YEE: Hoorah For Za!

Another late review for me. I really need to write these reviews immediately after the event. This was my first YEE going solo so I was nervous since I don’t many elites.
I instantly liked the décor of the charming pizzeria. The server offered beer and wine as soon as we walked in. Off to a great start! I sat at one of the tables & ended up meeting Mike, Brian, Samantha, Staci, and Niyen. Go Team Fontina!
I won’t bore you with the details. I really enjoyed everything I ate — arugula salad, meatballs, garlic bread, and of course the pizza hosted by a great manager and excellent service from the F&B staff. Everything ran smoothly.
As we were enjoying our food and drinks, we played trivia which consisted of 15 questions regarding Vegas history and pizza history. Each team started with a plain pizza– dough, tomato sauce, and cheese. For each correct answer, we would win a topping. Whoever has the most toppings wins. Although there was some heated drama with the ringing of the bells, it was hard to determine who rang first at times. Nate & Tiffany did their best to be fair.
Great Italian food, excellent service, good company, and winning LIB tickets so I had a blast. I’m looking forward to more events, meeting more elites, and checking out places that I have not been to. I will come back here too get those meatballs and arugula salad the next time I’m at the Linq. Thank you to Nate, Tiffany, and the Flour & Barley staff for throwing a fantastic event!

Hoorah For Za! This was another fabulous, fun filled elite event! As soon as we were seated, we were served drinks. Our choice of wine or beer. Then, immediately following that came food service where we got to try meatballs, salad, cheese bread, Italian bread, and various pizzas that are on their menu. Service was awesome and our drinks were constantly being refilled as soon as it ran low! Can’t go wrong with lots of wine!
Next we played team trivia, where we had to answer pizza related trivia questions. The team to answer correctly first was awarded a topping for their custom pizza. I was on Team Vino and although we started strong, we couldn’t finish and ended up coming in second… :(I wish Nate had a microphone or something because at some points it was hard to hear the question. It was also hard for Nate and Tiffany to hear which team rang their bell first and it almost always seemed like the team they were standing by was «first». Losing teams each received a consolation prize from the Unilocal swag table. I was happy that I finally got my paws on a Unilocal t-​shirt!!!
In the end, this was a great event with great company and pretty good food. Even the pizzas we made were pretty great as well, even though the slices all fell apart on ours… Guess we weren’t supposed to dump entire containers of toppings on it! But then again, how could you waste bacon?
Big thanks goes out to CM Nate and Flour & Barley for hosting this event! SYOY!

Team Barley…2 out of 5 of us really wanted to win LIB tickets, 2 out of 5 of us didn’t really care either way, and one out of 5 of us didn’t even know we were playing for tickets… I blame the wine!
Team Barley may have come in 3^rd for the trivia game but we came in 1^st for good times. Boy is that cheesy and so was the pizza!
The service staff and décor was super fun at Flour and Barley. I fell in love with the Arugala Salad, Meatballs, and Cheesy Bread. But I was a bit disappointed in the pizza, I now know why the word flour is in their name, there was way too much flour on the bottoms of the pies. They were tasty after I scraped it all off!
After trivia our team created a monstrosity of a pie, it had every topping they had in the house on it. They had to serve it on a special pan and it was impossible to cook correctly. But we enjoyed it just the same, especially the meatball topping, yum!
What fun seeing everyone and hanging out. Nate and Tiffany were hilarious during trivia. Thanks to them, Unilocal and Flour and Barley for having us out for such a fun night.

