3 In Georgia Are Among 101 Best Pizzas In America In 2020

Deb Belt
·3 min read

GEORGIA — The 2020 list of the 101 best pizza restaurants in the United States by The Daily Meal includes three spots in Georgia, all in metro Atlanta.

The national food and drink website included restaurants in 17 states and the District of Columbia, with New York claiming the most spots on the list with 21.

But for the fourth straight year, Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Connecticut, has the No. 1 pizza in America, according to The Daily Meal.

The Daily Meal considered nearly 1,000 pizzas and looked for such qualities as a nuanced sauce, well-distributed cheese, a flavorful crust and an overall balance of ingredients.

Here is the Georgia list, and their national rankings, plus comments from Daily Meal editors:

No. 52. Plant Based Pizzeria in Atlanta: "Plant Based Pizzeria is the first 100% plant-based pizzeria in Atlanta. When in Rome — or Georgia, that is — go for the Georgia Peach Pizza with roasted basil pizza sauce, vegan mozzarella cheese, spicy Beyond Sausage, roasted peaches, red onions and jalapenos."

No. 55. Triple Jay’s Pizza in Atlanta: "Triple Jay’s Pizza is a highly recommended food truck and mom-and-pop restaurant in Midtown Atlanta. The food truck has been parked pretty much all year, with sales down at least 95% due to COVID, but the brick and mortar is slinging pizzas left and right. 'I actually started making pizza on the weekends with my sons as a way to just hang out and bond with them for years, never knowing that we would one day make it into a business' owner Jay Terrence told The Daily Meal."

No. 74. O4W Pizza in Duluth: "A meal here guarantees traditional Jersey-style pizza made from fresh dough that is topped with house-made sauce, hand-pulled mozzarella, and sausage and meatballs derived from a time-honored family recipe. Grandma-style pies are the upper crust here, featuring fresh mozzarella, marinara, pecorino romano, extra virgin olive oil, fresh oregano and basil."

Here’s a look at the top 10 pizzerias nationally:

  1. Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana (New Haven, Connecticut)

  2. Pequod's (Chicago, Illinois)

  3. John's of Bleecker Street (New York City, New York)

  4. Razza Pizza Artigianale (Jersey City, New Jersey)

  5. Slim & Husky's Pizza Beeria (Nashville, Tennessee)

  6. Buddy's Pizza (Detroit, Michigan)

  7. Santarpio's (Boston, Massachusetts)

  8. Lucali (Brooklyn, New York)

  9. Sally's Apizza (New Haven, Connecticut)

  10. Piece (Chicago, Illinois)

Since 2012, The Daily Meal has ranked America's best pizzas, noting that "It can sometimes feel like there is a pizzeria around every corner, but there's just something about a great pizza."

This year, the editors said they took "special care to highlight pizzerias from all parts of the country, as well as female- and Black-owned businesses," and focused on smaller establishments and local favorites that had been successful branching out to a few locations.

As varied as the pies on The Daily Meal's list are, there is some common ground, according to the magazine's editors.

"All have many of the qualities you'd expect in an above-standard pie: saucy, cheesy slices of heaven with a doughy-yet-crispy crust and a nice flop; along with a respectable amount of grease — just enough to get the job done," the editors wrote. "Some have basic-but-essential ingredients like pepperoni and house-made sausage, while others venture outside the box with creative-yet-functional toppings."

See The Daily Meal's 101 Best Pizzas in America list for 2020.

Patch Editor Rich Kirby contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Atlanta Patch