If you're in the neighborhood, Tripoli's Bakery in Lawrence, MA and Piro's Bakery in Methuen, MA both offer bags of freshly frozen "Sicilian Bakery-Style Pizza" to take home. Two slices fit perfectly in your toaster oven.
While you're there, get some tasty pastries, too...like the North End only, er, further north.
Bertucci's has become a chain, devoid of its original calling and, as mentioned in the article, expanded way too fast for its own good. By now, the Flatbread Pizza Co. has taken what Bertucci's used to be known for and beaten them at their own game.
I never order pizza at Bertucci's, but they do make effective use of their brick ovens for other dishes, too. Their baked tortellini w/ chicken is friggin' superb.
All in all, a more-than-worthy alternative to the dreaded Olive Garden.
I must also comment on the "Sicilian Bakery-Style Pizza", as this is a completely different style than the norm. I'll use as my example the great "Tripoli's Bakery" in Lawrence, Mass. [Lawrence's nickname is "The Immigrant City", as many, many of its former and current inhabitants came here to work in the mills. This resulted in a highly diverse population, though the majority were Irish, then Italian/Sicilian. So there once were many, many pizza shops, including Greek and Lebanese varieties, and overall quality varied greatly]
Tripoli's is a full-service bakery, but also has a separate counter for pizza and meat pies only, and makes what I'm told is authentic Sicilian pizza: square, thin crust, lightly seasoned tomato sauce, very little cheese (mozzarella only), very crisp and made in very large sheets. Often, whole sheets are par-cooked in advance, then reheated, slice by slice, as ordered. Slices can also be ordered with pepperoni or a single thin slice of imported provolone. Importantly, the crust does not rise when cooked, so it stays crispy and is never oily or grease-laden.
This was nearly the only pizza we had growing up, partly because Tripoli's pizza could be bought frozen (uncooked) in bags, then conveniently baked in the toaster oven (or grilled), as two slices fit perfectly. [This is not your usual frozen pizza!]
The pizza is so distinctive, that the bakery also operates a pizza stand at Salisbury Beach, MA, which is constantly busy and open year-round (yes, even in the winter). The funny thing is that another beach stand, Christy's, serves suspiciously-similar pizza only two doors down from the Tripoli's stand, yet is also successful. Around there, the debate of "Christy's vs. Tripoli's" pizza is second perhaps only to the "chicken vs. egg". (They're both pretty darn good.)
I would love to hear if anyone knows any further details about the venerable Tripoli's/Christy's history or other details about Lawrence.
[And don't get me started on meat pie....]
Good call on the "NE-Greek Style" pizza, as this seems to be its own distinct regional style of pie. Growing up near Boston, I believe this is by far the most common type of independently-made pizza available (disregarding the popular Papa Gino's chain - but that's another story). Indeed, my wife (born and raised in Detroit) commented upon moving here that "every town has its own 'House of Pizza'". I imagine that this is due to the lack of Italian surnames among the owners; besides, each town can only have one 'HoP', right?
to be continued...
what the hell? where is dayton styled pizza? that is a glaring omission. it's ohio's own unique pizza style.
basically it's very, very thin round pizza, but cut into tiny squares. they use moz and the toppings go all the way to the edge. often to keep the pie from sticking the bottom it is salt crusted (rather than cornmeal or flour), which really gives it a great taste.
i think of it as extremely addictive party pizza.
the city of dayton, ohio has many individual outlets and chainlets. the biggest chainlets are cassanos:
http://www.cassanos.com/
and marions:
http://www.marionspizza.com/
a marion's pizza photo:
http://l.yimg.com/g/images/spaceball.gif
also, donato's of columbus, oh....recently bought and owned by freakin mcdonalds for awhile (!!!) is yet another version of dayton-style pizza:
http://www.donatos.com/
my gawd, you guys really blew it by mentioning nebulous ohio valley and leaving this truly and extremely unique and locally popular ohio style off your list. i am hoping maybe you were just confused and really meant dayton-style pizza?
From a native Chicagoan to all the people saying that Chicago style stuffed pizza does not have a layer of crust on the top: look again!
Giordano's and Edwardo's and everywhere else I've gotten stuffed pizza in Chicago has a VERY THIN top crust right on top of the cheese, but under the sauce. It's so thin, you probably don't notice it. It IS there. I can promise you that.