Hoorah for pizZa, the gracious staff of Flour and Barley, Unilocal,Nate and The lovely Tiffany for another awesome event.
I thought I was going to be early but managed to make it just shortly after the event started and everyone seemed to be seated at their tables already. I was greeted immediately at the door by Flour and Barley staff with a lager (I can’t remember the name of) but the pregnant belly just doesn’t allow the alcohol which is totally ok with me. I made my way back to Team Meatball where The lovely Cassandra and Carla were seated later joined by Jill & Warren. We started with appetizers. Grilled focaccia, arugula salad, cheesy garlic bread and meatballs with marinara and pesto. I didn’t try the focaccia but the cheesy garlic bread was delicious. Meatballs were super tender noisy and and delicious. I don’t know what cuts of meat they used but I could tell they were quality. Even though I wasn’t drinking alcohol I couldn’t help but overhear everyone around me rave about the house Chianti and Pinot. Glasses were constantly being tipped off and servers making rounds on everyone.
On to the trivia game. Each team received a cutting board with pizza dough and every correct question from your team lands you a topping of your choice from the toppings bar. Original prize was to have your teams pie placed on the menu but was changed to Life is Beautiful tickets for 2 for your entire team! This is a prize anyone would want so the competition was fierce and it did get a little heated for a minute. With all the bells in close proximity it was hard to tell who rang in first. Although we weren’t so successful at a loaded pie the teams next to us were kind enough to share their toppings with us, so our toppings were totally by by default! After Team Fontina took the win servers came and whisked our pizzas into the ovens and brought out pizzas from the menu and the pies created by all the teams. Menu pizzas «Big Apple» (pepperoni and cheese) and «Bianca”(cheese, bacon, chicken and asparagus) were brought out. The Big apple would have been my favorite if the crust wasn’t was plastered with an immense amount of flour. I really loved the pepperoni they used it was crispy around the edges and just spicy enough to my liking.
Even though our team didn’t win tickets to LIB the cool Yeeps I met and company that surrounded me made the event even more awesome than winning those tickets. No one left empty handed, everyone was allowed to pick a Unilocal Swag gift to take home which included Unilocal Umbrellas, bottle openers, tote bags, I love Unilocal shirts & canteens. I would have loved a shirt but they were all gone but I love my Unilocal canteen. I would have just been happy with the Unilocalstick because I’m honestly obsessed with them. Best Chapstick ever.
Thanks again To Nate for pulling off another fantastic event. Every event is always so much fun. It’s always such a good time and a priveledge to be a part of the Elite Las Vegas community. I truly love meeting new people including Staci M, Jill D, Warren, Carla and many other familiar faces I’ve met at previous events. I hope to continue to be invited to these events and continue to build and form new friendships. Until the next event!

Flour & Barley, I am beyond impressed. From the moment we walked in we were greeted with a warm welcome and a tray of drinks. My kind of place.
First and foremost, I have to comment on how well this event was organized and how awesome the service was. Their staff was very attentive & very knowledgable about the wine & beer selection, as well as the food. They really know their stuff & take pride in their resto. Some other events (which I won’t name names) didn’t seem to have their $h!t together (pardon my french) and a lot of time was wasted due to poor planning or just miscommunication. Thankfully, that was not the case here. They definitely came prepared and it showed. So kudos to everyone at F&B.
The food came out almost immediately and kept coming all night long… all night!!! Hee-​hee! ;) The drinks were flowing too. I never had an empty drink or plate, lord knows I was trying to keep up haha! I just can’t eat as much as I used to but that’s a good thing.
As for the food, wow! Let me just say, I never order meatballs because they usually taste terrible or very bland. But these were probably the best meatballs I’ve had so far. Loved the pesto on top too. If I were Robbie from The Wedding Singer, I’d be more than happy to be paid in these meatballs. :) So I guess it was appropriate that I ended up sitting at the #TeamMeatball table! Lol. The salad wasn’t my favorite, a little too bitter for my taste but I did enjoy the cheesy bread and sauce and the toasted bread (focaccia?) as well.
Despite the fact that our team kinda bombed with the trivia questions, and we ended up with only a few toppings, our pie turned out to be pretty good. Vegetarian by default but tasty nonetheless. Thankfully other Unilocalers were nice enough to share their toppings with us, otherwise we would’ve had a plain cheese pizza. Reminds me of Home Alone. «A lovely cheese pizza, just for me!!» :D
Okay that’s enough movie references for now. So the verdict, 5 stars! Loved the food, loved the service, loved the location and the fact that we were able to create our own pie was really fun. Thoroughly satisfied to say the least. Coming back for sure. Grazie Flour & Barley!

Pizza and trivia led to a great night hosted by Flour & Barley and Nate!
I was already excited to go because… pizza. But the possibility of getting Life is Beautiful tickets amped up my excitement even more. I gots to see my boy Brandon Flowers.
We started out with some cute chef hats and yummy apps. The cheesy bread was especially tasty and the meatballs had a nice flavor. I really enjoyed the salad as well. The mushrooms were a nice treat in there.
On to the trivia. As soon as I saw the bells for dinging, the third grade teacher in me thought, «Oh crap, this is going to cause some drama,» as I’ve seen the fights over who dinged in first happen with my students. Luckily, it didn’t cause too much drama as I think we all were there for the fun of it! In the end, my table did not win the coveted LIB tickets, but I did score a pretty sweeeeeet umbrella as a consolation prize.
After the trivia was over, there was a topping free for all and I think my table ended up putting every topping available on our pie. Of course the pizza didn’t cook through that well with all those toppings, but I still thought it was a delightful, sloppy pizza! The tomatoes really surprised me. They were marinated and had a really good ZING to them.
Elite events are always fun, and I enjoyed the new people I met at my Team Barley table. Thanks to Nate for putting this shindig together.

Once again I am overwhelmed by the Las Vegas Elite squad, they are always an amazing group of people. I challenge any city on this great nation to show me a more enthusiastic group of Elites.
Now, kudos to the team at Flour & Barley for a wonderfully fun evening. And thank you for letting us make our own pizzas. No offense, but yours had a little too much flour on the crust — of course, I am sure that was just an oversight, or maybe you were out of cornmeal or something. I am sure you will have it figured out next time.
Now the meatballs were fabulous — not sure what mixture of herbs and spices went into those things but you got yourself a winner there.
The staff were by far the highlight of the evening, they were amazingly attentive and knowledgeable. It gives me hope that great service is returning to Las Vegas.
**This is a special call out to all patrons of the Flour & Barley (and all restaurants at the Linq for that matter): If there is anyone who works for AT&T, Sprint or T-​Mobile, please let your companies know that they are failing these wonderful new establishments.
Thanks again to the wonderful staff at Flour & Barley, Nate and my amazing fellow Eliters — very proud to call myself one of you.

This was a fantastic event! And not just because Team Fontina won. Though winning Life is Beautiful tickets was rather fabulous.
It was a perfectly sized event. Perfect size crowd and perfect amount of food. And, of course, plenty of beer and wine too.
All of the food was tasty. From the cheese bread to the meatballs to the pizzas. Not only did we get to build our own pizza, we got to also try out some of their other pizzas too.
The trivia and build a pizza aspects were a blast! We loaded up our pizza with bacon, prosciutto, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and artichokes. And it was darn tasty. We had a great team and definitely had fun.
I really like events like this where not only do you get to experience a new place, but there’s quality time spent with fellow Unilocalers and more of an interactive experience.
All in all, Flour & Barley were great hosts and I’m sure to be back. And, of course, Nate did a great job putting together another fantastic event.

Another stellar YEE — firstly, thanks to Nate, Tiffany and the awesome staff at Flour & Barley!
After checking in, I walked in and immediately fell for the atmosphere. It reminded me of a few of the cozy pizza shops I have frequented back home… exposed brick walls, an intimate bar and plenty of seating both inside and outside. I was also immediately greeted with a glass of my choice of Chianti or Pinot Grigio. This place really knows how to sing to my heart! I went with the Chianti and was NOT disappointed!
I think I was one of the last to arrive because everyone seemed to have picked their seats. I just sat at the first seat I saw open which happened to be at the table of Team Fontina. I got to meet some new Unilocal folks — Michele, Mike, Brian and Samantha & catch up with Niyen. We had a wonderful time enjoying drinks and apps!
Aside from the Chianti (that we learned is actually served from a barrel there!) I got to switch to the Estrella Damm Lager half way through the event… which our servers never let our glasses go empty! I learned that the lager is imported from Barcelona, Spain — first beer I’ve had from there and it was pretty darn tasty! The apps served were an arugula salad, meatballs, cheesy garlic bread with marinara and bruschetta. The arugula salad and cheesy garlic bread were delicious but those meatballs were phenomenal! Whatever the blend is that they use for Meatball they should never change it! It had the perfect texture and was perfectly seasoned! I have never had pesto on a meatball, but the blend of the marinara and pesto added just the right amount of extra flavor.
Trivia began and I learned quick that my seating decision couldn’t have been better. Though the scores were very close with Life is Beautiful passes on the line but Team Fontina came out on top! We started with a plain pizza and with each correct trivia question we were given a topping for our team pie… in the end our trivia pie was fantastic! We were also served two pies from Flour and Barley’s menu — a pepperoni pie and an asparagus and chicken pie. Both pizzas were tasty but I couldn’t help but notice the excessive use of flour. I know the name is Flour and Barley… but dang! I plan to return so I hope that this isn’t the norm.
I had a stellar time meeting new Unilocalers and engaging in a little friendly trivia competition. I like to believe that I am part ninja turtle with the amount of pizza I consume so I’m super thrilled that we had a pizza event! The service was stellar and the atmosphere was perfect! Thanks again Nate, Tiffany and Flour and Barley for hosting this amazing event!

