The Very Best Pizza in America

Paul Giannone spent three decades working in the tech industry before building a wood-fired pizza oven behind his house in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That bit of backyard landscaping inspired the original Paulie Gee’s, the first of an ever-expanding empire (he now has outposts in Miami, Chicago, Baltimore, and Columbus, with more to come). His pizzeria is renowned for making some of the best Neapolitan pies around, but what truly sets Giannone’s work apart is his unbounded creativity. The menu offers a dizzying whirlwind of unconventional ingredients, with nearly two-dozen specialty pizzas. Hellboy (they all come with witty names), is loaded with spicy soppressata, fresh mozzarella, and an ample drizzle of chili-spiked honey. There are also several worthy vegan options dolloped with house-made cashew “ricotta.” 60 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn, NY; 347-987-3747; pauliegee.com.

Lucali may have significant celebrity cred (Jay-Z and Beyonce are notable fans), but owner and self-taught pizzaiolo Mark Iacono, who grew up in Brooklyn a stone’s throw from his pizzeria (he has the accent to prove it), is focused on other things—including creating a cozy neighborhood vibe and turning out transcendent Neapolitan-style pies. The key is in his crust, which is at once paper-thin and satisfyingly doughy. The menu is simple: one 14-inch pie with your choice of toppings: artichoke hearts, pepperoni (it comes from a 95-year old Italian specialty foods shop a block-and-a-half away), fresh basil, etc. Pro tip: Lucali is BYOB, and if you still have room, the calzones are truly sublime. 575 Henry St., Brookyn, NY; 718-858-4086; lucali.com.

Joe Beddia has fermentation in his blood. Before opening Pizzeria Beddia in 2013, he spent much of his career brewing beer. These days, his chef’s apron is permanently dusted with flour and his mind is always on the dough: a bubbling beast with a 36-hour rise time that transformed him into a local culinary icon and solidified Philly’s spot on the American pizza map. Beddia’s pizzas (he personally shapes and fires each of the shop’s 40 nightly pies) are deeply charred around the edges with a tender but sturdy chew. The topping choices are elemental—fresh and aged mozzarellas, pickled chilies, pepperoni from a 92-year old salumeria in New York City—and each pizza is finished with a pour of grassy extra-virgin olive oil. Don’t bother calling for reservations (there’s no phone), but the result is worth braving the hours-long wait. The original location is closing at the end of March, but a larger new location will open in the city's Fishtown neighborhood later in 2018. pizzeriabeddia.

Thanks to its historic Italian immigrant roots, New Haven has become a destination pizza town. Frank Pepe’s, founded in 1925, is its epicenter. The shop’s coal-fired brick oven smolders steadily throughout the day, toasting the thin, chewy pies that have turned Pepe’s into the stuff of legend. The best “ah-beetz” (Connecticut slang for pizza) on offer: the original Tomato Pie, a minimalist mix of crushed tomato, fruity olive oil, oregano, and Pecorino Romano that’s recipe dates back to the pizzeria’s founding days, and the signature white clam pizza, a sauceless pie dotted with briny littlenecks. Lines at Pepe’s often snake down the block, so stop into Libby’s Italian Pastry Shop one storefront down, to score a couple of pignoli cookies to nibble while you wait for your chance at the vintage, high-backed booths. 157 Wooster St., New Haven, CT; 203-865-5762; pepespizzeria.com.

Each pizza served at Area Four begins with a fifteen year-old legacy. That’s precisely the age of executive chef Jeff Pond’s “starter”: a bubbly, breathing mix of fermented flour and water that bread devotees use to naturally raise their dough. The dough is also allowed to proof for more than 30 hours, giving it a distinctively complex flavor and springy texture. Toppings are treated with the same reverence, from the hand-pulled mozzarella and house-made sausage, to the locally harvested Wellfleet clams. 500 Technology Sq., Cambridge, MA; 617-758-4444; areafour.com.

In the debate over wood or coal ovens, Al Forno owners George Germon and Johanne Killeen went their own way: grilled. Since 1980, they have mastered the art of grilled pizza, starting with a high-gluten dough that rests in an olive oil before being stretched thin and draped over sizzling, wrought-iron grates. The oil bath ensures a crisp crust, while the hardwood charcoal lends a faint hint of smoky flavor. Whether topped simply with crushed tomatoes, fresh herbs, and cheese (Al Forno blends fontina and Parmigiano-Reggiano), or with fried calamari and spicy arrabbiata sauce, all pies are finished with thinly sliced raw scallion. If eternal summer can be captured in a pizza, Al Forno has done it. 577 S. Water St., Providence, RI; 401-273-9760; alforno.com.

