FIRST STOP PIZZERIA VESUVIUS
I'm not really sure how Pizza Quest got started. I know the conversation happened over beers one night about how we somehow needed to determine where to get the best pie in town.  Perhaps we were bored. Or hungry. Or both.  When the topic came up again and someone from our crew sent out a Thrillist article about the 8 best pizzas in Atlanta, we decided to use that list as our starter template and got the ball rolling.  Pizza Quest 2013 commenced on  Sunday November 3rd at Pizzeria Vesuvius. Thrillist says its located in Old Forth Ward, but it's definitely in a sketchier part of town, over in Edgewood. In fact, one of our members bailed due to lack of ability to find close parking and the sketchiness of the 'hood.  Deduct points for dining experience for that one.

We agreed (sort of) that we would order a Margherita pizza at each establishment in order to compare apples to apples.   Then we would order either what they are known for or whatever struck our fancy. In this case, Pizzeria Vesuvius was known for Bone Lick BBQ Pizza but since not enough of us were fans of pulled pork and collards on pizza, we opted for a Funghi (Portobellas, creminis, buttons, goat cheese, white truffle oil) and a Mediterranean (House blend pesto, fire roasted peppers, kalamatas, spinach, cherry tomatoes, feta, three cheese blend) We added prosciutto to the Mediterranean as well, since we didn't have a meat option. Below are some shots of the pies.

We each scored the pizzas independently and then totalled them up to get an average.  Pizza was scored on a scale of 1-10 (1 being "Dog Shit Tastes Better Than This",  5 being "Your Average Pizza Chain" and 10 being "I'd Kill Another Human For a Slice" ) in the following categories: Crust, Sauce, Cheese, Toppings, Dining Experience, and Overall.   Despite a lot of initial complaints ("Too Salty!")  most people gave fairly decent ratings.  I was actually the lone harsh rater, only giving the pizza a total of 21 points out of a possible 60.  Several others rated the pizza in the 33 range, while a couple seemed to enjoy the pizza more and gave scores in the high 40's.   The total scores were 21, 33, 33, 32, 35, 46, and 47.  The average score was 35.3 for a total 58% approval rating.   That is definitely not what I would consider one of the top 8 pizza places in town. 

Since this was our first stop on the quest, we realized there might need to be some tweaking of the scoring system.  For example, 5 is probably not your average pizza chain- that really should be a rating closer to the bottom.  I'm sure we will figure it out as we go along.  Stay tuned for our next spot on the quest- time, date and place TBD.