Tag: 101 best pizza places

#92 Cane Rosso

August 14th, 2016

Dallas, TX

I was lucky enough to be invited to a bachelorette party down in Austin, TX, for a long weekend in August. Since there were a few pizza places in Texas on the 101, Eric decided to fly down on Sunday and meet me, after we were all partied-out. We rented a car and drove up to Dallas for lunch to the first place on the list, Cane Rosso.

Cane Rosso has a few locations around Texas. They actually have one in Austin, also, but the one on the list said Dallas, so that’s where we went. It started out as a mobile pizza truck and it claims to be the most authentic wood-fired Neapolitan pizza in Texas. The owner and founder decided to change the mobile catering oven into a full-time pizzeria in 2011.

Like all true Neapolitan pizzas, Cane Rosso uses the “OO” flour imported from Italy and makes its dough fresh daily. They use the San Marzano tomatoes and also make their own in-house mozzarella, adhering to all of the VPN guidelines.

We ordered the burrata appetizer to start, and then two pizzas: the Margherita and the Cane Rosso, which was topped with sausage, roasted onions & peppers, san marzanos, homemade mozzarella and parmigiano cheese. We figured that the signature named pizza had to be pretty good.

These were definitely true Neapolitan pizzas. We really liked the variety of pizzas that they served as well. Pizza Today named the restaurant the 2017 Independent Pizzeria of the year, and I found the article about the restaurant’s expansion and development really interesting. Particularly, the fact that they import the ovens to each location from Italy and no two ovens are exactly the same. Also, they say that their dough is notoriously difficult to work with because they don’t refrigerate it and so it stays very sticky and soft.

Also interesting is that the founder of Cane Rosso recently opened another pizzeria in Dallas that makes NY-style pizzas, Zoli’s. They serve round and square pies in different styles, for the people who don’t like Neapolitan pizzas. He seems determined to take over the Texas pizza scene!

Zoli’s wasn’t on any of our lists, but the pizza there looks good too and would probably be worth checking out if we are back in the area.

To visit:

Cane Rosso
2612 Commerce St
Dallas, TX 75226

BarbaraLeave a comment

#74 Ernesto’s

July 30th, 2016

Boston, MA

Our second stop in Boston for the weekend of pizza was Ernesto’s. We decided to switch gears from our dinner and drinks at Coppa and venture over to the North End for some slices for lunch. After trying so many slices in NYC, we’re a bit picky about our slice joints. We’re happy to report that Ernesto’s ranks up there with our favorite slices around the entire US!

We’ve been to the North End of Boston many, many times. It’s one of our favorite places to go to eat and drink and also to just wander. Back in our days of undergrad when I was living in Boston, we’d go for fancy date night dinners at cute Italian restaurants in the North End and usually would follow up our pasta with cannoli or pastry from Mike’s. We never ran out of Italian restaurants to try because every restaurant there is better than the last. We also always seemed to forget which Italian restaurants we had been to before, since they all look very similar and serve similar food. We can only say that we never had a bad Italian meal. In all those trips to the North End, though, we never thought to seek out pizza, and we never thought about just going for slices.

Well, we were certainly missing out. Ernesto’s has been operating in the North End since 1984. The slices are very large, but priced well, and there is no shortage of toppings to choose from. They say that one of their most popular slices is the chicken ranch. We didn’t try that one, but a lot of people seem to like it. You can take out or eat in. We’d recommend taking it outside and walking around by the water, although that’s hard to do if you are ordering more than one slice. If you’re dining in, you can also get beer or wine in plastic cups. It’s very high end.

We tried a good variety of slices, of course. A couple of the tomato and basil, which were some of our favorites. We each had one of the white spinach, which was the perfect amount of heavy. Eric liked the slices so much, actually, that he had to go up and order a third slice. He couldn’t stop talking about how good the crust was. We’d argue that the slices here are just as good as a NY slice, and probably cheaper than most of the slices in NYC. Ernesto’s hasn’t made the Daily Meal list since 2015, and we’re quite sad about that. It should be on that list, and you should go if you’re in Boston.

They also serve salads. You should just skip those.

To visit:

Ernesto’s Pizza
69 Salem St
Boston, MA 02113

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#55 Coppa

July 29th, 2016

Boston, MA

We’ve mentioned a few Boston pizzerias already on this site (Santarpio’s and Area Four) but we still have several more to cover on here. With the Boston Marathon running this past week, we thought it would be a good time to talk about a few more of the Boston restaurants that made it on to the top 101.

