City Paper Readers Vote for the Same Three Pizza Shops for the Fifth Year in a Row
Also, I did a little pizza crawl in the neighborhood that was a confluence of a few magical events.
This city will not rest until every pizza shop is ranked over and over again. There is a possibility that we are all in a pizza simulation and we will not be free until the assortment of pizzas in this city are properly ranked. Every day there’s a new best pizza. There’s a new score. Someone has cracked the code and discovered the hottest, best new pizza that must be consumed now. Everyone is fighting to be the promised one that delivers us pizza perfection. The harbinger of pizza justice.
Am I part of the problem? Hey, come on no one said it was a problem. Maybe it’s a good thing. Constructive criticism is hard to get these days, but can positively change someone’s trajectory. Someone on Reddit told me my newsletters are full of typos and guess what? I now read through the write up at least one more time before sending it out. That’s continuous improvement at its finest.
The new pizza rankings this week are from the City Paper. This is the result of public voting in their 2024 Best of Pittsburgh awards. There’s hundreds of categories and today we’re focused on the pizza category.
You wouldn’t believe who was number one. That’s right, the pizza juggernaut that has been fixing people up since 1979: Fiori's Pizzaria.
Second place was Mineo’s and third was Iron Born.
Does this sound familiar to you? It might, because that’s been the exact same outcome for “Best Pittsburgh Pizza” since 2019. You can read about my thoughts on this from two years ago.
When this happened last year I reached out to Fiori’s for a comment. I got to talk to a manager, Jamie. I asked Jamie if winning the City Paper award gets everyone excited. Does it register? They’ve won it five years in a row, and prior to that they placed second. Even Champions get tired of winning after a while.
Jamies paused to think, then said, “So I think that we had a plaque up at one time saying we got the best pizza from the City Paper.” He switched gears saying, “Most of those guys that have been here they know we have a really great product. When you call up and there’s a two hour wait, and I’m not personally waiting two hours for a pizza, but people that call in and wait for two hours, that’s crazy to me, but people wait. It’s pretty cool that people are recognizing us like that, but we know what we have. The product speaks for itself.”
The same exact ranking for five years. Is that really possible? If we had a more sophisticated polling model maybe we could understand what’s influencing this and what the odds are of this happening. Year after year the City Paper readers vote and vote the same three pizza shops rank in the same order. This is despite new, amazing, pizza shops bursting onto the scene and making headlines. Fiori’s, Mineo’s, and Iron Born. The holy trinity of pizza according to City Paper voters. May our city seek comfort in their dough and sauce in times trying and celebratory.
Going on a Pizza Jaunt
Two weeks ago the ‘77 Club was popping up at a vintage store as part of a fun new launch of the store on Main St in Bloomfield. It was also first Fridays on Penn Ave. The clouds were swirling, forming the perfect storm of excitement and adventure.
Many of our Fridays consist of a bop down Penn Ave to Two Frays for a few drinks and a Spak Brothers order consisting of:
Large plain pizza, light cheese.
Order of French fries.
Half of a hoagie (buffalo chicken or Italian).
Two sides of ranch.
This feeds a typical family of three no problem. I’m at the tail end of marathon training so I’m always on the prowl to boost my store of carbohydrates. This means snagging the occasional slice or snack to augment the dinner. I knew if I played my cards right I’d be feasting.
We got a late start that Friday, but we headed down Main St to find the ‘77 Club at the back of an alleyway in a small patio. Brittani and Dustin were dutifully operating the ovens, taking orders and making small talk and people piled into the 10ft x 10ft patio. Coolers lined one side while two tables of records lined another. Chaos and fun packed into a condensed environment.
I placed an order for one of their famous panuozzo and browsed the vintage wares. Eight minutes later the panuozzo came out and the family dismantled it like cartoon piranhas dismantle prey in a cartoon river.
This is the perfect pre-adventure appetizer. The crust is so light, toppings are filling but not overwhelming. It’s portable, tiny, quick and everything you want in a pre-dinner meal. I should replace all snacking with a panuozzo.
I chatted with Dustin of the ‘77 Club a bit who is getting into running. Imagine running a race around 7 kilometers then eating one of these at the finish line. Wouldn’t that be fun? I’d even be willing to eat one of these during a race they go down so easy and warm the stomach.
The family was getting restless. Charlie was craving Spak like she does most Fridays. Fine by us, but of course this being first Fridays the wait on Spak is close to an hour. The order is in so we take the long walk to Two Frays.
Luckily the Spak gods smiled upon us and we get the text that our order is ready a bit ahead of schedule. We grab the order and find an open table at Two Frays. Immediately the table is a war zone of food. Fries flying everywhere, pizza getting dipped into ranch, Charlie is trying to keep all the ranch to herself. Chaos.
A .75 mile distance, we were so privileged to indulge in two pizzas operating at a high level. A rare occurrence, sure, but when you have the opportunity to travel the pizza seas you’d be a fool to stop the wind from blowing your sails towards doughy, cheese decadence.
What a pizza week!
Hope you enjoyed this, always intrigued by the best of discourse.
Pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist