At the end of each calendar year, we compile the Pizza Quixote list of the best pizzas discovered during the past twelve months. It might be a new pizzeria or simply new to us, even if it's been around a long time.
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| The "Rosa" at Pizzeria Bianco |
The good news is that we continue to see evidence of The Pizza Renaissance, launched when pizzamakers took notice of Chris Bianco's stellar Neapolitans at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, AZ. The catalyst for this long-running revival may have been this 2004 New York Times article The Road to Pizza Nirvana Goes Through Phoenix.
We began this blog in 2011, quite a few years before such Bianco-inspired Neapolitan* pizzas became ubiquitous across America. It took another five years or so for the renaissance to expand outside major cities like New York and Philadelphia, but the count of worthy pizzerias since then has grown exponentially.
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| The brilliant hybrid pie at Pizza Brain, Philadelphia |
The not-so-good news is that in 2024, we also saw some signs of a fizzling renaissance. In particular, some of the newer Neapolitan pizzerias failed to maintain the quality, turning over the pie-making to inexperienced staff or switching to cheaper ingredients to better price compete with the big chains. Time will tell if this was an inflation-driven anomaly or a longer trend.
In ascending order, here's our Top Six Breakout Pizzas of 2024. Click on the title line of each to see our full review:
6. Nonna Trattoria - Cusco, Peru. In 2011, I had to travel to New York City (from my suburban Philadelphia home) in order to find a Neapolitan pizza. In 2024, we found it 11,000 feet above sea level in a Peruvian pizzeria where the walls are built on a foundation constructed by the Incas over 500 years ago.
This was not life-changing pizza; we wrote "The pies were nicely baked and tasty, with some good fresh toppings and some interesting chorizo on one one pizza. There were no fundamental flaws in these pies; the flavors were in balance, there were no wet spots or soggy crust areas. By Italian or American standards, though, the pizzas were pretty pedestrian. There was no puffy cornicione or leopard spotting to the crust."
In a year where we saw some back-sliding of Neapolitan pizza stateside, it was encouraging to see this noble attempt so very far from New York and Naples.
5. Slice of Austin - Lakeway, TX. There is a long history of mediocre pizzerias touting "New York style" pizza when their pizza has only a remote connection to the fine, thin, crisp slices you can get from some of New York's top pie slingers like Totonno's, John's, Arturo's, or Joe's. So when any pizzeria outside the New York metro area succeeds with such a pie, it's noteworthy.
Slice of Austin took over a spot on Route 620 that had previously been Lake Travis Pizza, the best New York style in the whole of Austin and its suburbs. I was happy to discover that Slice of Austin stepped right into the void created when Lake Travis Pizza folded. It's a different, softer crust than many New York pies, but legit in every way. It serves as a nice companion to Austin's long-standing Home Slice.
We wrote: "The cheese was exactly what you want on a New York style pizza; generous but not overwhelming, creamy and salty, a high-end role player to the crust, sauce, and toppings. The sauce had a nice tang, and we all wished there had been more of it on the pizza. The crust - the key to any pizza - was as advertised. It served as an excellent anchor for the combination of complex flavors we got from the mushrooms, sausage, and cheese. It was thin, but generally sturdy enough to support the toppings. It had wonderful flavor of its own, but using a bread analogy, more akin to soft rolls than to a crusty loaf ... this combination of flavors and a softer chewy crust has a ton of appeal. Really well-crafted pizza, and our service was exceedingly polite and thoughtful. Slice of Austin Pizza Kitchen may have the best New York style pizza in the Lakeway area."
4. Roman Pinsa Style Take-and-Bake - Costco. What?! A Costco pie made the Pizza Quixote list of Breakout Pizzas? Well, yeah. This stuff was shockingly good. Don't let the food court/guilty pleasure slice color your perception of what this new take-and bake pizza is or could be.
Our review noted "The strength of this pizza is its Pinsa crust ... a medium thick focaccia with a terrific chewiness, a crunchy cripsy bottom, and a nice genuine bready flavor. Would I eat this crust without anything on it? Oh yeah. It was expensive when compared to the takeout pizza from the food court, but miles better in quality. We will surely get it again."
Costco calls this crust a "Roman Pinsa" style. What's that? It is made with a combination of Italian 00 wheat flour, rice flour, and soy flour to develop a light and airy crust that’s crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It was so good that I bought some rice and soy flours to attempt to replicate this style at home.
3. City House - Nashville, TN. You're thinking barbecue and Nashville hot chicken when you visit America's second-best music city (after Austin, of course). And we did indeed find the genuine experience at Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish on the east side of town.
