The best pizza spots in the U.S. that aren't in New York or Chicago

New York City has more pizzerias with more variety than any other city in America. Meanwhile, Chicago has its own deep-dish style that no New York pizza spot has been able to successfully replicate. Chicagoans can be as proud of their deep-dish favorites like Lou Malnati's and Gino's East as New Yorkers are of their favorite neighborhood joints, from New Park Pizza in Queens to L & B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn.

However, great pizza made with high-quality ingredients is no longer exclusively found in the large U.S. cities where Southern Italians migrated starting in the late 1800s. Here are seven pizza spots not in New York or Chicago that are worth the drive.

(The story behind Chicago deep dish pizza)

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana (San Antonio, Texas) 

San Antonio may be most famous for Tex-Mex, but the Alamo City can also lay claim to having some of the best pizza in the Lone Star State. Founded in 2007, Dough now has two locations: one near the airport and another downtown. 12-inch pies come out in 90 seconds, and the pizza menu is split between Neapolitan and American, with the latter outnumbering the former by 7 to 3. 

As this is Texas, expect a lot of meat on the American pies (pork in particular). On the Neapolitan menu, the regular Margherita is a stand out. The fior di latte is made daily and also serves as the outer layer for the equally popular signature burrata, which comes with a side of the same dough as the pizza.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana (New Haven, Connecticut) 

Frank Pepe celebrated 100 years in 2025, making it Connecticut's oldest pizzeria. New Haven-style pizza is in a class of its own. The thin crust is denser overall, and the outer edge is not as puffy. "Locals like their pies charred, but not so much so that the crust becomes inedible, bitter and carbonized,” says Colin Caplan, a New Haven local and pizza tour guide.

Frank Pepe invented the clam pie in the mid-20th century, which is a rite of passage when visiting Connecticut. The original tomato pie dates back to the first menu, which had just two options. The tomato pie is more similar to the Neapolitan cosacca (with Pecorino Romano in place of Parmigiano Reggiano). With that said, it's best to try both the white clam pizza and original tomato pie, while also saving some room for the Margherita.

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Guantonios Wood Fired (Lodi, California) 

Some of the best tomatoes in the United States come from Modesto, California. Guantonio's is in the small city of Lodi, which, like Modesto, is part of California's Central Valley. As a quarter of America's food comes from this region, it stands to reason that the pizza here should be as good as any in the United States. Cans of Alta Cucina tomatoes are visible in front of the small space where the dozen different 14-inch pies are made. The classic is preferable to the cheese pie, as the former leaves more room for the sauce to do its thing with your taste buds. Of the white pies, cacio e pepe is ideal for those who love black pepper. But the biancoverde is a more interesting contrast, as each slice has its own rich creamy dollop of burrata, which goes on cold after the pie comes out of the oven.   

Mission Pizza Napoletana (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) 

James Beard-nominated chef and owner Peyton Smith has a strict rule: Only he touches the wood-fired pizza oven. The native Carolinian's version of a Margherita uses the softer bufala mozzarella rather than the firmer standard fior di latte. Meanwhile, the cosacca, which predates the Margherita by decades, lets the sauce shine without omitting cheese entirely. The thin slices of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese atop melt into the pie, offering a salty balance to the slight sweetness of the whole grape tomatoes and sauce. 

There’s also the pizzakase, where each person at the counter gets a slice of the pie(s), which tend to alternate between red and white, with intermittent small plates and dessert bites served in between. Both the pizzakase and the regular menu are subject to change from one week to the next.  

(Pizza Margherita may be fit for a queen, but was it really named after one?)

PARM (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 

America's Dairyland pizza is worth traveling for, especially if you're heading to PARM. Founder and pizzaiolo Andy Saray uses as many local ingredients as possible. Dough and mozzarella are made daily in-house, and the focus is not solely on red-sauce pies. The eight wood-fired pies have a firm, yet chewy outer crust. Andy prefers the pear and burrata. And while that is a unique choice, the star of the show here is the pesto and pistachio, which found its way onto the PARM menu as a tribute to Chris Bianco. The citrusy taste of the lemon combined with the crunchy pistachio and milky mozzarella works like a charm.  

Pizzeria Bianco (Phoenix and Los Angeles) 

It would be an understatement to say that post-2000, many of the most respected pizzaioli in America (including some on this list) drew inspiration from Chris Bianco. The James Beard Award-winning chef, cookbook author, and New York native opened his namesake pizzeria in Phoenix in the mid-1990s and has since expanded to Los Angeles. 

This destination pizzeria has a small wood-fired pizza menu of three reds and three whites. On the Margherita, the sauce stands out the most. The sauce atop the soft, chewy crust has a natural sweetness of California tomatoes coupled with the mozzarella that Bianco has been making since the 1980s. But it’s the marinara that he counts as one of his two personal favorites.  

Pizzeria Vetri (Philadelphia) 

Pizzeria Vetri started in Logan Square, a half-mile east of the famous Rocky statue, and there's also a location in highly desirable Rittenhouse Square. When it comes to the pies, the ultra-thin crust in the middle works its way out to the puffy edges, which tend to remain chewy enough, even when char marks are visible. The sauce stands out the most, with small grains of sea salt and black pepper often visible. The Margherita and marinara are an ideal place to start, but there's also the sauceless Maurizio, which allows more focus on the mozzarella. And as Philly is 35 miles from America's mushroom capital, it's also worth considering the 'shroom pizza.

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