The best place for pizza in the USA is the East Coast – primarily New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, in no particular order. Since pizza here is ubiquitous, but quality is not, finding the right pizzerias is crucial. As a guide and a reference, this article collates our notes and (only the positive) experiences gathered over a year of tasting NYC and NJ pizzas:
The Italian immigration to the US has left us with a myriad of pizza styles1. Despite the great pride that Italians show about their Neapolitan, Roman and Sicilian pizzas, they must acknowledge the high quality and the developments that have been made in the Americas by immigrants and their descendants.
Manhattan, New York
John’s of Bleecker Street
This place transpires history. With its unique look (a graffiti-covered wall), it reflects the diversity and creativity of its customers, who have left their mark on this restaurant over the years.
The pizza, il Sasso, is a masterpiece. It is only served as a whole pie on a slightly elevated tray, not as individual slices. The slice has no flop, with a medium crisp bottom, and lightly charred crust. The crust is medium crisp, with the charred spots giving off hints of the traces of that coal-fired oven.
The pizza here has a generous proportion of sauce and cheese. The tomato and cheese are alternated in layers on some sections. The sections heavy on sauce (about a 2mm layer) give the pizza a distinct taste. Specks of parmigiano sprinkled on those sections are reminscent of a pasta al pomodoro sprinkled with parmigiano.
Joe’s Pizza
Located on Carmine Street, Joe’s Pizza is a legendary spot that has been serving authentic New York-style slices since 1975. Unlike many other establishments in the US that rely on their history as their main selling point, Joe’s Pizza stands out for the quality of its pizza. Made with fresh ingredients and baked in a brick oven, each slice offers a perfect balance of crust, sauce and cheese. For only $4.75, this is arguably the best slice in Manhattan.
The dough presents a medium crisp at the bottom with medium spots of char, very similar to John’s of Bleeker Street, but with a thinner dough. No flop despite the generous amount of cheese. The crust is not too thin – also similar to that of John’s – and with some heavily charred and crunchy spots.
This pizza has less sauce than John’s. The cheese is primarily low moisture mozzarella and its flavour is dominant over the reduced and slightly sweet sauce. The whole pie is covered with a layer of oil from the mozzarella’s rendered fats, but the result is not overwhelmingly greasy.
Lazzara’s Pizza Café
Lazzara’s is located close to Penn Station and presents a well preserved tenement interior design (mainly its ceiling). Their pizza style is difficult to define. The best possible description I can think of is of a very thin Roman pizza, cooked in an American backing sheet with generous sweet American-style sauce and low moisture mozzarella.
The crisp brittle crust of this style is perhaps its biggest appeal, particularly in the corners, where the baking sheet transfers heat more effectively to this this dough. Some slight touches of char make it even more appetising. The bottom is fairly evenly cooked and to a medium level of caramelisation. It stays crisp for approximately 10 minutes .
The sauce is overwhelmingly sweet. It probably has sugar, molasses, tomato concentrate or a mixture of them. Since the sauce is poured so generously, the sweet flavour is dominant and overshadows the good aspects of this pizza. The beautiful caramelisation of the cheese and tomato sauce is visually very attractive.
Brooklyn, New York
F & F Pizzeria
NYC Pizza usually neglects long flavourful fermentations based on sourdough, lievito madre or similars. With sourdough becoming more fashonable worldwide, F & F is the place to go if you enjoy these more complex notes in bread. The regular pizza looks like a Neapolitan pizza with the crisp and crunch from NYC. Beautifully airy and fluffy crust with clear dairy flavours from fermentation and a good medium crisp. The base is very thin and the crisp lasts only for a fleeting moment before softening. Good reduced sauce and low moisture mozzarella. A great way to get a slice if you are not up for the queueing in Lucali.
The square pizza is a winner too, with a perfectly fermented bread. Airy, crunchy on the edges and not oily. With a generous amount of sauce and low moisture mozzarella, this square slice might be better than Prince Street Pizza.
Lucali
This is the best pizza in the city, if one is willing to assume certain sacrifices. Getting a table is painful (be there by 3:40pm to book one), bring cash and a nice wine, but accept that you might be drinking your Petrus from a 150ml water glass within a one hour time limit.
The ambiance is great and explains why this place has gathered such attention. Ever wished you could eat pizza in the Tenement Museum? This is your place. The patina in the walls and the original ceiling will transport you to another era. Furthermore, the intoxicating smell of garlic and wood smoke will linger in your brain hours after your visit, reminding you that you should go back soon.
And yes, the pizza is amazing. It lies in its own category when compared to the other NYC classics. There is a heavy use of ricotta, plenty of fresh basil leaves and a significantly large crust. In any case, for the criteria that should be considering when evaluating a NYC pizza seriously, Lucali excels.
