101 Best Pizzas In America For 2016

Let's raise a slice, pizza fanatics: to hot pizzas and warm cardboard boxes; to pans, peels, cheese, sauce, and crust; to the folks who craft their ingredients into something magical; to the very best pizza in America. 

In 2008, using what they learned while working at their family's restaurant Basille's in Staten Island (now closed), pizzaiolos, cousins, and best friends Francis Garcia and Sal Basille took a party dip, put it on a pizza, and turned a sliver of a shop on New York City's 14th Street into a pizza icon and cash cow.

They now have six other New York City locations of Artichoke Basille's Pizza (and one in Berkeley, California), and there is still a line out the door.

They've made it to The Tonight Show and even landed a show on the Cooking Channel. Not bad. Some might argue that the crust isn't what it once was, but you can't argue that's it's not a New York City pizza icon.

Find more details on Artichoke Basille's Pizza here.

"Simple is hard," notes Area Four's website. "We do it right."

Area Four's owners Michael Krupp and Jeff Pond are dedicated to providing local and sustainable ingredients. Factor in dough made from a 30-plus-hour fermented, 12-year-old starter (flour, water, and salt) by Chef Pond, homemade cheese, and a wood-fired oven, and you get one of Boston's best pies, a pizza whose style is kind of like a neo-Neapolitan with a super-charred cornicione on steroids.

The signature pizza is the clam and bacon, but if you want to take a page out of President Obama's book, order the mushroom and fontina (mushroom sauce, pecorino, and gremolata) and the Carnivore (mozzarella, tomato, soppressata, sausage, and bacon) — his order last year. From all reports, the man knows good food.

Find more details on Area Four here.

Tucked away on a quiet side street near the Jersey City Reservoir in Boonton, New Jersey, is Reservoir Tavern, serving some of the state's finest brick-oven pizza and Old World Italian fare since 1936. Run by the Bevacqua family since day one, this no-frills bar and dining room commands a lengthy wait every night of the week. While the chicken française, fried calamari, lasagna, homemade sausage and peppers, and shrimp fra diavolo are flawless, it's the pizza that puts it on the map. The crust is thick, crisp, and chewy; the sauce is tangy; and the cheese is ample; and it all comes together to form a stunning pie. 

Find more details on Reservoir Tavern here.  

Don't visit Gravesend in Brooklyn and only go to L&B Spumoni. While you're there, you might as well go to Di Fara and Totonno's, too — they're so close that it would be wrong not to visit them (say nothing of roast beef pit stops Brennan & Carr and Roll-N-Roaster).

Started in 1938 by Ludovico Barbati, an immigrant from Torella dei Lombardi (an hour east of Naples), the L&B Spumoni tradition began with Barbati learning how to make pizza in a garage, then peddling it in a horse and wagon until setting up at the current spot on 86th Street in Brooklyn. L&B Spumoni Gardens is now in its fourth generation, still serving its signature thin-crust Sicilian-style square pies with a light coating of mozzarella paired with tomato sauce (though tragedy struck earlier this summer when co-owner Louis Barbati was shot in an apparent attempted robbery). Don't leave without having some spumoni for dessert. Some say it's better than the pizza.

Find more details on L&B Spumoni Gardens here.

EVO, which stands for "extra virgin oven," offers fresh, wood-fired, Neapolitan pizza made with seasonal and local ingredients. Produce from local farmers is used to develop these pies. The menu has expanded beyond the original five pizzas to include Margherita, pistachio pesto, ham and mushrooms, sausage and poblanos, calabrese and arugula, and the Pork Trifecta (with marinara, house-made sausage, pepperoni, bacon, mozzarella, and Parmigiano-Reggiano), and a four-cheese calzone (provolone, mozzarella, Parmigiano-reggiano, and ricotta), but the 17 extra topping choices and five types of cheese allow customers to construct a towering feast.

Find more details on EVO here.

Anthony Spina made waves in 2015 when he opened O4WP in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, and even though he recently moved the operation about 35 minutes out of town to Duluth, the "Jersey-style" pizzas is just as good.

Jersey-style generally refers to a Trenton-style tomato pizza where the cheese goes down first and is then topped by a sauce heavy on tomato flavor, sometimes even topped by hand-crushed tomatoes. At O4WP, it means hand-stretched dough made fresh daily and topped with house-made sauce and hand-pulled mozzarella cooked Sicilian-style, as well as wood-fired and in a gas deck-oven. But the move is the award-winning Grandma Pie cooked in cast-iron. O4WP even calls itself "Home of the Grandma Pie." And while you have to raise an eyebrow and have a little chuckle about a Georgia pizzeria doing Jersey-style pizzas and being known for a pizza that originated in Long Island, New York, there's nothing funny about how good this pizza tastes. They're guaranteed to impress even the most prideful New Yorker.

Find more details on O4W Pizza here.

Loui's started serving squares in 1977, when longtime Buddy's chef Louis Tourtois branched out on his own. And it doesn't look like much has changed since. There are checkered tablecloths, plastic and Formica tables, and empty, straw-wrapped Chianti bottles hanging all over the place. The third-generation, family-owned Hazel Park spot serves quartered, Detroit red top-style pies that are said to each have a pound of cheese on them. There are some eight charred-side pies on the menu – mostly variations on pepperoni pies featuring mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and ham. The restaurant's signature is the classic cheese and tomato sauce, but two popular favorites are the Hawaiian pie and the option to get extra meat: ground beef, ham, bacon, and pepperoni.

Find more details on Loui's Pizza here.

This one is just a few years old, but it's been mentioned as one of the city's best pizzerias in the same breath as another great on this list, Ken's, since about as long. However, the owners didn't start with pizza: Lovely's Fifty-Fifty was the 2010 follow-up to the shuttering of their much-beloved fine dining spot Lovely Hula Hands, and is an enterprise that the owners were inspired to create after meeting chef James Albee, Portland transplant and former chef at San Francisco's Gialina Pizzeria. Lovely's generously topped pies are marked by thick puffy crusts and extreme devotion to seasonality. Their "market-to-table" philosophy means the same pies won't always be on the menu, so a recommendation can't be guaranteed, but you've got a guarantee just walking in that whether it's topped with quinoa greens, shishito peppers, fermented tomatoes, or green goddess dressing, it's going to be a great pizza.

Find more details on Lovely's Fifty Fifty here.

It says something about America's growing obsession with pizza that this list features a significant number of James Beard Award-winning chefs. In the case of Miami's Harry's Pizza, that would be chef Michael Schwartz (Best Chef: South in 2010), who opened his casual neighborhood joint in 2011 — his restaurant group's first foray into pizza — and named it after his son. (Coconut Grove now sports a location, too.)

There are 11 hand-formed thin-crust pizzas on chef de cuisine Daniel Ramirez's menu, all made with dough made in-house daily with double zero and wheat flours (for $2 more you can go gluten-free) and cooked in a wood-burning oven. You'll be tempted by pizzas featuring rock shrimp, eggplant, slow-roasted pork, and bacon with caramelized onion, potato, Gruyère, and arugula, but don't miss the short-rib pizza. 

Find more details on Harry's Pizzeria here.

It shouldn't be surprising that Frasca, one of America's best restaurants, launched an offshoot that serves some of America's best pizza. What happens now that restaurateurs Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson have teamed up with Chipotle to launch the restaurant as a fast-casual concept, however, remains to be seen, but this restaurant really knows how to bring it. The pizzeria has two Denver locations; two in Overland Park, Kansas; and one in Kansas City, Missouri. It offers 11 "Classics," (seven red, four white), but you're probably going to want to build your own from a selection of more than 25 toppings including eggplant, Calabrian chiles, corn, smoked mozzarella, pork meatballs, and prosciutto. The 11-inch beauties that emerge from the oven have the potential to revolutionize the fast-casual game (you can opt for gluten-free pies for $4 more). If this is the future of pizza, we're all for it. 

Find more details on Pizzeria Locale here.

The town of Monza houses an historic Italian speedway where every year since 1922, owners of the finest cars, from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari, take the curves of the 6.25-mile track. Monza in Charleston, S.C., feeds off the history of its namesake city to offer handcrafted pies.
Monza uses imported San Felice wheat flour, Neapolitan yeast, and filtered and pH-balanced water to develop their version of the most traditional-style pizza possible. The pies are baked in the wood oven at a sweltering 1,000 degrees F, allowing for a thin and crispy crust, and are topped with mozzarella with fresh and usually regional ingredients.

Find more details on Monza Pizza here.

Open since 2012, Providence Coal Fired Pizza is a newcomer to the national scene, but its Pennsylvania-coal-fired pies cooked at 900 degrees captured the attention of pizza-lovers. The original location (a second opened in North Kingstown), within walking distance of the Providence Performing Arts Center and the city's convention center, is in the historic, 130-year-old Conrad Building, whose eclectic architectural mix of Moorish, Gothic, and Renaissance styles may be as close to Gaudí as you can get in Providence. Its co-owner and co-founder, Rhode Island native Richard Allaire, has worked with Gary Danko, Mario Batali, and Susur Lee.

The pizzaiolos make a dough with more water than flour so it can stand up to the intense coal heat, and shoot for about a 20 – 30 percent char on the outside of their pies (watch them being made if you want — just go up to the "pizza bar"). Among their 11 standards, the Rocket is the restaurant-designated signature — a Margherita topped (right from the oven) with fresh arugula and pecorino.

If a salad-topped pizza doesn't get the tomato sauce in your veins pumping, try the lauded pepperoni or the pizza named for the building, The Conrad (roasted onion, sausage, roasted peppers, mozzarella, pecorino, and rosemary). There's also an interesting clam pie that pairs fingerlings with local clams and adds roasted red onions, rosemary, pancetta, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. For something else you don't see very often, get The Steak (shaved steak, roasted onions, creminis, hot peppers, provolone, and Great Hill blue cheese). Don't forget they cook other things in the oven besides pizza, most notably the crunchy coal-fired wings.

Find more details on Providence Coal Fired Pizza here.

With its colorful murals and delicious pies, Minneapolis' Fat Lorenzo's, the original and a "standard for the Twin Cities," is a dining experience tough to match. As its motto goes, it has been "Italian in a big way," proud of serving its New York-style pizza since 1987. The restaurant offers great pies such as the Fat's (Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, black and green olives); the Alfrenzo (with alfredo sauce, chicken, artichokes, roasted red peppers, spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, and provolone); and the New Haven (inspired by Connecticut's famed clam pizza, but theirs is topped with baby clams in a rich herb sauce and finished with asiago). In fact, Minnesota Monthly noted it among the 12 Best Old School Pizzerias in the Twin Cities. When asked, Fat Lorenzo's named their classic cheese pie as one you can't beat. We agreed.

Find more details on Fat Lorenzo's here.

What can you say about Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman except, "Man, do these guys get it!"

Whether you call it "Italian dining with a Southern drawl" or "Italian cooking, Southern roots," the fact is you're going to have an amazing meal at Hog & Hominy. Menu options include a beef and Cheddar dog in a pretzel bun with yellow mustard; an order of sweetbreads with spicy peanut agrodolce; poutine with neckbone gravy; or an amazing burger (lunch only) topped with pickled lettuce, American cheese, onion, and mustard dedicated to one of the country's best food writers. Now factor primetime pizza into the equation.

There menu has expanded from nine to include 14 pies on the menu, which are tended to in a painstakingly monitored oven (built using bricks from the original building's chimney) on the side of the restaurant. There's the enticing Red-Eye (pork belly, egg, Fontina, celery leaf, and sugo); Down With the Shine (corn, fontina, leeks, and garlic cream); and Chicken of the Sea (clams, chili, lemon, arugula, and pesto). But the signature is the Prewitt with fontina, tomato sauce, boudin, and scrambled eggs. Try it, Mikey. You'll like it.

Find more details on Hog & Hominy here.

Pizzetteria Brunetti was started by father-and-son team Michael ("Pop") and Jason ("Sonny") Brunetti who dove into the pizza game together, learning the trade with San Francisco's Tony Gemignani and honing it with Mathieu Palombino at New York's East Village Neapolitan icon Motorino. They started in Westhampton Beach on Long Island where their 12 different high-crust pies gained a cult following, but the West Village location serves additional pizzas and an extended menu that includes house specialties like eggplant Parmesan and meatballs, among others. At both locations, the signature pie is the move: local fresh-shucked and chopped Long Island clams on top of a garlic and herb butter sauce with a fresh parsley finish. Either that, or one of the creative specials Jason is constantly tinkering with – lobster roll pizza; a bacon, egg, and hash brown pie. Don't forget to ask for his special Calabrian chile sauce.

