The Minnesota Punch Pizza Blog

Last night we invited all entrants in the photo contest to come by for some pizza and beer on the house.  John and I enjoyed meeting the talented photographers that we were lucky enough to have shoot our pizzerias.   We snapped a few shots ourselves that we posted on our flickr account.  

John and I enjoyed seeing the fellow entrants, many of whom knew each other from in person or on-line discussion before, chat together as well.  Meeting Sean and Sarah was particularly neat as they generate such great buzz from their work.  We were all sorry that Christina is in California and could not make it, but we had fun talking with our store manager about the intensity of her work the evening she was shooting the pizzeria.  I also enjoyed sharing stories with Craig, JD , BJ,  Manish and Tony.

Thanks again everyone!

John

We had a hell of a time selecting the winners from all the great entries.  Again, we are so appreciative of the effort and creativity of the pizza-loving professional and amateur photographers in the Twin Cities so we want to have a special night at Punch to celebrate all the entrants and winners.  On Thursday May 8th from 6 to 8 p.m., please come for free pizza, beer and wine for every entrant and a guest, if they wish, at our Northeast Minneapolis pizzeria at 208 Hennepin Avenue East.  John and I will be there to thank you all in person. 

Please print and bring with you the invitation we will email to you through Flickr to verify that you were a contestant.  Winners can pick up their free dining cards then or if you can’t make it, we will mail it to you afterwards.  The winners will get $500 in free Punch Pizza gift cards and the runners up will get $250 in cards.

Now, the winners. 

Punch Pizzas Category

In this category we chose Christina Gandolfo (Flickr name: Mosippy) as the winner.  Her shot of our cook cradling a pizza while hurrying to get it to a table was our favorite.

The runner up in the Punch Pizzas category went to Nick (Flickr name: Greenernick).  We loved his shot of our signature Margherita Extra.

IMG_2846.JPG, originally uploaded by greenernick.

Punch Moments Category

We chose Sean’s  (Flickr name: 3rd foundation) incredibly beautiful shot of our Hennepin Avenue pizzeria window as the winner. 

Sean’s other photo of the Highland Village pizzeria entrance also never fails to get oohs and ahhs from people who see it. 

The second place winner was ♠ i 9 m a r k ♠’s photo of a cook at rest enjoying their aftershift pizza.  We all empathsized with that rewarding but tired feeling.

Shift Break, originally uploaded by ♠ i 9 m a r k ♠.

Ovens Of Punch Category

We chose Sarah McGee’s (Flickr name: Smcgee) awesome black and white photograph of our Calhoun oven and pizza cook as the winner.  This picture makes us think of the old pizzerias in Naples and the oven in b&w looks so cool!

Trianon Napoli
Originally uploaded by smcgee

 
The second place winner is Stacie Graczyk (Flickr name: Stacie Ann Photography).  Her beautiful shot of the Eden Prairie oven in the dim late night was a favorite of ours as the “beast” of an oven is starting to cool off, but it’s coal’s continue to glow.

Punch Pizza, originally uploaded by stacie ann photography.

Camera Phone Photos Category

Craig Servin’s (Flickr name: Kraftwerk2020) colorful and gritty photo of our Northeast Minneapolis oven and crew is the winner.  The camera phone category was a special surprise in how unique and colorful these images can be.

2008_02_14_punch_interior
Originally uploaded by Kraftwerk2020

 
The second place winner is J D (Flickr name: DQwizzle).  The photo of our Wayzata pizzeria at night is surreal.

Callin’ it a day…, originally uploaded by DQwizzle.

John and I look forward to thanking all of you participants in person and making pizzas for you all if you can make it on May 8th.  Thanks Again!!!

We chose the photo by Greg Swan of our Eden Prairie kitchen in the evening as a finalist in the Ovens of Punch category.

Punch Pizza Eden Prairie, originally uploaded by PerfectPorridge.com.

We enjoyed the activity captured in the kitchen and how the oven at night is framed as the center of attention.  The oven in this pizzeria is the largest we have built and it really pops at night (it’s also John and my favorite place to cook calzones because the mass of the oven is best for cooking these difficult “off menu”, but delicious, items).

We have noticed more than a few of the finalists are also involved in the local music scene. Greg, a.k.a. Perfect Porridge, continues this relationship with a blog dedicated to music news and reviews at perfectporridge.com.  We saw a parralel to pizza making in Greg’s explanation for calling his site Perfect Porridge: “Why Perfect Porridge? So you’re asking yourself, “How hard can it be to make porridge?” It’s actually extremely difficult. But this ain’t no recipe site, so let’s leave it at that.”

Greg’s MP3 blog does a wonderful job of highlighting the Twin Cities’ great music scene. From a CD release party for Tuesdays Robot, to a Cassettes Won’t Listen remix, to an interview with Hojas Rojas, to an EOTO gig at the Cabooze on Saturday, to the upcoming Steve Winwood/Tom Petty concert, Perfect Porridge has it covered. Definitely check out Greg’s blog.

Thanks Greg for the beautiful picture!