But Nashville has a surprising number of acclaimed pizza joints, and we opted for the one endorsed with a James Beard award. City House occupies a modern open space in North Nashville, and the full Italian menu includes a Neapolitan pizza crafted with a sourdough crust.
We chose the "Belly Ham and Mozz" pie. In our review, we reported: "The crust was puffy at the cornicione and nicely leopard spotted. While chewy and soft, it somehow seemed to have more substance and structure than most Neapolitan pies ... the sourdough provided an elevated version of the typically fragile Neapolitan crust. The mozzarella was creamy and subtly flavored; the belly ham was applied in good measure and was pretty bacon-like (nothing wrong with that!). Overall, a lovely balanced pie sporting an al dente crust with top shelf cheese and belly ham on top."
If you visit, be sure to save room for the "Icebox Cake" dessert.
2. Pedroso's Pizza - Austin, TX. This remarkable pizzeria, housed in a large trailer on Burnet Road, is finding success with an impressive variety of slices.
Previously, I had tried and loved their New York style and Grandma style pizza. I've never had the timing right to stop by on a day when they had their Trenton tomato pie (styles rotate), but this year I did get to try their Sicilian slice.
Going back to the 70s and 80s, most east coast pizzerias offered nothing beyond the basic round pie and a Sicilian, a thicker rectangular pizza baked in a pan. The Sicilian has largely been on the back shelf in recent years as Grandma and Detroit styles served as the trendy alternatives to round & thin pies.
Well, it came roaring back at Pedroso's. We wrote "The sauce and the cheese had a pretty conventional appearance, and they were of the same high quality as found on the NY slices. The sauce is particularly vibrant. The cup-and-char pepperoni on top was the finest quality, consistent with everything about the pizza at Pedroso's.
"But the magic of this slice was the crust. The very first bite revealed the almost-impossible combination of a distinct external crunch combined with an other-worldly pillow, soft, airy, delicate interior. This is the goal of many pizzaioli and breadmakers, but few have reached such a level of perfection. The texture of this thick slice was perfect, and of course the crust had a magnificent flavor, too.
"The bottom was ideally crisped and browned, and it brought to mind the remarkable undercarriage of the iconic pan-fried slices at Pizza Perfect in Trucksville, PA, which has its own take on the "Old Forge" pizza style beloved in Northeast Pennsylvania."
1. Stracci Pizza - Arlington, VA. There is no shortage of world-class pizza in the DC metro area - Pupatella, Wise Guy, All Purpose, 2Amy's. So it seems almost unfair that they get another one - Stracci. I had a list of about ten places to try when passing through, and it was serendipitous that we landed on Stracci. But so glad that we did!
Here's the scoop from our review: "The pizzas are Roman style, where the high-hydration dough is cold-fermented for 72 hours before baking directly on the hearth ("alla palla") in rounded rectangles. Stracci is named for its signature stracciatella cheese; they hand-pull fresh mozzarella, then tatter it and soak it in cream.
"Our pizza choices included The Nico (cured and marinated heirloom cherry tomatoes, guanciale, red onion, black pepper, pecorino, and stracciatella), The Stracci (tomato sauce, basil, stracciatella), and The Three Cheese & 'Chovy (stracciatella, Sicilian anchovies, ricotta, pecorino, salsa verde, and garlic).
"The crust was one of the best I've had on any type of pizza; in my notes I described it as 'impeccable.' It had an ideal toothful chewiness inside, a lightly crisp topside, and an impossibly crispy bottom - a textural delight. I'd have been very happy with just that crust and some butter or olive oil.
"The stracciatella cheese was wonderful. In flavor, it was superior to the typical fresh mozzarella used on some good pizzas. It was much better suited for pizza than burrata, which is really just cottage cheese that visited Italy. As expected, the stracciatella cheese was wet, and it would swamp a normal pizza. Even on this great sturdy crust, it would be a problem except that the small size of the slices made it manageable to eat without a knife and fork. A little messy, but so worth it.
"The Nico was made with some very fatty guanciale (jowl bacon) which cooked on the pie. The meat was nearly invisible, but the melted fat put a decadent greasy gloss on the pie. Two in our group thought it was too greasy; for the other two (including me), it was our favorite of all three pizzas. The salt of the cheeses, the acid of the tomatoes, and the fat from the guanciale made a potent combo. All of that goodness riding on that brilliant crust, it was swoonworthy pizza.
"If you do just a little research, you rarely will find yourself eating mediocre pizza, but it's rare that a pizza will wow me. Then I went to Stracci Pizza, and the pies there created the level of pizza magic usually found only in hallowed joints like Brooklyn's DiFara or Trenton's DeLorenzo's. Easily the best pizza I found so far this year. Don't pass it up if you are nearby!"
