The 40 Best Pizzerias in America

Mark Iacono is a New York City pizza legend, whose Carroll Gardens pizzeria is known for long lines and destination pizza dining. The thin pies with wide, flat, almost pita-like crusts are the reason to visit, but Iacono’s calzones are also routinely mentioned as being among the best in the city.

Fellow rock climbers Rod Hancock and Matt Jones had little restaurant experience when they started serving draft beer and stone-baked pizzas in the mid-1990s, but their pies have drawn lines ever since then. The menu features some 35 variations, but the Avalanche is the best known. It’s loaded with pepperoni, blackened chicken, bacon, red onion, cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, and barbecue sauce.

Jonathan Darsky has his own magic touch, but it can’t hurt that he was once pizzaiolo of the San Francisco’s acclaimed Flour + Water. After leaving there, he became known for his $180,000 customized Freightliner pizza food truck. The truck still plies the streets of San Francisco, but Del Popolo is now a Nob Hill brick-and-mortar destination, too, serving eight pizzas with ingredients like housemade sausage, prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, and salami piccante.

Offered since 1971, the Lou Malnati’s deep-dish experience comes in four sizes: six-inch individual (for one), 9-inch small (two people), 12-inch medium (three), and 14-inch large (four). Whatever size you order, the right choice is the Malnati Chicago Classic, made with Lou’s lean sausage, extra mozzarella, and tomato sauce on a butter crust.

Modern — established in 1934 as State Street Pizza — is the New Haven thin-crust, coal-fired, brick oven pizzeria locals frequently describe as the place they go instead of Sally’s (No. 13) or Frank Pepe (No. 8). The ingredient-heavy Italian Bomb is the pie the pizzeria’s T-shirts advertise, and the one to order. It’s topped with sausage, bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms, garlic, peppers, and onion.