Pittsburgh is the Confluence of Pizza Enthusiasm
Pittsburgh is full of pizza enthusiasts and influencers, plus a revisit of Black Cat Pizza and Driftwood Oven sounds the siren of Summer.
I’ve been beating the pizza drum for years - but when it comes to a city that loves and celebrates pizza you can look no further than Pittsburgh. If you’re reading this you’re probably in this fair city! And pizza, we got pizza as far as the eye can see. Tastebuds vibrate with excitement on every corner as the familiar smell of provolone and mozzarella wafts out of the local shop and into your mouth.
Smell Tip: If you really want a good pizza smell I’d recommend walking in the alleyway behind a pizza shop. For some reason shops are foolishly pumping excess smell into the streets for alleyway surfers. Run those PVC pipes and ventilate out front! Come on!
Pizza is a city whose identity is food-first. A city that worships electronic ketchup bottles that signal a team’s impending score / choke. A place where French fries crawl onto every entree as if mandated by law to better control the potato population. Where we have 71 pizza restaurants for every 100,000 Pittsburghers. Food, especially pizza, is core to our region.
And more than anything in Pittsburgh, Pittsburghers love to love things. Especially if that thing is about Pittsburgh. There’s nothing we enjoy more than meeting up with each other to talk about the latest list Pittsburgh popped up on, or how the polio vaccine was developed here.
In the most recent list of the month, a company put out a list of the Top Pizza Influencers. It’s no surprise that Pittsburgh has two pizza influencers in the top 10 nationally and another influencer at 41.
FeedSpot, a company you pay to get in touch with influencers, created the list. In their endless pursuit of creating “content” they put together this list hoping it generates business for them. I’ll link to the Pizza Magazine Quarterly article which has a nice writeup on the top entrants.
From Pittsburgh both PittsburghPizza and EddiesPizza412 made the top 10 and PizzaOfPgh ranked 41.
I’ve met Laine behind Pittsburgh Pizza a few times, and her enthusiasm for pizza knows no bounds. We actually are alumni from the same high school, so there must be something about the pizza north of the city that inspires. Laine had this to say about the accolade,“It’s wild and NEVER thought it would! the craziest and best thing has been meeting so many people and realizing how many people truly love pizza”
Ed, who has been on an upward pizza trajectory since winning best pizza in the North East in 2022, had a lot to say about this acknowledgment. Pizza is way more than yeast, flour, water, salt, oil to Ed. It’s a way of life, something he wouldn’t be able to pursues without his wife, daughter, friends and family.
If you follow Ed you know he tells a tremendous story around every pizza. It’s not just a pizza with pepperonis shaped like roses on top. It’s a pizza for the great women in his life.
“I really never had any intentions of being called an influencer when I started out this pizza journey,” Ed said. “My original plan was to visit pizzerias and eat pizza and post about them and just get to know the owners and how they make pizzas. I’ve always been fascinated by how people make pizzas and can watch the pizzamakers for hours.”
Ed has a remarkable journey where is curiosity turned into award-winning pizza. But he’s the first to acknowledge that he’s not on this journey alone. You can’t be an influencer without a community.
“I have learned so much from so many people including the Mercurios (Michael Anna Joey) and grateful for Pete Tolman and Sarah Boyer to allow me to use their oven to test bake leading up to pizza expo competitions. I feel like if I can do it at home, I want to inspire others that they can do it too.”
“Just keep making pizzas and practicing and be yourself and do what you love”
Black Cat Pizza Prowls to My Doorstep
Speaking of being yourself and doing what you love: Black Cat Pizza. You’ve had?
You can order their pizza through their Instagram account, you have to be fast as they sell out quickly.
I was lucky enough to be online when the form was live two weeks ago, so this past Monday I had Black Cat Pizza dropped off on my doorstep. I also got to chat with Nick, the guy behind the pizza.
Nick works out of a commissary while he’s not at his day job. He’s simply making roman style pizza and bringing it to a community that appreciates a well-made pizza product.
He’s doing more and more pop-ups, and thanks to the sturdiness of this pizza, it’s almost a turnkey operation. Heat the pizza up in an Ooni, boom, fresh hot delicious pizza ripe for consumption.
The pizza itself is crushable. The perfect summer companion. You can go the standard margherita route, enjoy huge basil leaves, nice globs of mozzarella sliced fresh from the moon and tangy sauce. I’m here for the dough. It’s so soft, responsive. A delight of flavor.
I paired my margherita with a margarita.
Nick has a number of non-traditional pizza too. We got one topped with romesco and zucchini. The romesco sauce does the heavy lifting here, providing a delicious peppery flavor that combines with the crust expertly. I’m not a huge zucchini guy, but I’m sorry to say it was an innocent bystander as I T-Rex’d slice after slice of this pizza.
Peach and Corn Summer Time Extravaganza Pizza Back at Driftwood Oven
Is there anything better than eating a juicy peach over the kitchen sink? Juices pouring down your face, flavors creeping into your tastebuds triggering memories of summers long gone by…what if…that peach…was…a pizza?
Well it’s officially Summer because Driftwood Oven has their peach and corn pizza back on the menu. You do NOT want to miss this opportunity. It’s a delight from start to finish.
Ed Sheeran Visited Caliente Pizza in Crafton to Promote his Hot Sauce Brand Ahead of Performance at Acrisure Field
Pretty neat for mega popstar to take the time to make some pizzas and meet fans. It’s all documented here, starring Nick of Caliente.
Very intriguing pizza developments happening. So many cool shops blazing a trail in the city. Makes me shed a pizza tear I’m so dang proud of the pizza community.
Pizza ya later!
Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist