Anyone unaware of the significance of June 11 would have sworn that the people across Trinidad had gone pizza crazy seeing the long lines at Mario's Pizzeria outlets across the country and the volume of pizzas people were carrying home.It was in fact National Pizza Day, proclaimed by local restaurant chain, Mario's. The purpose was to celebrate Mario's anniversary and to thank loyal customers.To celebrate, special deals were offered. Throughout the day, at all locations, with the purchase of a Family Lime Special, which consists of a family specialty pizza, a 2 litre Coke and a family-sized snack, a second family one-topping pizza was awarded free.The day's observation went beyond offering a free pizza. Each location had its own fun activities such as face painting, clowns, bouncy castle, magic shows, puppet shows, balloon sculpture giveaways, photography and appearances by the Mario's mascot. Magna card got involved in the festivities by giving double points over the weekend for all purchases at Mario's.
At the El Dorado branch there was extra fun-A pizza-eating competition and a king and queen of National Pizza Day Coronation Tournament. The pizza-eating competition saw 25 contestants (20 chosen online and five randomly chosen on location) competing in five rounds of pizza-eating frenzy! At the end of fierce competition, Lawrence John, "The Annihilator", emerged the victor with Aaron-Mark Alleyne coming in a close second. John won one year of free pizza while Alleyne received one family pizza and two Artisan sandwich vouchers and third place, two Artisan sandwiches.
For the coronation tournament, 12 customers (six males and six females) were selected in the months prior to the national celebrations through three online competitions. At El Dorado they partook in five elimination games modelled after the popular "Minute to Win It" game show. Winning the king and queen titles were Mark Diaz and Kerry Ann Wilson. They both won free pizza for an entire year.National Pizza Day is testimony to Mario's customer service mission to delight its customers with not only quality products, but memorable experiences as well.