Besides the obvious fact that both of these popular pizza places co-opt the best aspects of hip-hop and their crusty stylings for their own Caucasian goals, these joints have a healthy, if not rabid fanbase, as I have learned recently: Oklahoma City folks hate Norman pizza, and Norman folks hate Oklahoma City pizza, often to comical extremes.
I admit that, for many years, I have fallen on the Oklahoma City side, walking to Empire almost every Friday afternoon for a slice of pepperoni, a tradition that continues to this day.
But, lately, since housesitting in Norman this month, I’ve heard the sauce-covered cries of a thousand townies, letting me know how great P.I.E. is and how physically, mentally and spiritually wrong I am for my Empire fandom. So, after a year in retreat, I decided to take these two titans of tang to task in the pizza wars, finally deciding which premium pizza pie place is truly the best.