In my six-​year tenure as a Unilocal Elite, I’ve attended a lot of YEEs. Almost without exception, they are all fabulous — all different, but all superb. The one quality that made Hurrah for Za shine was a simple word: FUN!
First, we were fed and watered by the very capable staff of Flour and Barley, who were so quick to fill up my wine glass that I completely lost track of just how much I was imbibing. My thanks to whatever Higher Power allowed me to get home without incident or the assistance of Metro :) The great food helped: stupendous meatballs, garlic bread, cheese bread, pizza, craveable salad, with dessert being our own pizza creations.
The pizza trivia contest was a hoot. My team — Team Barley — suffered a bit from grain drain, er, make that brain drain, and hot hands ringing the bell prematurely on more than one occasion. We came in third, but still managed to construct an outlandish pizza piled high with too many ingredients. It actually tasted great!
The assistant manager of Flour and Barley, the staff, and of course our own Nate and Tiffany are to be congratulated for putting together a well-​olive-​oiled memorable YEE.

Team Pasta may not have won at trivia, but if the contest had been for having fun, send that trophy our way because we had a blast!
One of the main things I was looking forward to at this event was seeing a dear old friend, Lisa R. so I was super stoked that she was the first Unilocaler I spotted after arriving at Flour & Barley. And then a total blast from the past walked in, it was great to see Bobby Y. at an event again after so many months.
The Flour & Barley staff were fantastic, they kept my glasses full of water and wine all evening (I really enjoyed house white wine, a Pinot Grigio) and honestly, I was almost ready to tap out food-​wise before the pizza our team made went to the oven! Garlic AND cheesy bread, large meatballs and a delicious salad were the appetizers we had and then we also got to sample two different pizzas (and by sample I mean pig out on, our table had 3 full pizzas on it at one point).
The trivia portion of the event probably could have been organized differently to be fairer, I know most people really wanted those LIB tickets so things got a little heated at times. Team Pasta came in 4^th, which would have meant a rather sparsely topped pizza, thankfully we were able to get a couple extra toppings after trivia wrapped up.
Our pizza ended up both beautiful and delicious thanks to Bobby’s saucing skills and artful cheese sprinkling as well as Lisa’s talent at adding toppings.
Nate and Tiff did it yet again. I feel like a broken record when it comes to reviewing events lately, but each and every elite event I have attended in the past 10 months has been so enjoyable. Thank you two for your efforts, and thank you to the Flour & Barley staff for the wonderful service and great grub!

First off, as always I have to give a shout out to the Las Vegas Unilocal community, Nate our CM and his better half Tiffany, and of course our host Flour and Barley for having us Unilocalers invade!
So this was my first Elite Only events to attend to, so I was excited I was going to get the chance to meet new people and hang with my elite buds! So arriving I sat myself with Ramil B. at table Pizza Pie and truly had the pleasure of meeting Arthur, Amy, and Melissa. We were all greeted with choice of beer or wine upon entering, which I mean, who doesn’t love a glass of alcohol to greet you?! And I have to say for the record I don’t normally like Pinot wine, but I enjoyed this one, and after 5glasses I was having a grand olé time at this event! Lol
All the appetizers we had were so delicious! The cheesy bread with the marinara dipping sauces was soft and cheesy and the sauce adding that complimentary perfection. The meatballs in marinara topped with pesto was also very good! One ball big enough that you have you cut it in order to even eat it! The meatball was wonderful and juicy with just the right amount of seasoning and garlic and loved that it was not too oily. The salad tho!!! The salad with the sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms (my favorite), artichoke, and Parmesan cheese along with the light dressing was too good to not have couple servings! I refilled my plate 3x. The salad tho had me at mushrooms.
And to top it off, we hardly ever had to ask for refills, including the wine, which is why I somehow ended up having like 5glasses and leaving just a tad bit tipsy :)
The trivia and pizza making portion of this event was tots fun! We were Team Pizza Pie and aside losing tickets to LIB, it was fun! But love that with being elite, everyone wins some way or another coz c’mon, we wine and dine for free basically and always leave with some sorta of goodies! I took home a tumbler! Even with answering some questions wrong, like I said we all were winners! That least that’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night lol: p
Our pizza had mushrooms, bacon, sundried tomatoes meatballs and prosciutto on it! What I thought was really awesome, was that after trivia was over and everyone’s teams were creating their pizzas, the teams were all sharing toppings to each other which even though the toppings went to the teams that get their questions correct, I found it great everyone was willing to share toppings once the trivia was all said and done. And I must say our pizza tasted pretty dam good.
upon leaving, I wanted to take the time to thank Nick, the asst gen manager that spoke to us at the beginning of the event, and just thanked him for having us, and as well complimented their other establishments in the city like Holsteins and Blind Pig, which I’m a huge fan of both of them! Got to meet one of the head chefs also on my way out which was pretty cool!
Again another great event! And thank you always to Nate for setting up the Elites with great nights like these with great people! Hoorah!!!

