Best pizza experience was in Naples back in the '80s on a trip with my ex. I’d never had anything that fresh and simple before. More recently, Pepe’s in New Haven is always good. In Manhattan, I like the pizza selections at Company; John’s in the Village was good too.
Way way back in Ann Arbor, we swore by Pizza Bob’s.
It took me several years of visiting with DH before I warmed up to New Haven style pizza. Then I discovered white pizza at The Spot (we never could take the wait at Pepe’s) with broccoli and garlic and was hooked.
Comparing Chicago deep dish pizza to thin crust is like comparing lasagna to angel hair. They’re both pasta but each can be great in its own right. Ditto for pizza varieties. I love Lou Malnati’s spinach with buttercrust. But on our last night in Chicago before we moved, we tried Coalfire for the first time and it was fantastic.
Now we live in San Diego; talk about a poor pizza city. We’ve found a New Haven style place (Basic) that even has Foxon Park sofa - it’s pretty good but not quite there. We’ve found a place that has New York and Chicago style pizza (Regency) but again falls short of the mark. We’ve tried two other places that were supposed to be “just like Chicago” - they weren’t although a valiant effort.
“Comparing Chicago deep dish pizza to thin crust is like comparing lasagna to angel hair. They’re both pasta but each can be great in its own right. Ditto for pizza varieties.”
I totally agree. I LOVE pizza in its many forms - thin and crisps, chewy crust, deep dish, Detroit Style. Just give me an excellently prepared rendition with quality ingredients and I’m happy. 
UW-Madison, Ian’s Pizza. Traditionally, the favorite topping has been mac & cheese.
I’m not sure I’m a pizza snob, but I do enjoy a good thin-crust Italian-style pizza. I’ve eaten at Pizzeria Bianco a couple times, dubbed “best Pizza in America” by a many national reviewers/publications. Maybe if I was more of a snob I’d appreciate it better, but while I enjoyed their pizzas I wouldn’t declare them the best I’d ever had.
There was a cool place near me that imported some special wood-burning oven from Italy. Or maybe they imported Italian bricks and Italian artisans to build it and an Italian priest to bless it, who knows. Cooked the pizzas with their special DOP ingredients at some thousands of degrees, literally in 45-60 seconds or so. Also good, but not really earth-shattering.
When we did our trip, we purposely looked for local pizza joints walking distance from campus that a student could grab a slice and a Coke for $5. Wall Street Pizza reminded me of real New York pizza from my youth, and the dinning area was a prototypical old-style college pizza joint. The Ivy league results were as follows:
Princeton - Slice Between - Above average, but not memorable.
Harvard - Pinocchio’s - Below average and very disappointing given how busy they were. Made me think Harvard students have no taste buds.
Penn - ??? - So bad the name and place have been deleted from memory
Dartmouth - C&A Pizza - Meh
Did not eat pizza at Cornell, Brown or Columbia.
Of the pizza joints on that trip, All Star by MIT was the best although it was more than walking distance from campus.
Someone should make a similar thread for bagel shops near major campuses.
With the talk of the cracked pizza stones, the real answer is the pizza steel.
More nerdery here:
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/09/the-pizza-lab-the-baking-steel-delivers.html
Broadway Pizza in New Haven was (unsurprisingly) on Broadway south of the Co-Op. I think it was renamed A+, and I think it’s now gone entirely. It was small, with a counter. We went there mostly for grinders.
ok all you Chicago style pizza haters…there are some newer places in town to try besides the usual standbys mentioned up thread:
- Piece Pizza
- Parlor
- Peaquods
Most places will do both a thick and a thin crust. No need to hate!
If you like real Neapolitan Pizza, Il Ritrovo in Sheboygan, Wisconsin is excellent.
http://www.ilritrovopizza.com/menus.htm
For American style pizza, Boombozz Pizza in Carmel, Indiana and other locations is very good.
http://www.boombozz.com/indianapolis-in/carmel/menu/
Gino’s Pizza is a small chain in our city. I think the secret is sugar in the sauce. Their customer service is awful, but I can’t stay away.
Considering the place is loaded with college kids - Boston doesn’t really have great pizza - but I will put in a pitch for Stoked Wood Fired Pizza - a food truck (although they now have a real restaurant also) - which is the best pizza I have found near all the Boston colleges.
And do they cut it into… squares?
SQUARES!
There should be a law.
Nutley, NJ has a pretty high average pizza level as it is still mostly an Italian-American town but my favorite pizza is at the Queen Margherita Trattoria. New Haven pizza does not come close.
https://www.y e l p.com/biz_photos/queen-margherita-trattoria-nutley?select=t0lUzZf-aEZspS6PqkUTzA
As a Maryland resident, i have to put in a vote for Ledo’s, thin crust and square slices.
My best pizza experiences were unquestionably: (1) The first time I went to Pepe’s on Wooster St. in New Haven, at 18, and learned what pizza could be. That was a sausage pizza. (2) The time I finally ordered a clam pizza at Pepe’s, about 20 years ago. I have rarely ordered anything else there since. (3) The time my wife, my kids, my dog and I were sitting in Wooster Square eating a take-out clam pizza from Pepe’s, and we realized that six or seven squirrels were stalking us and our pizza as a pack, in a coordinated manner, just like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.
I can make credible sourdough pizza at home, and I sometimes do. But it’s not as good as you-know-who.
A friend actually bought a huge wood-fired oven and installed it in his back yard, at great expense and to the detriment of his back yard. I have made pizza there, at temperatures in excess of 800 F. It was really good, provided we didn’t lose the pizza and have it carbonize in 15 seconds. But it wasn’t as good as you-know-who.
I have had more than decent Neopolitan pizza recently at Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and DeMeo’s in a little strip mall in Roxborough, Philadelphia.
Found my next place. Thanks!
SlitheyTov: Pizza Mozza has some good pizzas…but the clam pizza is so salty that was all that I could taste. Lamonicas is in westwood (home of UCLA). And sorry Spago’s salmon pizza…the crust is thin and slightly sweet…creme fresh…salmon…chives…and red caviar…it is perfection.
Enjoy! It is a small and busy sit down place catering to locals. The waiter will speak Italian.
Oh!!! How could I forget? In the Farmer’s Market…hooked onto the Grove…is a pizza place. Between Huntington’s Meat and the Donut place. They have always had the woodturning oven. Yes, a bit of char on the bottom. I had my first pizza there. When I was 2 or 3.
I love pizza. Even in this area of gluten free, carb free, no fat 5/2 diets…I could eat pizza 5 gimes a week.