Tag: philadelphia

#15 Pizzeria Beddia (new location)

May 11th, 2019

Philadelphia, PA

Pizzeria Beddia is back! The last time we went there, we had to wait in line 3 hours before opening time to grab the first pizza out of their oven. If you read my last post, a new pizzeria is now open in that space, and making really good slices. We had heard rumors that Joe Beddia was opening a new pizza place at a larger location in Philly, so we were looking out for news.

It opened in March 2019, but we didn’t make it there until May. It’s much different from the original, mostly in the vibe. There’s a nice outdoor seating area, and you can sit and have drinks beforehand if there’s a wait (there was). We brought James here, too, and it wasn’t an issue at all.

We almost ordered the regular cheese pie here, just to see how it compared to the old Beddia. But, we ended up switching it up and ordering the tomato pie-like anchovy pizza. You may not like anchovies, or you may not think that you do, but they are worth trying on a pizza if you’re at a place that knows how to make them work. Also, our baby tried them, so you probably should too.

The menu here is still small – they serve only three pizzas and a tomato pie, and a few small plates. So the quality of the ingredients and the pizzas is still the same as the original Beddia. The difference is that Joe Beddia isn’t making the pizzas by himself anymore. He’s got a staff for that. I’m just glad that Joe Beddia is still making pizzas at all and that we get to eat them.

The Daily Meal realized this too, and Beddia is back on the list this year, at #15! I think this article summed it up pretty well: even though Pizzeria Beddia isn’t the same as it was, it’s still a fantastic restaurant in Fishtown. Go there, and be glad that you don’t have to wait hours for your pizza.

To visit:
Pizzeria Beddia
1313 North Lee Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122

BarbaraLeave a comment

#61 Pizza Shackamaxon

January 26th, 2019

Philadelphia, PA

We were very sad when Pizzeria Beddia closed. Even though we had to plan our whole day around going there early, waiting in line, and then waiting for our pizza, it was worth the trip every once in a while to be one of the first 40 in line and eat that amazing pizza. When we heard that a new pizza place had moved into the space, we were very excited to try it because it had big shoes to fill.

Pizza Shackamaxon doesn’t make and serve whole pies. They will, but they’re set up as a slice shop in a city that doesn’t have too many good ones. In this respect, they are essentially set up as the opposite of Beddia, which didn’t serve slices. On their website, Pizza Shackamaxon says “We pride ourselves in being a “slice-first” shop (one of few left in our area) because this means we have the pleasure of serving the many over the few.” I wonder if this is a direct dig to Beddia. If you want a whole pie, you’ll have to order it, and then wait for however long it takes to make.

The big question, obviously, is how do these slices compare to Beddia’s? Well, they are pretty delicious. We took my mom and James, and we each tried a slice of cheese and a slice of tomato pie. Well, James didn’t get his own slices, he just had to try ours. They keep it simple here – only offering cheese, tomato pie, pepperoni, and a special, focusing on local, fresh ingredients.

We ordered our slices and decided to eat at one of the standing tables in house. While trying to juggle our slices (and our baby), we dropped one of the tomato pie slices. We probably would have eaten it anyway, but the guys here were kind enough to bring us a new slice and help us clean up the mess that we made on their floor.

It’s REALLY hard to find a good tomato pie slice. I think this may be one of the only ones that we’ve ever had that tasted just as amazing as it looked. We like our tomato pie slice overloaded with sauce, and this sauce was so flavorful. And the cheese slice was just as amazing. It may not have been as tasty as that cheese pie at Beddia, but it is absolutely worth making another trip back here for, and they are open for lunch.

To visit:
Pizza Shackamaxon
115 E Girard Ave #3907
Philadelphia, PA 19125

BarbaraLeave a comment

#63 Tacconelli’s

March 25th, 2016

Philadelphia, PA

I can’t believe that I somehow missed posting about Tacconelli’s back in 2016. Back on the original list (2015), Tacconelli’s was ranked in at #63. It disappeared from the 2016 and 2017 lists, but made it back on the 2018 list at #60.

Tacconelli’s is a Philadelphia classic, having been making pizzas since right after WWII. The restaurant is much older and the brick oven has been used in the family for baking and selling bread since 1918. They started making tomato pies, which had a lot of sauce and very little cheese. The restaurant is now on its 5th generation of owners, but it is still a one-oven, one-man operation.

