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This is an awesome page. My comment though is related to the DC jumbo slice. I can confirm that this is the appropriate style for this region as I have spent much time over the years in DC. Their slices at many pizzerias are the size of two average slices. They make a killing off of selling them to the college students. If a 16 inch pie normally has 8 slices, a DC pizza has 4.

Blog Pizza

I just read comment above...(tomdobb)I didn't eat pizza when i came to Columbus but in Canton, Ohio u will get authentic Italian pizza made by the best owned italian family restaurants.

There's a mouthwatering style of white pizza which seems to be peculiar to McKees Rocks, PA, just outside Pittsburgh -- I know I've never seen it prepared this way anywhere else and I eat a lot of pie, dude. I believe it originated at Mama Lena's (now Mama Mia's) and has been cloned by former employees at another shop down the street called Doughboys (which is cheaper & maybe even better, IMHO). I've never seen one prepared from start to finish, but here's my best guess as to the general idea: a medium-thickness pizza crust is brushed with olive oil & perhaps garlic or other spices and partially baked, then removed to add a light layer of some kind of white shredded cheese (don't think it's mozz), then baked again until done. The hot pie is then topped with a room-temperature prepared mixture of diced tomatoes, minced garlic, finely chopped onion & basil and olive oil and sprinkled with more shredded cheese. The pie partially melts the additional cheese and warms the topping mixture up to the perfect temperature while preserving the flavor & freshness of the ingredients. On every other white pizza I've had the tomatoes & other ingredients are baked along with the crust which dries them out. This stuff is almost like a big round bruschetta. I'm no longer in the 'burgh, but I might have just talked myself into driving 3 hours each way to get one right now -- it's that good.

I have no idea what cloyd42 is talking about. Vince the Pizza Prince is neither long gone nor do they make Old Forge style pizza. Vince's signature pizza is round and covered with almost-burned cheese. They are still open in Scranton in the same location they've always been.

I wanted to chime in on the ongoing New England pizza discussion.

Papa Ginos is somewhat similar to the mom-and-pop stuff, but it's different in a few key ways: 'Ginos has a thinner crust than most local places, and it's less (!) greasy.

Thinking back to the local non-chain pizza of my northeast Connecticut youth, the distinguishing characteristics are a firm-but-not-crisp, doughy bottom, sometimes tending towards rubbery, and the use of cheap manufactured mozz, typically very oily. It tended to be the sort of pizza that, if you were eating a slice and folded it, you could pretty much squeeze several tablespoons of orange grease out of it. The crust tends to be crisp on the outside and soft inside, sometimes a little bready.

And the pizza places, almost always "[town name] Pizza" or [town name] House of Pizza", were uniformly owned by Greek families. (I never quite worked out why...but it was always faux-Italian food, pizza, and good Greek stuff on the menu.) I'm not sure if that's still as much the case now as it was 20 years ago, though.

Some places in New England seem to do the square-cut thing, which I think is truly blasphemous, while others pie cut. I've never been able to figure out a regional variation to this. It's just a weird individual preference of the restaurant owner, I think.

Why nobody in New England, at least north of New Haven, seems to be able to produce a decent NY-style thin-crust, I've no idea. Maybe it's the water.

My personal recommendation, if you wanted to "experience" a representative sample of New England-style pizza, would be to try Willington House of Pizza in Willington, CT. Although they have a menu that's more diverse than average, it covers pretty much everything I remember from all the local places I went as a kid.

One more vote for Buffalo style. I've yet to find anything like it in DC, Virginia, California or Washington state. I have some shipped to me every year from Imperial. Carbones on South Park was also a favorite.

i still have a soft spot for papa gino's, it's the only chain pizza i like. the only problem i've ever had with it is that they never used to peel the tomatoes so i would always end up with some in my teeth. not sure if that's changed since i haven't been there in a few years.

ALthough plain cheese is always appreciated, I make 2 special pizzas that my family enjoys. One is buffalo wing chicken with pepper jack cheese,and the other is smoked mozz with sweet sausage and roasted red peppers.

smoked, thin-sliced ham and green olives...yum
And I make my own pizza at home
Besides plain cheese, the above mentioned are great for a change of pace

Ohio Valley Style. This native NY-er and sister of a Bronx Pizza Guy went to school in Steubenville, OH for a couple of years and tried Iggy's (the photo in the Mine Road Blog) exactly ONCE. I couldn't get my taste buds around it. I ordered from Domino's from then on in. There was a good midwestern style place in the Steubenville Mall that I've forgotten the name of (this was the early 90's.) I'm open to regional pizza variations (unlike my aforementioned Pizza Time Bro), but this did not work for me.

The calzones I had in Steubenville on the other hand, were a revelation. They were very, very good. Sauce inside? Sauce outside? Yum.

The Maryland style pizza mentioned before is from chains like: Ledo's, Stained Glass Pub, Corner Pub, Gentleman Jim's, T.J. Elliots, and Pizza Oven. Characterized by rectangular sheet pans, and pizza with a very thin crumbly buttery bisquit style crust. Sweet sauce and cheese is usually provelone but not always.

Yeah the Upstate style!!! The best is Brandani's on W.Henrietta rd. on Rochester. Pontillos does a nice job for a chain. Columbini's in Chili makes a good one and they have a bakery,so you grab some canoli too.

Aha!

St. Louis Style all the way! Ok, my opinion maybe, but I love it! A close second for me is Chicago deep dish from Lou Malnatti's.... Heavenly!

St Louis Pizza Ratings