Owensboro showed up hungry. What started as a wild idea turned into 10 days of full bellies, friendly rivalries, and a love letter to local pizza.
We’d been thinking about Owensboro Times Pizza Week for over a year. The plan was for a big 2026 celebration of local pizza and local business. Then, a few phone calls later, Pizza Week was a go for 2025, and we had three weeks to pull it off! Why? Because some of our local spots needed to be lifted up, loved on, and shouted out.
Was Pizza Week itself perfect? No. Was the pizza perfect? It sure was!
The first thing we learned is that it’s easy for everyone to have an opinion and even easier for everyone to have a negative one. While “pizza by the slice” sounds like a great idea, it’s not. More importantly, it’s not what our pizza friends wanted. It takes special equipment to keep slices safe to serve, and if they aren’t sold fast enough, they have to be tossed. That means waste and unnecessary food costs. When the pros say no, we listen. We’re sorry if that disappointed some of you, but plenty of folks rose to the challenge.
So many people threw good old-fashioned pizza parties, gathering friends, ordering from different spots, sampling as many pies as possible. That’s what it’s all about. Not deals, coupons, or freebies. It’s about coming together and supporting one another when the world could use a little light and a lot of fun. Lesson learned? You can’t please everyone, but you can feed them.
The second thing we learned is that we, as a community, really, really love pizza. And just like this community, pizza is a melting pot. We had every kind imaginable hitting the tables: thick crusts, thin crusts, hand-tossed, wood-fired, and everything in between, even cookies! Some pies came stacked with wild new toppings we didn’t even know belonged on pizza (turns out they do), while others gave a glow-up to old favorites. There were classic pepperonis crisped to perfection, creative combinations that made us rethink the pizza rulebook, and a few new concoctions so good we went back for seconds and maybe thirds. Shhh…don’t tell.
Owensboro Times Pizza Week reminded us that whether it’s fancy, funky, or straight-up old-school, there is no wrong way to do pizza. Lesson two? Pizza might actually be our love language.
More importantly, there were moments of pure community magic scattered throughout the week. Those small sparks of greatness are what OT Pizza Week was really all about. There were servers who said the tips were so good during OT Pizza Week that they could afford to take a couple of days off. Several businesses started their own pizza swap so they could all try each other’s creations, and even Gov. Andy got in on the pizza mayhem. And the big bonus is that while you all were there ordering pizza, you ordered other items from their menus and bolstered sales like the champs we knew you could be.
Then came the judging, because even while we are over here singing Kumbaya and creating pizza paradise, in the end, someone’s gotta wear the crown. Now, we all know who the winners were, but let’s take a closer look. Sure, everyone wants that top prize, but some categories were neck and neck.
Let’s start with “The Supreme” category, based on rankings by a panel of judges. Only 3.9 points separated first through fifth place. That’s a tight race, folks. However, the real story shines through in the full top 10, as that’s where you see the full flavor of the community.
1 – Niko’s Bakery & Cafe
2 – The Oven
3 – Peezo’s
4 – Donatos
5 – Mellow Mushroom
6 – Mil’s Dairy Drive-In
7 – Pizza by the Guy
8 – Doozie Doez
9 – Fetta Specialty Pizza
10 – The Pillar of Fire
Look at that lineup! It’s the broadest cross-section of our city and proof that great pizza lives in every corner of the ’Boro. Matt Weafer at Niko’s continues to dazzle taste buds from his bakery in Wesleyan Park Plaza, turning out bread, pastries, and now award-winning pizza. James Harlen from The Oven spends his workdays managing the Circle K in Thruston, but he found his passion in pizza, quietly building a loyal following that snuck up on everyone who was not already in the know.
Peezo’s holds court on 2nd Street, delivering what might be the most perfect topping-to-crust ratio known to humankind. Donatos showed up and showed off in nearly every category, which tracks with the way they show up for this town every day. Mellow Mushroom may look like a chain, but spend 5 minutes with the crew tossing dough in the back and you’ll see it’s as local as it gets.
Mil’s Dairy Drive-In in Whitesville reminded everyone that good things are worth the drive. Kelly and her team serve up kindness and pure small-town sunshine. We finally met “The Guy” behind Pizza by the Guy and learned why his fans are basically a pizza-loving cult. Doozie Doez made another strong showing, proving that if it looks like pizza and makes you smile like pizza, but it’s a cookie, it still counts.
Fetta surprised everyone with a lasagna pizza topped with sauce that tasted like it came straight from an Italian Nonna’s Sunday kitchen. And finally, Chef Grace with The Pillar of Fire turned out pizza gold from under a tent, in a parking lot, one pizza at a time, boxed up with a life lesson to send you home a little bit wiser and a lot fuller.
Now let’s talk money, because the numbers do not lie. In just 10 days, the inaugural OT Pizza Week pumped more than $110,000 worth of pizza into the community! That total does not include tax, tips, breadsticks, or drinks. That’s just straight-up pizza. Talk about a shot in the arm for local business.
In the “Dough$ Maker” category for traditional pizza, Donatos came out swinging, taking the top sales spot at their Parrish Avenue location and snagging second at their spot on New Hartford Road. Filling out the rest of the top five were Fetta, Niko’s, and Mellow Mushroom.
In the “Out of the Box Dough$ Maker” category, Beef O’Brady’s led the pack, with Becca Bakes claiming second (that’s a lot of cookies, folks). Libertalia’s bagel bite took third, followed by Doozie Doez and the unstoppable crew from The Opportunity Center with their parm-crusted stromboli.
Now for the community voting results. In the “Outside the Pizza Box” category, Doozie Doez took the top spot, but the Black Flame Cartel was close behind, followed by another hot-dog-inspired contender from Primal Craft Dogz. Rounding out the top five were Becca Bakes and, once again, The Opportunity Center. Two cookies, two hot dogs, and one stromboli, tell me Owensboro doesn’t know how to get creative!
And finally, the “People’s Slice” award for the community’s favorite traditional pizza went to Donatos! They were followed closely by Pizza by the Guy, The Pizza Project, The Oven, and Niko’s. We’ve talked about most of those, but The Pizza Project from up the road in Thruston deserves its own shoutout. They snuck into the top five with a Korean BBQ pizza that came out of one of the tiniest kitchens in town and delivered some of the biggest flavors of the week.
If you read through the list of top award winners, or even the complete lineup of 28 contenders, and thought, “Wait, who are they? Where are they located? How do I get their pizza?” … then it’s time to fix that. Start getting acquainted with the stars of the Owensboro pizzaverse now, because they’re serving up pies that deserve your attention. Follow them on social media, tell people when you have fantastic experiences, tell your cat if they happen to have an off night, support local, and get ready to vote your heart (and stomach) out for your new favorite pizza or oldie goldie when OT Pizza Week 2026 rolls around.
Oh, did you think we were going to tell you our favorite pizza of the week? Hmmm … nice try. Some secrets are best kept in the box. Let’s just say there wasn’t a single bad bite, there were some mind-blowing moments, a few unexpected flavor bombs, and more than one pizza that made us question everything we thought we knew about sauce and cheese.
The best thing about Pizza Week wasn’t just the food; it was the people. We made new friends, new connections, and walked away with a fresh outlook on what it really means to love, support, and defend local businesses. So until next year, keep your crust golden, your cheese stretchy, and your Forks Up, pizza friends!
