Pizza Today - October 2023 - 3

Commentary with Jeremy White
Pizza Towns
W
hat makes a pizza town
a pizza town? Is it
sheer volume - having
an overwhelming
number of pizzerias
per capita? Is it quality - being
home to a large number of pie
places that are held in high regard
by the collective critic? Is it variety
- an availability of an abundance
of diff erent styles?
To most Americans, when you
hear " pizza town " New York and
Chicago are the fi rst to come to
mind. New Haven jumps out.
Dive a little deeper and Portland,
Oregon surfaces.
In my travels with Pizza Today,
I've discovered several cities that
can grandstand on their pizza
off erings. Seattle, New Orleans,
Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Miami, Boston ... I'll leave a town
out and hurt feelings if I don't
stop now. Suffi ce to say, there's
no shortage of great pizza in the
Nifty Fifty United States.
But how do we defi ne a quintessential
pizza town? In a column he
penned for us just a few months
ago, our Man on the Street,
Scott Wiener, answered that very
question. He began his piece by
saying up front that New Haven,
Connecticut is NOT a great pizza
town.
Th at sure raised some eyebrows!
New Haven and its famed
Wooster Street is home to some
of the country's most revered and
iconic pizzerias in Frank Pepe's
and Sally's. Just up the street
is Modern Apizza - we obviously
think highly of Modern. We
named them the 2023 Pizzeria of
the Year.
But Scott just came right out
and said New Haven wasn't a
great pizza town. Before the
blood pressure rises, know that
he immediately said New Haven
has historically revered and great
pizza, but that to him a great pizza
town must have more than just
one great indigenous style.
His point had merit. I've given
it a lot of consideration since Scott
made that assertion. I've asked
myself from 20 diff erent angles
whether I agree. I've done the
whole point and counter point
inside my mind until my brain felt
off kilter. And, fi nally, I came up
with the wholly satisfying answer
that my opinion on the matter is
no better than anyone else's just
because I eat a lot of pizza and
write about the business of selling
pizza.
Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder.
So, if YOU say Bismark, North
Dakota is a great pizza town -
then I suppose it is.
As for me, I've decided that
while there is great pizza in lots
of cities, I do subscribe to Scott's
philosophy that it takes a plethora
of well-done styles all in one place
to constitute the title of truly great
Pizza Town. And by that metric,
there are not a lot of them. As
Scott says, there is a diff erence
between a city with great pizza
and a great pizza city.
Is YOUR town a great pizza
town? If so, I want to hear why
you think so. E-mail me and plead
your case!
Jeremy White
Editor In Chief
jwhite@pizzatoday.com
Pizza Today® (ISSN 0743-3115) is published monthly. Domestic U.S. subscriptions are $29.95
VOLUME 41 * NUMBER 10
OCTOBER 2023
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OCTOBER 2023 / PIZZATODAY.COM / 3
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Pizza Today - October 2023

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