I like Pieology. It’s one of those “build your own” places. You choose crust, sauces, toppings, etc and they bake it and bring it to you. They have dozens of different toppings. You can also have them build you a custom salad.
Sadly very few pizza places have anchovies any more. We used to go to a great local pizza place that offered it as a topping.
What works for someone else doesn’t work for everyone. I disagree with some expert’s ratings because their description of what makes a pizza (food) good does not match mine.
My personal favorite is the deep dish pizza served at the Pizzeria Uno chain out of Chicago. I love having much more of the toppings (including sauce) than crust. Plus I like that crust as well. Pizza should be so much more than carbs. Therefore I like a thin crust better than a “regular” one. Plenty of veggie type toppings- not just meat and cheese as well. H likes a different pizza- and veggie, less cheese…
Which ones?
I like my pizza plain, no fancy toppings. For those from Philly, Rizzo’s set the standard. My mom even hired Mr Rizzo’s to cook at our house, and he blew out the oven. But my mom became the coolest ever.
I’d go down town for pizza in Boston, and was content. Here in FL, we have a NY pizza place that is good.
Sounds like you like both ends of the spectrum, @wis75. Deep dish with tons of arbs and thin crust with less.
I lost my post- starting over. My recent favorite is the deep dish pizza from Pizzeria Uno out of Chicago - in several cities. This does NOT include the frozen version available at some grocery stores. I like the crust plus having as much sauce and toppings as possible. If I can’t have that type of pizza I prefer a thin crust with plenty of toppings. My favorites will include pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions, green/red peppers, tomatoes along with plenty of sauce and some cheese- the classic toppings. Too many pizzas have too much crust- carbs.
H prefers a regular/rising crust with veggies and little cheese and he adds crushed red pepper.
Ian’s wasn’t around back in my time at UW-Madison. Paisan’s was my favorite back in my college days in Madison. It was a rare treat, however (budget).
I am enough of a snob that it just doesn’t matter what “experts” think- I know what I like… I do not care about authenticity either.
@Postmodern , I couldn’t tell you one name…it was more than two decades ago. Regardless of the names, every place we tried pizza were exactly like the next
Not only do I not remember, but I wouldn’t name names of mom and pop’s in an unflattering way. I didn’t do that with a place that I grew up with that changed owners in a previous post
Not my style
My best pizza experience was probably at cafe089 on Arthur Avenue. Pizza was wonderful and the night was even better because H and I were with our S and his roommates – we took them out to dinner while they were at Fordham. The pizza is important, but who you are sharing it with is equally important!
Rome. Every place I tried was great. Didn’t particularly like the pizza in Naples.
To me, nothing compares to good Chicago style deep dish in Chicago. These aren’t exactly boutique pizzerias but the original Pizzeria Uno is still pretty decent and my favorite was Gino’s East. So much cheese, such a rich, buttery crust, and such flavorful sauce. There is no comparing the flavor (nor the experience) of a good chi-style deep dish pizza to a thin crust pizza.
(I love thin crust 'za too, of course. It’s certainly more plentiful and easier to find…)
There’s a place called Crust here in Davenport that makes a good chicago pub-style thin crust. There was a place in Chicago called Calo that made a good thin crust pizza – 17 years ago. Not sure if they’re still there.
I kind of like Detroit-style pizza too, with the cheese going all the way out to the edge of the crust.
Finally, when i cook a frozen pizza at home, it is not going into the oven unpampered – i like to add some garlic, parm, olive oil, and often some more mozzarella.
My pizza bucket list includes (at least…):
@Sportsman88 I’ve never been to Naples but I agree that pizza in Rome was fabulous anywhere you went!
Another thread touches on the value of choosing a college based on where you can get good pizza. Being a pizza snob myself, I find this to be not only reasonable, but essential, and it is a category that should be added to Fiske. (1-5 pies). So lets discuss pizza in relation to colleges/college towns. Which ones have the most powerful combinations of great educations and great pizza places?
I’ll start.
More?
We used to live in Chicago. The best stuffed pizza I’ve had was at Calo Ristorante in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. They serve Italian food. It’s been around since the 1960’s.
@Marilyn - You can have Lou Malnati’s shipped to you. BIL shipped us some for Christmas one year.
http://www.tastesofchicago.com/category/chicago-deep-dish-pizza-shipped
I get the catalogs from Lou’s! But too expensive although one of these days we might break down and do it.
^^^ Chicago Wife gets them sent to her on birthday/holidays. One good thing i can say about deep dish is that it bakes better from frozen, so it is not so bad. And I do like the box the Malnatti’s comes in – makes a great disposable summer picnic cooler.
I second Dennino’s on Staten Island. Papa’s tomato pies in Robbinsville NJ! Both excellent!
Well they merged the threads and killed my other one, which was explicitly about college pizza towns. Can I get some traction on that topic?
I haven’t been to New Haven in a while, but…while many Yalies will consider this heresy, I much prefer the pizza at BAR to that at Yorkside. (I haven’t been there in a while, though, so can’t say whether it’s the same now.)
In NY, I preferred John’s on the Upper East Side to the other locations, but alas it has closed. I guess I’d name Arturo’s (the one on West Houston) as my favorite now. I also like the Neapolitan Express truck pizza. (Only in NYC is a pizza truck company owned by those great Italian-Americans T. Boone Pickens and Mike Bloomberg! I THINK they still own it; they definitely founded it. )
In DC, I like We, the Pizza.
Papa Dells in Champaign (at UIUC) had the best pizza I’ve ever had. At least that’s how I remembered it. It had been 30 years when we went back with some friends and everyone told me it probably wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it. Wrong. It tasted exactly as amazing as I remembered!!
I grew up in New Haven. We are Sally’s people.