On the Super Bowl menu, does pizza still rule supreme?

A Windsor, Ont. pizza restaurant is preparing for the big game on Sunday, shredding lots of cheese and chopping veggies.

On the eve of the big game, as players made their final preparations, pizza shops in Windsor were doing the same, in an effort to shine when the lights are the brightest.

Hundreds of pounds of cheese shredded, large tubs of sliced vegetables at the ready, and trays of dough on standby.

At Antonino’s Original Pizza, Joe Ciaravino said their performance comes down to preparation.

“We’ve got a big crew coming in today. To help answer the phones, take the orders, make the side orders, and most importantly, make the pizzas,” he said Sunday afternoon.

Similar to on the field, in-house, Ciaravino said they have a “quarterback” who helps set the pace and expectations.

“You’ll hear when the phone rings, oftentimes they’ll yell out ‘time.’ That means, ‘Hey, quarterback, pizza dough stretcher, give me a time to tell the customer when this order will be ready,’ and typically they have that in their head,” he said.

A large chart in the shop lays out how many pizzas are scheduled to hit the oven in a certain window. Leading up to game time, the shop will have up to 25 pizzas in the oven every 15 minutes.

“We’ve had to put our chart up and basically reserve oven space the way a restaurant reserves seats and their tables in their restaurant,” he said.

To some, the selection of food can be as important as the play on the field or the halftime performance.

In recent years, Ciaravino noticed a trend that has watchers of the big game mulling their options more carefully.

“Super Bowl’s a big day, no question about it. But it’s no longer one of the biggest of days because there’s so many other options now,” he noted.

In an era of food delivery apps, Ciaravino believes the opportunity to receive food from any institution at the click of the button has expanded Super Bowl menus.

“Because the food apps made it really easy for the host of the Super Bowl party, who maybe had a couple too many beers and doesn’t want to go out to order anything online,” he explained.

Instead, Ciaravino pointed to Valentine’s Day, largely due to their heart-shaped pizzas and local charity campaign, and Halloween as the busiest days.

The owner still expects one of the busiest nights of the year for orders.

Regardless of whether it’s the Super Bowl or any other busy day for pizza, Ciaravino stressed that shops do their best to be efficient, but customers should be patient.