Congrats, Tony Palombino: Food Network Magazine’s September issue dubbed your Pizza Pollotate, served at Boombozz Pizza & Taphouse, not only one the nation’s 50 best pizzas, but the best pizza in Kentucky.

And whether you agree with that assessment—because everyone has an opinion about pizza—what’s undeniable is just how high Palombino’s creations have raised the pizza bar in Louisville. I’ll even credit them with paving the way for the city’s current pizzeria explosion in the forms of Coals, Garage Bar, MozzaPi, DiOrio’s, Naked Pizza, Paplino’s, etc.

The Pollotate (made from chicken, roasted potato slices, a rosemary-garlic olive oil brushed crust, red onions, Asiago and mozzarella cheeses) became a Louisville media sensation following Palombino’s victory in the International Pizza Festiva contest in 1995.

(The contest, held in Las Vegas but put on by Louisville-based Pizza Today magazine, was then the only nationally recognized pizza trade competition for many years, so its creds got high ranking by default.)

News coverage of the story pushed Tony Boombozz Pizza onto the city’s restaurant radar and marked the beginning of the end of a lot of dated beliefs that pizza should include only red sauce, meat and cheese. (That’s right, New Yorkers. Much as I love your town’s foldable, floppy slices, the sun doesn’t rise and set on that style. If you don’t believe me, go to Italy, where you’ll find a surprising number of Boombozz-esque pies.)

Palombino was making pizzas with eggplant, steak, shrimp and Mexican-spiced meats, white sauces, no sauces, olive oil and garlic “sauce,” you name it.

All his creative twists made his pizza stand out as different and, indisputably, very good. Other than pies bought from the aforementioned newcomers and a few panicked “online pre-order and prepay for later delivery” pizzas from Papa John’s for my son and some babysitters, I don’t recall paying for any other company’s pizza in more than a decade.

While I don’t know this to be true, I also strongly believe California Pizza Kitchen wouldn’t have come to the Oxmoor Mall had Palombino not tilled the ground four gourmet pizza here.

When I interviewed CPK co-founder Larry Flax a few years ago, our conversation turned briefly to the Louisville store and market, and he volunteered that he knew well of Boombozz, then just a three-store company. That told me the Los Angeles millionaire who has restaurants in Korea had done his research in li’l ol’ Louisville.

Except for Harper’s Restaurant (which made some darn nice wood-fired thin crust pies) and a Goose Creek Rd. pizzeria that also served wood-fired pies to packed houses (the owner skipped town hastily for rumored reasons I’ll not repeat), Louisville was mostly “cheese, red sauce and meat pizza” town until Boombozz came along.

With Palombino’s clever creations (my fave is the Nonna), palates have discovered fantastic variations on a theme that forever will undergo variations.

I doubt the acceptance of Coals’ and Garage Bar’s rustic, blistered crusts and semi-exotic toppings combos would have happened so rapidly without the sort of off the wall combos like the Pollotate first priming local palates. And it’s that legacy I think his pizza will always have in Louisville.

PS: In celebration of the Food Network recognition, all Louisville Boombozz locations will offer a large Pollotate for $10 (regular price is $19.99) until Thursday, Aug. 11.