We drove up to Boston for the weekend, getting into town late on a Friday night to meet up with some friends. We decided to make our first stop for pizza at Coppa, which ranked right in the middle of the 2015 Best Pizza list. It is a small place to begin with (only 38 seats!), tucked away in Boston’s South End on a side street. If you’re familiar with the city of Boston at all, you’ll know that the location is not very convenient to get to by public transportation. So, we were slightly surprised when we got there and the restaurant was packed, although we really shouldn’t have been since the restaurant scene in the South End has been growing steadily in the past years. We grabbed a couple of drinks and hung around outside while we waited for a table. We finally were seated around 9:30 pm. 

We almost felt bad just ordering the pizza because Coppa seems to be known primarily for its inventive and seasonal selection of small plates. Their homemade pastas also looked amazing. We ended up splitting a couple of pizzas: the Salsiccia and the ‘Nduja. The meats had some kick to them, and the crust was on the crispier side because of the wood oven, which we liked. Both were tapas-sized pies, a bit smaller than a Neapolitan pizza and meant to share. They were perfect accompaniments to our drinks. 

We’d go back to Coppa, but probably not just for the pizzas.  We could see ourselves ordering a pizza AND some of the other small plates, or splitting one as an appetizer while also ordering some of the fresh pasta dishes. But we probably wouldn’t make a special trip again for the pizza, as there are better places making pizza in Boston.

If you do find yourself wanting to head out to the South End, we’d definitely recommend taking advantage of the outdoor seating at Coppa during the summer months, since the restaurant itself is so small and doesn’t take reservations. We also highly recommend ordering the specialty cocktails.

To visit:

Coppa Boston
253 Shawmut Ave
Boston, MA 02118

BarbaraLeave a comment

#75 Ernie’s Pizzeria

July 29th, 2017

New Haven, CT

If you’re a pizza person, you’ve most certainly heard of Pepe’s and Sally’s on Wooster street. If you’re really familiar with New Haven (or have ever heard us talk about pizza), you probably also know the pizza greats BAR and Modern. We’ve also mentioned a few “New Haven style” pizzerias throughout the country (see: this and this). We pretty much consider ourselves New Haven pizza experts at this stage.

Well, we are here to tell you that there are other pizza places in New Haven, off the beaten path, that rank up there pretty high with our favorites (Pepe’s and BAR). One of these is Roseland, which somehow didn’t make the 2017 list. The second is Ernie’s.

Ernie’s isn’t located too far from the famous Wooster Street, but somehow we had never heard of it until this list came out, even after living in New Haven for 5 years. We would venture up Whalley Ave for brunch or to hit the farmer’s market, but never for pizza. We were really missing out. Ernie’s has been around since 1971 and makes some really great pizza. It is currently operated by Ernie’s son, Pat.

This was actually our second attempt to get to Ernie’s. On our first try, we showed up on a Sunday for lunch. We didn’t think to check the hours, but similar to Roseland, Ernie’s doesn’t open until later on Sundays (3 pm). Whoops. We learned our lesson and came back here on a Saturday instead. We went with our regular New Haven order: plain tomato pie (with grated cheese, of course!).

The only downside was that we had to wait a while for the pizza to come out, and the restaurant wasn’t even busy. It’s hard to imagine what the wait would have been like if the restaurant was packed. Although, we would have waited even longer to even get a table at Pepe’s! We’d recommend taking advantage of the restaurant’s call-ahead policy so that your pizza is ready when you get there.

The crust on the pizzas at Ernie’s is a little different than Pepe’s or Sally’s. It’s slightly thicker, but it still gets that really nice char on the bottom. Also, it’s circular. The crust recipe is apparently a family secret. The sauce is nice and sweet and because the crust is a bit thicker, there is a lot of it. We loved it and wished we had discovered Ernie’s back in the days that we lived in New Haven.

On a side note, we came across this awesome pizza list the other day and it probably is one of the most accurate lists of the best pizzerias in the country that we’ve seen (according to our tastes, of course).  Paulie Gee’s may not have made our list of the top pizzas in Brooklyn, but at least they put it next to Lucali, which certainly deserves to be on there. And we have to give Paulie Gee credit for his topping variety. Pepe’s is on it, as is Antico in Atlanta and Apizza Scholls in Portland, OR, which are two of our favorites that don’t seem to make it on to other lists. Also, they picked out our favorite deep dish in Chicago (Pequod’s). They really just missed Di Fara.