There's another style of pizza that's missing: French Crust Pizza. I've only ever had it at Breadaux in Millstadt, IL, and Pagliai's in Charleston, IL. It's pretty basic, but very good. The crust is thin, but fluffy.
I moved away from Pittsburgh the Bay Area (where there is plenty of good pizza) and i STILL crave Aiello's!!!! Pittsburgh pies do have a unique taste- its the sweeter sauce.
Ohio Valley pizza certainly deserves its own category- its pretty unique.
If you want true Ohio Valley Pizza, you have to go to the Firehouse in Ambridge, PA on Merchant street. Only open on the weekends, the business is run by firemen to support the firehouse (we're talking real social capital here). Its not my favorite (really dougy crust) but its certainly an experience.
Another experience would be Tony R's pizza in Sewickley on Nevin Ave. A tiny pizzaria run by Tony (who does all the deliveries himself) and his two sons.
When I read "Ohio Valley Pizza" above, I knew immediately what you were talking about but there is only one chain who prepares it in that way these days, DiCarlo's. About 20 years ago there were several copy cats but they have long since closed down.
Honestly I'm not sure that the Ohio Valley deserves it's own pizza style category, but if it's all we've got we'd better hold on to it I suppose.
I'm a New Yorker born and raised. I make pizzas at home in a variation of the "grandma" style. After reading about Old Forge-style pizza, I tried mixing in a little sharp cheddar with my mozz. Ya know what? It's really good! It adds a nice "tang."
It pays to be open-minded :)
I must also comment on the RI Pizza Strips - aka bakery pizza or party pizza. It was always served at birthday parties as a kid. It's simply pizza baked with sauce (no cheese - maybe a sprinkling of romano) and then sliced into rectangular pieces and served room temperature or cold. Heavenly. No one outside of RI has ever heard of this fantastic pizza. Such a shame. You'll find it in every Italian bakery in RI and in the grocery stores as well.
Caserta's, as someone mentioned, is another great pizza place in RI. We get ours well done. The pizza is a little on the thicker side (if you get a medium or large). The small tends to have a thinner crust. also not to be missed at Caserta's is the "wimpy skippy" (or spinach pie). Every single person that walks in to eat at Caserta's orders the wimpy skippy, in addition to their pizza. Twin's Pizza in Pawtucket is also great. Man, all this pizza talk makes me want to fly up to RI and eat!!!
The wonderful thing about growing up in New England/Northeast is that there are an abundance of pizza places and you really have the ability to get a variety of styles.
New York style pizza in NE ohio starts at Pisanellos in Alliance Ohio. One of the best I've had around the country. This place still has the woman who founded the pizza shop 53 years ago making pizzas every day.It's a thin crust and you can tell that the dough is made fresh every day. This 80 year old woman still hand tosses the dough, about 100 pies a day. She came to this country from Rome 58 yrs ago and has been making pizzas ever since.
Many people in Ohio have heard of Pisanellos in Bowling Green, but the one in Alliance was and is the original.. I stop and get one or two every time I'm in the area.
To the Houston poster, Chicago stuffed pizza does not have two crusts. It has one fairly thin pie shaped crust. It is not filled with sauce and toppings then topped with cheese, it is done like this: A thin layer of crust with plenty of fresh cheese and topping, almost two inches, then sauce on top. The sauce on top is to keep the cheese from drying out as the pie is so thick. This isn't a eat and go pizza, this is a sit down meal. Many can only eat one slice as it is so thick and filling.
This is the same if you have Lou Malnatis, Gino's East or Giordano's. I don't know how you claim to be a native Chicagoan and post that. I also don't know how a place called serious eats can print misinformation. I just had Giordanos three nights ago and eat at Malnatis, my favorite, at least monthly.
Oh Boy! Is K2kid right. That's New England pizza alright, but please don't take that as a recommendation. It is the slimiest, grossest pizza on the planet.
I live in Western Mass. and it's nearly impossible to find pizza which doesn't saturate the box and leave its toppings anywhere but on the dough. I have no idea why this is such a regional “specialty”, but it's beyond prevalent. I would only add that it's more common to find puddles of oil on the cheese topping than not. It tends to be really salty too. And the oregano laced tomato sauce is really good for heartburn.
Verdict: Avoid if possible.
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