Cedar Rapids group searching for area’s best pizza

CEDAR RAPIDS - Ever wonder who has the best pizza in Iowa?

A group of friends is trying to find out.

Joseph Trapani, a systems engineer at Rockwell Collins, started the effort after moving to the area in 2007.

'Coming from Rockford, Ill., with a heavy Italian population, it is commonplace to find a Chicago-style pizza,” Trapani said. 'Since I've been in the Cedar Rapids area, I noticed that wasn't the case, so I sought out to find the best places for pizza overall.”

The group visits a new restaurant once a month.

'That way I don't have to weigh 300 pounds,” Trapani joked.

The group has visited nearly 60 restaurants. Reviews, along with photos and links, are posted to http://iowanpizzachronicles.blogspot.com and a Facebook page called 'The Iowan Pizza Chronicles.”

The first few times, group members took pictures and critiqued the food.

'After the fourth attempt, we decided to actually make a rating system to it,” Trapani said. 'There's a sheet at the end I hand out to everyone. and they put ratings one through 10 and what their favorite pizza was.”

Trapani said most of the people in the group are friends or people he knows from church or work who have been coming along for years.

'It's good to have the same base of people, it makes it consistent,” Trapani said. 'They don't go to every one. We have people who like thin crust, people who like cracker crust. So there's a variety there.”

Trapani said, so far, their favorites have been Ruby's Pizza in downtown Cedar Rapids and Lincoln Winebar in Mount Vernon.

'It's funny, one of the side effects is my wife and I have become very particular about our pizza,” Trapani said. 'You know what you like when you have it 58, 59 times.