It seemed like everyone and their uncle was buzzing about the free pizza at Punch Pizza this week – they offered their coupon for a free Margherita or Napoli pizza or $5.95 off of another pizza online at both CityPages.com and on their Facebook page.  Not to mention the exposure they got when local bloggers and Twitter-ers started chattering about it.  I picked the location by the Lakes where Lake/Excelsior split on the edge of Uptown and St. Louis Park and met my roommates there around 7pm on last night (Thursday).  The line was out the door, but moved along pretty quickly; I’d say we were waiting for no more than 15 minutes.

Anyway, supporting the business and spending *some* of my own dollars, I  opted to apply the $5.95 towards “another” pizza and got the Borgata ($11.20 – made with sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, egg plant and olives), and I washed it all down with a Peroni.  Mmm, beer.

I was extremely impressed with how prepared they were for the influx of patrons due to the offer.  The service was almost over-the-top friendly, they had someone designated to direct traffic and seat people instead of allowing for a chaotic free-for-all, and the pizza was done and ready as fast as if we were the only ones there.  And of course, as delicious as always and I ate the entire pie.

Well-executed viral marketing endeavor and extremely positive in-shop experience.

Nicely done, Punch.

(Coupon is available here ^[1] and expires today, 12/19/08.)