Because there is only one pizza maker and one oven for baking the pizzas, the best way to make sure that you get a pizza is to call ahead and reserve your dough. They serve pizzas from 4:30 pm onwards, but you can call ahead as early as 10 am.

When we went, we tried the recommended white pie with spinach and fresh tomatoes. The crust was charred as much as a New Haven pie. The crust was thin, and they didn’t skimp on the toppings, although they recommend that you not order more than two toppings per pizza. Not too cheesy, either.

We were glad that we had called ahead here and reserved our dough. Usually, they sell out of dough well before closing. When we got there, we saw that many families would reserve two doughs and take one to go. That’s a really great idea that we may copy next time. Also, because they only can make one pizza at a time, you should be prepared to wait a bit for your pizza. Fortunately, they let you bring your own salad, and beer and wine! We didn’t do this and we were starving by the time our pizza came.

Two other pieces of information that you should know. First, they are closed on Monday and Tuesday. Second, the original location is in Port Richmond in Philadelphia. There is another location in Maple Shade, NJ. This is run by a Tacconelli family member, but is NOT associated with the original.

We should really go back here soon. We know so many people who grew up ordering this pizza, and it’s hard to believe that we’ve only been there once.  Especially now that it is back on the Best Pizzas list!

To visit:

The Original Tacconelli’s Pizza
2604 E. Somerset Street
Philadelphia, PA 19134

BarbaraLeave a comment

Pizzadelphia Pizza Festival

July 14th, 2018

Philadelphia, PA

We’re back! We took a short break to have a baby. His name is James, and he hasn’t tried pizza yet but you can bet that we are going to start training him to be a pizza aficionado as soon as he can eat solid foods. Since we’ve spent most of the last two months at home, we haven’t gotten to do many travels for pizza lately. Our days of spur-of-the-moment flights and cross-country travels may be over for the short future, but we are planning on continuing our quest to finish up the lists. All in due time.

We’ve taken James to a few pizza places, but mostly local around our home state of NJ. This past weekend, we decided to be a bit more adventurous and we bought tickets to the Pizzadelphia Pizza Festival down at the Navy Yard.

We had a great time at the event. There were about 15 local pizzerias that had set up pizza ovens and tents around the yard and served out unlimited samples of their pizza. We didn’t get a chance to try all of them because the lines for some of the tents were very long and it ended up being a very hot day. Here are some of the ones that we got to try:

Nomad 

It may be because this was the first tent that we tried, and we were hungry, but this was our favorite of the day. Nomad has several locations, including a few in NJ, and it has been on our list to try for a while now. They offered two slices: a plain margherita and a white slice with arugula and prosciutto.

We loved this one most for the crust, which was so perfectly airy and soft. But the toppings were pretty good too, and the sauce was nice and sweet.

Pizzeria Vetri

Pizzeria Vetri has been on the 101 Best Pizzas list, so we’ve been there before. However, it was one of the very first restaurants that we tried back in 2015!

Vetri was making long pizzas and cutting them into little squares, almost like miniature Roman-style pies but with a Neapolitan crust. We grabbed a couple of small margherita squares, which the server topped with a piece of fresh basil as he handed it to us. That was a nice touch, and we went back for seconds before we left. Our second favorite of the day.

Tacconelli’s

We’ve been to Tacconelli’s too – it has many hard-core fans around the Philadelphia area. It was on the 101 Best Pizza list back in 2015, but then disappeared off the list. I just realized that I haven’t posted about that yet. At the restaurant, you have to reserve your dough ahead of time. We were glad to not have to worry about that here.

They also had a “spin the wheel” game while you waited for your slices out of the oven. Eric won a free T-shirt but because they only had size small, he gave it to me. So nice of him.

Urban Village Brewing

This one was a surprise. We hadn’t heard of Urban Village Brewing Company before this festival. It isn’t unusual for breweries to also make pizza (see here). We were really surprised by how good these pizzas were. The crust on these was nice and chewy, and the pesto topping was delicious. It was also one of the few that we tried that had pepperoni on top.

We’d check out this restaurant again. It seems to have a great laid-back atmosphere and would be a great spot to enjoy freshly made pizzas with freshly brewed beer.