Uno Pizzeria may be the best-known of Chicago’s deep dish-style pizzerias, but most locals swear by Pequod’s. Baked in a cast iron pan seasoned with decades’ worth of pizzas past, the pies emerge a delightful mess of pillowy crust; slightly sweet, herbaceous sauce; a la carte toppings (sausage and spicy giardiniera are Windy City favorites); and a lifetime’s supply of cheese. Pequod’s signature move includes draping the sides of the pan with an additional layer of sliced mozzarella, which bakes down into a crisp rim of lacy caramelization. Pequod’s, has two locations, but the ambiance and décor (beer signs, Blackhawk’s memorabilia) is the same. 2207 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago, IL; 773-327-1512; pequodspizza.com.

It takes guts to buck against Chicago’s deep-dish norm, but Spacca Napoli has been carving out a niche for Neapolitan style pizza since 2006. Co-owner Jonathan Goldsmith is something of a dough whisperer, tending to his batches of flour, yeast, and water with the obsessive attention of a craftsman. His thin crust pies come out of the oak-fired oven bubbly and singed along the rim, with the slightly soupy center typical of Napoli’s greatest pizzerias. There are many specialty topping combinations, including a smoked buffalo mozzarella, ricotta, and arugula pie dubbed Enzo (it’s named after Naples’ master pizzaiolo, and Goldsmith’s teacher, Enzo Coccia). But it is hard to top the refined perfection of the Margherita. 1769 W. Sunnyside Ave., Chicago, IL; 773-878-2420; spaccanapolipizzeria.com.

Sicilian-style square pizza reigns in Detroit, and Buddy’s, open since 1946, is the place to get it. The airy, focaccia-like dough is baked in blue steel pans (just like the ones traditionally used in the local auto industry) and topped with tangy, buttery Wisconsin brick cheese. There are an intimidating amount of specialty pizzas on the menu, including gluten free and vegan options. Keep it simple and start with the Detroiter, a strata of brick cheese, pepperoni, parmesan, tomato-basil sauce, and the restaurant’s proprietary Sicilian spice blend. Buddy’s has multiple locations, but for a jaunty round of bocce with your square slice, stick to the original on Six Mile and Conant Street. 17125 Conant St., Detroit, MI; 313-892-9001; buddyspizza.com.

Minneapolis may not have a signature pizza style like New York or Chicago, but the city can still claim some of the country’s best pies. Opened in 2010 by Ann Kim, a Korean immigrant and stage actress-turned pizzaiola, Pizzeria Lola is renowned for its complexly flavored, full-bodied crust and topping combinations, which skew from the classic (red sauce with garlic confit, fior de latte with fresh basil) to the unconventional. The Lady Zaza features Korean sausage and housemade kimchi, and the Korean BBQ pie pairs mozzarella and arugula with beef short ribs and a sesame-soy chili vinaigrette. Lola’s pizza hearth, a gleaming copper dome fired with red oak, sits at the center of the restaurant so diners can witness their pizzas bubble and brown. Kim also heads up Hello Pizza, a New York–style slice shop, and a pizza-cocktail joint hybrid called Young Joni. 5557 Xerxes Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN; 612-424-8334; pizzerialola.com.

In Atlanta, Antico Pizza Napoletana is the pizzeria by which all others (and in recent years, there have been many new contenders) are compared. It is a dominant force, powered by three brick Actuno ovens imported from Italy. The aggressively casual dining room is cavernous and sparsely decorated, with all the buzzy energy of a high school cafeteria. But the pizza—topped with spicy soppressata, briny white anchovies, and sauce made from Italian-grown tomatoes owner Giovanni di Palma helps to harvest himself—is brilliant. That’s why, within a week or two of opening in 2009, Antico Pizza Napoletana was cemented as an icon of The ATL, and hasn’t looked back since. 1093 Hemphill Ave. NW, Atlanta, GA; 404-724-2333; centrostorico.it.