Find more details on Pizzetteria Brunetti here.

Micucci Grocery was opened in 1951 by Leo and Iris Micucci, and has been family-operated ever since. It's more sandwich-counter-meets-deli-meets-dry-goods store than pizzeria. But the reason to visit this Portland icon is in back, up the stairs to the left where "slabs" of American-interpreted Sicilian-style pizza are baked and set on shelves.

The word "slabs," doesn't do these slices justice — a curious hybrid for sure, they're nowhere as heavy as the gut-bombs most descriptions convey. Half-again bigger than the conventional Sicilian, and just as thick if wetter and more doughy, Micucci's slabs may not be authentic Italian, but they feel like an idealized iteration of the focaccia style you've always sought, never experienced.

Each is about six inches long. There's an uneven inch-and-a-half to ¾-inch cornicione, not much different from the rest of the slice, save it's dryer for not being covered by the brush of sweet sauce and incomplete layer of mozzarella coating the rest of it. "Pillowy" and "airy" have been used to describe these pizzas, and undoubtedly will be as long as Micucci continues to do things this way (the right way, mind you). Imagine a fluffy, light focaccia — an inch high in some places but no thinner than one third of an inch anywhere — that's doughy and a bit wetter than most with layers of bubbles. There's a scattering of Italian herbs with cheese rivulets and sauce undercurrents around raised puffy sections of dough. There's no undercrust to speak of, but crispy cheese in places, especially the edges.

It's not pizza in any other traditional regional American sense, nor can you say it's precisely Italian. But there's something intensely right and satisfying about it. Consider the warm, airy pleasure of freshly baked dough without much crust to speak of, the tang of sweet sauce, and the salty pull of just-melted cheese, and you get the idea of a fresh Micucci slice.

Find more details on Micucci Grocery Store here.

It could have been enough for Matt and Emily Hyland to open a neo-Neapolitan pizza joint with a refined take on a thinner cornicione, to serve one of the city's best new burgers, and by hosting former Slice pizza blogger Adam Kuban on Saturdays, to act as incubator for one of the more exciting pizza stories in recent memory. Opening a second pizzeria, one focusing on Detroit-style pies (pan-cooked, thick crusts, sauce on top of the cheese), in a metropolis notorious for pizza pride and skepticism if not disdain for Midwestern pizza styles, should have been tempting fate. But they doubled-down and won. The pizzas are thick but fluffy with frico-edged, crispy crusts that even co-owner Emily Hyland has called her favorite part of the pies.

There are six red pies and four white ones, a playful take on Hawaiian style and another that dares pizza purists to put hold the line against their anti-ranch dressing stance by making theirs from scratch. But the pie to not miss is the Roni Supreme: sauce, mozzarella, lots of pepperoni, and Calabrian chile. The pepperoni curls up so that it's crispy and salty against the cheesy top and pools of tangy-sweet sauce dribbled on top.

Find more details on Emmy Squared here.

When you're craving great pizza in Philly, go no further than this nineteenth-century brick building in Kensington. You'll find thin-crust pizza cooked in the double-deck gas-fired oven at the cash-only joint Kickstarted in 2012 by Ryan Anderson, Joseph Hunter, Brian Dwyer, and Michael Carter. As you wait for the crew to cook your pie, bask in Pizza Brain's unique ambience, their pizza memorabilia museum (featuring what the Guinness Book of World Records called the world's largest collection of pizza memorabilia), or rummage through their pizza tattoo book for laughs. Pizza Brain's "Jane" is their version of a Margherita — a cheesy trifecta of mozzarella, aged provolone, and grana padano blended with basil — a good place to begin. The salty and satisfying Forbes Waggensense is the one that was ranked No. 84 by our panel: mozzarella, fontina, grana padano, basil, smoked pepperoni, and tomato sauce. 

Find more details on Pizza Brain here.

By now, most pizza-lovers know what a grandma pie is or have at least heard it. But just because it's now well-known doesn't mean everyone knows how to make a great grandma pie. Those looking to establish a baseline still need to visit Long Island. For the uninitiated, the short version goes thusly. In the 1970s, a home-style pan pizza surfaced at make the pizza "Mama used to make" for themselves. They served it to friends but didn't put it on the menu. The brothers opened satellite pizzeria King Umberto with another Corteo brother, which, upon the brothers' retirement, was sold to two Umberto's employees. These two saw the potential of the grandma pie and put it on the menu. You have them to thank for this light, thin, crispy-chewy pie with light crushed tomato sauce and a scattering of mozzarella, that every pizza-proud Long Islander knows is better than Sicilian, better than deep-dish, heck, better than many pizzas you'll find in Manhattan.

Find more details on King Umberto here.

It's tough to explain Gino's better than Esca chef Dave Pasternack did to Ed Levine in his book Slice of Heaven when he gave the following advice: "Buy a round-trip ticket to Long Beach. The ticket includes a beach pass, so it's a really good deal. Get off the train, and walk across the street to Gino's for a slice. Nice, crisp crust, not too thick and not too much cheese."

This is a place that still packs during the winter; a pizzeria with amazing murals that families come into off the beach; a place where they serve something for everyone, most notably pizza, as they have done for some 50 years.

There's the Special with sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, onion, mozzarella, and tomato sauce, but the Grandma is exemplary, and the Crostino, a thin-crust pan pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, and basil drizzled with balsamic glaze, isn't a pizza you've likely experienced elsewhere.

Find more details on Gino's of Long Beach here.

J&V, that's John and Vinny (John Mortillaro and Vincent DeGrezia), were two friends who founded a pizzeria at the corner of 63rd and 18th Avenue in what was then in 1950 a much more Italian Bensonhurst. Wood paneling, Formica booths, and metal napkin dispensers have all the hallmarks of a classic slice joint, one whose tradition is kept up by the family: John's widow, Stella, his son, Joseph, and his brother, John. They keep things simple at this joint – which is considered to be one of the first to have sold by the slice – with a revolving deck oven, a choice of a round pie, square pie, or grandma pizza, and not even 10 toppings (the old familiars: pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, sausage, olives, you know the drill). Slices from the classic round pizza are super thin, narrow isosceles that pack more flavor than you'd expect at first glance. Save room for the chicken "JoJo," a chicken Parmesan on a half a loaf of garlic bread that's been making a name for itself among locals over the past decade.

Find more details on J&V Pizzeria here.

Lombardi's may be responsible for "America's first pizza," but as Nick Azzaro, owner of Papa's Tomato Pies, isn't shy about saying, Papa's — established in 1912 — is America's oldest continuously owned, family-owned pizzeria. With more than 100 years under its belt, no wonder Papa's made this list of America's best pies again. And the family behind this operation is key: The recipe has been passed through generations and survived a 2013 move from Trenton to Robbinsville.

The Azzaro family cooks made-to-order pies customizable in a variety of ways. You can choose everything from garlic to mushrooms and pepperoni to meatballs, or add anchovies for a salty kick. But it's tradition that makes Papa's special, so order their signature tomato pie. But because you've made the trip, brought friends, and are hungry, order a Papa's tangy original: the mustard pie.

Yes, it sounds crazy, but don't doubt for a second that it works. Forget the Times' claim that the pepperoni mustard pie tastes a bit too much like a hot dog. Their palates may be a bit too, ahem, "refined." It tastes less like a hot dog, or any of the over-the-top hybrid creations fast food companies are flinging themselves at, than an unexpected, nuanced creation that shouldn't work, but does — a brilliant pizza you'll crave and won't find anywhere else. 

Find more details on Papa's Tomato Pies here.

Galleria Umberto in Boston's North End is generally lost among Boston's better-known pie shops like Santarpio's and Regina. That's curious, because, as put forth a few years ago by one Gadling.com travel blogger, it may very well be one of America's best cheap slice places. But the fact that it's somewhat under the radar is probably preferable to the locals, because as it is, there's already a line outside the door for these thick, over-the-edge-of-the-pan cheesy, saucy, completely over-the-top Sicilian slices. That's right, the Sicilian is the only pizza option, and the joint is cash only. Though it open sat 11 a.m., it closes at 2:30 p.m. (or whenever the dough is gone), so don't delay.

Find more details on Galleria Umberto here.

The Cheese Board gets pizza-lovers in Berkeley lining up outside and sitting on the grass median between traffic. Has to be good pizza, right? You bet. And the whole idea behind Cheese Board is cool, too. Cheese Board opened as a small cheese store in 1967, and four years later, the two owners sold it to employees, creating a 100 percent worker-owned business of which the owner remained a part.

"I love saying to people that this seems like an impossible business model, but it works, and it works very well," noted one longtime Cheese Board member on its website.

Cheese Board's pizza program started in 1985. During shifts, employees "started making pizzas for [them]selves by cutting off hunks of extra sourdough baguette dough, grabbing favorite cheeses from the counter, and throwing on vegetables from the market next door." After regular hours on Fridays, they began serving one vegetarian pizza, placing fresh ingredients and unusual cheeses atop a thin, sourdough crust.

What's the pie to get? Whatever they're serving. Just be sure to enjoy it under the sun on the median. (And look for the cheese graffiti in the sidewalk out front.)

Find more details on The Cheese Board here.

Pizzaiolo founder Charlie Hallowell was raised in suburban Connecticut on a modest diet of TV dinners and Chef Boyardee. As Pizzaiolo's website explains, through some unexplainable, miraculous twist of fate, he found himself working in the Chez Panisse kitchen, where, for the first time, he felt enlivened by his job and the intellectual life that permeated its culture.

After eight years, Hallowell set out on his own, determined to make sure that about 98 percent of the time he would buy only locally grown, organic, seasonal meat and produce (he uses organic flour milled in Oakland), sourced from small farmers and ranchers he trusts.

Pizzaiolo changes the menu daily, so nailing down a signature pie is tough (the Margherita is one of the most popular, and there's a marinara), but with ingredients like potato, pancetta, summer squash, rapini, wild nettles, and gremolata, and add-ons like house-made sausage, Calabrian peppers, and duck egg, you can be sure any of the six other pies will feature interesting combos.

Find more details on Pizzaiolo here.

Tony Gemignani is a master pizza chameleon, an expert at more pizza styles than you've ever tasted. No surprise then that his red-boothed, brick-walled San Francisco homage to Chicago-

style pizza in North Beach landed on this list of the 101 best pizzas in America. And by Chicago-style, we mean a choice between deep dish, cast iron pan, stuffed, and cracker thin pizzas (there's more to Chicago than casseroles after all). One of the most-discussed orders at Capo's is the Quattro Forni, a square loaf smothered with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and herbs and your choice of prosciutto, sopressata, or wild mushrooms, that's baked in four different ovens to achieve a crispy, chewy, black-edged crust. But the Dillinger is the pie that Capo's singled out as the signature order. A trio of Cheddar, mozzarella, and provolone is topped with vodka sauce, chicken, bacon, broccolini, artichoke hearts, red peppers, garlic, and lemon and spiced with crushed red pepper.

Find more details on Capo's here.

Nostrana is often cited as serving one of Portland's most authentic Neapolitan pies because its blistered cornicione and thin crust provide scrumptious, beautiful canvases for the hand-made mozzarella the restaurant makes daily. There are nine pies on chef Cathy Whims' menu including standouts like the diavola (spicy sausage, mozzarella, provolone, tomato, and Mama Lil's peppers), alla fiamma (tomato, red onion, Mama Lil's peppers, wild oregano, spicy oil, and black olives), Granchio (dungeness crab, scallions, crème fraîche, chives, paprika butter, and arugula), and a vongole bianco with Manila clams and gremolata that defies New Haven tradition by featuring smoked provolone and mozzarella. No matter the pie you order, it's going to be "served uncut, as is the traditional Italian style."

Find more details on Nostrana here.