We haven’t been to Delancy in Seattle, but that pizza looks AMAZING. Why is that not on the Daily Meal list?? There are two on the list here that are also on the Daily Meal lists that we haven’t been to yet, so stay tuned for if we agree with those as well.

Also, according to this article, Pizzeria Beddia is opening a new storefront in Philly later this year (after closing their current location just a few days ago)! Who wants to come with us to check that out later this year?!

To visit:

Ernie’s Pizzeria
1279 Whalley Ave
New Haven, CT 06515

BarbaraLeave a comment

#38 Pete’s New Haven Apizza

July 24th, 2017

Washington, D.C.

Now that our pizza road trip posts are over, we’re picking back up with reviews of the last few pizza places that we visited on the original 2015 list back in the summer 2016. Wow, that was almost 2 years ago now. It still feels crazy that we’ve been doing this so long. We can still remember each pizza pretty vividly. (Well, I can. I think some of them are starting to blend together for Eric.)

We made it over to the last pizza place that was in Washington, D.C. on the last day of a long weekend there (see this post where we last left off). The final pizzeria in DC was Pete’s New Haven Apizza. You probably know by now that we LOVE New Haven pizza, so our expectations were pretty high. Even more, Pete’s ranked in pretty high on the list.

We ended up ordering two pizzas because there were three of us splitting these. The specialty pizzas here are all named after places in New Haven, so we ordered one of “The Green” which was topped with artichokes, spinach, and roasted tomatoes (hold the olives), and one of the “Elm City”, which had caramelized onions, wild mushrooms, and roasted chicken.

The story is that one of the co-founder’s fathers is from East Haven, right on the New Haven line, so the co-founders all are familiar with the New Haven style. BUT these pizzas aren’t really true New Haven style. The crust is a little thicker and round. There’s none of that classic New Haven char. The toppings were great, though, so we aren’t complaining. You could really tell how fresh the toppings were (none of that frozen spinach going on here!).

This was probably our favorite pizza in DC, even though it wasn’t really a “New Haven Apizza”. We can see why 2Amys could get the slight edge from the critics and we do like a good Neapolitan pie, but honestly, if we had to choose we’d go for something a bit more substantial that could hold more toppings.

We went to their original location, but they also have a few locations now around the city.

To visit:

Pete’s New Haven Apizza
1400 Irving St NW
Washington, DC 20010

BarbaraLeave a comment

#85 Emmy Squared

July 21st, 2017

Brooklyn, NYC

If you follow our instagram at all, you know that we are frequent visitors at Emily, in Brooklyn. Well, recently, the owners of Emily decided to test out Detroit-style pizza in NYC.  They opened Emmy Squared. “Squared”, we assume, because of both the style of pizza and because it is the second installment of the Emily brand.

We first went to Emmy Squared with a friend, getting there soon after it opened. It didn’t have much of a dinner crowd when we went on a weeknight, but I imagine that the crowds have picked up since then. The focus is obviously on the Detroit-style pizza, although they do also serve sandwiches and the famous Emmy Burger.

**Side note: we’ve just recently tried the Emmy burger. Yes, it is worth $26, and yes, it is massive. It really is hard for us to tell you   to get a burger at a restaurant as famous for its pizza as Emily is, but you really should get the burger. Get one for the table and split it, if you want. The fries are good as well, but you won’t have room for them.

So, you may be wondering: how does Emmy Squared’s Detroit-style compare to other Detroit-style pizzas that we’ve had. Well, you may notice one thing right off the bat – the size. The pizzas at Emmy Squared are SMALL (and there is only one size). They are cut in 6 slices. If you go with a group of 3 people, and all get a burger, than one pizza is enough for you. But don’t go with 3 people and order only 2 pizzas and think that you will have enough food (telling you this from experience).

The pizza here is also EXPENSIVE. Think of it as artisan Detroit-style. You wouldn’t find these topping combinations in Detroit, but you also wouldn’t find pizzas costing half as much. Via313 comes close to Emmy Squared, but isn’t quite as creative.

We’ve tried one of the white pizzas (the Marn Blanc), a meatball special, and most recently, the Colony at Emmy Squared. They all taste delicious. The crust is spot-on to what a Detroit-style pie should be. We just wish the slices were a bit bigger.

If you didn’t hear – Emmy Squared should be opening a second installment in Manhattan, in the East Village. Emily also has a new location in the West Village, which means that we can go there more often! West Village Emily also serves the Detroit-style pies, but I’m not sure if this will continue with the opening of the new Emmy Squared? We will have to wait and see!

