AMHERST — About 500 hungry people and a panel of 10 celebrity judges said “so long” to any New Year’s resolutions they might have made this year and packed Classics V Banquet Hall for the Tonawandas’ 10th annual Pizza Fest on Tuesday night.

Eleven restaurants participated in the event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas and unlike last year, more than just one pizzeria walked away with top awards.

Amherst Pizza & Ale House, at 55 Crosspoint Parkway in Amherst, took first place for the second year running in both the peoples’ choice categories for its stuffed banana peppers pizza and char-pit Crown Royal wings. They placed third in both the judges’ categories. Last year the restaurant took the top slot in all four categories.

The judges — which included Twin Cities mayors Rob Ortt and Ron Pilozzi, and DeGraff President Tony Zito, among others — voted to unseat the reigning champions in a blind taste test of each and every submission.

TC Wheelers, with two locations in the Tonawandas, was awarded first place by the judges for its Reuben-inspired pizza. The public thought the specialty pizza was something special too, giving the restaurant second place.

Both announcements incited a roar of celebration from the TC Wheelers side of the room and owner Chris Candino credits his choice of ingredients for the win.

“Our pizzas stand out as opposed to the competition, looks-wise and taste-wise. We use local ingredients and our dough is freshly made every day,” Candino said. “We take pride in it.”

The announcement of Budwey’s Flora’s Cafe first-place win in the wings category by the judges garnered an equally loud outburst as employees wearing Budwey’s caps and aprons jumped up and down in celebration. Owner Frank Budwey says he’s hopeful the win will show the public what the grocery store has to offer in prepared foods.

“We’re excited and overwhelmed that we won today for a supermarket against all these pizzerias,” Budwey said.

Budwey’s blue cheese wings — created and submitted for the first time at last year’s Pizza Fest — and cheeseburger pizza also took both the third-place people’s choice awards.

Two nationwide chains joined the competition for the first time this year: Little Caesar’s Pizza, which won second place in the judge’s pizza category, and Papa John’s.

Papa John’s is new not only to Pizza Fest, but to Western New York in general. In November they opened two locations, one in Amherst on Niagara Falls Boulevard, and one in Lancaster on Transit Road. In addition to more traditional toppings, the pizzeria offered spinach alfredo and barbecue chicken pizzas along with parmesan garlic breadsticks.

Kelsay Fitch, marketing strategist for Scott Enterprises, which owns Papa John’s, says she views Pizza Fest as an opportunity to introduce their pies to a new area.

“We don’t look at this event as a competition. We want people to know that even though we’re a chain, we still have fresh ingredients, fresh pizza,” Fitch said.

Other restaurants that took place in Pizza Fest were: Buffalo Wild Wings (second place for wings in the peoples’ choice category), Rizzo’s Casa di Italia (second place for wings in the judge’s category), DeGraff Memorial Hospital, JJ’s Pizza Planet, Ten Pin Pizza & Subs and Tops Friendly Markets.

With 10 different restaurants offering multiple styles of pizza and eight serving wings, there was something for everyone, no matter how picky the eater.

Chad Williams of North Tonawanda lamented that, from what he could tell, fewer specialty pizzas were offered than in the past.

“It was better last year, they brought more variety. There’s more just cheese and pepperoni this year,” Chad said.

“But it’s still good,” he conceded.

Frank Cannata, executive director at the Riviera Theatre and emcee of the night’s events says he’s just fine with the standards.

“I’m a fan of traditional pizza,” Cannata said. “A lot of places bring a lot of exotic pizzas but I like just cheese and pepperoni.”

Apparently Cannata was too much of a fan of the pizza during the inaugural Pizza Fest, the one and only time he served on the judge’s panel.

“I started out as a judge the first year and I went home with a stomach ache,” Cannata said. “No one told me to take just one bite of each pizza so I ate full slices of each of them.”