Like many dishes in America, pizza didn’t originate here but it’s universally loved. When you’re wondering about where to stop for dinner — whether dining al fresco or picking it up to-go — you can enjoy pizza any day or any time.
Recently, Insider scoured Yelp reviews and asked locals for their opinion on the places that are considered the best pizza joints in each state.
This list focused on local spots, so pizza chains such as Dominos and Pizza Hut were excluded from the list.
In Georgia, Antico Pizza Napoletana outshined other local favorites.
“Antico Pizza Napoletana is about as close as you can get to authentic Italian pizza in Georgia,” Insider said. “The tomatoes, mozzarella, and olive oil are all flown in from Italy. Even the restaurant’s wood-fired ovens are shipped in from Naples!”
Antico has three locations: Georgia Tech/Westside in Atlanta, The Battery in Cobb County and Avalon in Alpharetta.
Despite the pies being crafted inside a nondescript building on the Westside of Atlanta, Giovanni Di Palma’s pizza shop holds the “secrets to the perfect pie,” according to the website. After opening in September 2009, it only took weeks for a mix or residents, visitors and celebrities to form a line that wrapped around the block.
“Antico is now a name synonymous with pizza greatness,” the website said.
It seems that’s the case according to a 2012 AJC review.
“When that dough hits the more than 900-degree heat from one of three Italian Acunto wood-burning ovens in Di Palma’s kitchen, a miracle happens. Crusts form and sear, charring just a little on the surface. The dough swells toward the edges, and at around 140 degrees settles there to form a soft pillow. Mushrooms swell with moisture before giving way to scorching heat. The fat in spicy sopressata melts almost immediately, eventually curling the edges of the salami to blistered perfection.
“All of which is to say that within about 60 to 120 seconds, you’ll have before you, one of the best pizzas you will ever eat,” Meridith Ford Goldman wrote at the time.
AJC readers enjoy the pies, too. In 2019′s the Best of Atlanta poll, Antico garnered enough votes to win the top spot for Atlanta’s best pie. Last year, it fell two spots to No. 3, however.
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