Classification: Traditional
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Conventional Groundout wisdom dictates that there is no such thing as bad pizza, but there is such a thing as leftover pizza, and therein lies a chasm where some pretty uncomfortable truths rest. Seven of us were witness to this unavoidable paradox when we collectively found ourselves to be no match for three large pizzas, whether by reasons of quality, comfort, or metabolism. I’m willing to bet that Ray’s Pizza has bravely served hungry customers throughout the Valley of the Sun with style and grace for decades, but one of the main focuses of GOCon19 was to leave no slice unturned, and despite glowing online reviews, we had almost a full pizza remain untouched. That simply can not happen. To the seven who were present (Jeff, Swen, Ken, Chuck, Boomer, Paul J. and myself) there was a collective, but unspoken shame cast upon the room, but it was unavoidable. Ray’s came on the heels of a highly successful evening of pizza the night before (details to come later), so by this point, the bar may have been set unnaturally high.
Thank you Ray, for giving everything you’ve got to your core customer base--you’ve earned their loyalty and positive Yelp reviews, but in the end, the product didn’t align with the expectation. So if there’s another convention coming to town (and we all hope there is) it’s in the league’s best interest to seek out alternative solutions. (2 of 10 stars)