Via 313 specializes in the Detroit-style pizza that its owners, brothers Zane and Brandon Hunt, loved eating at Cloverleaf, Loui's, Niki's, and Buddy's (where the style originated) when they were kids. They opened their customized pizza trailer on East 6th and Waller (in front of the Violet Crown Social Club) in 2011 and haven't looked back. For the uninitiated, consider Detroit-style like a Sicilian slice — semi-thick but with a light and airy crust (similar to focaccia) formed from baking it in industrial steel pans that also allow for the cheese to be baked all the way around. There's a delicious caramelized edge and two large strips of crushed red tomato sauce that add a flavorful touch. Via 313 offers eight thin-crust bar-style pies and 13 different Detroit-style pizzas with all the classic toppings you'd imagine, but they suggest starting with The Detroiter: mozzarella, white Cheddar, tomato sauce, and a double portion of pepperoni.

Find more details on Via 313 here.

With a pedigree that includes a degree from the Culinary Institute of America and stops at The French Laundry and Café Boulud, it's not a surprise that chef Shawn Cirkiel found success with his restaurant Parkside. But culinary degrees and hifalutin restaurant experience don't necessarily mean you can make great pizza.

Lucky for Austin, Cirkiel can and does, serving pizza cooked in a wood-fired brick oven from Naples at 900 degrees. There are seven pies at The Backspace, featuring toppings like fennel sausage, kale pesto, and picante salame. According to the restaurant, the most popular pie is the Bianca, a pizza with arugula, mozzarella, ricotta, and pecorino romano.

Whether it's downed with an aranciata like in Naples, or Texas-style with a glass bottle of Mexican Coke, well... that's up to you.

Find more details on The Backspace here.

"Best Pizza," "Pizza Delicious" — it almost seems as though new-guard pizza parlors are being named to optimize how high they'll show in Google results. But New Orleans' Pizza Delicious doesn't need a search-engine-optimized name to get people talking about it; there's been an amazing amount of buzz around and support for this Kickstarter success story since two New York-native Tulane grads started their pop-up–turned–brick-and-mortar Bywater institution in 2010.

The formerly one-day-a-week operation, routinely noted among best-of lists for both New Orleans and the entire country, is now open Tuesday through Sunday (11 a.m. to 11 p.m.). It provides pizza-lovers in the New York diaspora with their fix for slices from 18-inch pies in what they know of as the one true style, and preaches the faith to newcomers with cheese and pepperoni slices. There are nearly 30 toppings, including peppadews, Sriracha pineapple, and spinach ricotta, and well as daily specials like rosemary potato with red onion and spicy béchamel and eggplant Parmesan.

Find more details on Pizza Delicious here.

Scuola Vecchia brings a host of traditional Italian pizzas to Delray Beach with a ton of different options for every pizza-lover. Guests can choose from 25 different pizzas from the traditional Margherita to more complex pies like the capricciosa with fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce, Italian ham, artichokes, mushrooms, and extra-virgin olive oil. But if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, there's the option to build your own pie, starting with the foundation of either a marinara or Margherita.

Find more details on Scuola Vecchia Pizza E Vino here.

If there's a face for Washington, D.C.'s pizza's saving grace, it's that of owner and chef Ruth Gresser, who cut her chops in San Francisco in the late '80s and made her personal pizza foray in 1991, when she opened the first Pizzeria Paradiso. "We opened Pizzeria Paradiso so we could make the kind of pizza we longed for but couldn't find in the D.C. area," she notes on her site, "the kind of pizza where the crust was the most important part. So we started with a wood-burning, domed, stone oven able to cook at a temperature of 650 degrees."

The original Pizzeria Paradiso, located on the second floor of a small townhouse in Dupont Circle, was upgraded and relocated to P Street, and has since been joined by spots in Georgetown and Old Town (all three feature beer lists offering 200 bottled beers and a traditional British-style cask ale). Bottarga isn't the first ingredient you'd expect on a restaurant's self-described signature pie, but that's what you get: salty accents to the slightly sweet tomato touch, a nice garlic edge, and some light herbs. Paradiso's Bottarga pie might just be showing off by adding its egg finish, but you probably won't mind. For a next-level move, check out Gresser's fast-casual pizzeria Veloce, which also serves scrambled egg-topped breakfast pies.

(If you're interested in trying to make your own version of Gresser's pizzas, check out her cookbook, or try your hand at making her gluten-free dough at home.)

Find more details on Pizzeria Paradiso here.

Al Forno and Providence Coal Fired Pizza have garnered Rhode Island pizza accolades in years past, but Caserta Pizza in Providence's Little Italy has been around for longer than both put together. This salt-of-the-earth pizza joint has been all white-tile floor and pan-cooked pies since 1953. Caserta's is thick but fluffy and not shy when it comes to cheese and sauce. It's a Sicilian-style pie served in a six-slice circular pan when ordered small, with the large pie delivered as a 12-slice rectangular cheese-fest. Whatever the size, we're talking a well-done, golden-brown undercarriage, a slice that maintains a fixed horizon when held by the crust even with considerable cheese and sauce heft. The only other toppings are pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, and anchovies. Don't expect peppers or onions.

Order the Wimpy Skimpy (named for two best friends of the previous owner) and the Pepper Pig. These quasi-calzones are cooked open-faced, the former stuffed with spinach, cheese, black olives, and pepperoni, and the latter with Italian sausage and green bell peppers. "If you're not eating Caserta's, you're not eating pizza."

Find more details on Caserta Pizzeria here.

There's pizza on the menu at both Pizza Domenica and Domenica, which is Italian for Sunday (the former is in Uptown, the latter in the renovated and historic Roosevelt Hotel — chef Alon Shaya's sister restaurants within the Besh Restaurant Group). The slightly imperfect circles are ringed with light, puffy, and black-blistered crusts, the centers of the pies sauce-speckled and beautifully topped with stellar (and fun) ingredients like bacon and eggs, peach and pecans, roasted carrots, smoked pork, and salsa verde — you'll have a hard time choosing between the pizzas (11 at Pizza Domenica, nine at Domenica) made in the Pavesi pecan-wood-fired oven. So let us do it for you: Order the most popular pie, the Margherita, and try the signature Calabrese (available at both restaurants), and at Pizza Domenica, finish off with a pizza take on the classic New Orleans muffuletta sandwich (provolone, cured meats, pickled vegetables, olives, and garlic aioli).

Find more details on Pizza Domenica here.

The first Lou Malnati's Pizzeria opened in 1971 to much acclaim, and it's now a Chicago — and national — institution. Lou died of cancer just seven years later, but his family kept his dream alive, expanding his chain to 46 Chicagoland locations at last count.

The Lou Malnati's deep-dish experience comes in four sizes: six-inch individual (serves one), nine-inch small (serves two), 12-inch medium (serves three), and 14-inch large (serves four). So you most likely will just be ordering one or two if you plan to finish them, even with a few friends (unless you're not planning to eat anything else that day).

They do actually make a thin-crust pie, but what's the matter with you? You're not visiting for thin-crust, so make sure one of those picks is the Malnati Chicago Classic: a casserole (remember, deep dish isn't technically pizza) made with Lou's lean sausage, some extra mozzarella, and vine-ripened tomato sauce on buttercrust. "It's authentic Chicago!"

Find more details on Lou Malnati's Pizzeria here.

Nominated for the Best New Restaurant award by the James Beard Foundation in 2008 and home to James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Mid-Atlantic 2010, Osteria was the brainchild of Marc Vetri, Jeff Michaud, and Jeff Benjamin, who conceived the idea on a trip in Tuscany. There are three "Pizze Napoletane" on a menu that usually features a marinara and a pie with mortadella and pistachio pesto. The third? How about grilled peaches and prosciutto di Parma? Or porchetta (how often do you get a spit-roasted topping?). "Pizze Tradizionali" include gourmet twists like octopus and red chile flakes; baked egg with Bitto cheese and cotechino; and bufala mozzarella with corn, scallion, and truffle. And the wine list isn't half bad either with more than 100 Italian wines to accompany your award-winning pie. Osteria's acclaim has also spawned Pizzeria Vetri, a 30-seat restaurant in Philadelphia's art museum district, the first of the Vetri family restaurants dedicated exclusively to the art of authentic Italian pizza-making, an endeavor whose expansion last year lead to the restaurant group being acquired for nearly $19 million by Urban Outfitters.

Find more details on Osteria here.

Alicia Santucci, granddaughter of founders Joe and Philomena Santucci, carries on the tradition of pizza-making that her grandparents began in 1959: a square, pan pizza thicker than New York-style pies, but thinner than a Sicilian slice. Instead of melting the cheese on top, Santucci's places sliced 100 percent whole milk mozzarella directly on the bread, and then ladles signature, herbaceous sauce on top. Their three signature pies ("The Works," "Veggie Works," and Margherita) come in three sizes (nine-inch, 12-inch, and 17-inch), but can be topped with all the conventional extras along with banana peppers, grilled chicken, steak, meatballs, and prosciutto.

Find more details on Santucci's Square Pizza here.

If Staten Island is Gotham's least heralded pizza borough, Long Island has long gone uncelebrated as the New York pizza trove it is. That's OK. Let hipsters queue in Brooklyn — Long Islanders know those carless city schmucks don't know how good Nassau and Suffolk pizza country is. Long Islanders even have a pizza style, one that's caught on over the decade since Erica Marcus publicized it in 2003.

If there's a Long Island pizza royalty, coronate Umberto's Pizzeria (not King Umberto's in Elmont, No. 83 this year — another story). You can thank Italian-born founder Umberto Corteo (from Monte di Procida near Naples) and his brother Joe, who opened Original Umberto's of New Hyde Park in 1965.

Their humble joint turned into a self-described "majestic Tuscan architectural two-story restaurant with a full-service cafe." Regardless, Umberto's slings superior pizzas. Most notably, the grandma: a square, 12-slice, 16-by-16-inch thin crust pie topped with mozzarella and plum tomato marinara. Haven't experienced this thin, crispy-crust satisfaction? Start here. It's generally regarded as the originator of the grandma slice.

Why? How did the style spread? According to Pizza: A Slice of Heaven (which any pizza-lover refers to as the most important pizza tome written), the brothers made the pizza "Mama made" for themselves and friends, but didn't menu-item it. They opened satellite pizzeria King Umberto with another Corteo brother, Carlo, which upon his retirement was sold to Umberto's employees Rosario and Sal Fuschetto (who, it should be noted, make no mention of the original Umberto's on their site). A Slice of Heaven author Ed Levine reports that two pizza makers Rosario and Sal hired who'd gotten their start at the original Umberto's saw the potential of the grandma pie and put it on the menu.

So maybe you have them to thank for this light, thin, crispy-chewy pie with light crushed tomato sauce and a scattering of mozzarella that every pizza-proud Long Islander knows is better than Sicilian, better than deep-dish, heck, better than many pizzas you'll find in Manhattan.

Grab a corner.

Find more details on Umberto's Pizzeria & Restaurant here.

Sometimes it's better to let a place speak for itself. So consider what could easily be described as a pizza mission statement as posted by pizzaiolo Nino Coniglio and the rest of the team behind Williamsburg Pizza a few years ago: "We consider pizza one of the most important foods on earth. The soul of a true Brooklyn-style pizza doesn't reside in fancy gimmicks or a host of bizarre toppings. The key to an authentic New York City pie is an obsessive devotion to ingredients of the highest quality and consummate freshness. Our delicious pizza is handcrafted using only the finest and freshest ingredients beginning with our old school Brooklyn thin crust; to our homemade San Marzano tomato sauce; to our Grande Mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese — made fresh daily or imported directly from Italy. And when tossed together, the result is absolutely delicious."  

Find more details on Williamsburg Pizza here.

DeLorenzo's serves serious tradition with their pizza — 68 years' worth. It was launched in Trenton in 1947 by Southern Italian immigrant Alexander "Chick" De Lorenzo; today, Delorenzo's tradition is upheld by his grandson Sam Amico at the new location in Robbinsville, opened in 2007 (the original closed in 2012 when stewards Gary and Eileen Amico retired).

DeLorenzo's makes a clam pie, albeit with tomato sauce (New Haven pizza purists, beware!), but customers can add to small or large tomato pies by selecting from a range of toppings ($1.75 each) including anchovies, artichokes, basil, spinach, black olives, broccoli, garlic, hot peppers, mushrooms, onions, sausage, roasted peppers, sweet peppers, and pepperoni. We list these fastballs (as well as the $3 homemade meatball topping) to make this curveball even more effective: this near-septuagenarian pizzeria serves a tuna tomato pie, too.

Find more details on Delorenzo's Tomato Pies here.

Frank Pepe, Sally's Apizza, Modern Apizza, and Bar and the Bru Room, round out New Haven's big four pizza names, but there are great, lesser-known pizzerias, one on the other side of I-95 in West Haven that has been around almost as long: Zuppardi's, open since 1934 (though they may be ahead of the others in terms of entering the twenty-first century in one way at least: they launched a food truck this year). The origins? Domenico and Angelina Zuppardi's bakery, which was passed down to Tony and Frances Zuppardi, and in the 1940s was turned into a pizzeria by Tony (who was a baker in the Navy) when Domenico became ill.

Zuppardi's has its own take on Connecticut's renowned thin-crust style (they call it "a Napolitano-style pie") and a philosophy handed down to co-owner Lori Zuppardi (read the full interview) from her father that goes like this: "The last bite has to be as good as the first when people eat our pizza." It's as thin as, but less crisp than, New Haven's other pies with a New York City crust that's lighter and airier than the ones you'll find in Gotham. The difference is in the edge, which is charred in places and thicker all around.

The signature is the Special: mozzarella, mushroom, sausage, and marinara. But there are two other pies worth noting: the market price, freshly shucked littleneck clam pie (there's a cheaper and quicker clam pie, but why would you want that?) and a wet and juicy escarole and bean white pie with garlic and bites of crisp and wet escarole and soft bean interspersed. All good Italians know that escarole and bean soup is a great winter savior. Here, you'll find it on a pie. Prego!

Find more details on Zuppardi's here.

Bru Room is much younger than its New Haven cousins — it started kicking out brick-oven pizzas in 1996 when it was added to BAR. But you can make the argument that its pies are just as good if not better than Modern. They do the red, white, and red "with mozz" pies, same as the others, and a clam pie that's very respectable. But believe it or not, the thing to have is the mashed potato pizza with bacon (no sauce). The pie sounds ridiculous, and looking a bit like it's covered with thick béchamel, it kind of is. But the mashed potatoes are well seasoned and fairly creamy for having just baked in an oven, and there's lots of garlic. That all results in a definite check-it-off-your-list item.

Find more details on Bru Room at Bar here.

This Vegas outpost, one of the some 11 pizzerias California pizza king Tony Gemignani owns, doesn't skimp on pizza preparation. There are at least four ovens (a 900-degree-F wood-fired Cirigliano Forni oven, a Rotoflex gas brick oven, a Marsal gas brick oven, and a Cuppone Italian electric brick oven) the pizza champ uses to send out his signature pie styles (Napoletana, classic Italian, classic American, Sicilian, and Romano) of which there are many impressive iterations in each category. Your goal? Try to score one of the only 73 Margherita pies made daily using Tony's award-winning recipe.

Find more details on Pizza Rock here.

This Venice neighborhood spot serves Italian favorites to diners hanging out on the trendy Abbot Kinney Boulevard. The menu ranges from charcuterie and cheese to oysters, and includes an impressive wine list, but the pizza is the draw. Gjelina offers a roster of crispy, thin-crust pies (15 at last count) as well as thoughtfully conceived dishes prepared using market-fresh ingredients. There are enticing pies like the squash blossom pizza with burrata, the salted anchovy with tomato cream and capers, and guanciale with green olives, and Fresno chiles, but when you see house-made sausage, you know what you have to do: Order the un-sauced lamb sausage pie featuring confit tomato, rapini, pecorino, and asiago. Mwha!

Find more details on Gjelina here.

Ken Forkish and chef Alan Maniscalco co-founded Ken's Artisan Pizza in 2006 after the success of Monday Night Pizza at Ken's Artisan Bakery. There's been a cultish love for it in Portland ever since. There are gigantic Douglas Fir beams, sliding glass windows, and an open kitchen with a Le Panyol wood-fired oven, which guests can marvel at while digging in at tables made from salvaged wood from the late Jantzen Beach Big Dipper rollercoaster — once they get inside, that is (there tends to be a wait).

The thin-crust pies, baked in about two minutes and inspired by the co-founders' visits to Europe, are known for their tangy, orange-red sauce, featuring heat and savory notes, and a style that, as the name of the restaurant states, is more artisanal than Neapolitan. 

Find more details on Ken's Artisan Pizza here.

If there's anything scientific to discovering one of the best pizzas in America, it may very well involve an equation like this: Italian-Americans plus Milwaukee and cheese equals heralded pizza at Zaffiro's since 1954. First-generation Italian-American Liborio "Bobby" Zaffiro opened Rock-a-Bye Tap, where he started serving thin-crust pizza with the help of his brother John before they opened Zaffiro's in 1956 to make a go of it full-time.

It all worked out beautifully for the Sicilian-blooded brothers until John's 1988 retirement. Bobby died the year after, at which point his wife and two sons took over. Zaffiro's has stayed in the family, and is now helmed by Bobby's son Michael Zaffiro. 

However, the tradition of a thin-crust Milwaukee pie topped with about three to four times the cheese than crust lives on at this Wisconsin icon where, among the 11 classic pies on the menu, you'll find two "E"-centric menu items with one difference between them: the E has everything (toppings-wise at least), and the EBF has everything but the delicious (yet divisive) anchovies. If you're not an anchovy devotee, opt for the latter and appreciate one of Milwaukee's pizza gifts to the nation. Or try one of their two new pies: the Italian Veggie Supreme and the Meat Lovers.

Find more details on Zaffiro's Pizza here.

In a city dedicated to deep-dish pies, this family-owned restaurant has been serving up thin-crust pizzas to Chicago residents for since 1946, when they added them to their family's tavern menu. Vito & Nick's doesn't believe in delivery, their co-founder having gone as far as to say they'll never do it — "If they want a truly great pizza, they will come in for it." It's a philosophy that seems to be working for them – as the note on their website demonstrates ("If you don't know about us, you will"), the owners are fairly confident in their popularity. The thin-crust, tasty sausage, and generous cheese and sauce covering will likely leave you in agreement.

Find more details on Vito & Nick's here.

Along with Katz, "Malnati" is another name synonymous with Chicago pizza history. Rudy Malnati Sr. opened his first restaurant, Pizzeria Uno, in 1943. Uno and his son Lou went on to storied success. But his other son Rudy has been just as much a part of any conversation about Chicago's great pizzas since he opened Pizano's in 1991. There are now six Pizano's locations, all known for serving equally good thin and deep-dish pizzas. You have a choice between their buttery and flaky "world famous, gourmet, deep-dish pizza" (don't forget to allow a half hour for it to cook), or the thin-crust 12-inch or 14-inch pies.

Find more details on Pizano's here.

Once upon a time, the District of Columbia was a pizza desert, a land where khaki-wearers bided their time until the fortunes tied to two-, four-, or six-year cycles became clear, resigning themselves to late-night calls to Domino's and hoping Manny & Olga's wouldn't turn them off pizza for good. They suffered locals' misplaced love for Ledo's and watched with frustration as Adams Morgan's jumbo slices edged increasingly close to the half-smoke as one of the city's signature dishes. Thankfully, those days are over. Thanks, 2Amys.

2Amys' membership in the D.O.C (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) means its pizzaiolos adhere to the guidelines of what the Italian government deems a pizza should be. When you take a bite, you know you are getting a quintessential, traditional pie. Their menu is broken into D.O.C pizza offerings, stuffed pizzas, and more traditional but uncertified options, but panelists voted the namesake pie (tomato sauce and mozzarella) No. 53 on this list of America's 101 best pizzas — higher than a number of pizzerias in New York.

Find more details on 2Amys here.

Tucked into a Flushing strip mall along with a check cashing joint, Carvel, and a Pathmark, off the Whitestone Expressway just minutes before it takes you over the East River to the Bronx, is an under-mentioned and quintessential Queens slice joint: Amore Pizzeria.

This is a no-frills sliceria that's been around for about 40 years, the kind of spot that graces best-of-Queens lists from time to time. Truckers, taxi drivers, construction workers, and police officers stop in for super soupy slices barely thick enough to hold up to the sauce and cheese (their outrageous proportions almost make it seem like someone squared the original recipe's measurements and left the crust to just deal with it).

There have been quibbles about this among the pizza cognoscenti, to which this year's pizza panel once again replies, "We'd say, 'Shut your mouth when you chew on this insanely-satisfying slice,' but all that cheese and sauce would burn the roof of it."

Find more details on Amore Pizzeria here.

The bar pie. In the annals of all things pizza, it is perhaps one of the most underrated styles. The maligned proponents of the pile-it-on philosophy behind deep-dish get bent out of shape when Chicago's signature style is besmirched, but there doesn't seem to be a similar geographic identification attached to this more nuanced, reserved, and minimalist approach. It's a shame, save that it makes bar pie bastions like Colony, Eddie's (on 2014's list), and Star Tavern in Orange, New Jersey, even easier to like, and, selfishly, to eat at without battling crowds.

Owned and operated by the Vayianos family since 1980, "The Star" is run by former attorney Gary Vayianos, whose kitchen turns out super thin, crispy, to-the-edges-with-the-sauce toppings, with a sauce-to-cheese ratio that delivers as much as you need and not more than the structural integrity can handle.

Find more details on Star Tavern Pizzeria here.

What can you say about Al Santillo? Santillo may be the least well-known great pizza tradition curator in America, the gatekeeper to three generations of pizza-making and one of the most unique pizzerias in America. The man has tomato sauce running through his veins. Al Santillo's grandfather, who had long made focaccia for his family at home, decided to try it as a business in 1950. "He wanted to keep the place open in the evening and make a little more money, so he started making pizza," his grandson Al has noted. "In 1957, he bought the brick oven I use now." It's an oven Al says is called a low-arch, one whose every brick was cut by hand, and which he insists, "permits infinite possibilities in temperature and character."

Pizza infinity is difficult to conceive, but Santillo's is something you just have to experience for yourself. You can only do takeout from Al's living room — it houses the massive cathedral-like oven that requires a 20-foot-long peel to retrieve the pizzas. And be prepared to order by the year — Al preserves every pizza style he can for posterity. They range from the 1940 Genuine Tomato Pie (no cheese) to the 2011 San Marzano "Tomatoes Over the Cheese" Pizza. But there are other intriguing options like Lasagna Pizza, thin-pan, Roman-style, Italian bread, and an off-the-menu grandpa pie as well. Start out with a 1957 Style Pizza Extra Thin (14-Inch round), or the popular Sicilian pizza, or just ask this quirky, pizza-possessed master to make you his own spontaneous creation.

Find more details on Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza here.

Is Roseland Apizza the greatest pizzeria you've never heard of? At the very least, it's one of Connecticut's most underrated pizzerias — and this in a state known for famous pies.

Imagine the good will of a pizzeria that starts you off with a bread basket! (A touch insisted on by its late matriarch Lina Lucarelli.) Now hear the words "shrimp pizza" and understand that this neighborhood parlor has been slinging pies since 1935. New Haven pizza intransigents may feel right at home at Roseland — the décor has a Formica-counter-and-crowded-booth feeling that echoes the one at the more-pilgrimaged Sally's of Wooster Street. In point of fact, Frank Pepe opened just eight years before Roseland and Sally's opened just three years later.

The point is that if this is your first time, you're in the right place. Start with a plain tomato pie (no cheese). You'll want the Roseland Special (sausage and mushrooms), the fresh-shucked clam pie (white), and one of the special shrimp pizzas (said to include two pounds of shrimp — no joke). If you really feel like splashing out, there's Roseland's "most elite pie," the Ponsinella, which is loaded with lobster, shrimp, and scallops and has been known to cost $65 at market price.

Find more details on Roseland Apizza here.

Mike's Apizza in West Haven isn't a nationally known Connecticut pizzeria like Frank Pepe or even its noteworthy neighbor a few blocks away, Zuppardi's. But within West Haven, Mike's has been famous for consistency since it was opened by Mike Buonocore in 1942. "No one ever says it was good this week and not next week," its current owner, grandson Mike Buonocore, explained. "It has a lot to do with the same people working here all the time."

