Pizzeria Beddia Pizza Review
Is the best pizza in the country hidden in a nondescript brick building in Fishtown? Is tomato pie the perfect form of pizza? So many questions and so many answers!
Hi Pizza friends!
Can you believe the “greatest pizza in America” can be found in Philadelphia? According to Bon Appétite magazine anyways. A few years ago they visited Pizzeria Beddia in Fishtown and walked away permanently changed. At the time of them crowning Beddia with the accolade, the pizza operation was run out of a nondescript brick cube. Customers lined up outside the shop, often 90 minutes in advance, for a chance to get one of forty pies they made that day. I’m going to talk about my Pizzeria Beddia experience today, even though it’s not a Pittsburgh place.
Any time you have to wait in line for food your appreciation for it grows. After all, if you waited in line for an hour to eat something and it was bad wouldn’t you feel like a colossal fool? Of course you would! But if it’s the best version of that food, well now you look like a diehard connoisseur of the craft. Someone that can bite into a pizza crust and decode exactly how long the dough fermented for.
Since the Bon Appétit article, Pizzeria Beddia has grown out of its brick shell and into a more appropriate sized building. It’s still non-descript, but the inside has a bar to sit at, a spot to watch the pizzaiolos make pizza, and large tables for you and your friends to have the greatest pizza party of their lives.
In November of 2021 my wife and I traveled to Philly to run the marathon. I had recently bombed out of the Chicago Marathon and figured I’d make one last go at the distance so I wouldn’t squander my marathon fitness. As I booked our AirBNB in the back of my head I was strategizing how to fit a Pizzeria Beddia trip into our itinerary. Luckily, gone are the days of waiting an hour in line to nab one of these pizzas. They have evolved their business to accept reservations - how novel! Now the most unattainable, exotic pizza is easily captured by the hunter who can figure out how to use Resy.
The day before the marathon, seven of us ventured over to Fishtown to see what the Beddia hype was about.
Popping Into Pizzeria Beddia
Pizzeria Beddia does not mess around with its menu. The menu is 80% pizza with few sides. If you love pizza this is the place for you. Even on their list of starters they have a tomato pie listed. A pizza as an appetizer for your pizza?? Yo dawg, I heard you liked pizza so…
We started with a couple slices of tomato pie for the table and these were a crowd pleaser. The dough was thick, like a nice Sicilian, and it had the perfect crispy shell on the outside protecting the pillowy center. Like biting into a deep-fried pillow. On top of the the dough was a veneer of tomato sauce. The sauce was rich and dense with flavor. It was so red it looked holy, like there was something sacred about this sanguine topping.
Biting into the tomato pie is a treat unto itself. The sauce is incredibly flavorful. I don’t know what’s in it, I’m guessing some garlic and anchovy’s, but there’s nothing else like it. It’s packed with flavor and I would gladly spoon the sauce into my mouth as both an appetizer and dessert for this meal. It’s worth the trip and might have been my favorite dish of the evening.
With seven of us at the table we ended up ordering four pizzas.
Plain Pizza - The most perfect pizza in existence is a plain pizza. Every aspect of a pizzeria is calibrated from their version of the plain pizza. Everything from the quantity of sauce and cheese to the cook time. A pizzeria is built on the success of its plain. And Beddia does an amazing plain. The slices bend with the ideal flexibility, the cheese isn’t overbearing the the grease isn’t out of control. It’s a whole pizza that is as flavorful as it beautiful - and it’s very beautiful. Their plain pizza is picturesque which demonstrates their mastery of the craft and fundamentals of pizza making.
Anchovy, Garlic, Parmesan Pizza - Now things are getting weird. This pizza is a vampires nightmare. Garlic is distributed without a care on this pizza, like someone throwing handful of bird seed out to a dozen pigeons. It’s all over the place, yet not overpowering. Balancing the garlic is a powdering of parmesan. Each slice even has its very own anchovy. Without a prominent cheese present, the slices are clean, extra crispy and provide more of that amazing tomato pie flavor.
Jalapeño and Basil - I unfortunately did not take part in this pizza. I had the marathon the next morning and didn’t want to ingest too much spice and upset my stomach. Did you know that 90% of marathon prep is just eating bland, non-offensive food the weekend of the race? I took a few chances at Beddia, but jalapeños was a bridge too far. My friends said it was spicy but good.
Plain Pizza with Pepperoni - Another classic to end the evening. I’m not actually a big pepperoni fan. Adding pepperoni on a Beddia pizza transforms the pizza into something more reminiscent of a slice you’d find on a New Jersey boardwalk: Cheesy, greasy and falling apart. It really threw the balance off of the pizza, but if you like a sloppier pizza this is the way to go.
Pizzeria Beddia is a phenmonal pizza place. There’s not much to complain about and the vibe of their restaurant is unmatched. It’s a really chill place to bring friends, eat pizza and make memories. That’s the perfect pizza situation and Pizzeria Beddia nails that facet wonderfully. The pizza is the perfect version of what pizza can and should be. There’s enough variety to satisfy any type of pizza fan and I reckon I’ll be strategizing how to fit a Pizzeria Beddia visit next time I’m within the vicinity.
This Pizza Powered Me to a New Marathon PR
I’m proud to say the pizza powered me to a 2:43:00 marathon the following day. That’s a good an endorsement as you can give.
