Pizza is having its moment in the sun—from new cookbooks and restaurant concepts to articles in high-end epicurean magazines and impassioned conversations on food blogs and chat rooms. Pizza chains are ramping up in their quality and variety, while independents are opening signature restaurants specializing in pies.

Pizza’s not just a takeout food anymore, but the centerpiece of many successful menus, representing the perfect combination of fun, approachability, shareability and value for our times. Pizza also encourages creativity in style, from simple Margherita with homemade mozzarella to such over-the-top toppings as sunnyside-up eggs, house-cured guanciale and barbecued pulled pork. And there’s no doubt about it: Pizza is crossing the pizzeria barrier onto mainstream menus.

There’s any number of interesting ways to mark the pizza renaissance:

• The appearance of Italian regional and global pizza styles, including Neapolitan, Sicilian, Roman, Californian and fusion

• The return of by-the-slice sales—and not just in corner pizzerias

• The emergence of ever-more unique and artisanal toppings

• The use of pizza as an appetizer or table share

• The introduction of woodburning oven pies—and their use in producing other menu items, such as baked pastas, hearty sandwiches and seafood specialties like wood-roasted mussels

• The menuing of all shapes and sizes, from round personal size to outsize square pies

• The experimentation with pizza-like products, including calzone, stromboli and flatbreads

For more information on how Cardinal can provide tableware that will help you tap the power of the pizza trend, contact sales@cardinalglass.com

1. Pizza Margherita was first created in what Italian city? 

2. Which celebrity chef was the first to make pizza in his/her restaurant?

3. The first pizzeria in America was located in _______.

Please send your responses to: Janice.Douglas@arc-intl.com. Include your name, address and email. Winners will be notified by email.