Mike's had to move twice, settling into the current 85-seat, double-dining room spot in 1975, and it has stayed in the family, passing first to Mike's son Frank ("Butch"), then to his son Mike. But even as the surrounding area has become less Italian, it remained that quintessential neighborhood joint. "Mainly family works here," Mike explained. "Through the years, the kids have gotten older and then the kids work here. You know what I mean?"

We do. Mike's turns out thin-crust, cheese-thread inducing Neapolitan pies – small (12 inches) and large (18 inches) — tomato, Buffalo chicken, clam, and a clam casino pizza (no sauce) with whole baby clams, peppers, and bacon, to name a few. But if you listen to Mike (and you should listen to Mike), order the broccoli rabe and sausage white pizza.

Find more details on Mike's Apizza here.

Connecticut's best pizza! Go. Discuss. "Pepe! Sally's! Modern! Bru!"

We'll stop you there. Not that these aren't amazing pizzerias, but the comebacks against well-known New Haven spots are enough to start a molten-cheese versus scald-your-mouth sauce debate you don't want to be part of. There are so many great places that haven't been given national attention. And Ernie's Pizzeria in New Haven, almost exactly four miles from Frank Pepe, is among them.

These days, Ernie's (named for its founder) is run by his son, Pat DeRiso, who has sworn he would never divulge his father's crust recipe. It's a recipe that's been kneaded out in New Haven for 45 years. Sausage and mushroom and bacon and garlic are some noted combos, but when we called Ernie's, they said to try the plain pie (mozzarella). Who are we to argue?

Find more details on Ernie's Pizzeria here.

Gennaro Lombardi's influence is such that his Spring Street shop almost directly resulted in what's generally accepted as one of, if not the best, pizzas in Las Vegas. Founders John Arena and Sam Facchini's grandparents settled 50 yards from Lombardi's, and "ever since those early days, pizza has been at the center of [their] family life" (their parents' first jobs were feeding coal into the bakery ovens where Sicilian pizzas were made for the neighborhood's immigrant families).

Metro Pizza (born in 1980 as Original New York Pizza, and renamed in 1986 when they expanded) has been making handcrafted pies with dough made fresh daily and superior ingredients for 30-plus years (there are now six locations). Among the specialty pies, the Milano (mozzarella, ricotta, pecorino romano, and garlic) is a white pie worth noting. Of course, you'll want to give a nod to at least one of the six "East Side Pizzas" named for New York City streets like Mulberry, Mott, and Bleecker.

Find more details on Metro Pizza here.

It's something to be considered a Neapolitan pizza expert — and with too many awards to count (eight-time world champion pizza acrobat, first-place world champion pizza maker, first-place Roman pizza world championships of pizza makers), Tony Gemignani is that. It's another to also proudly offer, and be commended for being a master of, all pizza styles. But that's the story at Tony's Pizza Napoletana. Yes, the signature pie is Tony's award-winning Neapolitan: hand-mixed dough made with San Felice flour and proofed in Napoletana wood boxes, then topped with San Marzano tomatoes, sea salt, mozzarella, fior di latte, fresh basil, and extra-virgin olive oil. Just keep in mind that only 73 of these champion pizzas are made each day, so get there early. But the menu also offers critically acclaimed versions of pizza in the styles of California, St. Louis (yes!), Italy, Sicily (awesome!), New York, Rome, classic American, and even Detroit (sweet!). You could accuse Gemignani of showing off. Then again, there's truth in the expression: "It ain't bragging if it's true."

Find more details on Tony's Pizza Napoletana here.

San Francisco's Mission has changed over the past decade, but Mission visionaries and Pizzeria Delfina owners Craig and Anne Stoll haven't lost a step even as they've expanded to four restaurants. The menu is inspired by Craig's memories of the New York-style pies from his youth and pizza from Naples' best pizzerias. The menu features 11 "Neapolitan-inspired" thin-crust. You'll be intrigued by options like the Panna (tomato sauce, cream, basil, and Parmigiano-Reggiano), and look out! A cherrystone clam pie with tomato, oregano, and hot peppers. But your first move should be the Salsiccia: house-made fennel sausage, tomato, bell pepper, onion, and mozzarella. Then ask if there are any secret-menu options! They've been known to offer some, most recently, at least one could be ordered by name, the Purgatorio: two farm eggs baked in tomato sauce with mozzarella and Pecorino Romano.

Find more details on Pizzeria Delfina here.

It wasn't enough for Chicago to invent its own deep-dish pizza style — no, they had to invent two. The recipe for Giordano's stuffed pizza is one that the restaurant claims has evolved over more than 200 years, beginning outside Turin where Mama Giordano, "famous around town for her exquisite cooking," was well-known for her most beloved meal.

Her "Italian Easter Pie" became a double-crusted, ricotta-stuffed tradition in the Giordano family, one Italian immigrants Efren and Joseph Boglio, the original owners of Giordano's, used in 1974, on Chicago's historic South Side, when they opened their first pizzeria. The stuffed pie features a thin bottom crust topped with nearly an inch of cheese and toppings then topped by an even thinner crust layer then topped with a slightly chunky tomato sauce. Whether or not you believe anything this thick is served in Italy and claimed there to be Italian, there are now some 56 Chicago locations (and more in Florida, Michigan, Indiana, and Minnesota) serving this version of stuffed pizza.

Find more details on Giordano's Pizza here.

Giovanni Di Palma's Antico Pizza Napoletana opened in 2009, and has since established itself among most Atlantans as the city's best pizza. Two years ago, there were some serious allegations about interference in a federal labor investigation leveled against its owners, but that hasn't stopped fans from arguing that it's among the top pizzerias in the country. There are 10 choices, between the five red pies and five white pizzas. Antico's menu includes standouts like the San Gennaro with sausage, dolce picante peppers, and cipolline and the lasagna with meatballs, ricotta, and pecorino romano. But the specialità della casa is the move: earthy, sweet, and, of course, cheesy.

Find more details on Antico Pizza Napoletana here.

The same family that brought you Adrienne's Pizza Bar on Wall Street, Angelo's in Midtown, and all of the Patsy's licensees in Manhattan first conquered pizza in Queens. Owner Nick Angelis serves some of the freshest mozzarella around with a wide variety of other great toppings including scallions, feta, hot cherry peppers, capers, and sun-dried tomatoes (though they'll tell you to go with the mushroom and sausage pie), on Neapolitan-style pizza that, from the look of the charred crust edges, you would not believe came out of a gas oven. Don't miss the calzones at Nick's either.

Find more details on Nick's Pizza here.

Not a fan of romantic movie plots? Keep in mind that this one ends with you eating pizza. What are we talking about? One of the cutest pizza love stories ever. Girl and boy's first date: at grilled-pizza icon Al Forno (No. 31) in Providence. Boy and girl's first meal together: pizza. Girl looks across pie and knows she'll marry boy. Boy goes to culinary school, is invited to help open Brooklyn pizzeria, finds pizza calling, collaborates on successful pizza restaurant, then sets out with girl to launch own Kickstarter-funded, family-run successful pizza spot, inside which it also nurtures über-pizza blogger Adam Kuban's own bar-pie pop-up, Margot's . Everyone lives happily pizza after and it all happens in Brooklyn! See? Almost too good to be true.

Tough tomato sauce, because Clinton Hill pizzeria Emily and its co-owners Emily and Matt Hyland produce some of New York City's best new pies. If you haven't been, hightail it over to taste the bubble-and-char-blistered "Classic" (sauce made with puréed Jersey tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil). They also happen to serve one of the best burgers in the country, and with Emmy Squared on this year's list (No. 85), own two of America's best pizzerias.

Find more details on Emily here.

This thin-crust bar pie institution in Stamford, Connecticut, is notorious for its no-frills demeanor, no-special-options policy, and for not making exceptions (which Colony's website admirably calls "classic American charm"). There are signs, though, that this reputation may be thawing. Consider the special corned beef and cabbage pizza for St. Patrick's Day, which makes sense when you consider "Colony" was the nickname of the Irish neighborhood in Stamford where Colony Grill was established by Irish owners in 1935. But now there are four locations (ones in Fairfield, Milford, and Norwalk), and they've added both salad and breakfast pizzas to the menus. Go figure.

What you're going to want to do is order the hot oil bar pie with sausage (chile-pepper-infused oil) and a "stinger" pie (they're thin so you're going to need two). That signature hot oil is a must — if you don't do it, don't bother going. There's almost the same amount of tasty sauce and cheese as there is crisp cracker crust.

There's something special about the equal amounts of ingredients you likely won't have had before, the way the pockmarked surface resembles some crazy dream where cheese covers the surface of the moon (melty like you remember from the orange-oil-covered slice at your childhood favorite pizzeria), and how the sting of the oil brings you right back to the sip of beer you'll want while savoring each bite.

Find more details on Colony Pizza here.

Opening in Boston's North End in 1926, just a year after the famed Frank Pepe in New Haven, Connecticut, Regina Pizzeria has some serious cred. But where Frank Pepe's recent expansions denote a business on rise, you have to wonder at Regina's business plan. It once sported some 20 locations, but filed for bankruptcy last year with the intention of getting out of bad leases (there are currently 17).

The pizza? Made using dough from an 80-year-old family recipe, sauce, whole-milk mozzarella, and toppings with no preservatives or additives, and all cooked in a brick oven. There are nearly 20 different pies, some made traditionally, while others — like the St. Anthony's, a white pie with Regina sausage, sausage links, roasted peppers, and garlic sauce — are unique.

But the pie singled out by Regina as their most popular is the Melanzane, which features homemade ricotta, a light yet spicy marinara (seasoned with a hint of aged romano), red onions, basil, pecorino romano, eggplant, oregano, and their aged whole-milk mozzarella, which Regina's claims gives their cheese factor distinctive flair.

Find more details on Regina Pizzeria here.

When Anthony Mangieri, pizzaiolo for the East Village's Una Pizza Napoletana, closed shop in 2009 "to make a change," move west, and open up somewhere he could "use his outrigger canoe and mountain bike more often," it was the ultimate insult. Sure, he'd done this kind of thing once before, leaving behind his Point Pleasant, New Jersey, Una Pizza incarnation in favor of Manhattan. But still. You're taking one of the New York City's favorite Neapolitan pizzerias to people who denigrate New York's Mexican food? So you can canoe and mountain bike? (He was for real, by the way — there's even a mini documentary about his bicycle passion.)

Good for Mangieri, and good for San Franciscans, who with Una Pizza Napoletana inherited one of the country's best Neapolitan pies (if only Wednesday through Saturday, from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., or until they're "out of dough"). Motorino (No. 6) opened in Mangieri's old East Village spot, which softened the blow, but any New Yorkers who don't think it was a loss for the city are kidding themselves. 

Find more details on Una Pizza Napoletana here.

Although this San Francisco restaurant claims to specialize in house-made pastas, their pizza is formidable. Baked in a wood-fired oven, the thin-crust pizza at Flour + Water blends Old World tradition with modern refinement, according to chef and co-owner Thomas McNaughton.

There's a limited pizza menu that typically features just four pies. But the toppings vary depending on what's in season, making dining experiences unique. Consider these recent examples: green zebra tomatoes, garlic scapes, lemon basil, scarmorze, charred Jimmy Nardello peppers. But Flour + Water's textbook Margherita is amazing. Heirloom tomatoes, basil, fior di latte, and extra-virgin olive oil... if only the simplicity implied by the restaurant's name could be duplicated in restaurants across America.

Find more details on Flour + Water here. 

Sotto was opened just four years ago in a below-ground space in Pico-Robertson ("sotto" is Italian for "below) on the western side of a city that's no slouch when it comes to good pizza. But chefs Zach Pollack and Steve Samson melded their mutual love for southern Italian cuisine and shared work history (Grace, Sona, and then Pizzeria Ortica, which they opened together in Orange County) into a place that these days quickly comes to mind when many discuss the best pizza in Los Angeles (LA Weekly called it that last year).

What's the big deal? Hyper-micro-leopard spotting all around the cornicione and a center that looks like a shallow crater of molten cheese and crushed tomato about to burst up through the tabletop like some other culinary-worldly pizza volcano. There are eight pies on the menu, all cooked in the Stefano Ferrara oven imported from Italy. They feature interesting ingredients like Castelvetrano olives, house-cured pork cheek, buckwheat honey, and the spicy spreadable Calabrian sausage called 'nduja, and add-ons that include arugula, anchovy, egg, salame picante, and pioppini mushrooms. Our calls to determine which pie the restaurant considered its signature returned a common response: Margherita. That may be so, but you'd be remiss to not order the guanciale as well — house-cured pork cheek, ricotta, scallions, and what then-LA Weekly critic Jonathan Gold estimated to be "two bucks' worth of fennel pollen" — a pizza he described as "among the piggiest pies in town."