The classic plain pie is a large one, served whole like in John’s, DeLorenzo’s and Papa’s. The bread is perfectly medium crisp on the bottom, with small patches of smoky char evenly distributed. All thanks to the wood-fired oven. The crust is at a high level of crispiness, flat and very thin. No blistering can be seen, and the flavour is of a sweet white flour lightly enriched bread. The tomato sauce in the pizza is present through its reduced umami and sweetness, but its main flavours are overshadowed by the triple cheese mixture of mozzarella, parmigiano and ricotta. Here Iacono does not cut down in quality. All of these high quality cheeses can be distinctly tasted, although the ricotta seems to dominate. Fresh bunches of basil over the pizza give a fresh and lively pepperiness now and then.
Apart from the pizza and a few extra toppings, the only other item available in Lucali is the calzone. Insanely thin and crisp, the deeply coloured and charred bread shatters to reveal the most decadent filling of high quality and creamy ricotta. A side of grated parmigiano and sauce are served on the side, to balance the dairy richness. Here one can really taste Iacono’s sauce: heavy on garlic, and slowly reduced to bring out the sweetness. Yet, the acidity is brighter here than in Papa’s.
Di Fara Pizza
After our review of Lucali, it would seem impossible that any other pizzeria would match its level. But there is one. Founded by a conscientious Campanian immigrant, Domenico De Marco in 1965, the one man band has now expanded into Manhattan, but the original location still serves the best version of these pizzas. Dom’s pizza, perfected over the years, is very different from the rest in these article. It is probably the most Roman-influenced pizza that we have tried within the NYC-style bounds. Let’s break it up into parts.
The sauce is the best we have had in any pizza in the USA until now. It’s very close to a Napolitan style of pizza verace, i.e. fresh and not sweetened, cooked or reduced. The differences come from the generous use of black pepper, a touch of oregano and the texture – small chunks of tomatoes are discernible. Insider sources point that it is made with Italian tomatoes, with a blend of passata and whole tomatoes.
The bread is delightful. Medium crispy and thin like a pizza romana, it has a perfect medium char. The crust is as good as Papa’s, with the same crunch and blistered surface. The cheeses are a blend of low moisture mozzarella and mozzarella di bufala that balance the sauce perfectly. A sprinkle of Grana Padano to finish of the pizza brings a nice sharpness and complexity that makes every bite different and exciting.
The signature touch comes from the use of high quality olive oil, bringing bright floral notes that work beautiful with the scissor-cuttings of fresh basil.
Hold on. This is not the only type of pizza Dom created. His square pizza is a unique take on Sicilian style pizza that could be described as a style of its own. And yes, it’s as good as the regular NYC pizza.
The sauce, cheese and toppings are the same, but the ratio shifts the focus towards the fabulous sauce. What makes the square pizza extraordinary is the bread. Cooked in a generously oiled baking pan, the focaccia is not fluffy but slightly dense, with an incredibly crunchy base of 3mm thick that texturally resembles a cracker. That crunch, with the char and high caramelisation of the base and edges pairs with the tangy and naturally sweet sauce in the most fascinating way.
New Jersey
Papa’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville Township, NJ
An easy drive from Princeton or Trenton, Papa’s is located in a tidy and relatively modern mall. It has a dated interior gives it a unique vibe. In fact, it’s the oldest existing establishment selling tomato pies, a descendant of pizza al pomodoro or pizza alla marinara.
It is delicious when warm. The slices keep a perfect medium crisp bottom that prevent them from flopping when held. Colouration of the bread is very even, with a deep caramelised colour that does not present any charring. The crust is medium crisp and presents blisters, evidence of a good fermentation. Eating this perfectly crunchy piece of bread is highly addictive. The cheese here doesn’t dominate and the quantity is lower that in other pizzas, but it is enough to provide a tang (thanks to the addition of Pecorino to the mozzarella mix) that gives balance to the rich and slowly simmered tomato sauce. The tomato sauce has a very pure and concentrated flavour of tomatoes. It is the star of the show alongside the bread.
DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville Township, NJ
Only a 3min drive from Papa’s Tomato Pies, it is located in Robbinsville’s city centre. DeLorenzo’s is a very popular spot, with a more modern vibe than any restaurant reviewed above. It took about 20 minutes to get our pizza.
This pizza has a high level of crispiness thanks to a lower hydration dough and a conscientious baking to bien cuit. Thus, the colour is deeply caramelised as Papa’s, but it also acquires a significant amount of charring, particularly in the crust. Similar to Papa’s, the crust also presents blisters, but it is thinner and crunchier. The base has a unique crisp to it, with a certain dryness that is unusual to find. Perhaps due to a more generous addition of flour on the bottom of the dough. This allows it to stay crispy even thirty minutes after serving. DeLorenzo’s allows customers to bake their pizza light or well done. For those who like Sally’s Apizza char, we recommend to have it well done.
