The 40 Best Pizzerias in America

Ken Forkish, a tech careerist turned baker, has been crushing the Portland pizza scene since starting Monday pizza nights at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in 2006. His thin-crust pies, baked in about two minutes — and inspired by his visits to Europe — are known for their tangy sauce and for being more artisanal than they are Neapolitan.

Pequod’s late founder, Burt Katz, is legendary in Chicago’s deep-dish lore, and his tradition lives on with Pequod’s blackened caramelized crust, a chewy, nearly burnt cheese edge rimming a cheesy pool of sauce.

You wouldn’t mistake this Atlanta suburb for New Jersey or Long Island, but Anthony Spina’s “Jersey-style” pizzas (made with hand-pulled mozzarella) and his accolade-showered New York grandma pie (a basic square pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella baked in a pan), made in cast iron, are better than many you’d find in their states of origin.

In 2012, this establishment took over the premises of the city’s storied Ray’s, which closed in 2011. It quickly became famous for its “SoHo Squares” cooked in a new gas-fired, brick-lined Marsal & Sons oven. You can’t leave without trying the Spicy Spring, topped with tangy-sweet fra diavolo sauce, fresh mozzarella, and a pile of crispy, spicy oil-filled pools of spicy pepperoni.

New York City is known for its thin crust pizza, but within the borough of Staten Island, the pies are even thinner. Rubirosa, a representative of that pie culture in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood, has made converts to the borough’s signature style. The Classic (tomato and fresh mozzarella, from “our 60 year old New York style family recipe”) and the Vodka are the baselines, but you can’t say you’ve been there without trying the Tie-Dye (vodka, tomato, pesto, and fresh mozzarella).