Find more details on Sotto here.

In a city known for deep-dish, Chicagoans long ago learned how to give Wicker Park brewery and pizzeria Piece a chance ("Pizza is good for you!"). Owner Bill Jacobs had already started, sold, and made Piece with moving beyond the successful Windy City bagel family business they sold in 1999 (you'd say "rest in Piece," but after his pizza success with Piece, he's actually now back into bagels too!) three years before this New Haven homeboy ventured into pizza in 2002.

The haters protested, but they were soon at Piece eating this New Haven-style joint's thin-crust red, plain (no mozzarella), and white (plain crust brushed with olive oil, diced garlic, and mozzarella) pizzas, all of which get at least a small piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano, oregano, and olive oil. Ingredients. You can have a classic New Haven pie with fresh tomatoes or clams (of course), and, in some kind of pan-New Haven Piece accord, there's also a nod to Bru Room at Bar's signature mashed potato pizza. Is it puzzling to see chips and salsa and warm spinach and tomato dip on the menu? Sure, but having brought quality New Haven-style pies to Chicago and bought out his lease so he can do so for years to come, Jacobs has brought Piece of mind to Windy City denizens and delivery to boot. Piece out.

Find more details on Piece here.

Gino's may be the ultimate in Chicago deep-dish pizza, with a history dating back half a century (2016 marks 50 years). The story starts with two taxi drivers and their friend who became frustrated with rush hour traffic and decided to open up their own pizza place just off the famed Michigan Avenue strip in downtown Chicago. The restaurant, and the graffiti on its walls (it's Gino's tradition to carve your name if you're a regular), have been considered a city mainstay since its conception.

Pies begin with a buttery crust that crumbles as soon as you take a bite; it's stuffed with a layer of fillings (ranging from sweet Italian sausage to pineapple), then topped with a more-than-healthy serving of mozzarella and finished with crushed vine-ripened tomatoes. Their success has led them to open 19 locations, even expanding into neighboring Wisconsin for all those cheese-lovers, Arizona, and to Texas of all places, where the cornicione gods know there's a need for more good pizza. 

Find more details on Gino's East here.

Anybody interested in tracing America's love affair with pizza to its origins will find the way to Lombardi's. Gennaro Lombardi opened a grocery on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1897, and in 1905 he started selling tomato pies wrapped in paper and tied with a string to workers of Italian descent who took them to work (because most couldn't afford a pie, it was sold by the piece). The pizzeria was run by the Lombardi family — first by Gennaro's son, John, then his grandson, Jerry — until it closed in 1984, and was reopened 10 years later a block from the original location by Jerry and John Brescio, a childhood friend.

These days, Lombardi's is almost always packed (their 110th anniversary, 5-cent pizza celebration queued a line around the block). There's a thin crust, a cornicione without much bubble, and a thorough sauce layering that's tangy and not overly sweet or salty.

There's no shredded mozzarella layering but the fresh stuff, spread out. Even if you're not a fan of this kind of cheese on your pie, you'll probably like this. Is it New York City's best pizza? No. Still, Lombardi's is a touchstone (sometimes, it's worth re-establishing your baseline). And when looking out on New York's pizza landscape, the devotion to a pizza from a time when it didn't mean artful charring and contrived golden-tiled ovens is comforting, even if that just means the pizza of 1994.

Find more details on Lombardi's here.

On South Main Street in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island, Al Forno offers quintessential Italian dining for those who can't afford the flight. Husband-and-wife owner-chefs George Germon and Johanne Killeen received the Insegna del Ristorante Italiano from the Italian government, a rare honor for Americans, attributable to their informed passion for pasta along with their invention of the grilled pizza.

George passed away late last year, but chef David Reynoso carries on Al Forno's tradition. It's a style that celebrity chefs have been noting on TV for a while now, and that's spawning its own offshoots. The restaurant bakes six pies in wood-burning ovens and on grills over hardwood charcoal fire. Their most notable grilled pizza? The Margarita [sic]. It's served with fresh herbs, pomodoro, two cheeses, and extra-virgin olive oil.

Find more details on Al Forno here.

Residents of the Forgotten Borough have long known what the rest of New York City, and more recently the country, are beginning to understand: When it comes to pizza, Staten Island doesn't play. That's even more evident this year, with the opening of its first Manhattan location in the West Village. And why shouldn't Denino's conquer the City? It's led the Staten Island charge since 1951, when Carlo Denino took over the tavern his Sicilian father John Giovanni opened in 1937. After John died, Carlo introduced pizza at the tavern, and locals have been ordering bar pies and downing them with pitchers ever since. A third generation of Denino's runs the operation now (and opened a second spot in New Jersey), and they keep pulling regulars in for their sweet Italian sausage pie, tossed in crumbles over a light, pliant crust.

Find more details on Denino's here.

Speedy Romeo has been steadily building a reputation since opening in a former auto-parts shop in Clinton Hill in 2012. The brainchild of friends Todd Feldman (a casting director) and Justin Bazdarich (a former chef for Jean-Georges), Speedy Romeo was named for Todd's family's Meadowlands racehorse and has been off and running like a culinary thoroughbred ever since (their Lower East Side Manhattan location opened earlier this year and has been packed ever since). There are 11 varieties of thin-crust pies fired in a wood-burning oven. 

The menu features fun pie names with enticing combinations to match. Consider The Dangerfield (pork and veal meatballs, ricotta, béchamel, and garlic chips), The White Album (roast garlic, ricotta, pecorino, béchamel, and Provel), and the speck, pineapple, Provel, and grilled scallion pie named for American surf rock guitarist Dick Dale. 

Speaking of Provel, the white, processed combination of Cheddar, Swiss, and provolone so beloved in St. Louis makes several appearances, none less prominent than on an homage to The Lou, "The Saint Louie," where it's accompanied by Italian sausage, pepperoni, and pickled chiles. Crazy creamy with bites of meaty respite from the cheese and a healthy degree of heat, The Saint Louie isn't a sideshow, but the reason to visit, a New York-ified version of a St. Louis classic that more of the city's residents need to discover.

Find more details on Speedy Romeo here.

You don't expect pizza restraint in Deep-Dish City, but that's what owners Bill Carroll and Dave Bonomi advise on the menu at their coal-oven Neapolitan pizzeria: "Due to the delicate nature of our crust, and the care we take to ensure maximum quality, we recommend: one to two toppings per pizza, no more than one vegetable topping, and evenly balanced toppings (i.e. half toppings are not recommended)." Crowds have heeded that advice for almost a decade now, enjoying the thin crust that emerges slightly charred and bubbly from Coalfire's 800-degree clean-burning coal oven.

Find more details on Coalfire Pizza here.

What is it with these computer guys-turned-pizzaiolos? Like Paulie Gee, who characterized himself as having "masqueraded as a computer geek," Bronx-born software engineer Jeff Varasano found a passion for pizza that led him down a saucy, bubbly road to pizza stardom. Atlanta has been the lucky beneficiary. It's the city where Varasano has made a well-documented six-year stab at recreating his version of the Patsy's pizza, which he credited with changing his life. The fact that the pizza isn't quite Patsy's-esque isn't a bad thing. There's a taller cornicione featuring a shard-thin exterior that gives to pliant air pockets and a soft underlying crust. This means more textural variation with each bite.

Varasano's serves two traditional pies: Margherita di Bufala and "Nana's," which is the house special: mozzarella and San Marzano tomato sauce with a "secret blend of herbs" (sweet roasted red peppers are suggested, too). There are 12 specialty pies with a variety of toppings (including interesting ones like Emmenthaler, a pinch of lemon zest, and spiced olives) that come standard, but menu notations suggest extras. Speaking of which, if you want to build your own or add to menu options, there are 17 toppings (including handmade meatballs). They do recommend adding only one to avoid overloading the thin crust, and call out capicola as "our best topping." P.S. Varasano doesn't make it often, but his Sicilian-style pie is supposed to be amazing, too. So it's always worth asking about.

Find more details on Varasano's Pizzeria here.

If you talk to anyone from Queens about pizza, you won't be able to get away without talking about the 1956 brick-oven stalwart New Park Pizza. If you haven't been, they'll quickly lose whatever respect they might have had for you (God forbid you've been and didn't like it). The key to the perfect New Park slice may be in knowing how to order. Take the advice of Adam Kuban, founder of the now-defunct Slice blog turned pizzaiolo for his pizza pop-up Margot's) and ask for it "well done."

It will be set into their second set of ovens, where the bottom will come close to being burnt. "It's not, though," notes Kuban, "[it] just adds a bit more flavor. The cheese will brown and crisp in spots. The slice will have some serious pizza-burn potential — but you won't care. You will eat that slice and immediately order another."

Find more details on New Park Pizza here.

The local favorite (Usher's too, apparently) has already seen its fair share of fame after winning various best-of-Boston pizza lists over the years. Santarpio's, which opened in 1903, sticks to their traditional roots when it comes to the infamous slightly chewy and satisfyingly wet slices. Their menu consists of a variety of options, but includes a list of customers' favorite combos, like a pie that pairs sausage with garlic, ground beef, and onions, and even "The Works": mushrooms, onions, peppers, garlic, sausage, pepperoni, extra cheese, and anchovies. First-timer? Order Santarpio's most popular pie — mozzarella, sausage, and garlic — to establish a baseline.

Find more details on Santarpio's here.

Pequod's originator (the late Burt Katz) moved on from this endeavor after few years to take a break before opening a new pizza stalwart in 1989: Burt's Place (now closed, but soon to reopen under new ownership) in Morton Grove, just north of Chicago. But the years have been kind to his legacy. Pequod's deep dish, known for its "caramelized crust," earns points for its chewy, crusty, quasi-burnt cheese crust that forms the outer edge of this cheesy casserole, adding a welcome degree of texture that probably wouldn't be necessary if it weren't nearly an inch thick. But it is necessary. And beautiful. And it does add that texture. And you can thank the fact that they spread a thin layer of cheese along the outer part of the crust where it darkens against the side of the pan.  

Find more details on Pequod's here.

If you're looking for the first Ray's pizza (not the Original Ray's, Famous Ray's, Original Famous Ray's or any other iteration of Ray's) on Prince between Elizabeth and Mott, don't bother. The famed pizzeria of 27 Prince Street opened in 1959 by Ralph Cuomo, a member of the Luchese crime family, closed in 2011 after a dispute with the landlord. While losing a piece of New York City's pizza history (Ray may have been in the mob, but the pies were perfection all the way up to his death in 2008), you can take comfort in the pizza continuity that has soldiered on in the space since Prince Street Pizza started serving their "SoHo Squares" in 2012. Owner Frank Morano, who grew up on slices at Ray's and uses his family's Sicilian recipes, installed a new gas-fired, brick-lined Marsal & Sons oven in the half of the space that used to be Ray's take-out slice shop to fire up seven signature Neapolitan pies and five styles of square slices.

You'll want to start with their simple mozzarella and sauce signature square, but don't leave without trying the Spicy Spring. It's topped with tangy-sweet fra diavalo sauce, fresh mozzarella, and spicy soppressata that turns into crispy circles that cradle shimmering pools of oil. This is a grease-on-your-face slice, the kind whose sauce ends up on the white dress shirt of the investment banker standing next to you. Make sure you get a fresh slice and ask for a corner (and for any pepperoni that falls off in the pan). "No other square can compare."

Find more details on Prince St. Pizza here.

Some would say this is the only existing place where you can get a proper and authentic coal-oven slice in the universe, given that its founder Pasquale "Patsy" Lancieri supposedly opened Patsy's after working with the godfather of New York City pizza, Gennaro Lombardi.

True or not, this 1933 East Harlem original can claim pizza heritage most only dream of, and was reportedly one of Sinatra and DiMaggio's favorites. Still, the original is one of the most underrated and under-hyped pizza classics in the city. It's a curious thing given the history and quality, though there are some caveats. Patsy's pizza is so thin, and relatively short, that you can scarf down six slices at the counter. That's what you'll want to do, anyway — there's something about this pizza that makes it miraculous just from the oven, but as exponentially unimpressive if you let it wait.

