NY Is Only 3rd Best Pizza State, Food Mag Says

NEW YORK CITY — Prepare to get burned, New York pizza lovers.

The Empire State's pizzas — and, by extension, New York City's pies — are only the third best in America, according to Food & Wine.

The food magazine's ranking of the 10 best pizza states put New Jersey and Connecticut at number 1 and 2 slots, with a bronze finish for New York.

And topping insult upon injury, the story more or less predicted New Yorkers would fold like their favored slices.

"Long before the pandemic, New York's aggressive self-belief in its own pizza had started to seem a little dated," the story states. "Roughly fifteen years ago, when the New York Times said that the best pizza in America was in another state entirely, there was outrage. By 2017, when the paper said that the best pizza in New York was probably in Jersey City, people mostly seemed to want to know how long it would take them to get there on the PATH train."

Food & Wine still heaped praise upon many New York City pizzerias, even if it found the city's offerings a little stale as a whole.

Roberta's still had people "trekking to Bushwick all through the recession," Food & Wine reporter David Landsel wrote.

Joe's on Carmine Street still offers New York City pizza that's a cut above, "offering a more careful version of the city's most popular street food, with the perfect (and all-important) ratio of crust to sauce (never too much, you don't want drippage) to cheese (same)," Landsel wrote.

And Landsel gave a crackling description of Mama's Too! on the Upper West Side: "every plain slice is scattered with fresh basil leaves and a final shower of cheese before being handed over the counter, the crust cracking open in a thunderclap at first bite, collapsing into a light, chewy, beautifully-balanced crust."

Here are the New York City pizza shops mentioned in the story:

• John's of Bleecker Street in the West Village
• Lucali in Carroll Gardens
• Roberta's in Bushwick
• Joe's Pizza in Greenwich Village
• Scarr's Pizza on the Lower East Side
• Mama's Too! on the Upper West Side
• Paulie Gee's Slice Shop in Greenpoint
• Philomena's in Sunnyside

You can check out the complete pizza rankings here.