7 In New Jersey Are Among 101 Best Pizzas In America In 2018

Seven New Jersey food places landed on a well-respected list for having the top 101 pizzas in America for 2018, with one eatery nearly topping the national list.

Razza Pizza Artigianale in Jersey City was second on New Jersey's list on The Daily Meal’s 2018 ranking of America’s 101 Best Pizzas, which was released Thursday.

Razza was named as having the best pizza in the state earlier in the year by The Daily Meal when it named the best in each state. Read more: NJ Pizza Place Named One Of The Best In The Country By Daily Meal

The Daily Meal noted that Razza just opened just across the Hudson River from New York in Jersey City in late 2012, and it "quietly became renowned locally for its wood-fired pizzas prepared by chef-owner Dan Richer."

Richer was a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Award and "is so meticulous about his craft that he was nicknamed 'the Jiro of Bread,' after the sushi chef featured in Jiro Dreams of Sushi," according to The Daily Meal.

Here is the complete New Jersey list, and their national rankings:

• #2 Razza Pizza Artigianale, Jersey City (Cheese Pie): "The mozzarella on his bufala pie, for example, comes from water buffalo from Jersey’s Sussex County; he had to wait years for the herd to grow large enough to ensure a steady supply of the notoriously difficult-to-perfect cheese. And as for the sauce, Richer told the Times that he waits for the latest vintages of tomatoes from California, New Jersey, and Italy to be canned each January before blind-tasting and grading them all, then blending them like fine wine. When assembled, the pizza is damn near perfect," according to The Daily Mail.
• #32 Santillo's Brick Oven Pizza, Elizabeth (Sicilian: pepperoni, mozzarella, pizza sauce): "What can you say about Al Santillo? Santillo may be the least well-known great pizza tradition curator in America, the gatekeeper to three generations of pizza-making and one of the most unique pizzerias in America. The man has tomato sauce running through his veins. Al Santillo’s grandfather, who had long made focaccia for his family at home, decided to try it as a business in 1950," according to The Daily Meal.
• #37 Delorenzo's Tomato Pies, Robbinsville (Tomato Pie: mozzarella and tomato sauce): "De Lorenzo’s makes a clam pie, albeit with tomato sauce (New Haven pizza purists, beware!), but customers can add to small or large tomato pies by selecting from a range of toppings including anchovies, artichokes, basil, spinach, black olives, broccoli, garlic, hot peppers, mushrooms, onions, sausage, roasted peppers, sweet peppers, and pepperoni. We list these fastballs (as well as the homemade meatball topping) to make this curveball even more effective: This septuagenarian pizzeria serves a tuna tomato pie, too," according to The Daily Meal.
• #41 Star Tavern Pizzeria, Orange (Thin Crust): "The bar pie. In the annals of all things pizza, it is perhaps one of the most underrated styles. The maligned proponents of the pile-it-on philosophy behind deep-dish get bent out of shape when Chicago’s signature style is besmirched, but there doesn’t seem to be a similar geographic identification attached to this more nuanced, reserved, and minimalist approach. It’s a shame, save that it makes bar pie bastions like Colony, Eddie’s, and Star Tavern in Orange, New Jersey, even easier to like, and, selfishly, to eat at without battling crowds," according to The Daily Meal.
• #49 Papa’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville (Sausage): "Lombardi’s may be responsible for “America’s first pizza,” but as Nick Azzaro, owner of Papa’s Tomato Pies, isn’t shy about saying, Papa’s — established in 1912 — is America’s oldest continuously owned, family-owned pizzeria. With more than 100 years under its belt, no wonder Papa’s made this list of America’s best pies again. And the family behind this operation is key: The recipe has been passed down through generations and survived a 2013 move from Trenton to Robbinsville," according to The Daily Meal.
• #81 A Mano Pizza, Ridgewood (A Mano Pizza: Marinara, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, arugula, basil): "Shh. Don’t tell anyone, but there’s a little bit of Naples in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The spot has a wood-burning oven hand-built on site 'by Neapolitan artisans, using stones and volcanic soil imported from Naples,' ovens that can be maintained at 1,000 degrees," according to The Daily Meal.
• #82 Bruno's, Clifton (Sicilian: Mozzarella and pizza sauce): "Ignore the family melodrama that’s been reported on over the years, or don’t, and hit both Bruno’s, the one in Clifton and the one in Lyndhurst. We can’t bear yet another internecine pizza family dispute, so we’ll just note that Bruno's is old-school. It's a no-frills neighborhood spot that opened in 1972 and that makes a monster of a Sicilian, both in appearance and reputation. These are huge, saucy slices that noticeably peak in the center, almost as if embodying the ample middle of the ubiquitous winking pizza chef," according to The Daily Meal.

The Daily Meal said it assembles these rankings by building a list that was approached "methodically and comprehensively and brings a great deal of pizza expertise to bear."

Indeed, the lead writer, Arthur Bovino, is the founding editor of The Daily Meal's annual list of the 101 Best Pizzas in America. He has written about pizza for The New York Times, Bon Appétit, TimeOut, First We Feast, Food52, and Tasting Table, and been consulted for his pizza expertise by The Wall Street Journal and Phaidon's guide to Where to Eat Pizza.

"We believe the following qualities are basic to the platonic pie: a nuanced sauce, neither too sweet nor salty (assuming that it has sauce); good-quality, well-distributed cheese (assuming that it has cheese); good-quality and sensibly combined toppings; a flavorful, savory crust; and, perhaps most important aside from the overall quality of the ingredients, a judicious, well-balanced, and pleasing ratio of sauce, cheese, toppings, and crust that maintains a structural integrity no matter the style," according to The Daily Meal.

In order to assemble the rankings, The Daily Meal started by building a survey of great pizzas from around the country, and then adding to it each year. Nearly 1,000 pizzas were considered in total this year.

"We then called upon a blue-chip, geographically diverse list of pizza panelists — chefs, restaurant critics, bloggers, writers, and just plain pizza authorities — asking them to vote only for places where they’ve actually eaten," according to the publication. "All told, 59 qualified experts weighed in this year."

Click here to read the entire Daily Meal list.

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