The move is to order the plain cheese, eat, and repeat — and don't reheat.

Find more details on Patsy's here.

With a love for pizza, little formal training, no high school diploma, a career he has characterized as involving him "masquerad[ing] as a computer geek," and a fear of becoming Shelley Levene from Glengarry Glen Ross, Paulie Giannone struck out into the unknown, to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He ventured there before Girls, before the condos, in a time when a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment a 10-minute walk from the subway to Manhattan on the Polish word-of-mouth, no-lease real estate wire still went for less than $2,000. This backyard DIY pizza passionista put it all on the line and earned every kind word he's gotten.

Paulie Gee's is a pizza-lover's haven, a clean, rustic space that resembles a barn but puts out a pie to rival that of every Naples memory you've had (or dreamed of having). If you count the suggested add-on combos, the vegan options, and the "secret pizzas," there are practically too many pizzas to count (50? 60?), all featuring clever names and great topping combinations — Ricotta Be Kiddin' Me, Feel Like Bacon Love ("there is no bacon on this pizza!"), and the Orange You Paulie Gee? — but when The Daily Meal checked in, the Regina (on the secret menu) was noted as the signature: mozzarella, tomatoes, pecorino romano, olive oil, and fresh basil.

Paulie has had expansion plans since 2013 — his reported idea being to partner with owner–operators in cities across America. There are currently Paulie Gee's in Baltimore, Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio, with a planned outpost in Miami and a slice joint in Brooklyn on the horizon.

Find more details on Paulie Gee's here.

Apizza Scholls serves some of the best pizza in Portland, and, some argue, north of San Francisco. It's not an unquestioning, Erich Segal Love Story mutual obsession, though. The pizzeria does have guidelines for patrons composing their own topping combos on Apizza's 18-inch pies: only three ingredients, and no more than two meats per pie.

So choose wisely from a list of toppings that, in addition to classics like anchovies, red onions, garlic, pepperoni, house-made sausage, and basil, includes Olympia Provisions capicollo, house-cured Canadian bacon, cotto salami, arugula, and pepperoncini. (Yes, you can also top pies with jalapeños, mushrooms, pepperoncini, ricotta, green and black olives, and, sigh, truffle oil.) Just remember: Bacon is "not offered for build your own toppings."

If you aren't up to building your own pie, there are 13 classics to choose from with names like "Pig & Pineapple," "Tartufo2 The Electric Boogaloo," and "Sausage & Mama." Among them, you'll find the signature Apizza Amore: Margherita with capicollo (cured pork shoulder) that has a spicy kick offset by the somewhat sweet mozzarella and balanced sauce. That's amore!

Find more details on Apizza Scholls here.

Detroit's signature square pizza style is like a Sicilian slice on steroids. There's crisp, thick, deep-dish crust action, often formed from the process of twice-baking in square pans that have been brushed with oil or butter, and a liberal ladling of sauce spread across the cheese surface. It supposedly all started at Buddy's Rendezvous in 1946, a neighborhood tavern that had been run for a decade by owner August "Gus" Guerra. Since 1953, Buddy's has had several owners. Gus sold Buddy's to Jimmy Bonacorse and Jimmy Valenti and opened Cloverleaf (a pizzeria featured on last year's list). They sold it to Billy and Shirlee Jacobs in 1970 (their son Robert Jacobs helms it now).

Different stewardships over the last 70 years, same results — a passionate following for cheesy, chewy pies — the difference being there are now 11 locations and the rest of the country is catching up. You may think that Detroit-style is confined to its home region, but consider that a few years ago, Alan Richman of GQ singled out Buddy's as one of the 25 best pizzas in America; that California pizza royalty Tony Gemignani serves his version at several of his restaurants; and the style has started catching on in Texas and in New York with Emmy Squared. Try the signature Detroit Zoo pie from the Motor City Pizza Collection: Motor City Cheese blend, roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, pine nuts, and tomato basil sauce.

Find more details on Buddy's Pizza here.

"This is it. New York's #1," notes Kesté's website. And in fact, that's what the restaurant's name means in Neapolitan dialect: "This is it." Seven years after opening in 2009, it's hard to argue that Kesté doesn't belong in the conversation. This is the place you take Italians — better yet, Neapolitans — or anyone who has experienced Italy's pizza culture, when they ask for demonstrations of New York's Neapolitan pizza IQ.

It's the same old scene: They sidle in skeptically, protest, complain, critique the menu, décor, you, and then they taste Roberto Caporuscio's pizza. They catch themselves, begrudgingly and not out of politeness, noting it is close to the real thing — fine, at least better than they could've imagined. It's as good a compliment as Italians can give.

It elicits that reaction for a reason; Caporuscio was born and raised on a dairy farm in Pontinia, Italy, an hour from Naples. He's the president of the Association of Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli (APN — Association of Neapolitan Pizza Makers) in the U.S., the Italian governing body that teaches the 150-year-old art of Neapolitan pizza-making and certifies adherence to authentic procedures.

Kesté has that signature chewy crust, the soft, slightly soupy middle, the balance of quality ingredients. Close your eyes and you're transported to the back alleys of Naples. While you may not want to share it with your traditional-minded Italian friends, the eponymous pie with tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto di Parma, arugula, and gran cru olive oil takes the restaurant's name proudly, and doesn't let it down.

Find more details on Kesté Pizza & Vino here.

Being able to do the mental gymnastics intrinsic to understanding the history behind one of New York City's — er, Brooklyn's — most storied pizzerias isn't required for you to enjoy a slice of its famous pizza, but we have a few minutes while you wait in line.

Gennaro Lombardi opened what's generally regarded as America's first pizzeria (Lombardi's, No. 32). He supposedly trained Pasquale "Patsy" Lancieri, who opened the first Patsy's in East Harlem (No. 22). His nephew Patsy Grimaldi opened a place, also called Patsy's, in Brooklyn's DUMBO in 1990 (he's said to have also learned his craft from Jerry Pero, son of Anthony Totonno Pero, who founded Totonno's — another story), but had to change the name to Grimaldi's after his uncle died and his aunt sold the Patsy's name.

Three years later, Patsy sold the Grimaldi's at 19 Old Fulton Street to Frank Ciolli, whose two children expanded the Grimaldi's brand to nearly 50 restaurants across the country. But Ciolli lost the lease to the original space and had to move into a larger former bank building next door on 1 Front Street. That's when Patsy swooped out of retirement into the original Grimaldi's space to open Juliana's.

It comes down to this: Patsy Grimaldi, whose pizza lineage goes back to family members trained by Gennaro Lombardi, is making pies at a restaurant called Juliana's in the original Grimaldi's, and Grimaldi's is right next door.

With that all said, you're just about at the front of the line (remember: no credit cards, no reservations, no slices, and no delivery!). So sit down and order something simple: a Margherita made in a coal-fired oven that heats up to about 1,200 degrees F and requires about 100 pounds of coal a day. It's crispy, it's smoky, it's tangy, cheesy, and delicious, and when you're done, you can go next door to Juliana's.

Find more details on Grimaldi's here.

You can trace Pizzeria Vetri's pedigree back to Osteria, chef Marc Vetri's casual Italian restaurant that followed his 30-seat à la carte-turned-tasting menu Vetri. Osteria's homemade pastas and wood-grilled fare quickly garnered local and national accolades, including a James Beard Award nomination for Best New Restaurant in 2008 and a 2010 award for chef Jeff Michaud (Best Chef Mid-Atlantic).

But its pizza! The Italian, thin-crust pies took on a success of their own, landing on GQ's list of the 25 best pizzas in America. Baked egg with bitto cheese and cotechino, zucchini with stracciatella and lemon, octopus and smoked mozzarella — talk about a revelation. Thus it was in 2013 that the Vetri family bestowed upon Osteria lovers a new gift: Pizzeria Vetri.

Be sure to check off the tonno with Sicilian tuna and bursts of spicy peperoncino, but don't leave Philadelphia without trying the Rotolo, a crispy pizza dough pinwheel stuffed with house-made mortadella and ricotta, crowned with pistachio pesto.

Find more details on Pizzeria Vetri here.

Established in 1934 as State Street Pizza, Modern is known for its coal-fired brick oven that still puts out pizza in the same thin-crust style. You'll likely hear it described as the place "locals go instead of Pepe and Sally's." Perhaps. The atmosphere is great — wood paneling, friendly servers, a clean feeling — but it doesn't play third-string because it's not on Wooster. Modern's pies are slightly topping-heavy with weak structural integrity. Given the topping focus, the Italian Bomb is the pie to try: it's topped with bacon, sausage, pepperoni, garlic, mushroom, onion, and pepper.

Find more details on Modern Apizza here.

Since 1975, Joe's Pizza has served fresh, hot, cheesy slices to tourists and residents alike, making it a truly iconic New York City landmark. It's as synonymous with New York City as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Everyone has a favorite slice joint, but if the city were to have just one, this would be it. It's made every conceivable best-of list (many of them tacked on the walls and in the windows), and for good reason. The key to Joe's success is their traditional New York City-style pizza with thin crust, great sauce, and just the right ratio of cheese, sauce, and crust (just a bit less of the first two).

It took about 38 years for Joe's to try to capitalize on its West Village success, opening an East Village location on 14th Street a few years ago that turns out a similar-quality product — if with slightly less demand (consider this side-by-side comparison). That was followed pretty quickly by their first location in Brooklyn (in Williamsburg), where they promised not to lose sight of their blue-collar virtues — they'll still sell pizza for $2.75 a slice.

Find more details on Joe's Pizza here.

Renowned baker and chef Nancy Silverton teamed with Italian culinary moguls Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich to open Osteria Mozza, a Los Angeles hot spot where the famous clientele pales in comparison to the innovative, creative fare. The pizzeria, attached to the main restaurant, offers a variety of Italian specialties, from antipasti to bruschetta, but the Neapolitan pizzas steal the show.

Their list of 21 pies ranges from $11 for a simple aglio e olio, a classic cheese pizza, to $23 for a more unique pie with squash blossoms, tomato, and burrata — a delicious and simple pizza that transports through the quality and nuance of its ingredients. So it's no surprise that Batali and Bastianich have taken a stab at duplicating the success of this model pizzeria, opening in Newport Beach and Singapore (though their San Diego outpost didn't work out). No matter where you eat this pizza or what you order, you're going to get a beautifully executed, superior puffy cornicione and excellent ingredients.

Find more details on Pizzeria Mozza here.

Founded in 2013 by Joe Beddia, who had the idea to make "the best pizza I can" with "the very best ingredients sourced from the best farms" in the Fishtown neighborhood northeast of Center City, Pizzeria Beddia has become the Franklin Barbecue of the pizza world, an up-and-coming Philadelphia spot catapulted to the national spotlight by Bon Appétit's restaurant and drinks editor Andrew Knowlton. Its pizza-obsessed owner is known to have worked in some of the city's hippest restaurants as a server before setting out on his own.

"I would say it's Neapolitan, but it's not really," Beddia explained of the style of balanced-topping pies he aspires to make in his brick-lined gas deck oven. "I don't want to say New York style, either but I guess that's what it is." There are just four pies, currently: No. 1 (tomato, whole-milk mozzarella, Old Gold aged cheese, and extra-virgin olive oil with the suggestion to add cremini, pepperoni, roasted onion, anchovy, pickled chiles, and/or sausage); No. 2 (asparagus, fresh cream, oyster mushroom, and ramps); No. 3, the "Arrabbiata" (labeled "angry"); and No. 4 (tomato, anchovy, garlic, oregano, and Old Gold).

Angry is what you may become when trying to sample this ballyhooed pizza. Pizzeria Beddia is only open Wednesday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., they don't have a phone, only take orders in person, have a maximum order of two pizzas per party (not per person), and are cash-only. Keep in mind that there's also no public restroom. This is important given that Beddia only serves 40 pies a night and that people start lining up as early as 2:30 p.m. "If there are more than 25 to 30 people in line, we are likely sold out," warns Beddia's site with "peace and love." The place could be described as a millennial version of Brooklyn's Di Fara.

Find more details on Pizzeria Beddia here.