La Scala

This was another restaurant that we had never heard of before Pizzadelphiafest. This is probably because it is actually an Italian restaurant, although we really enjoyed their pizzas.

They were serving a few different pizzas at the same time from their tent. We grabbed a couple of slices of the margherita, which was also topped with a few chunks of fresh tomato. Eric’s dad grabbed a few slices of the buffalo chicken, which he raved about.

Pizza Brain

We’ve also been to Pizza Brain before. It made the list in 2016. They had a different strategy for dishing out their pizzas. They made very large pies in their oven and then cut them into little squares. The only down side to this was that not every piece got a bit of crust.

They were serving three pies and we got to try two of them. I tried the arugula, beet, honey, and goat cheese pizza, which I’d go back for again. Eric tried the cheesesteak pizza. They also had a buffalo chicken pizza, which I didn’t get a shot of.

Bella Maria Tomato Pies

We thought that the tomato pie from Bella Maria’s was great. We weren’t expecting much when we stopped at this tent but the tomatoes were so flavorful. We were pleasantly surprised!

Bella Maria’s is located in Bensalem, and we’d recommend stopping there for a tomato pie if you can (we are planning on it in the future!).

Zavino

This was the last pizza slice that we tried on our way out. It was a good margherita slice, and we liked the char on the crust. We also liked that the tomato sauce was a bit chunky on this and that they had plenty of fresh basil.

Zavino isn’t just a Neapolitan pizzeria. It looks like it has a great variety of other entrees and appetizers. Another restaurant that we have now added to our list to visit in Philadelphia in the future.

Cafe Riviera Pizzeria Pronto

This place was actually a pizza truck. It served wood-fired pizza, which was a nice break from all of the Neapolitan slices being served. We really liked the sauce:cheese ratio on these pies.

They were also serving a few different styles of pizza, but we went with the plain cheese pizza because it was fresh out of the oven.

Thanks to our friend Lori Freed who told us about this great event! It was really well-organized and we will definitely come back if they do it again next year. Even though there were lines to get most of the slices, they moved really quickly and no one ran out of pizza. Our one complaint would be that it took a long time to get into the event because they had security and ID checks, as well as ticket checks. James had a great time also, sleeping in the Baby Bjorn.

 

BarbaraLeave a comment

#83 Pizzeria Beddia

March 19th, 2016 and April 8th, 2017

Philadelphia, PA

Aside from Margot’s, Pizzeria Beddia is probably the most difficult pizza to get. This is because the pizzeria is open only from Wednesday to Saturday, from 5:30-close, and Joe Beddia only makes 40 pies per night. But we should start off by saying that this pizza is entirely worth any wait. There is a reason that we rank it at #2 (after Pepe’s of course, and only narrowly before Di Fara). It is also cash only.

The first time we went to Beddia, we went on a cold March Saturday. We had heard that there would be a line, and the website said that people start lining up before 4 pm. So, we decided to get there a little after 3 pm. We weren’t going to take any chances of missing getting a pizza.

We were obviously the first ones in line, but only for about half an hour, when the next couple joined us, and the line just kept growing until the doors opened just before 5:30. We had to take a couple of warm up/bathroom breaks to the closest McDonalds.

 

Here we are, first ones in line (and not dressed appropriately for the cold):

We were really glad that we got there when we did, though. The restaurant itself is tiny. There is only one gas oven in the back, and they make one pizza at a time. You don’t have many options – you can only get whole pies, and the main pie is tomato sauce, mozz, old gold aged cheese, and olive oil, and costs $21. You can get toppings for $3-5 dollars extra, but we just went with the straight plain pie. They also have a seasonal rotating pie,  one Arrabbiata pie, and one tomato pie, but we’d recommend just going for the classic here, at least to start.

    

You walk in, order your pie, and then they tell you when to come back and pick it up. You can order a max of two pies, and they pop one out every 15 minutes or so. Since we were first in line, we only had to wait about 15 minutes until the pizza came right out of the oven to our table. As we were eating it, though, we’d hear people placing orders that would be coming out of the oven around 9:30 pm and later. Lucky for those people, there are plenty of good bars and beer gardens around Fishtown that they could visit while they wait for their pizza to be ready. They keep a running tally until they get to 40 pies, and then you are out of luck.

