Blacksburg got a mention recently on the ESPN radio network.
Not for Olympic gold medalist runner Cole Hocker.
Not for the 2-1 Virginia Tech Hokies football.
Not for Tech’s nationally ranked women’s basketball team, which takes the court later this year under a new coach, Megan Duffy.
Instead, Blacksburg got mentioned for its pizza. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good mention.
Chris Carlin, co-host of the daily “Carlin vs. Joe” show, devoted a few minutes of his Sept. 11 show to a discussion of food. The dude likes to eat, and he’s very particular about what he chows down on. He said he once turned down a radio job in Kansas City because the station didn’t take him out to a barbecue or steak place. Instead, they took him to an Italian place for lunch and seafood for dinner. Nothing against those places, but he is adamant that a host should show off whatever the town is known for, and for Kansas City, seafood ain’t it. “We’re landlocked in Kansas City!” Carlin said. (The conversation begins at about the 43-minute mark.)
That turned to a discussion of how Carlin, who was born in New Jersey and handles play-by-play broadcast duties for Rutgers football, is, in his words, “a pizza snob.” Specifically, his belief that pizza from the Northeast is superior to anywhere else. “You better have your act together if I’m coming to town. That’s all I’m saying. … The Chicago thing — don’t even bother. I’m not waiting an hour for 4 pounds of bread and a little bit of sauce and a pound and a half of cheese.”
There are some places where he won’t even order pizza.
“If you’re trying to get me to go to pizza somewhere else and we’re in the middle of nowhere — I’m going to Blacksburg, Virginia, in a couple of weeks — OK? I’m not going out for pizza. It’s not happening, it’s not happening.”
His co-host was absent that day, but Gabe Neitzel was sitting in. He suggested pizza in Blacksburg might be a risk.
“It’s not even a risk,” Carlin said. “That’s just like — no — why would I do that? Why would I go to you for that?”
Whoa?
How did a sports show take a turn to where Blacksburg is “in the middle of nowhere” and not a place where you’d order pizza?
Naturally, I had to find out. It took a while to catch up with Carlin, but I finally talked to him this week.
I found him more polite in person than on his show. It is, after all, called show business. “I’m an East Coast/Northeast snob when it comes to pizza,” he reiterated, but said he didn’t mean to disparage the food in Blacksburg. “So when I go to Blacksburg, I want the food indigenous to Virginia.”
He asked me what I’d recommend when Rutgers visits Virginia Tech this Saturday. I told him I was reluctant to suggest specific places but, being in the South, we’re always proud of our barbecue. He thought that was a good idea but said he and the Rutgers broadcast crew had already made plans. They’re staying in Roanoke and plan to eat at Macado’s for one meal and Billy’s for another.
Macado’s, he said, “was recommended to me the other day by a friend who goes to see family near Blacksburg all the time.” And the broadcast crew had picked Billy’s, although he wondered if it was too fancy. “We’re a very casual bunch.”
At the risk of opening a door that can never be closed, let me turn to our readers to defend the honor of pizza in Blacksburg — or anywhere else in these parts. What pizza place in your community would you recommend someone check out, and why? Let me know at dwayne@cardinalnews.org. Photos of you and your friends or family snarfing down that pizza welcome!
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