We’ve been waiting for the new Daily Meal 2017 list to come out so that we could add some new pizza places to our list. In case you missed it, the list came out last week! We were even more excited to see the results this time because we had the opportunity to vote on the winners (which was SO COOL) along with 55 other people. You can even see us mentioned in the article.
So, now to the results. Overall, we were pretty happy with the results this year.
101 Best Pizza Places (2017) : places in bold are new to the list in 2017!
#101 Inferno, Darnestown, MD
#100 Il Forno, San Antonio, TX
#99 Crust, Cleveland, OH
#98 Proof, Miami, FL
#97 O4W Pizza, Duluth, GA
#96 Metro Pizza, Las Vegas,
#95 The Cheeseboard, Berkeley, CA
#94 Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, Anchorage, AL
#93 Burt’s Place, Chicago
#92 Reservoir Tavern, Boonton, NJ
#91 Micucci Grocery, Portland, ME
#90 La Nova, Buffalo, NY
#89 Deniro’s, Depew, NY
#88 Sofia Pizza Shoppe, NYC
#87 Pizza Gruppo, NYC
#86 Papa’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville, NJ
#85 Colony Grill, Stamford
#84 Pizzeria Beddia, Philadelphia, PA
#83 Pizzeria Locale, Boulder, CO
#82 Serious Pie, Seattle, WA
#81 Del Popolo, San Francisco
#80 Sotto, Los Angeles
#79 Gjelina, Los Angeles
#78 800 Degrees, Los Angeles
#77 Pizzeria Lola, Minneapolis, MN
#76 Vito & Nicks, Chicago
#75 Nellcote, Chicago
#74 Bocce Club Pizza, Buffalo, NY
#73 Providence Coal Fired Pizza, Providence, RI
#72 Pizza Brain, Philadelphia, PA
#71 Lorenzo and Sons, Philadelphia, PA
#70 Amore Pizza, Queens, NY
#69 Little Vincent’s, Huntington, NY
#68 King Umberto’s, Elmont, NY
#67 Williamsburg Pizza, NYC
#66 L&B Spumoni Gardens, NYC
#65 Emily, NYC
#64 Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizza, Elizabeth, NJ
#63 Mike’s Apizza & Restaurant, West Haven, CT
#62 Galleria Umberto, Boston, MA
#61 Area Four, Cambridge, MA
#60 Pizzeria Delfina, San Francisco
#59 Pizzeria Mozza, Los Angeles
#58 Ken’s Artisan Pizza, Portland, OR
#57 The Backspace, Austin, TX
#56 Pizzeria Uno, Chicago
#55 Pizano’s Chicago
#54 Giordano’s Pizza, Chicago
#53 Pizzeria Vetri, Philadelphia, PA
#52 Lee’s Tavern, Staten Island
#51 Louie and Ernie’s, NYC
#50 Paulie Gee’s, NYC
#49 J&V Pizzeria, NYC
#48 Juliana’s Pizza, NYC
#47 Emmy Squared, NYC
#46 Razza, Jersey City, NJ
#45 Delorenzo Tomato Pies, Robbinsville, NJ
#44 Bru Room at BAR, New Haven, CT
#43 Una Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco
#42 Pizza Rock, Las Vegas
#41 Cane Rosso, Dallas, TX
#40 Home Slice Pizza, Austin, TX
#39 Pizza Domenica, New Orleans, LA
#38 Denino’s, Staten Island
#37 Al Forno, Providence, RI
#36 New Park Pizza, Queens, NY
#35 Co., NYC
#34 Star Tavern Pizza, West Orange, NJ
#33 Zuppardi, West Haven, CT
#32 Ernie’s Pizza, New Haven, CT
#31 Santarpio, Boston, MA
#30 Flour + Water, San Fransisco
#29 Varasano’s, Atlanta, GA
#28 Umberto’s Pizzeria, New Hyde Park, NY
#27 Coalfire Pizza, Chicago
#26 Spacca Napoli, Chicago
#25 Grimaldi’s, NYC
#24 Piece, Chicago
#23 Lombardi’s NYC
#22 Rubirosa, NYC
#21 Buddy’s Pizza, Detroit, MI
#20 Prince Street Pizza, NYC
#19 Joe’s, NYC
#18 Apizza Scholl’s, Portland, OR
#17 Roberta’s NYC
#16 Pequod’s, Chicago
#15 Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco
#14 Gino’s East, Chicago
#13 Totonno’s NYC
#12 Patsy’s, NYC
#11 Motorino, NYC
#10 Lucali, NYC
#9 Joe & Pat’s, Staten Island
#8 Sally’s Apizza, New Haven, CT
#7 Lou Malnati’s, Chicago
#6 Di Fara, NYC
#5 Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix, AZ
#4 Keste, NYC
#3 Modern Apizza, New Haven, CT
#2 John’s of Bleecker, NYC
#1 Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, New Haven, CT
Like last year’s list, the majority of the places that made the list are the same as the previous year. There are a few newcomers to this year’s list – 19 to be exact. It looks like we’ll have some fun travel ahead of us, although I’m not sure we will make it out to Alaska. A Chicago trip definitely needs to happen because we still have a handful (Pizano’s, Giordano’s, Vito & Nicks) that are repeats from last year’s list that we haven’t yet made it to, and 2017 just added three more Chicago pizzerias! We also never would have thought that Buffalo was such a good pizza city, but two pizzerias from Buffalo have made it on to the list this year.