We went back to Beddia for the second time this past Saturday. It was a bit warmer out than the last time we went, so the wait was much more enjoyable. We were first in line again, since we got there around 3:15pm. We also brought our friend Phil this time, so we felt justified ordering two pies. The line was even longer this time, and we felt so bad for the people who were next in line when they ran out of the 40 pies to order.

But OK, about the pizza. There is a reason that people line up for these pies, and as we told everyone in line who hadn’t been to Beddia before, it is absolutely worth the wait. The crust is thin but has a great char on it (I mean, look at those bubbles!). The sauce is perfectly seasoned and there is just enough of it on the pie. The cheese really steals the show, though. It must be that Old Gold aged cheese that adds the perfect complement to the mozzarella.

 

Pizzeria Beddia only opened in 2013, but Bon Appétit magazine has already called it the “Best Pizza in America”. We maybe wouldn’t go that far, but it easily places in our top 3.

Philly Mag recently scared everyone with a headline that said that the pizzeria is closing next year, when the 5 year lease is up. It doesn’t sound certain, and we hope it doesn’t happen!

 

 

We already have another date to head to Beddia this summer, and I think we’ll give one of the other pies a try. Let us know if you want to join us waiting in line 2 hours early!

To visit:

Pizzeria Beddia
115 E Girard Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19125

Barbara4 Comments

#66 Osteria

December 21, 2015

Philadelphia, PA

We found ourselves back in Philly for another holiday party  last year, so of course we decided to stop for pizza dinner beforehand. This time, we went to Osteria. Osteria is another restaurant founded by the Vetri family (also of Pizzeria Vetri), although it is a bit more upscale than Pizzeria Vetri, and is also much more spacious.

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We got two pizzas here, as usual. The first was the Parma: mozzarella, fontina, arugula, and prosciutto, which was probably one of our favorite flavor combinations to date. We also had a regular margherita. The restaurant is a little more expensive than some of the others – each Neapolitan pie ran about 20$ and more, and appetizers were about the same. The restaurant also has a good looking non-pizza selection, although we don’t know why anyone would come here and not get at least one pizza.

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The pizza crust was perfectly chewy and light, which meant that Eric was still hungry when we finished eating them. So, we had to try one of the desserts. Since I didn’t photograph it, I can’t remember exactly which dessert we ended up getting, but the menu rotates anyways. Knowing us, it was probably something chocolate. Also knowing us, Eric probably ate most of it.

Osteria would be a great place for a date night, or even a nice event if you wanted to rent out one of the rooms. We loved the atmosphere inside the restaurant, too (although not so much the poor lighting for pizza pics!).

 

To visit:

Osteria
640 N Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130

BarbaraLeave a comment

#31 Lorenzo and Sons

December 19th, 2015

Philadelphia, PA

South Street, Philadelphia always reminds me of high school. It was the cool place to go and walk around and get cheesesteaks on a weekend. Actually, I don’t think I ever had any food other than Jim’s cheesesteaks when I went to South Street. I’m really not sure why I never went to Lorenzo & Sons. I probably walked right by it and didn’t notice it because it is such a small shop.

img_20151219_185106606 I also probably wouldn’t have appreciated a good slice of pizza back then, especially a plain cheese slice. But now, having spent time in NYC, we realize what a really good cheese slice is. Lorenzo & Sons makes a really good cheese slice, even if it doesn’t quite live up to the best slices in NYC.

In fact, cheese slices are the only thing you can get here. The slices are HUGE though (just look at the pictures below). They were by far the biggest slices that we had the entire trip. Also, the slices were only $3.50! Toppings are $1, but only available on Tuesdays.

We went here on a Saturday night, before a Christmas party at a friend’s place. One slice was plenty to fill us up for dinner (although not enough to keep Eric from eating plenty of party goodies).

Lorenzo & Sons is also open until 4 am – which makes this your best pizza option if you are out late downtown. I think it is too good of a slice to just be considered a drunk slice, unlike some other pizza slices we know, but either way it is worth a stop.

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If you can’t decide between a slice here and a cheesesteak at Jim’s, well, I’ve found this for you. It is called the Philly Taco, and I have not personally tried it, but it seems like many others have.