You hear people's tales of outer-borough travels to Di Fara in Brooklyn, but the Bronx deserves its own pizza paean, and Louie and Ernie's is up to the task of making this borough the pizza destination it deserves to be recognized as (according to The New York Times, it actually started out in East Harlem in 1947 but moved to its current location in 1959).

Consider that just a few years ago, Adam Kuban wrote on the pizza blog Slice that the sausage and onion pie at Louie and Ernie's is "the pizza to haunt your dreams." He was right. It's that can't-wait-for-it-to-cool, burn-the-roof-of-your-mouth-it's-worth-it good. The sausage (made with 80-year-old recipes) comes from the S&D Pork Store four blocks down Crosby Avenue, and is applied in generous, juicy, fennel-spiked chunks barely held in place by copious amounts of melted cheese.

The only thing stopping this place from becoming a national destination is its location in the deep Bronx. No matter. Thanks to Cosimo and Johnny Tiso, who bought the place from Ernie Ottuso in 1987 (and who sell restaurant T-shirts for $5 a pop — when was the last time you saw that?) Louie & Ernie's keeps turning out amazing pies to the locals who know they have a good thing.

Find more details on Louie and Ernie's here.

Four years ago, the buzz among the New York City pizza cognoscenti was around South Brooklyn Pizza, Motorino, Roberta's, and Paulie Gee's . These days, the latter three make up the old guard of pizza newcomers who have set the standard, and South Brooklyn Pizza has gone to that big cardboard box in the sky. Since then, the new addition to that "old guard of pizza newcomers" is Rubirosa in Nolita, a spot opened by former Esca cook Angelo "A.J." Pappalardo, who learned how to make a super-thin crust and barely there cornicione at the age of 12 at his father Giuseppe's Staten Island stalwart, Joe & Pat's (No. 32 in 2014). A.J. passed away last year, and the chef, Albert Di Meglio, left to open his own restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (where yes, there's pizza on the menu), but it's still difficult to get a table at Rubirosa.

The slice at Rubirosa (which New York Magazine reported was named for a Florence, Italy, restaurant whose owners named it in turn after international playboy Porfirio Rubirosa) is the kind that inspires cross-section marveling and game-changing pizza paradigm shifts. Those who consider the city's average dollar-slice crusts the New York baseline finally understand the nuance of pizza. This is one of the few places you can walk into and ask for a stracciatella pie (impressive enough), and there are nine standards on the menu that you'll want to rotate through, including the classic, supreme, and "tie-dye" (vodka, tomato, pesto, fresh mozzarella), but the pie the restaurant singled out, and the one panelists voted vociferously for, was the vodka pie with fresh mozzarella.

Find more details on Rubirosa Ristorante here.

A pinch of Di Fara's Dom DeMarco, a dash of the murals of Gino's of Long Beach, stretch the un-sauced classic Coney Island Totonno's crust a bit wider, add a few intangibles, and you're close to the pizza experience Mark Iacono has made famous at his Carroll Gardens pizzeria Lucali since opening in 2006. There's that classic New York thin-crust style and justified whispers about old-school execution praised at New York's storied and beloved institutions. Eating pizza in Lucali's warm, softly lit environs, you wonder how Iacono seems to have magically inherited Gennaro Lombardi's pizza primogeniture. Iacono, who survived a stabbing in 2011 that left him with no feeling in about 50 percent of his body, hasn't slowed, drawing crowds and fans at the original Brooklyn spot, and he's receiving similar accolades at his Miami location.

Find more details on Lucali here.

"There's no mystery to my pizza," Bronx native Chris Bianco was quoted as saying in The New York Times. "Sicilian oregano, organic flour, San Marzano tomatoes, purified water, mozzarella I learned to make at Mike's Deli in the Bronx, sea salt, fresh yeast cake and a little bit of yesterday's dough. In the end great pizza, like anything else, is all about balance. It's that simple.”

Try telling that to the legions of pizza pilgrims who have visited the storied Phoenix pizza spot he opened more than 20 years ago. The restaurant serves not only addictive thin-crust pizzas but also fantastic antipasto (involving wood-oven-roasted vegetables), perfect salads, and homemade country bread. The wait, once routinely noted as one of the worst for some of the best food in the country, has been improved by Pizzeria Bianco starting to serve lunch, the opening of Trattoria Bianco, the pizza prince of Arizona's Italian restaurant in the historic Town & Country Shopping Center (about 10 minutes from the original), and an outpost in Tucson.

It seems that every year someone comes out with an article declaring one pie (Tony's by Forbes) or another (Great Lake, R.I.P.,by GQ) the best in the country (Pizzeria Beddia by Bon Appétit). In a country with this much pizza talent and innovation, it's sometimes good to remember that some of the classics are still at the top of their game. And Pizzeria Bianco is now an American classic. This is another case where any pie will likely be better than most you've had in your life (that rosa with red onions and pistachios!), but the signature marinara will recalibrate your pizza baseline forever: tomato sauce, oregano, and garlic (no cheese).

Find more details on Pizzeria Bianco here.

Sally's Apizza is New Haven royalty, operating from the same location where they opened in the late 1930s in New Haven's Wooster Square. In truth, if it weren't for nearby Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Sally's would probably be talked about with similar reverence. Their pizza is traditionally thin crust, topped with tomato sauce, garlic, and "mozz." Of course, the pies at Sally's look pretty similar to what you'll find down the street at Frank Pepe, because the man who opened Sally's (Salvatore Consiglio) was Pepe's nephew.

Sal passed in 1989, and his wife Flo followed in 2012. Their children Bob and Rick have carried on the tradition of terrific pies (cash only and no reservations) Wednesday through Sunday (starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and at 3 p.m. on weekends), but over the past two years, there were first rumors that Sally's was for sale, and then news of a lawsuit brought by jilted suitors who had offered $3.1 million for it. It's hard to believe an institution would go anywhere, but you never can tell with these kinds of things, so you may want to visit soon.

When you do, keep in mind that while Sally's staff have been known to admit that Pepe's clam pie is better, the tomato pie here (tomato sauce, no cheese) has the original beat.

Find more details on Sally's Apizza here.

Some spaces are cursed. Others? Blessed. When Anthony Mangieri shuttered Una Pizza Napoletana at 349 East 12th Street, left New York City, and headed west, Mathieu Palombino took over the lease and renamed the space Motorino, and the East Village pizza scene hardly skipped a beat.

Motorino offers nine spirited pies, including one with cherry stone clams; another with stracciatella, raw basil, and Gaeta olives; and one with cremini mushrooms, fior di latte, sweet sausage, and garlic. But contrary to every last fiber of childhood memory you hold dear, the move is the Brussels sprouts pie (on which that oft-maligned vegetable is joined by fior di latte, garlic, pecorino, smoked pancetta, and olive oil), something Hong Kong, Singapore, and Manila natives and Brooklynites can now attest to since Palombino opened (and moved and reopened) his Asian and Williamsburg outposts in 2013 (there's also a third option in New York coming to the Upper West Side). Unless it's late spring, when you'll want to order the special seasonal ramp pie.

Find more details on Motorino here.

By all accounts, Totonno's shouldn't exist. Consider that it was opened in Coney Island in 1924 (by Antonio "Totonno" Pero, a Lombardi's alum). Factor in the coal storage area fire that ravaged it in 2009. Add to that insult the destruction and subsequent rebuilding costs (the Daily News reported $150,000 in repairs) incurred in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy when four feet of water destroyed everything inside the family-owned institution.

You'll agree that Brooklyn (and the country) should count its lucky stars Totonno's is around. Yet Totonno's doesn't just keep a storied pizza name or nostalgia for simpler times (and perhaps more authentic and consistent pies) alive.

No. Owners Antoinette Balzano, Frank Balzano, and Louise "Cookie" Ciminieri don't just bridge our modern era's festishization of pizza to the days of its inception. The coal-fired blistered edges, the spotty mozzarella laced over that beautiful red sauce... ah, forget about all the teary-eyed try-too-much words, this is Neptune Avenue!

This is Brooklyn! This is Totonno's. And this is how you make pizza.

Find more details on Totonno's here.

With all the development and gentrification along the L line in Brooklyn that has happened since Roberta's opened in January 2008, the great Brooklyn vs. Manhattan restaurant debate seems quaint, and it's almost difficult to remember there was once a time when this great pizza joint was considered a trek.

OK, so Bushwick may not be on the average New Yorker's rotation, the pizzeria's owners have been in the news as part of a few legal disputes, and earlier this year there was news that the notoriously non-corporate restaurant was being invested in by a member of the billionaire Tisch family, but at this point, if not part of the city's pizza old guard, Roberta's is without question a member of New York's pizza icons, one that has inspired other great pizzerias, among them another one on this list, Paulie Gee's.

The appellations of Carlo Mirarchi's pizzas have ranged from echoing schoolyard slang and literary references to clever puns, and recently, just an eggplant emoji. No matter whether you choose the Margherita (tomato, mozzarella, and basil), or the Famous Original (tomato, mozzarella, caciocavallo, oregano, and chiles), or the Family Jewels (mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, prosciutto bread crumbs, garlic, and basil) you're guaranteed a chewy cornicione and an exemplary neo-Neapolitan pie.

Find more details on Roberta's here.

For three consecutive years, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana topped The Daily Meal's list of the 101 Best Pizzas in America. So it's a little shocking to see it out of first place, but that doesn't mean the pizza has fallen off or that the lines of people waiting have gotten less painful. This is still a checklist destination, one you'll have to make a pilgrimage to if you want to discuss the topic of America's best pizza with any authority. The New Haven icon opened in Wooster Square in 1925, offering classic Napoletana-style pizza made by an Italian-American immigrant. After arriving in the United States in 1909 at the age of 16, Frank Pepe (watch him at work in this video) took odd jobs before opening his original restaurant (the location, now called "The Spot," is now an adjunct to the main Pepe's location).

There are now eight locations around Connecticut, one in New York State, and one in Boston, operated by Pepe's 10 great-grandchildren (all of who use original recipes to make their coal-fired pizza), with a Waterbury, Conn. pizzeria scheduled to open in the spring of 2017.

What's the move? As if you didn't know! Two words: clam pie ("No muzz!"). This is a Northeastern pizza genre unto its own, and Pepe's is the best of all — freshly shucked, briny littleneck clams, an intense dose of garlic, olive oil, oregano, and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano atop a charcoal-colored crust. The advanced move? Clam pie with bacon. Of course, Pepe's summer special, their seasonal "fresh tomato pie" made with locally grown tomatoes, is worth its own trip (and the addition of shrimp to a tomato pie is an under-hyped gem of a combination).

No matter what you're thinking of ordering, expect to wait in line if you get there after 11:30 a.m. on a weekend.

Find more details on Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana here.

Yes, John's of Bleecker is on the tourist rotation, but there's a reason it's become a New York City institution. Pizza is cooked in a coal-fired brick oven the same way it's been done there since 1929. Choose from their available toppings (sliced meatball, pepperoni, ground sausage, sliced tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, basil, ricotta, mushrooms, onions, peppers, anchovies, black olives, and garlic), and you can scratch your name into the walls like the droves before you.

What can't you do? Order a slice. Pies only. And in this case, you're going with either a Margherita or what the guys at John's like to call the "Boom Pie" (according to a manager, they say "Boom!" to themselves right before they serve it): oven-roasted tomatoes, garlic, and basil.

Find more details on John's of Bleecker Street here.

Domenico DeMarco is a local celebrity, having owned and operated Di Fara since 1964. Dom cooks both New York- and Sicilian-style pizza Tuesday through Saturday (noon to 8 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.) for hungry New Yorkers and tourists willing to wait in long lines and brave the free-for-all that is the Di Fara counter experience. Yes, you're better off getting a whole pie than shelling out for the $5 slice. Yes, it's a trek, and sure, Dom goes through periods when the underside of the pizza can tend toward overdone, but when he's on, Di Fara can make a very strong case for being America's best pizza.

If you want to understand why before visiting, watch the great video about Di Fara called "The Best Thing I Ever Done." You can't go wrong with the classic round or square cheese pie (topped with oil-marinated hot peppers, which you can ladle on at the counter if you elbow in), but the menu's signature is the Di Fara Classic Pie: mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, plum tomato sauce, basil, sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and, of course, a drizzle of olive oil by Dom.

Find more details on Di Fara here.