Support your local pizza shop--name your favorite! [View All]

After reading Redstone's mouth-watering best burger thread, I thought I would stir up some more trouble and get recommendations from you all about your favorite pizza shops across the country.

I've had a lifelong love affair with pizza of all kinds; I've worked for 3 different chains, and would one day love to open my own shop. I also daydream about traveling the country and eating at local pizza shops.

After extensive analysis of "who's got the best pizza?"-related threads on Fark.com containing hundreds of posts, I compiled this list of recommended pizza shops (independents and chains of a smaller scale than Domino's/Pizza Hut) across the country. The number following each shop name is the number of times each shop was recommended by others after its initial nomination:

Lou Malnati's, Chicago--22
Giordano's, Chicago--20
Frank Pepe's, New Haven, CT--19
Gino's East, Chicago--17
Mellow Mushroom, Chain, USA--16
Pizzeria Uno, Chain, USA--16
Sally's Apizza, New Haven, CT--13
John's (Bleecker), Manhattan--11
Monical's, Chain, IL/IN/WI--9
Fellini's, Atlanta--8
Antonio's Pizza, Amherst, MA--8
Joe Bologna's, Lexington, KY--7
Grimaldi's, Brooklyn--7
Aurelio's, Chicago--7
Vincent's, Pittsburgh--7
Lombardi's, NYC--6
Mack and Manco, Ocean City, NJ--6
Modern Apizza, New Haven, CT--6
Pizzeria Regina, Boston--6
Due's, Chicago--6
Outback Pizza, Taos, NM--5
PizzaPapalis, Chain, MI--5
Crozet Pizza, Crozet, VA--5
Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria, Chain, USA--5


Tell us about your favorite local pizza shop! Please include name of the shop, city, and state. Web site links encouraged. What makes your favorite pizza shop the best, in your opinion?