Best Pizza

"There's a pizza place near where I live that sells only slices. In the back you can see a guy tossing a triangle in the air."
— Steven Wright

Where is the best pizza in the world? I try to keep an open mind, despite the fact that I grew up in the Boston area with a lot of great pizza parlours close by. I used to like the extra large pizzas at the European Restaurant in Boston's North End, but I recently found out that the restaurant closed down. I hear that Santarpios in East Boston still is very good. Now that I no longer live in the Boston area, I have resumed the quest for the best pizza. There are too many pizza chains where I now live (the Washington, DC area), but some places are decent. A few places that serve good pizza here are Mama Lucia's, Bertucci's (a Boston franchise?), and Joe's (in Gaithersberg, MD).

Best Pizza Logos

Here is a pizza place I am looking forward to try in Nantucket, MA - Pi Pizza. The creative logo is, of course, the Greek symbol Pi (3.14...), which is used to find the circumference of a circle (or pizza). Why do I think the pizza will be supah there? They know pizza, the place is in Nantucket (not too far from Boston), and they have a good website. The main pizza maker, Evan D.J. Marley, first started making pizzas while in High School. He enjoyed trying to create the ultimate tasting pizza, and making a perfect batch of dough. Over the years, his appreciation for great pizza grew with his travels to both the East and West coast of America as well as France and Italy.

Evan's pursuit of the ideal pizza is a rustic crust, using organically grown whole white flour, San Martzzano tomatoes, Vermont organically farmed cheeses, and assorted toppings of similar high quality. That sounds great to me!!

Click on the logo to visit the Pi Pizza website.

Here is another creative and well-designed logo from Aver's Pizza from Bloomington, Indiana. Make sure that you try their pizza if you're in Bloomington. Click on the logo below to visit their website. Their history section is very interesting for anyone who is thinking about getting into the pizza business (or any other business).

Here is a logo that was made famous by the "Pizza, Pizza" campaign on television. Little Caesars used to have a franchise near me. The local store sold two huge good-for-ballgame-watching pizzas for under $10.00. Now the franchise closest to me is too far away (in Baltimore).

Your Favorite Pizza
Here are the favorites of some people who have e-mailed me about pizza:

To see the latest best picks, check out the UD Guestbook.

Charles Coffin Review:

Charles Coffin wrote in with the following comments. "The best pizza is Pizzeria DE Miccola in Spak o Napoli It. The best pizza in the U.S. is Gramaldis in Broklyn, N.Y. The best pizza on Nantucket is Pi Pizza."

A pizzaholic from East Boston submitted the following comments:

There is no better (and being from the Boston area yourself you should know) than Santarpio's in east Boston. a close second would be Pizzaria Regina in the North End.

Daniel B. Wallace submitted the following comments:

I can't speak for the whole world, since I haven't had pizza in every corner of it. But I have had pizza throughout the United States, as well as in Italy. I have been in every one of the 50 United States, and have had pizza in many of them. Unquestionably, in my mind, the very best pizzas I have ever eaten were all on Wooster Street in New Haven. The three best pizza parlours there are Pepe's, Sally's, and Abate's. I've eaten at two of these, and will be eating at the third in a couple of weeks. Most people who know thin crust pizza will swear by Sally's or Pepe's, calling those establishments the best in the US and perhaps the world. As surprising as it may seem, I found Abate's to be even better. But my guess is that this may have been a one-time special event.

The waitress seemed particularly interested in my son, and the pizza took about 45 minutes to prepare. I wonder if it was a special pizza made just for him. On a scale of 1 to 100, I would rate Abate's a 95, and Sally's an 85. The next highest would be Yosemite Sam's (no longer in business I suspect) in Orange County, CA, at about an 80. (My guess is that Pepe's will rank a 90 or above.) After that, the best pizza I've eaten was at a little place whose name I have forgotten in the old city in Rome, about ten minutes walk from the Colosseum. Finally, rounding out my top five would be Pastazio's in Addison, TX (suburb of Dallas). Authentic as it can get, Pastazio's is surely the best pizza in Texas. I'd love to find out more about your favorite Boston haunts, since I will be visiting Boston again in a few weeks.

If you know of a great pizza place, don't keep it a secret! E-mail me by clicking here.