Before Anthony Mangieri became the darling of San Francisco’s pizza scene, he first conquered New York City’s. And New Jersey’s. The heavily tattooed Garden State native opened his Neapolitan-style joint back when most Americans still associated the designation with tricolored ice cream. Soon after, he moved across river to Manhattan, where his three-day, naturally leavened crusts and Spartan but exceptional-quality toppings charmed a city dedicated to floppy slices. In 2010, he set down his wood-fired roots in a converted auto garage in San Francisco’s SoMa district. And Mangieri is still at it: you can find him stretching dough and layering nuggets of buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil from Wednesday through Saturday. 210 11th St., San Francisco; 415-861-3444; unapizza.com.

Launched as a pizza truck in 2012, Del Popolo quickly outgrew its mobile digs. In 2015, the brick-and-mortar version opened in an sophisticated, 50-seat spot accented with a curved, emerald green dining counter and a giant wall of logs that play double duty as decor and oven kindling. Fortunately, the pies stayed essentially unchanged: perfectly constructed, gently singed Neapolitan thin crusts topped simply with crusted tomato and green garlic, or elaborately with fontina and slices of butterball potato, or anchovies and bitter greens. A larger kitchen also means an expanded menu. Try: small plates of manila clams with braised fennel and caper butter and salt baked rutabaga with kumquat and creme fraiche. 855 Bush St., San Francisco, CA; 415-589-7940; delpopolosf.com.

Los Angeles’ pizza landscape changed forever in late 2006 when bread maven Nancy Silverton (La Brea Bakery, Campanile) paired up with Italian food power duo Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich (Eataly NYC, Del Posto). Silverton’s pies, which emerge puffed and faintly smoky from their quick stint in a wood-burning oven, straddle the impossible divide between crunch and chewy, sweet and tangy. The toppings—creamy burrata and sunny squash blossoms, braised fennel with prosciutto cotto—bear the ingredient-driven, impeccably fresh marks of California cuisine. (The supporting sides and sweets, particularly the oregano-laced chopped salad and the salted butterscotch pudding with rosemary pine nut cookies, are stars unto themselves.) Reservations at Pizzeria Mozza’s Los Angeles location (there are also outposts in Newport Beach and Singapore) are taken exactly one month in advance, so plan accordingly. 641 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA; 323-297-0101; pizzeriamozza.com.

Since opening in 2005, Apizza Scholls has become a permanent fixture of local and national “best of” lists. Owners of the low-key pizzeria (complete with a video arcade) Brian Spangler and Kim Nyland both come from baking backgrounds, and it shows. Their crust, which resembles a great loaf of ciabata, has a crunchy exterior that gives way to a tender, flexible crumb. Pies are baked in an electric oven which, in today’s wood-fired pizza world, seems borderline sacrilegious. But the pizzas more than hold their own, dressed with house-cured bacon and a copious showering of fresh garlic, locally sourced salami and cracked green olives, or simply tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella. 4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR; 503-233-1286; apizzascholls.com.

In 2009, Brandon Pettit and food blogger Molly Wizenberg opened Delancey, a cozy pizza parlor with a Kinfolk-esque aesthetic—the culmination of Pettit’s multi-year quest to bring NYC-inspired pizza to Seattle. Pettit’s two-day fermented dough, vibrant tomato sauce, and meticulously curated toppings (housemade ricotta, aged mozzarella, salami cured with dried Japanese chilies) have made him a local legend. (Delancey’s cult-favorite dessert offering—a bittersweet chocolate chip cookie finished with gray salt—hasn’t hurt his reputation.) In 2016, Pettit expanded his business, opening Dino’s Tomato Pie, a gloriously cheeky pizza tavern with a New Jersey-accent. 1415 NW 70th St., Seattle, WA; 206-838-1960; delanceyseattle.com.

When today’s best pizza artisans talk about their inspirations, Chris Bianco regularly tops the list. Since opening Pizzeria Bianco in 1994, he has singlehandedly turned Phoenix into a bonafide pizza Mecca. (The restaurant won him a James Beard award in 2003.) Bianco’s approach to pizza-making is as startlingly simple as his menu, which offers just six pies and a handful of starters and salads. But the magic is in the details, from the pillowy, char-tinged crust and housemade mozzarella (both fresh and smoked) to the peppery fennel sausage that generously dots Bianco’s Wiseguy pie. Over the past 20 years, Bianco’s microempire has expanded to include a second pizzeria with a larger menu (including pastas and entrées), a sandwich shop, and a cocktail bar adjacent to Pizzeria Bianco’s original downtown location. 623 E Adams St, Phoenix, AZ; 602-258-8300; pizzeriabianco.com.