West Village Joint Named As One Of Best Pizza Places In New York

WEST VILLAGE, NY — New York might have slipped to the third-best state for pizza in a recent ranking from Food & Wine Magazine, but a West Village joint was the first named in a collection of the best pizzerias in the state.

On Wednesday, the popular magazine published, "The Best Pizza in Every State," which also included its rankings of the 10 best pizza states in America.

New York finished third behind New Jersey and Connecticut.

Instead of a standard numerical list of the best pizza places in each state — Food & Wine Magazine wrote several paragraphs for each state — within which were mentions and descriptions of a handful of pizzerias its authors thought were the very best.

The first joint named as one of the best in New York was John's of Bleecker Street, which opened in 1929 and still has a home at 278 Bleecker Street in the West Village.

"With the world no longer beating a path to its door, the restaurant feels like the quaint, West Village hangout it once was," wrote authors of the Food & Wine Magazine's ranking. "The coal-fired pizzas, remarkably thin-crusted, but never dry or brittle, are as pure as they come."

Here are the other restaurants the magazine named as the best pizza makers in New York:

• Lucali in Carrol Gardens
• Roberta's in Bushwick
• Joe's Pizza in Greenwich Village
• Scarr's Pizza on the Lower East Side
• Upside Pizza in Times Square
• Mama's Too! on the Upper West Side
• Paulie Gee's Slice Shop in Greenpoint
• Philomena's in Sunnyside
• Corner Slice in Hell's Kitchen
• Perecca's Bakery in Schenectady
• O'Scugnizzo's in Utica
• Twin Trees in Syracuse
• Bocce Club in Buffalo

However, all those lauded pizzerias were named after the West Village's John's of Bleecker Street by the Food & Wine magazine authors.

You can check out the complete pizza rankings here.