The free flowing booze and good company of my yeeps made the Hoorah for Za event at Flour and Barley an awesome event. The ample amount of scrumptious food laid out before me and the impeccable customer service skills of the Flour and Barley staff really put this event over the top. I had an absolute blast! Thanks Nate and Tiffany for organizing such a fun event! (Special thanks to Carla M. for giving me a ride and allowing me to indulge in the wine and beer being passed around! :P)
Right when I walked in, I was offered a glass of wine. Needless to say, the night was definitely off to a great start! Carla and I decided to sit at the empty Team Meatball table. Brooke P., Jill D. and Warren later joined Team Meatball. While we were still settling in, the food came pouring in like nobody’s business. Cheesy garlic bread, an arugula salad, a bowl of meatballs, and another platter of bread was doled out at each table. My personal favorite out of these tasty appetizers was the cheesy garlic bread dipped with marinara sauce. YUM! To my delight, the Flour and Barley staff were super eager to refill our glasses and on top of taking away plates.
Next up was pizza trivia led by Nate and refereed by Tiffany, which Team Meatball failed miserably at lol. I think we were the only team that had ZERO toppings for our custom pizza. Luckily for us, the table next to us (the one with Amy and Melissa, who are the nicest folks ever BTW) were kind enough to pass along mushrooms and broccoli. Yes, we received pity toppings, but that’s okay! Warren nabbed some sun-​dried tomatoes from the leftover stack of toppings as the final ingredient for our pizza. Our pizza was whisked away, cooked, and brought back in a jiffy. Everyone in our group liked the pizza! Plus, the Flour and Barley brought out 2 additional pizzas for our table to enjoy, including a peperoni pizza and some kind of bacon pizza. At the end of the night, I had a small food baby in my belly!
All in all, Hoorah for Za was a fun-​filled event. I even was treated to an aluminum Unilocal water bottle as a consolation prize! Good times, good food, and good people.
Unilocal 100 CHALLENGE 2015: #89

Life is beautiful. The Unilocal Las Vegas community is beautiful. And so was this event.
After check-​in, we were seated inside of Flour & Barley in the back area with prepared tables awaiting for us alongside our Unilocal goodies and Unilocal chef hats.
Our table, Team Fontina, consisted of Brian A., Samantha, Staci, Michelle, Niyan (spelling?), and myself. Meeting all these great people is what truly made this event special. We enjoyed plenty of conversation, good laughs, and great food together.
Right away, we started off with generous sampling of the wine and beer selection. I started with the Estrella Damm Lager which was a very smooth, great beer. The red wine Chianti was also a big hit with many Unilocalers commenting on how amazing it was. Refills came as we pleased and our appetizers followed shortly.
The kale and arugula salad was light and delicious. Tossed with oven roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, pine nuts, artichoke, and parmesan in a balsamic vinaigrette, I had to have more.
The beef, pork, and veal «grandma-​style» meatballs that was served with parmesan and tomato sauce was super high quality. The size of the meatballs were generous and the flavors were just right. I wish I had a grandma that made these for me when I was a kid.
The garlic cheese bread was another fine starter for a night of good things to come.
Following our appetizers, pizza trivia commenced. With Life is Beautiful tickets on the line, the serious-​meter was in full effect. Using physics, we calculated precisely the right time to hit our bell (taking into consideration the speed of sound) so that Tiffany (the bell judge) would hear our chime first. This was hard as Tiffany kept moving around and so sometimes we didn’t answer first. When we were called to answer, we came up big and never missed a question. This was important as even when other groups answered first, sometimes they answered incorrectly and, by process of elimination during multiple choice, we’d get the right answer. Each time we answered correctly, we were able to add one topping to our custom made pizza. In the bonus round, we solidified our lead and put ourselves ahead of a very worthy competitor in Team Vino.
We fired up our custom made pizza consisting of proscuitto, bacon, artichoke, mushroom, and oven roasted tomatoes w/​mozzarella and it was much more delicious than the other two pizzas we sampled tonight. While the pizzas were not bad, the two pizzas on the menu we sampled had an excess of flour on the bottom of the pizza which I am not sure was intentional or not. It was not noticeable in our custom-​made pie.
Winning was great but meeting all these class act Unilocalers were the highlight of the night for me. Shout out to Brian A. on our team. When we were ahead in trivia with two questions remaining, he actually told our group not to answer any more questions to allow the other five or six teams to get toppings for their pizza. Then after the game was over, it was his idea to share all our toppings with the other tables which we did. A true gentleman right there, guys!
Shout out to CM Nate, Tiffany, Nick the assistant manager of F & B and the entire staff. You guys put on another fun and memorable event and I’m sure the whole Unilocal community appreciates it more than you can imagine. Til next time!