Here, it is easier to understand why these are called tomato pies. The tomato dominates, and the quantity of cheese (here only low moisture mozzarella) is smaller, smaller than Papa’s. The tomato sauce has not been reduced, giving a more defined acidity that makes the overall taste distinctive. This acidity plays well with the higher degree of char that this pizza has.
Brooklyn Square Pizza, Manalapan Township, NJ
It requires a bit of a drive, but worth it if you like Sicilian style pizza. In this ocassion, I had the Upside Down square pizza. Cheese lies on the bread, the tomato sauce goes on top.
The dough is light and fluffy, crisping up to a perfect medium crunch at the edges. The bottom is medium crisp too, but there is not a bit of grease to be found as you would in a focaccia.
The cheese protects the bread from becoming soggy and gives a flavour similar to ricotta. The sauce is clearly a reduction of plum tomatoes with oregano sprinkled on top. The quantity of sauce added is just right and not dominant allowing the bread, cheese and tomato reach a balanced harmony.
DeLucia’s Brick Oven Pizza, Raritan, NJ
DeLucia’s pizza has recently become mainstream after pizza guru Portnoy2 passed by at the beginning of the year. We must admit that the public recognition was certainly deserved. The pizza here employs certain tricks that we had not seen anywhere else.
And the secret is in the bread. The base and the crust are simply phenomenal. Despite the inconsistency on the level of caramelisation we found in the three pies we have tasted, the base is very crisp, playing at its best when the colour reaches a golden dark brown and a moderate amount of char. In contrast with many pizzas at this standard of quality, the bread flavours are clearly distinguishable, showing the sweet taste of finely milled white flour.
The real secret of this bread lies in the crust, which is pinched like a pie to a very thin width, but relatively tall height. When baked, the tension created by this crust makes the base buckle into a concave shape after having caramelised on the hot bricks. The concave base helps the pizza remain crisp for remarkable periods of time. Thanks to the air gap created by this concave shape, the steam that normally condenses on the cooler tray or plate does not soften the bottom of the pizza. Moreover, pinching the crust results in a very crunchy and more easily charred cornicione.
The sauce and cheese are abundant, more generous than other more elegant pizzas at this level. In any case, the ratio between them is good. Here, the cheese is the other signature element. Low moisture mozzarella that is deeply caramelised in the brick oven until it almost fuses into the sauce. The sauce is reduced and slightly sweet, but otherwise ordinary.
Bonus: New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven’s rendition of pizza, apizza, has a very thin crust that is baked until charred. Coal ovens are common, giving the char a distinct flavour. A classic apizza will leave the eater with their fingers covers in a fine dust of soot.
Sally’s Apizza
Sally’s and Frank Pepe’s are undeniably the reference in this style. Our favourite is Sally’s. Even Frank Sinatra agrees with us3. As one walks in, the same history that can be felt in John’s of Bleecker Street vibrates in the air. The wood panels, the quirky pizza light fixtures and the large metal trays only reinforce this vibe.
If we had to choose an apizza, it would certainly be the tomato pie, another interpretation of the pizza alla marinara imported from Campania. It just pairs incredibly well with the local fondness for coal char and, at Sally’s, the pie is exceptional.
The sauce could not be simpler: ripe tomatoes with their skins crushed to a chunky consistency (but smoother than Di Fara’s) and salt. It is then laddled generouly on the dough, sprinkled with parmigiano and drizzled with olive oil. In the oven, the sauce reduces slightly accentuating the sweetness, but not losing all the tangy acidity. On the other hand, the parmigiano, caramelises producing small pockets of nuttiness and occasionally a thin crisp crust. Despite the quality of the ingredients not being as high as at Di Fara’s, the result is outstanding.
The other element that really shines is the dough. First, the base and crust are bread-like, with a well formed alveolar structure. As a result, the base is light and airy giving the slices a touch of finesse. Second, the flavour of the dough is one of the best among the pizzas reviewed in this post. It is clear that the dough has clearly been fermented for a long period of time to develop these pronounced and complex flavours. Moreover, Sally’s bakes in a coal fuelled brick oven until well done. Its bottom surface is medium crisp with a moderate colouration and well distributed spots of char. That char has a distinct flavour of coal fire that we could not detect in other coal oven pizzas as John’s or DeLucia’s. Those smoky aromas play a crucial role in their signature thin crust (similar to Di Fara’s; thinner than John’s, but still airy), which is heavily charred until a medium crisp. As one’s bites approach the crust, the sweet and tangy notes of the tomatoes and faint charcoal bitterness create a complex and harmonious experience.
Glossary:
- Flop: Structural integrity of the pizza slice when held buckled from its crust.
- Reduced sauce: tomato sauce simmered and concentrated
- Level of char: light, medium, high
- Level of crispiness: low, medium, high