Michael Novak’s camera phone shot of our northeast Minneapolis crew is a finalist in the photo contest and a very fun one to boot!  He titled the shot, “Great Staff” and we could not agree with him more.  We also really liked how he got himself in in the foreground.  It seems like these types of moments are where camera phones are so powerful.  I also appreciated the shot because this particular crew at the Hennepin pizzeria has a blast at work.  While we want to be serious about making pizza, we think it can also make you happy - especially when you get to serve our fun customers downtown.

Great Staff, originally uploaded by inventivemedia.

We also liked his shot of our MIMI pizza.  Now that Spring is finally here, this fresh pizza is a great lunch option.

Punch Pizza tight, originally uploaded by inventivemedia.

Micheal is a freelance television sports cameraman in Minneapolis.  His passion is still photography and he is starting to focus on studio shoots with creative lighting so give him a shout if you are interested in modeling. 

Thanks for the fun shoot Michael!

Stacie was chosen as one of the finalists for the Ovens of Punch category.  We are glad to see another young entrepreneur in the contest (truth is, we are beyond young now!).   Stacie is a professional photographer who specializes in band photography and promotional material.  I really enjoyed looking through her pictures, particularly her set named “Pairs.”  - check out her MySpace page if you need a photographer to shoot an event or promoting a music group! 

We loved her shot of our big red oven - our largest by far - in Eden Prairie. 

Punch Pizza, originally uploaded by stacie ann photography.

We wondered how she shot the oven with such different lighting than we use during business hours.  After checking out her photostream, “late night meals“, we think we understand she was eating late in the pizzeria and got the shot when we dimmed the kitchen lights around the oven.  However she got it, we really liked seeing our handmade (imperfect) tiling highlighted as well as the character of door of the oven formed by years of pizza cooking. 

Thanks Stacie!

We got an invite from Sean Tubridy (Tubes) to join his Save Polaroid Flickr group, which we happily did. The Polaroid Corporation is discontinuing the production of all instant film and Sean has made it his mission to save instant film.

We probably wouldn’t have given the issue much thought had we not seen Sean’s amazing Polaroid shots ourselves; especially, of course, his Punch Pizza Poloroid!

Sean’s created a Web site (SavePolaroid.com) devoted to saving the film that provides steps you can take to help preserve instant film technology. Definitely check it out.

We put genericname’s camera phone photo of our Hennepin pizzeria in the final group because his shot was kind of spooky.  Check out how the Pulcinella mask and the subject’s eyes and nose line up and how the mask seems to be staring at the camera.  The shadows of the nose of the mask on the wall was also interesting. And the graininess gives the picture sort of a ghostly feel.

punch on camera phone, originally uploaded by genericname.

The Wikepedia link to Pulcinella reveals the complexity and a bit of dark side to this character, who is the symbol of authentic Neapolitan pizza and of Naples itself.  There’s another benefit of focusing on Neapolitan pizza like we do - we definitely do not have a lame mascot!

Thanks genericname for your entry showing Pulcinella in a unique way. We love your Flickr name, by the way.

We chose Jen’s picture of our original pizzeria’s oven as a finalist.  We love how she captured the years of soot on the brick and the intense focus of the pizza cook.  The cook is putting the finishing touches on the pizza by doing what we call “doming”.  Our custom ovens have an intense layer of wood smoke at the top of the oven, and by hold the pizza in this layer as a last touch we create a unique smokiness to our pizzas.

IMG_4313, originally uploaded by enniferj8.

Jen’s passion for photographing people is clearly seen in her photostream.   Check out her great portraits in color and B&W.  Her shots of kids make me feel guilty that I have been a failure as a parent for not getting good shots of my kids.  Another great thing from this contest is I now have good contacts to use to get great photos of my family and our farm animals and pets (Jen, do you shoot professionally?).

Thanks for your great pictures, Jen!

One surprise about this contest (amongst many great ones!) is how unique and beautiful phone camera pictures can be.  Their brilliant colors and blurry images create a surreal feel.   We chose J D’s photo of our Wayzata pizzeria a finalist for those reasons.  The oven tiles, yellow wall and mural look so brilliant:

Callin’ it a day…, originally uploaded by DQwizzle.

The last few pizzerias we have built feature the art of one of Italy’s most famous artists, Lello Espositio.  Lello has become a good friend of ours from our visits to Naples.  What’s so neat about J D’s photo is it creatively captures the mural of a picture my partner John took in Lello’s studio of a pile of Pulcinella masks.   If you did not know, Punch is the English translation for Pulcinella.  Four of Lello’s large pulcinella paintings that he exhibited in New York hang in the Northeast and Wayzata pizzerias. 

We also like J D’s colorful photos of our pizza and ingredients.
Thanks J D!

We chose Leslie’s picture of our Toscana as one of the best pizza shots. 

 
When we looked at the best Punch Pizzas category shots in this contest, it was interesting to note that the Toscana and the Margherita DOC were the best looking pizzas on “film.”  The Toscana is particularly colorful with the roasted red pepper and hot pepper flakes.  The charred bubbles on the dough crust are our favorite part of her shot. It’s the charred bubbles that either make ir or break it for a person on Neapolitan pizza.  Fortunately, the great majority of our customers get it and love the right amount of char - just as we cooks love it when we make a pizza for ourselves that has a large charred black bubble on the crust.

Thanks Leslie for your great shot.  We also love your pet shots on Flickr.