First of all I want to point out the worst part of this event. The really bad service! Let that sink in. Wait for it… wait for it…
No, im not talking about the actual service from the waitstaff. Im talking about the cell phone reception. There was none whatsover! Thankfully you can connect to the Linq wifi by submitting your email address.
As for the event, wowzers! Screw you spell check. I think thats spelled right. Where else can you go hang out with awesome peeps and eat good food while trying to answer questions about the history of pizza? Yes sir, only this event can claim that.
So the night starts off just like every nice Unilocal event. Nate showing off his Unilocal jacket! Ok so I think its nice but I would be more impressed if he wore it during an outdoor Unilocal event in the summer in triple digits. Now if he does that without a drop of sweat then he truly is worthy of that Unilocal jacket.
Sorry, I tend to get easily distracted by shiny things, mainly by this brightly lit lap top LCD. Anyways, Like all great Unilocal events, just about everything went smoothe like it should. People were seated together in teams with names supposedly of Italian influence like Meatballs, Pasta, Fontaina (isnt that a middle of nowhere town in the inland empire of southern California?) and our team which was called Vino. Good thing I dont drink or that would of been my first event in which I could have been extremely loud and obnoxious. Either that or knocked out after a couple rounds. We were served meatballs, salad, cheese bread, and regular bread. that alone was great. Later we were served various samples pizza they had on the menu not to mention the pizza that we created through the trivia game.
Then came the weird part of the event. Trivia. You ring the bell thats on your table after Nate asks a question TWICE. Not only did people not understand that part, but with so much noise in the room from all the patrons, it was hard to tell who rang their bell first. Im not saying im bitter that we came in second although my newly found table mate Andrea F was just a tad disappointed (as in stabbing somebody and dumping the body without even blinking an eyelid), that she was not shy to voice her concern. (Friend request to her is pending)
If you refer to my pic, there was a generous assortment of Unilocal swag that was given away to all contestants. I got a Unilocal shirt.
In the end there was no doubt that everybody had a great time thanks to the great hospitality of the crew at Flour and Barley. Of course this event would not have been possible without the hard work of Nate and his lovely assistant Tiffany. Memo to you guys. There’s gotta be an easier and more organized way to have a trivia contest. You know, like getting spanked by a wooden pizza paddle or jumping in the fountain thats just outside of the restaurant if you answer wrong.
Unilocal 2015 Review #26 «Team Vino got screwed»
524 overall

