Here at Pizza Quixote, we do a wrap each January to highlight the best new discoveries of the previous calendar year. Keep in mind, these are not the "Ten Best Pizzas Ever!" but simply our ten best *discoveries* of the year past.
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| Marinara slice at Papa's in Robbinsville |
Naturally, Texas pizzas (surprisingly excellent) have been prominent in the year-end reviews ever since a 2019 relocation from the Philly suburbs to the Austin suburbs. Never more so than in 2020, when the pandemic really constricted travel opportunities. But 2021 did include a few trips to NY-NJ-PA, and New Jersey really dominated, scoring 3 of the top five spots. NJ was so strong, in fact, that one Texas pizzeria in the top ten is named for a city in New Jersey!
Let's move on, then, to our Top Ten Pizza Discoveries of 2021, beginning with a few honorable mentions; click on pizzeria name for the full review.
Honorable Mentions: Detroit pies at Little Caesars & Pizza Hut
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| Pizza Hut Detroit style |
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| Little Caesars Detroit style |
With Pizza Hut or Little Caesars, I have little interest in their conventional pies, because their white bread dough makes for a boring foundation. However, both make passable Detroit style pies. You won't confuse it with Buddy's in Detroit or Via 313 in Austin, but it's cheap and tasty. I'd eat either one again and gladly.
Honorable Mention: Bola Frozen Pizza
You won't find this outside of Texas (and maybe not even too far from Austin), but it's one of the best frozen pizzas I've ever had, with a superb Neapolitan hybrid crust.
Number Ten: Hoboken Pie - Austin, TX
Hard to go very far wrong if you're doing pizza Hoboken style. Here, the overall effect was greater than the sum of its parts. This was a well-balanced pizza reminiscent of the legion of store-front pizzerias all over New Jersey and neighboring parts of PA and NY. Worth a stop when you're near the University of Texas in Austin.
Number Nine: Lou Malnati's Chicago Deep Dish - Frozen
This was certainly one of the tastier deep-dish pizzas I've had. The great sauce, crust texture, and overall balance more than make up for the obscured cheese and pepperoni. If you want an authentic bit of Chicago deep-dish no matter where you live, this frozen pizza gets the job done; I'd like to try a freshly-made version in Chicago to see if it can measure up to the excellent pizza at Pizano's or the hybrid version at Exchequer.
Number Eight: Caliente Pizza & Draft House - Pittsburgh
We ordered two kinds of pizzas here, and found that their Detroit pizza was best. A thick pizza baked in a pan, the crust was in the right zone of puffy yet dense, with great flavor and texture. It had a big payload of cheese, sauce, and spicy cup pepperoni, but absolutely in correct proportion to the crust. And the flavors were popping! We demolished this belly bomb, scrapping over the final slices.
Number Seven: Joe's Pizza - Manhattan
These big slices overflowed the paper plate, and were pretty messy to handle due to the volume of grease released by the large thin circles of pepperoni. The first sloppy bite was delicious, a fine melding of tastes and textures of chewy crust, sauce, molten cheese, salt, and grease. A few bites in, and the magic of this pizza began to reveal itself - the real difference maker was the crust. It was the perfect marriage of pliant/chewy *and* a crispy bottom. And that feature alone made these greasy slices reach the pinnacle for a New York slice.
Number Six: Zero Otto Nove - the Bronx
We enjoyed two superb pizzas (and some great pasta) when we visited Zero Otto Nove thirteen years after my first stop there. One of our pizzas was the marinara, a cheeseless pie made with tomato sauce, capers, basil, oregano, garlic, anchovies, and olives. To my delight, the crust was even better than it had been in 2008. It sported the fully puffy leopard-spotted cornicione, and it had both a tender chewiness and an ideal crispness underneath.
Number Five: Federici's Pizza Restaurant - Freehold, NJ
Our top five pizzas were really strong in 2021, beginning with Federici's. Hey, if it's a favorite of Bruce Springsteen, why not? Like every great pizza, this one was perfectly balanced. No droop despite the wafer-thin crust; each slice was sturdy enough to eat with one hand and no need to fold it. The local Italian sausage topping was superb, properly applied raw in chunks to cook on the pie. This was a throwback style of pizza - not surprising since Federici's has been slinging pies for 75 years. Brilliant stuff, and I would eat it often if I lived nearby.