To visit:

Lorenzo & Sons
305 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

BarbaraLeave a comment

#84 Pizza Brain

November 6, 2016

Philadelphia, PA

We were in Philadelphia this weekend, so we decided to spend our Sunday afternoon eating at the second new pizza place on the 2016 list in Philadelphia, Pizza Brain. When we first started announcing to our Philly friends that we were hitting the best pizza places in the country, Pizza Brain was always mentioned as one of their favorites, but it wasn’t on the 2015 list. 

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We finally got to bring my mom to lunch, which also meant that we didn’t feel bad ordering two different whole pies here. We opted for the traditional tomato pie (and by traditional, we mean no cheese, just sauce), and then one of the specialty pies, the Wendy Wedgeworth. This one hadarugula, honeyed goat cheese, mozzarella, and sun dried tomatoes. It was also lightly drizzled with some kind of balsamic. While we really liked the tomato pie for its simplicity, the specialty pie stole the show. Eric ate about four pieces.

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Pizza Brain is also the home of the largest collection of pizza memorabilia, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and it is the world’s first pizza museum.  The walls are covered with movie posters and album covers related to pizza, there are pizza-related action figures behind glass cases, and they also have a wide collection of pizza cutting tools. It was great to look around while waiting for our pies.

Also a plus: there is an ice cream store located right next to the seating area of the pizza places, called Little Baby’s Ice Cream.  We’d recommend that you save room for their flavors, because we didn’t (and now regret it).

To visit:

Pizza Brain
2313 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19125

BarbaraLeave a comment

#65 Santucci’s Original Square Pizza

October 15th, 2016

Philadelphia, PA

We were visiting Philadelphia for a housewarming party on Saturday, and so we stopped at Santucci’s Original Square Pizza for a late lunch. This place wasn’t on the 2015 list, but it made it on to the 2016 list at #65. It serves, obviously, square pizza, but in three different sizes. We tried the original, which has a layer of sauce on top of a layer of cheese, and a Veggie Works, both in the “personal” size.

img_20161015_140323666The original location of Santucci’s was on “O” street in Northeast Philadelphia, and was opened in 1959! That location has since been closed, but the children of the Santucci’s have opened a few newer pizza places at different locations. We went to the location in the Italian Market area of the city, which seems to be one of the popular spots.

The pizza stays true to the original pan style of the first Santucci’s, although we have had feedback (from Instagram) that it doesn’t taste exactly the same.

We aren’t complaining, though. We really liked this pizza. The crust wasn’t as thick as a NY Sicilian slice, so it wasn’t as heavy. We have come to really appreciate good sauce, and this pizza had it.

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We also loved the chopped veggies on the Veggie Works. Two pizzas was just enough for the two of us, and we had a nice walk through the market afterwards. Next time we will save some room for dessert, though, because they also have a great selection of cookies and baked goods on display when we walked in.

 

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To visit:

Santucci’s Original Square Pizza
901 S 10th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

BarbaraLeave a comment

#97 Tony’s Famous Tomato Pie

November 22, 2015

Philadelphia, PA

Last November, we headed down to Philadelphia to cheer on some friends who were running the marathon. We took up our normal cheering spot at mile 11, and after a few hours of cheering in the cold, we were certainly ready for some hot pizza.

We drove down the road a bit to Tony’s Famous Tomato Pie, and got there about an hour after it opened. We actually weren’t sure if it was open when we got there because it was in such a quiet area of town, and we were the only ones there.

Since we are both originally from PA, we love a good tomato pie, and we’ve had a bunch of different styles. This tomato pie was a bit untraditional because it was on a very thin crust, so Philadelphia tomato pie purists may not want to go out of their way for this one.

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Even though the crust was thinner than we were used to for a Philly tomato pie, it managed to stand up to the sauce. The cheese is underneath the sauce, so it isn’t quite like a New Haven tomato pie either, and there was no grated cheese on top. Apparently, this is called a “Trenton-style” tomato pie (but with more sauce). The sauce was good, but it could have used a little more kick to it to really make it shine. We’ve had better tomato pies in Philly, but this one certainly wasn’t bad.

It could have been the fact that we were cold and hungry, but we ate this pie so quickly. The location of the restaurant is a little out of the way for visitors who are staying downtown, but we’d go out of our way to stop here again, especially to warm up after marathon-cheering!

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Eric makes the best faces while eating pizza, doesn’t he?

To visit:

Tony’s Famous Tomato Pie
6300 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19135

BarbaraLeave a comment