Pizza Diet in style
How I ate pizza on a Rolls Royce and why
by Anjelika Kour
It was the month of my 28th birthday (May, 2017) and our company produced an influencer event of a lifetime - Brick & Portal Weekend - brickandportal.com/weekend. The project comprised a 4-day weekend where 12 influencers from around the world (Moscow, Quito, Kuala Lampur, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milan, NYC) were flown into NYC and hosted in a gorgeous Marmara Park Avenue hotel's two-story penthouse suites (Influencer House). A camera crew, a half dozen photographers, and thousands upon thousands of eyeballs from influencer stories followed the infamous pack around NYC's hottest restaurants, clubs, and pop-up experiences from helicopter rides around Manhattan to making ice-cream in West Village.
On the day of my actual birthday - May 26 - the day started with a breakfast spread at the Marmara living room suites with influencers in hair & makeup from as early at 6/7 am call times. A fleet of three gorgeous Rolls Royces arrived at the doors of Marmara to start escorting the influencers to our first destination - Ribalta Pizza - an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria located in Union Square area of Manhattan. Influencers had the best time eating the infamous authentic Neapolitan pies, hearing a little bit of history of how Chef Pasquale Cozzolino (celebrity chef and a bestselling author) came to America and, of course, the history of pizza. Chef Cozzolino presented his new book - The Pizza Diet - and signed copies for all the influencers in attendance.
The Rolls Royce chauffeurs were patiently waiting outside for the event to conclude and to begin transporting the influencers to the next activation - Verragio diamond jewelry factory located in an undisclosed location on 5th Avenue (largest diamond factory in United States). I arranged for several pizzas to be brought out to the drivers while they wait and Chef Cozzolino saw to it himself to make the pies perfect and carry them out to the drivers, placing them carefully on the vehicles as make-shift tables for their lunch. As the pies hit the hood of the cars - it struck us how beautifully the red pomodoro sauce of the authentic Neapolitan margherita contrasted against the shiny white paint of the the 2017 brand new Rolls Royce Ghost.
On the day of my actual birthday - May 26 - the day started with a breakfast spread at the Marmara living room suites with influencers in hair & makeup from as early at 6/7 am call times. A fleet of three gorgeous Rolls Royces arrived at the doors of Marmara to start escorting the influencers to our first destination - Ribalta Pizza - an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria located in Union Square area of Manhattan. Influencers had the best time eating the infamous authentic Neapolitan pies, hearing a little bit of history of how Chef Pasquale Cozzolino (celebrity chef and a bestselling author) came to America and, of course, the history of pizza. Chef Cozzolino presented his new book - The Pizza Diet - and signed copies for all the influencers in attendance.
The Rolls Royce chauffeurs were patiently waiting outside for the event to conclude and to begin transporting the influencers to the next activation - Verragio diamond jewelry factory located in an undisclosed location on 5th Avenue (largest diamond factory in United States). I arranged for several pizzas to be brought out to the drivers while they wait and Chef Cozzolino saw to it himself to make the pies perfect and carry them out to the drivers, placing them carefully on the vehicles as make-shift tables for their lunch. As the pies hit the hood of the cars - it struck us how beautifully the red pomodoro sauce of the authentic Neapolitan margherita contrasted against the shiny white paint of the the 2017 brand new Rolls Royce Ghost.
Drivers brought cars closer to the restaurant (fully driving onto the curb and pulling cars right up to the building), waiters set the "table," and @classysavant (Eduardo) and I completed the scene.
An idea was born for setting a pizza dinner scene on a Rolls Royce - without realizing we were embarking on creating one of the most viral photos in automative Instagram history.
We knew we had an absolute winner as car suddenly got surrounded by onlookers and street was filling with people taking photos of the wild setup. But what we didn't know is that Eduardo had passed his phone onto one of the stylists and she snapped a photo for his Snapchat. We knew most of the content was going on stories and Snap but what we didn't know was that about an hour after posting the Snap story on Ed's account, a large car account had seen it, screenshot it directly off Snapchat and posted the distorted low-res screenshot image onto his feed. Moments later, hundreds of massive car accounts began reposting the image across their feeds, garnering over 120M impressions on the snap in just a few days. Business Insider, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur and other media channels were to follow with stories on the epic event. Oh yes - and the pizza tasted great! 👌
Ribalta
The infamous Italian restaurateur Rosario Procino and his best-selling partner chef Pasquale Cozzolino (author of The Pizza Diet) bring you authentic Napoli not only through food, drinks, and spirit - but in truly creating an genuine Italian community in the heart of Manhattan. Soccer matches streaming on a huge projector wall, three ovens firing up pizzas almost indistinct from ones you'd order in Napoli itself, and Negronis flow like the Neapolitan songs a loyal group of regulars sing on Friday nights. A mecca for soccer, Napoli, Italy, and all things that make Italy great. An absolutely MUST for anyone visiting NYC - even if from Italy or especially if so!
