Competition to be immortalized on Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar’s latest political pizza boxes was so tough Jesus was relegated to the inside cover.
An illustration on the box tops depicts President Elect Donald Trump standing heroically before an American flag. Elon Musk, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Vivek Ramaswamy gather in the foreground.
On the interior box graphic, Christ is shown standing behind Trump, who’s seated behind the desk in the White House’s Oval Office. The pizza box promotion is timed with Monday’s presidential inauguration.
The top of Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar’s inauguration themed pizza box. (Courtesy Camryn Suggs)Camryn Suggs
Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar is an award-winning restaurant with a Madison address (25783 Huntsville Brownsferry Road). But technically (we’re told), they’re located in Huntsville. Valentina’s is named for owner Joe Carlucci’s young daughter.
Last fall leading up to the presidential election, Valentina’s Pizzeria made waves with a promotion involving election-themed pizza boxes.
Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar’s election themed pizza box. (Courtesy Camryn Suggs)Camryn Suggs
Imagery on those boxes featured two cartoon Trumps. Trump one’s exclaiming “Make pizza great again!” while Trump two’s behind bars and wearing an orange prison suit. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is a She-Grinch saying “How dare we say Merry Christmas” as a beer-clutching Kid Rock waves an American flag. On the boxes’ interior, Elon Musk, Dana White, Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney cheer as Trump and Harris prepare to grapple inside a mixed martial arts octagon.
Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar’s election themed pizza box. (Courtesy Camryn Suggs)Camryn Suggs
In an Instagram video posted in October, Carlucci said, “If this offends you in any way, then you are the problem. And we would still love you to come in, but you are the issue in the world because it is pizza. It is a box.”
A Valentina’s rep says the restaurant sold-out of 4,000 of the 2024 election-themed boxes. As part of that promotion, customers of Valentina’s could ask for a blue or red box, representing a Democrat or Republican vote. The graphics on both boxes were the same. Only difference was the color of the sides of the boxes.
In a press release, Carlucci says, “Our last election box caused a lot of ruckus. People either loved it and loved us, or they hated it and sent a lot of hate our way. As a small business owner, I love coming up with new ways to market our pizza, and this new box is just our way of supporting the United States of America and the man in the Oval Office.”
As part of the new promotion, Valentina’s will open 10:30 a.m. Monday to customers can watch Trump’s inauguration on TV. That day, restaurant will also offer a buffet, something they don’t usually do.
In a Instagram video posted Thursday, Carlucci holds up one of last year’s election pizza boxes and says, “Hey guys if this box offended you, don’t worry snowflakes. There’s no more blue boxes for you.”
After tossing the election pizza box aside, Carlucci shows off one of the new boxes and says: “If this offends you again, well, that’s gonna offend you more. God bless you, and God bless Donald Trump.”
Joe Carlucci, owner of Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar in Alabama. (Matt Wake/mwakeal.com)Matt Wake
All this might come across a bit, as the kids say, thirsty. But what’s inside these pizza boxes is special. Last year, Valentina’s topped AL.com’s 2024 list of best Huntsville pizzas.
Valentina’s ordered 4,000 more boxes with the new design. Like their election pizza boxes, the inauguration designs were created by Pizza Bib, an Australian venture that creates novelty pizza boxes.
This post was originally published on here
