when we get a winner in Fayetteville, we will take his picture, get an 8x10 and put that up on the wall." Now, that isn't to say that the pizza has never been conquered. Before opening a location in Fay- etteville, the Brooklyn-born Reneo had previously held his challenge at a former Durham location, where two pairs of competitors had managed to down the massive 12-pound pie. Currently, e Brooklynator is only available at the res- taurant's 4411 Ramsey Street location in Fayetteville. So far, Reneo said, there have been 532 failed attempts. "Re- ally, there are two people per challenge, so if you think about it, the challenge has been lost by 1,064 people." He continued, "But they always come in, so convinced that they can do it." As Reneo predicted, our challengers Topher McLean and Derek Smith arrived feeling a false sense of superiority over all those who had come before them. "is will be easy," McLean said. "I eat two large Domino's pizzas by myself all of the time." For Smith, taking on e Brooklynator is more than a matter of pride, but something that will allow him to mark off an accomplishment on his unofficial bucket list. "My friends may laugh, but doing one of these food challenges is actually a life goal of mine," Smith said. "I mean, just to say I tried it. is is going to be awesome." Both McLean and Smith had very loose strategies in mind. While Smith focused on keeping hydrated, McLean felt that victory would rely on their choice of toppings. "We went with bacon, Canadian ba- con and pineapple," McLean said. "e bacon will probably be less greasy than pepperoni, we are both fans of pineapple and you want to make sure to get ingredients that you can't imagine yourself ever getting tired of." Once the pizza was brought out, there was an audible hush as other customers stopped what they were doing to watch. "Funny thing about the challenge is, no matter when we do it, suddenly 20 people will show up out of nowhere to watch," Reneo said. It isn't every day that customers get to see someone down a pizza slice roughly the size of their head. e duo started off strong, finishing their first few slices with relative ease. At the 20-minute mark however, there was a noticeable slow down, as both Smith and McLean began to shi their strate- gies. McLean, decided to put his crusts aside, to be eaten separately once the pizza was near completion, while Smith made what Reneo had described as a rookie mistake. He stood up to stretch. With seven minutes le, both Smith and McLean throw in the towel… with only three slices le. Ironi- cally, McLean blames the pineapple. "Pineapple tastes great, which is why I thought it was the perfect choice, but I forgot that the pizza eventually cools off, and then you have this wet, cold pineapple on every slice," McLean said. "I have lived in New York and honestly, this is the best pizza I've ever had, but if I had to eat another slice at this point, I would probably be sick for the rest of the week." For Smith, win or lose, he still felt he had accomplished something. "I'd do it again, honestly," Smith said. "Either way I got a great meal out of it." Topher & Derek attempt to eat all the pizza pie. 30 inches of goodness!

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