Number Four: Playland Pizza - San Antonio, TX
I expect great pizza in Jersey, but less so in Texas and much less so in San Antonio, down by the River Walk. So it was a delight to discover Playland, occupying an elegant space within walking distance of The Alamo.
This artisanal pizza carried a generous amount of cheese, but the crust was not overwhelmed and the whole pie held together nicely. Another sign of a talented pizzaiolo - the Italian sausage had been applied raw, so that it cooked on the pie. It was about the perfect extra element of umami here. This was a brilliant construction, with all the elements in harmony.
The particular genius of this pie is that it lives in two different pizza spheres. On one hand, with that superb crust, this is clearly an artisanal pie that will appeal to pizza snobs and anyone with an appreciation for good dough. On the other hand, it delivers a big cheesy payload that will please the tourist looking to get a filling and tasty pizza at a reasonable price. This well-appointed and upscale pizza restaurant/lounge is surely a welcome presence in a neighborhood that needs precisely this kind of elegant-yet-accessible restaurant.
Number Three: Pisa Lisa - Sedona, AZ
Just like Playland Pizza, here is another superb pizzeria in the heart of a major tourist attraction. Every great pizza requires a great foundation, and the crust here was perfectly crafted and rendered. Thin, crisp, chewy, rigid enough to support all the toppings and full of its own bready flavor and aroma.
Almost as importantly, this pizza was ideally balanced in flavor and texture. The "Mother sauce" was indeed very good, but its spicy nature may have been obscured by our addition of hot honey. The cheese blend added creaminess and saltiness without a byproduct of excess moisture. Finally, the pepperoni's curled edges revealed a solid pedigree, and of course it added that extra dose of umami to the whole experience. No soggy slices, just terrific crunch, chew, and flavor combos in every bite. Just about flawless pizza.
Number Two: Massa Roman Square Pizza - Scotch Plains, NJ
In visiting Massa, I relied on the advice of NJ food writer Pete Genovese, whose knowledge of Jersey pizza, burgers, hoagies, pork roll, etc is without equal. This pizza was his favorite thing to eat in all of 2019. It's easy to love "al taglio" Roman pizza, especially when it's made so expertly as here.
My first impression was the stunning beauty of these slices, accompanied by the yeasty aroma of fresh baked bread. The medium-thick crust was airy and light inside with a remarkably crisp crunch outside. This crust was among the very best I had this year or any year, an ideal blend of crunchy and chewy, and certainly good enough to eat and enjoy even without any toppings. Adding to the beauty of this pie was the orange/red color on the top sides of the cornicione, as though a thin smear of red sauce had been painted on there.
The mozzarella and pecorino blend was applied generously over the base of San Marzano sauce. These elements would have been the highlights of any regular pizza, but here they were layers of flavor and texture to help show off that astonishingly good crust.
Genovese had singled out the the pancetta and black pepper toppings as the selling point of the Amatriciana pie, and they did indeed elevate this pizza from superb to spectacular. It was salt and pepper and, hey, bacon! This pancetta added the punch, the umami, the wow factor. If you're even remotely within driving distance of Scotch Plains, get in your car and go. This is the kind of pizza that is so good that people should be lining up outside.
Number One: Papa's Tomato Pies - Robbinsville, NJ
What kind of pizza is so good that it could beat Massa for the top pizza discovery of 2021? Well, a tomato pie from the oldest pizzeria in America (though I'm cheating a bit, since this was a re-discovery). I had made visits to Papa's when still located in Trenton, but this was my first trip to Papa's since they relocated to nearby Robbinsville. But they proved all over again why Trenton tomato pie is as good, or better, than any pizza in the world.
We ordered two pies that arrived simultaneously, and both were beautiful, topped with a deep red chunky sauce. I was reminded of how thin and crisp the crust is. The ingredients were in perfect balance, and each slice was perfectly rigid from cornicione to the tip. There was an ideal snap to the crunch of each bite, and as on my visits to the previous location, the cornicione was a delight. Just magic in the dough.
In Robbinsville and in Yardley, folks are lining up to get in for DeLorenzo's tomato pies, and the product is surely worth the effort. It's taken me a very long time to consider that any other pizza might be as good as DeLorenzo's, but Papa's is right there. It was even better than it was in the original Trenton location. I've had pizza in Rome and Tuscany and Venice, but none matched these pies we just had at Papa's. And no line, no waiting, no hassle! It's hard to imagine a better pizza experience.