To visit:

Emmy Squared
364 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211

BarbaraLeave a comment

#23 Prince Street Pizza

December 16th, 2017

Manhattan, NYC

One of our favorite slice joints around Manhattan is Prince Street Pizza. We stumbled upon Prince Street pizza back when we started working our way around NYC, even though it wasn’t on the original 2015 Daily Meal list that we started working from. We kept coming across the name on other “Best of” lists, so we knew that we had to make it a stop, especially because it was within walking distance of our offices. AND THEN it made it on the 2016 list, and again on the 2017 list. It was about time.

If you are walking around SoHo/Nolita and looking for a slice of pizza, this is one of the best. (Williamsburg Pizza would be another good bet.)  It has an old-school charm, even though it is a relatively new establishment. It’s location, though, is pizza history: it is half of the original location of Ray’s Pizza (of traditional NY pizza fame). These days, you may find a “Ray’s Original” on a number of NY street corners, but the “original” Ray’s no longer exists, having given in to a rent/lease dispute back in 2011.

Prince Street Pizza is known mainly for their square slices. THE slice to order is the spicy square pepperoni slice with a fresh Fra diavolo sauce. You just have to do it. And not just because those little tiny cups of pepperoni are so darn instagrammable. It just tastes amazing (and this is coming from someone who is not the biggest fan of pepperoni).  The plain cheese slices and margherita slices are also good. You could get one of those too. We would never just stop at one slice!

The crust on the square slices here isn’t thick and heavy like some Sicilian slices. It is pretty light and airy, making it easy to eat more than one slice.

You won’t get a seat to eat in Prince Street, especially if you come for slices during the lunch or dinner rush. You should be prepared to take your slices to go. There is a small counter inside, but it is pretty tight to sit if you aren’t by yourself.  This isn’t a place to linger – get in, order, and move on.

Eric has recently recruited a bunch of people from his office to take trips over to Prince Street for lunch. It makes me really sad that my office has moved out of SoHo and I can’t regularly join them.

I mean, just look at those ronis! Right?

To visit:

Prince Street Pizza
27 Prince St
New York, NY 10012

BarbaraLeave a comment

#48 Juliana’s Pizza

December 6th, 2017

Brooklyn, NY

When our grand plans to hit Totonno’s were busted yesterday, we decided to make another trip to Juliana’s instead.  I’ve mentioned Juliana’s before because we’ve been there several times now, but 2017 is the first year that it officially made it on to the 101 Best Pizza Places list since we’ve started traveling cross-country for pizza. We thought that we should go back to document it officially as part of our pizza journey.

As I previously mentioned, Juliana’s is located in Brooklyn right next door to the classic pizzeria Grimaldi’s. It’s Grimaldi’s fancier, more expensive, and somewhat less popular little sister pizzeria. It ranked in 2017 at #48, which is pretty high for a new appearance (although it DID make the previous list in 2014, but then it disappeared for two years). It ranks lower than Grimaldi’s, though, which usually falls around the top 25. Strangely, Juliana’s also came up as the top pizza place in the US according to TripAdvisor? We’d like someone to explain that to us.

The comparisons of this pizza with Grimaldi’s are valid, because Juliana’s was also opened by Patsy Grimaldi in 2012 after he had sold the rights to the original Grimaldi’s name. Juliana’s is named after Patsy Grimaldi’s mother, and is actually located in the original location of Grimaldi’s, using the original brick oven. So obviously, there is a sort of rivalry that has arisen between the two restaurants.

We usually go for the same order at Juliana’s – the Margherita. We alternate between a large and a small. Honestly, they are about the same size and almost the exact same price, so we usually go for the large. This time we went for the small, but only because we also ordered the meatballs for an appetizer, and we have way too many Christmas cookies sitting on the counter at home.

We end up at Juliana’s when we are either a) too tired or cold to wait in line for Grimaldi’s (although sometimes the line at Juliana’s can be just as long), or b) wanting a more romantic dinner.

Juliana’s is the nicer of the two restaurants, but is also smaller. The waiters are (generally) more friendly, and the options on the menu are trendier and less traditional. It is a great date-night restaurant. Grimaldi’s is more classic NY with it’s old school booths, crowded atmosphere, and the old Brooklyn man who makes you wait at the door until your seat is ready. The pizza is essentially the same, though. Both are good. Grimaldi’s is cheaper. This head-to-head review gives Juliana’s the edge, but honestly, we think that it depends on the day. We’ve been to both places multiple times now, and it is really hit or miss for both of them.

