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Wilhelm Rodríguez of Papa’s Pizza in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, won America’s Best Pepperoni Slice at Pizza Expo Columbus with a 45.50, against 45.35 for second place. In another division, PMQ reported, the whole field was two competitors. Those two facts are the useful part of the second Midwest Pizza Expo. At the top, the margins are tiny. Below the marquee titles, the odds are far better than Las Vegas. And the education program read like a list of what’s squeezing operators this year.
Oven Scars did not attend. This recap is compiled from published results and trade coverage.
A smaller show with a cost-heavy agenda
The show ran Oct. 11–12 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The first edition was Oct. 26–27, 2025. Pizza Today billed the education program at more than 20 sessions, demos and workshops. For scale, Las Vegas in March had more than 40 seminars, 13 workshops and 12 live demos.
Look at the titles the editors picked to promote. Nick Bogacz of Caliente Pizza & Draft House on combating rising food costs. Eric Redfield of Camporosso on financial literacy for owners. Rocky Shanower on the guest experience, including online ordering and third-party delivery. Mike Bausch of Andolini’s on “AI Office, Analog Kitchen.” Scott Wiener on trends. Pizza Today’s Day 1 report adds sessions on opening a pizzeria, sustainable systems, community-driven marketing and analyzing costs for growth. On the floor, the same report says, attendees test-drove equipment and technology, including AI.
That’s three cost-and-money sessions in one short program. No published coverage we found reports what the speakers actually said, so we can’t pass along their numbers. But the lineup itself tells you where the organizer thinks your pain is: the office, not the oven.
The winners, and the gaps between them
The published score sheet is worth reading closely:
- Pepperoni Slice: Rodríguez (45.50), Joe Maino of Detroit Pizza School in Ypsilanti, Mich. (45.35), and Slice on Broadway in Pittsburgh (45.00).
- Traditional Thin, overall: Anthony Berghela of Romo’s Pizza in Glenmont, N.Y. (44.77), ahead of Rico Lunardi of Slice on Broadway (44.57). Lunardi won the flatbread-style subdivision.
- St. Louis style: Sean Dempsey of Dempsey’s Brewery in Watertown, S.D. (36.21), over Bella Cartieri of Caliente (35.17).
- Tavern style: Han Tran of Big Parma Pizza in Metairie, La.
PMQ adds the specialty titles. Dempsey also took America’s Best Breadsticks/Garlic Knots. Enrico Aguila of Uncle Rico’s Pizza in Fort Myers, Fla., won Dessert Pizza on his first try in the category. Giovanni Labbate of Tievoli Pizza Bar in Palatine, Ill., took second in Gluten-Free with a Detroit-style pie.
One winning method is published, and you can test it this week. Dempsey formed his knots about an hour before baking, let them proof, then gave them a hard 15-minute bake before tossing them in butter and garlic. That’s a side item with a prep window built in, not a last-minute scramble.
A sixth of a point decided the marquee title. Two entries made up a whole division. Pick your fight accordingly.
Takeaway one: enter where the field is thin, and plan the story first
Las Vegas capped most 2026 divisions at 110 entries, as we reported in October. Columbus had a regional style division with two. If your shop already makes a style that few shops compete in, a regional show is the cheaper place to win something.
And the win travels. Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Día ran Rodríguez’s story two days after the show. He told the paper, “Por poco lloro cuando dijeron mi nombre” (“I almost cried when they said my name”). A press release on Slice on Broadway’s wins went out on PR Newswire on Oct. 14. Both stories were out within two days of the trophies. That’s the playbook from our piece on why losing a competition is still marketing, run by shops that won.
Takeaway two: go to learn about one cost line, or don’t go
If Columbus’s agenda is right that money is the problem, the Las Vegas question is simple. Which cost line do you want fixed? The cheapest Las Vegas pass tier ends Nov. 30, and tickets are non-refundable. We laid out the deadlines and the combo math last month. The 2027 floor runs April 13–15. If your problem is food cost, start with your own numbers against published benchmarks before you book a flight.
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The honest limitation: nobody has published attendance, exhibitor counts or entry totals for Columbus 2026, so we can’t tell you how big the show was or how deep most divisions ran. The two-competitor field is one division in one year. Accounts also differ on the name of Slice on Broadway’s third-place pepperoni competitor, so we’ve left it out. If the organizer publishes full numbers, the odds math above is the first thing to rerun.
Common questions
When was Pizza Expo Columbus 2026?
It ran Oct. 11–12, 2026, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Ohio, per Pizza Today. It was the second Columbus show; the first was in October 2025.
Who won America's Best Pepperoni Slice at Pizza Expo Columbus 2026?
Wilhelm Rodríguez of Papa's Pizza in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, with a 45.50. Second place scored 45.35, so the title came down to about a sixth of a point, per the published score sheet.
Is Pizza Expo Columbus easier to win than Las Vegas?
Some divisions are much smaller. PMQ reported that the St. Louis-style division had two competitors this year. Las Vegas capped most divisions at 110 entries in 2026.
