Happy Birthday, Home Slice

The dough-throwers over at Home Slice Pizza have been serving up New York-style slices from its South Congress location for three years now. And in what has become a birthday tradition, the folks there are hosting a carnival on Saturday to celebrate.

The 3rd annual Home Slice Carnival O Pizza, from noon to 7 p.m., will include games, music, breakdancers, graffiti artists, raffles and lots and lots of pizza.

The little joint was created by friends Jen and Joseph Strickland and Terri Hannifin, Jen’s college roommate at NYU. Home Slice first opened for business on November 16, 2005 and has been serving hungry pizza lovers ever since.

The owners attribute the restaurant’s success to a huge hunger for great pizza in Austin and customers’ appetite for good, caring service.

“Restaurants are such communal places that it is nearly impossible not to be affected by the people you get to interact with, and luckily, people who love quality pizza seem to also love other really amazing things, so [our] world has expanded,” Hannifin said.

The owners see Saturday’s celebration as a way to give back to Home Slice customers and at the same time help out the community. Proceeds from both from the event and from sales inside the restaurant will go to Keep Austin Beautiful. Other activities during the carnival include a pizza eating contest for a year of free Home Slice pizza, a state-wide dough throwing contest and box folding contest, which will pit the best of the best from other Texas pizzerias against one another. A performance by Brownout will help wrap things up Saturday evening.