To visit:

Juliana’s Pizza
19 Old Fulton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

BarbaraLeave a comment

#32 Al Forno

July 2nd, 2016

Providence, RI

Not much tastes better than pizza after sitting in holiday traffic for hours. We had one more stop for pizza in Providence, so we drove out to Rhode Island to Al Forno. We actually drove out to Newport (mainly for this), but stopped in Providence on the way for lunch.

The restaurant has been open since 1980, and is situated in an old stable near the waterfront. While they serve plenty of Italian food, the pizza is what everyone talks about. Primarily because Al Forno serves a completely unique style of pizza. I mean, just look at it! Does that look like any pizza that you’ve had before?

Al Forno is considered the birthplace of grilled pizza. The owners wanted to take advantage of their wood-fired grill, so they used it to cook the pizza dough as hot and as fast as possible. The result is an unusually shaped dough with visible charred grill lines, which they top with a variety of toppings.

We love making pizza on the grill, but we had never seen a restaurant grill pizza before! We tried two pizzas here, the “spicy” Margarita and the Tuscan Kale Pesto. Overall, the flavors were great and we loved the grilled crust. Our one complaint was that the pizzas were a bit on the oily side. The amount of cheese and tomato on top was perfect and not too heavy, but the oil really ruined the light taste. We looked into the crust itself a bit more (so that we could perfect our pizza grilling technique at home) and found that the dough here is hardly proofed, which helps it to keep its structure over the grill. The dough is also soaked in olive oil before being put on the grill to keep it crispy.

You should note that the pizzas are actually considered appetizers here, although we (and many others) obviously order them as main dishes. We also ordered the bruschetta to start. You should note that bruschetta here is not served with tomatoes. It is really just thick, Italian bread covered with a generous portion of olive oil and garlic. More like garlic bread to us? The waitress assured us that this is the “most traditional” form of bruschetta. Turns out, she’s right, but we prefer the non-traditional kind with tomatoes.

Overall, we liked these pizzas a lot, but mainly for their individuality. It was really nice to sit outside and enjoy them, but they didn’t make it to the top of our lists.

We did take away some handy tips to use for grilling our own pizzas, though! Which we can put to use now since Eric finally bought himself a grill.

To visit:

Al Forno
577 South Water Street
Providence, RI 02903

BarbaraLeave a comment

#28 Lucali

June 23rd, 2016

Brooklyn, NYC

After getting back from our pizza weekend, we had to take a short (one week) hiatus from eating pizza. When we were sufficiently recovered, we visited another of the top-ranking Brooklyn pizzerias on the list, Lucali.

Lucali may be the most romantic pizza place that we went to on the list, and there is a good reason why it is ranked so high. Tucked away in Carroll Gardens, the restaurant only seats a few tables at time, and it has a quiet ambiance, and makes amazing pizza.

The pizza here is kind of like if you were to smush all of the other NY greats together. The fresh basil on top from Di Fara,  minimal available toppings, like the classic slice joints (Joe’s), and a soft, Neapolitan-like crust.

Recommendations if you want to try the pizza here (and you really should!):

  1. Do NOT come here with a group of people – bring your husband, date, or best friend, but keep it small. Or you may never get a table.
  2. The restaurant officially opens at 6, but they start taking names for tables at 5:30. We didn’t realize this and showed up right before 6, and had over an hour wait to get a table. If you are on a time crunch, make sure to get your name in for the first seating. Like many of the other Brooklyn greats (see Emily or Paulie Gee’s), the line can be long. Otherwise, be prepared to wait AT LEAST an hour. We went on a Wednesday night. I’ve read about people who show up at 5:30 on a Friday and don’t get a table until 8 pm (just warning you!).
  3. BYOB! Do I have to say more? You probably have plenty of time after you put your name in to go find a bottle of wine.

When you have to wait for your pizza, your anticipation really grows. The longer the wait, the more you feel like the pizza has to live up to the wait. Well, you really don’t have to worry about that here. This pizza really lived up to the wait. We both rated this on our personal lists much higher in the top 20.

We ended up ordering half plain, half pepperoni. The pizza is expensive, and so we didn’t want to order two. We also were happy to not have too many topping selections – simple is sometimes best. We left happily full, but not stuffed.

After writing this, I think we need to go back here as soon as possible. We’d wait over an hour again for this pizza if we had to.

To visit:

Lucali
575 Henry Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

BarbaraLeave a comment