Whether old friends or new friends we are all, indeed, Unilocal friends. And we came together tonight at Flour and Barley for some pizza and trivia. Pizza trivia in fact.
I was on Team Barley along with Alexis, April, Jay and Sheila. We weren’t the best team in the group but we did place third. You see, we gathered together in groups and were asked a series of pizza trivia questions. We were asked each question twice and had to wait until each question and iteration were complete before ringing the bell to answer. There were some stumbles and bells were rung prematurely. Premature. I shudder at the shear utterance of the word. Premature is rarely, if ever, a good thing. Anyway, an early ring-​in was an automatic disqualification for the round. A correct answer, having been the first to legally ring the bell, led to the addition of a topping of our choice. We won one question and chose mushrooms for our pizza. That is about as far as we got. It was of little consequence though. As soon as the questions were over and done with it was a topping free for all. A mad rush to make the perfect pie.
I’m not sure our pizza actually qualified for the title of perfection. We over loaded it with, well, everything. We had mushroom, meatball, prosciotto, brocolini, artichoke and sun dried tomato. It was piled high and looked horrendous. When it came to our table, though, it was a masterpiece. Maybe a bit impressionist if I had to put a lable on it. Very pretty and vaguely resembling that which it was meant to be. The crust was left under cooked as it was burried beneath so much goodeness it simply could not cook. I rather enjoyed the dough bound feast. I’m not sure if that sentiment was shared table wide.
At the end of the evening, a lot of laughs were had, the competitive side of Unilocalers came out and some amazing pizza was made. The grand prize table, Team Fontina, won tickets to the Life is Beautiful fesitval. Team Barley in third was offered a runner up visit to the consolation prize table. I already have a bottle opener and flask. A t-​shirt would not fit me. I have no need for a tote bag. I chose a Unilocal umbrella. Its practical and nothing I had previously. Maybe some day I’ll get to use it. Vegas gets rain sometimes, right?

Team Pasta!!! I was very fortunate to return to my Vegas Unilocal community (the original is always the best, like Law & Order) for an elite event while back in town. Nate M. and Tiffany O. were fabulous hosts, as were Flour & Barley and AGM Nick.
Team Pasta consisted of the genius group of Faye M., Ardie Y., Bobby Y., Yuhi K., Jessie B., and me! We were provided many appetizers, of which I tried the grilled bread, cheese bread, and arugula salad with artichokes and roasted tomatoes. I also enjoyed pinot grigio, which was refilled often via carafe.
Bobby Y. was our sauce-​and-​cheese-​meister and decorated our dough artfully.
We got 2 questions right so as the toppings-​meister I got artichokes and broccolini. Other teams shared roasted tomatoes and mushrooms with us. Major props to my team for letting our pizza stay veggie.
The pizza was pretty (see pic) and came out hot and tasty. Topped with red chile flakes, it really was great, thanks to Bobby Y.‘s masterful saucing and cheesing skills. We also were able to pick out a bit of Unilocal swag so I grabbed the umbrella to stick in Eric R.‘s car since he did not have one when it poured all day yesterday. It was great to see lots of people and catch up! Also props to Brian A. for walking me back to my car in the spooky Linq garage.

