So the prodigal son returns. Kro is back in Sanlitun. The new location is smaller than the Xiaoyun Lu place; it seats 150. Same totally boss graffiti art we know and love. Lots of windows, lots of light. A huge, glossy private room behind a glass door (we weren’t allowed to take a photograph). Wi-Fi that chugs along like a sweet little trooper. The interior is the same black industrial-meets-twisted forest scheme that works so well at Xiaoyun Lu. Service was excellent – even deferential – on a late-lunching Tuesday, with no less than three staff personally attending to my pizza needs – and I’m not even that needy. 

Zach Lewison, Kro's culinary director, mentioned that they want the new Kro’s to be a pre-party place. Scantily-clad girls of the “Tun,” Mr. Lewison wants to feed you before “releasing” y’all upon the party scene. “We don’t want people drinking on an empty stomach, now,” he told me. True that, sir, true that. He also told me how you can get 600-kuai worth of pizza for free. 

Most of us are well and truly aware of the drama that surrounded the very public breakup of Olaf Kristoffer "The Kro" Bauer and his business partner Yuan Jie in the middle of last year, which culminated in a physical fracas at the Gongti branch of their well-known “Kro’s Nest” pizza restaurant chain. If you somehow managed to miss all that you can read Kro’s account from May 2010 here. At the time of the split theBeijinger.com approached Yuan Jie for comment, but he declined to speak to the press. Today, the Global Times published Yuan’s first public statement on his relationship with Kro, in the form of an interview.

Da Giuseppe replaces the twice-unsuccessful Hungarian restaurant Budapest. And with pizza, finally, this apparently cursed space has a formula that might work. Best known for his work at La Pizza, Chef Giuseppe de Stefano is in the kitchen and all over the logo. His pizza better be good.

It was a good week in food. Yes, the weather is terrible. Yes, nobody else can breathe either. Yes, all of it yes, yes, yes. But you gotta focus on the positives of being in the Beej. Maybe you've got an ayi who'll wash your window frames for you. Maybe you have the luxury of supporting yourself easily (*cough*English teachers*cough*) while figuring out what you want to do in life. Maybe you're in a city where world-class cuisine is comparatively cheap. So, y'know, go out and get some this weekend.

(Oh, and in case you forgot, we ran this little pizza competition a while back. Now we're throwing it a party. Keep reading for details and more food news.)

Beijing has had its say over the past three weeks and the final is here, and boy, have we got a heavyweight matchup for you? It's America versus New Zealand as long-term favorite Kro’s Nest is going to head-to-head with delivery upstart Gung Ho! Pizza in a match to decide who lifts The Beijinger Pizza Cup.

Kro's fought off a late surge from stalwart The Tree in the Final Four to earn its spot in the final, whereas Gung Ho handily dispatched Hutong Pizza to earn their berth.

Neither establishment had an easy path to those penultimate matches. Kro’s path included victories over Pizza Buona, Paddy O’Shea’s, La Pizza and finally The Tree. Gung Ho’s path meant fending off Vineyard Café, Annie’s, Sureno and Hutong Pizza.

No less exciting will be the third-place playoff match, which pits two great pizza spots with long traditions different styles, and different turfs – Sanlitun’s The Tree and Houhai’s Hutong Pizza.