Pizza is America’s party food. It’s also our comfort food, TV-watching food, favorite food to have delivered and late-night study session food.
To celebrate pizza, The Daily Meal picked its 101 best pies in the United States.
“This ranking takes special care to highlight pizzerias from all parts of the country, as well as female- and Black-owned businesses,” The Daily Meal wrote. "While America does love its pizza chains, this list is focused on smaller establishments and local favorites that have found success branching out to a few locations. To find them, we used internal expertise, scoured Yelp and other review sites, looked at coverage by local journalists and gathered suggestions from readers.
“Although they’re each special in their own ways, the following pizzas have many of the qualities you’d expect in an above-standard pie: saucy, cheesy slices of heaven with a doughy-yet-crispy crust and a nice flop; along with a respectable amount of grease — just enough to get the job done. Some have basic-but-essential ingredients like pepperoni and house-made sausage, while others venture outside the box with creative-yet-functional toppings.”
According to the ranking, three Atlanta pizza joints are among the 101 best in the country.
Ranking No. 74 was O4W Pizza in Duluth.
“O4W Pizza is in Duluth, Georgia, but its roots are in The Garden State. A meal here guarantees traditional Jersey-style pizza made from fresh dough that is topped with house-made sauce, hand-pulled mozzarella, and sausage and meatballs derived from a time-honored family recipe. Grandma-style pies are the upper crust here, featuring fresh mozzarella, marinara, pecorino romano, extra virgin olive oil, fresh oregano and basil,” The Daily Meal wrote.
O4W Pizza is known for its minimalist masterpiece, the Grandma Pie (also a great dish to make at home).
At No. 55 was Triple Jay’s Pizza. Triple Jay’s finished second on the AJC’s best pizza poll as a write-in nominee, garnering 38.7% of the votes. Nearly two dozen people emailed to nominate Triple Jay’s, which has a food truck in addition to its location on Piedmont Avenue.
The Daily Meal wrote: “Triple Jay’s Pizza is a highly recommended food truck and mom-and-pop restaurant in Midtown Atlanta. The food truck has been parked pretty much all year, with sales down at least 95% due to COVID, but the brick and mortar is slinging pizzas left and right. ‘I actually started making pizza on the weekends with my sons as a way to just hang out and bond with them for years, never knowing that we would one day make it into a business,’ owner Jay Terrence told The Daily Meal. The most popular pie? Pepperoni, of course.”
No. 52 on The Daily Meal’s list was Plant Based Pizzeria.
“Plant Based Pizzeria is the first 100% plant-based pizzeria in Atlanta. When in Rome — or Georgia, that is — go for the Georgia Peach Pizza with roasted basil pizza sauce, vegan mozzarella cheese, spicy Beyond Sausage, roasted peaches, red onions and jalapenos,” The Daily Meal wrote.
Plant Based Pizzeria, which has gained a large following since opening in early 2019 in Virginia-Highland, will unveil a new location at 8540 Roswell Road this month.
About the Author