First and foremost, gotta give gratitude. Thanks as always to Unilocal Las Vegas CM Nate, his lovely assistant Tiffany, and our wonderful hosts at Flour & Barley.
After check-​ins, we entered the restaurant and seated ourselves in the designated area, simultaneously and perhaps unwittingly becoming bands of brothers. Our tablemates would soon become our trivia teammates, and we would forge bonds in battle that can never be broken [maybe slightly exaggerating, but only slightly]. Team Vino — which I jokingly mentioned wanting to represent because the name translates to wine — was pizza decorator Roger, buzzer pounder Stefany, Bethany, Bailey, Brian, and of course our politician Andrea.
Before the battle, however, we enjoyed some food and drinks courtesy of the lovely staff of Flour and Barley. Employees came around with glasses of chianti (my choice), pinot grigio, and Estrella Damm lager (and would provide reasonable refills throughout the night). As previously slated on the event description, each table received a helping of Meatballs (or two in our case — not sure if this was true for all tables), some sliced baguettes, and a plate of Garlic-​Cheese Bread with marinara. We also unexpectedly received a bowl of their Arugula & Kale salad, a lighter complement to the announced dishes. All parts of this appetizer course were delicious, especially the meatballs. They were moist and seemed like they were quality cuts (of beef, veal, and pork according to the menu) before hitting the grinder.
The tension loomed, however, and after Nate explained the rules of the game multiple times, things got underway. It was 15 (pared down to 13 I think) trivia questions, with the winning team members each receiving tickets to Vegas’s own Life is Beautiful festival. In addition, each team received a «blank slate» pizza and a plastic tub each of tomato sauce and mozzarella, and gloves for sanitary pizza construction. each answer allowing a team’s «Topping Miser» (that was me for Team Vino) to grab an additional topping from a limited selection of topping-​filled tubs (3 proscuitto, 2 meatball, 2 bacon, 2 mushroom, 2 broccolini, 2 artichoke, and 2 roasted tomato).
I won’t break down the entirety of the action, but the «ringers» and the difficulty of determining who rang their bells first were the focus of much of the drama, as was the whole reading the question twice (and whether multiple choice answers needed to be read out twice). I suspect that there weren’t any dress rehearsals for this, but Nate did his best on the fly to keep the action moving along smoothly, knowing that most people would end up slightly less than satisfied at the end. I will say, however, that the surprise bumping of correct answers to 2 points in the final leg, as well as the invalidation of some questions, could have been handled a little better…
After a hot start, Team Vino unfortunately finished as runners-​up and received first dibs at the loot table. I gladly selected a T-​shirt because I had somehow never managed to get my hands of a Unilocal shirt before. Flasks, tall travel mugs, Swiss army knives, water bottles, umbrellas, and invertable bags were among the other items available for contestants.
In the aftermath, we enjoyed some more food. While our customized pizzas were shuttled away to the oven, we sampled some of Flour and Barley’s other pizzas, namely the Big Apple (pepperoni and mozzarella) and the Bianca (fontina, pancetta, broccolini, and artichoke). These pizzas were certainly pretty good, although I wouldn’t have minded a more crunchy texture, and there was a very noticeable and distracting layer of flour on the bottom of the pizzas. I know it’s in the name of the restaurant, but we don’t need the extra bit, thanks. Our table definitely loved our spoils of war, with prosciutto, bacon, broccolini, and a healthy portion of mozzarella piled atop the thin crust. I’m pretty sure Nate enjoyed a slice of ours too. You’re lucky that we didn’t slip something in it after trivia, buddy. ;) Joking aside, the evening definitely ended well.
Shout out to all the Unilocalers in attendance for making it a great night! I had a great time catching up with or meeting Bobby, Lisa, Brooke, Ardie, Jay, Niyen, guy-​in-​the-​Golden-​State-​Warriors shirt (I’ll know the name when I see it, sigh…) (Warren! thanks, Brooke) and of course Team Vino. While only one team received the grand prizes for the trivia competition, I think most would agree that we were all winners in a night full of food, socializing, and Unilocal swag.

Team Vino!
It was an epic night of trivia and great food. The cherry on top are the amazing Unilocalers I was able to share the evening with.
It started off right away with amazing appetizers of meatballs, salad and cheesy garlic bread. Yum! The meatballs were amazing. The trivia was shortly started after our beginning food. Team Vino didn’t win the grand prize but we still had an amazing team.
Upon answering questions, we were able to create an amazing pizza which we all indulged. The other pizzas were also great. The chicken and asparagus pizza was delicious! Perfect toppings was a sure winner. Even the pepperoni pizza was great. I loved their flavors and taste. Delicious all around!
I’m grateful for the ultimate Unilocal guy Nate. It was a fun event combined with wonderful people and great food. Thanks to all for always making Unilocal events memorable!

What an awesome event! Table teams tried appetizers, played pizza-​fact trivia, and made their own pies. I can’t think of anything I’d add to this scenario. Except a final 3-​point challenge question to take back the lead… ;)
We were greeted and seated, and offered a trio of beverages– the red wine was a good pairing with the saucy meatballs! Besides the balls, our garlic-​cheese bread and salad disappeared quickly. The apps were our brain food, and after a quick review of the rules, our pizza trivia tournament began!
As the designated bell-​ringer for Team Vino, my competitive side really came out after we got the first couple of questions correct. Ultimately we didn’t win (we lost by ONE question!), but when you play as a team, everyone wins! We all got pizza at the end, and our bacon-​prosciutto-​broccolini creation was actually surprisingly good, especially with red pepper flakes on top. The Bianca and Big Apple pies from the F&B menu were surprisingly floury on the bottom with good flavors in the toppings, and a light, chewy crust. I’m glad they sell by the slice at a stand outside, because I don’t trust myself to take home a full pie!
I came away from this event with a full belly, a Unilocal coffee thermos, a new stash of Unilocalstick, a new friend in Andrea F. AND plans to see my Unilocal bestie Bethany again soon. Team Fontina may have won Life is Beautiful tickets, but making friends with fellow Unilocalers makes winners of us all.
Many thanks to the assistant manager and staff of Flour & Barley for having us over for game night, and to Nate & Tiffany for planning and coordinating our cheesy competition.