Did you go to Boston Pizza Festival?

Why would anyone pay $40 for an entrance fee to anything??

I remember getting comp passes from work for some Phantom Gourmet event at City Hall Plaza years ago (fairly expensive passes, if I remember correctly) and I never figured out the value of the actual passes. It was just a collection of food trucks and tents with normally priced offerings and no samples or entertainment.

But at least it wasn't overly crowded or poorly organized. It was just an odd event that wouldn't have been worth the price of admission.

Ha! No, actually doing quite well between the police pension and all of the Section 8's. Life is good! If I wanted a good pizza and a crowd, I would have gotten takeout from Santarpio's for $9.90 and eaten it while watching the lines at Government Center.

If you got, say, two slices (and maybe a drink ticket, too) with the outlandish door charge it'd at least make it a little better. But $20 day-of tickets for entry into what's otherwise public land? No thanks.

Edit: hours later I realized I butchered the H out of my subject line.

I went to the extreme beer fest since a friend had an extra ticket (that I gladly paid for since his buddy bailed). While there were long wait lines for certain breweries (Tree House being one of them), the majority weren't too bad and some had no lines at all over the course of the day. For a solid four hours of tasting, I can't say it was some $60 bucks wasted for a beer enthusiast like me. Even ran into a few friends.

These areas were important transportation corridors in an era when people traveled by train, and later by car. Not only did the best recipes come through, restaurants competed for hungry travelers.

Troy was a major passenger rail hub — connecting Boston, Chicago, Montreal, and New York. Express and frequent DMU trains ran from Boston to Troy's Union Station. Downtown Troy was a huge, regional shopping destination, with hundreds of stores and restaurants.

In addition to the pizza served at the many Italian restaurants in the Albany/Schenectady/Troy area, there were a large number of pizza parlors that specialized in just pizza. All that competition raised the bar, so only the best pizzas could survive. I always said Verdile's had the best pizza anywhere, and they're apparently still surviving quite well.

^{( my family loved the food at Verdile's so much, I went there before I was even born! )}
Back then, it was just the old building on the right, and Mr. and Mrs. Verdile lived upstairs. I remember when the Mid-Century-Modern addition on the left was built. Just like the food, it's construction was top quality — classic!

I haven't been back to Verdile's since my mother died. One day, not long after she moved into an assisted care facility, she asked me to come over and take her out to lunch. She missed being able to drive and loved taking her friends out to dine, but most of them were gone too.

My mother was so happy to be at Verdile's that afternoon! She took a little sip of her Martini and remarked how perfect it was; they knew exactly how she liked them! Glancing around the dining room filled with lunchtime customers, she said everyone looks like they're having such a wonderful time! A instant later, a massive stroke lifted my mother from Verdile's to heaven.
_{( the only place that might possibly have better pizza )}

sticking to CNY.

And despite the snark from you and Johnny anon troll, there's actually fact to back it up. The Utica area was an epicenter of Italian immigration in the late 1800's into the 30's thanks to its geography and jobs, and many older people migrated upstate from NYC and Jersey as they got older and/or younger family members immigrated there. There was also a very strong mob connection back when thanks to the railroad and industry, which had its own impact.

There isn't much to brag about where I'm from, but we know pizza and Italian food better than many.