It is nice to have a new pizzeria from NJ make the list, but we were a bit disappointed when we went to Razza and actually didn’t vote for it. That post will go up later this week. We assumed that it would make the list, though, after hearing all the hype about it. Also glad to see Juliana’s and Sofia Pizza Shoppe make it on to this list – both of those spots are well deserved.
So how are we feeling about the rest of the list? Well, first of all, we are thrilled to see Frank Pepe’s back in the #1 seat. We also are happy with John’s of Bleecker at #2, but we miss Di Fara in the top 5. Overall, we’re happy with the top 10, and Eric is thrilled to see Kesté at #4. We still personally prefer Sally’s over Modern, but that’s really just being picky. Lou Malnati’s and Gino’s East beating out Pequod’s…we aren’t sure how we feel about that. Also, Joe & Pat’s is a newbie to the list and came in at #9. We’ve been there and it was decent, but maybe not quite top 10 material (and not better than Totonno’s!).
Marg (my sister) will be glad to see Umberto’s still doing strong, and we’re happy to see our local spot Star Tavern also hanging in there. The biggest drops this year were Louie & Ernie’s up in the Bronx, which went from #11 last year to #51, and Pizzeria Beddia, which dropped from #12 back down to #84. We still think Beddia deserves top 10, but I think that the fact that it is so difficult to get to eat has really hurt it. We’re also happy to see Co. back on the list!
What did you guys think of this year’s list? Any places that you’d like to see on it? We’re still rooting for Da Legna in New Haven to break on to the list, and also we’d like to see Pizza Moto in Brooklyn come back.
And let us know if you want to take a trip up to Buffalo or out to Alaska?? We’ve got 14 new places to visit this year, and still have 9 from last year’s list!
Barb and Eric, I salute you and your pizza mission! I love your passion and your understanding of great pizza. I like to say any friend of pizza is a friend of mine! I love all you do…thanks so much for your pizza insights. I was dismayed several of my favorites were not on the list: Recovery Room in New London, CT as well as Federal Hill Pizza in Providence were not on the ballot. I love De Legna as well and think they make great pizza.
I would loved to have seen more pizza places in Hawaii on the ballot. Hawaii pizza has come a long way the last few years..Oh well.
I raise a slice to you both! Mahalo!
We’d love to take a trip out to Hawaii! We’ve never been to Recovery Room, either, but we will have to add it to our list. It’s always so hard to be in that area and not stop in New Haven 🙂
Seems like it was published a little later this year. Glad to see Juliana’s on the list, although personally it should be higher than Grimaldi’s.
Was very disappointed with Beddia when trying it out last Summer. Felt the regular pie was nothing to write home about with an off taste in the crust. The whole process compounded the disappointment. Not sure if it was an off day or if another pie choice would’ve been better.
We just went to Chicago last month and tried Lou Malnati’s and Vito + Nick’s for a best of both worlds of Chicago pizza styles. Enjoyed both – Vito and Nick’s has a lot of old school charm to it!
Curious about those Buffalo spots as well! Smell a weekend trip in the future to also get some of the OG buffalo wings as well.
We agree with you about Juliana’s – we prefer it to Grimaldi’s, too. Bummer about your experience with Beddia. It certainly seems to be a bit hit-or-miss, which is why it probably ranges so much in the rankings year to year as well.
And yes, you’re right – the list was out a bit late this year. Not sure why…