GQ Declares Great Lake’s Mortadella Pie ‘The Best Pizza In America’

In an eminently correct decision, GQ food guy Alan Richman has named the mortadella pie at Andersonville’s Great Lake the very best in the entire country.

“No man is slower,” Richman says of Great Lake’s idiosyncratic pizzaiolo, Nick Lessins. “In the time he takes to create a pie, civilizations could rise and fall, not just crusts.” But it’s so worth it. Richman swoons over the mortadella pizza — a mozzarella pie draped with paper-thin slices of bologna-esque charcuterie: “This pie—creative, original, and somewhat local—represents everything irresistible about the new American style of pizza-making.”

At the pizza blog Slice, Adam Kuban calls attention to the list’s lack of tired old retreads (or, depending on how you look at it, glorious classic pizzas). Notably absent from Richman’s roundup are some long-established favorites: Di Fara in Brooklyn, L.A.’s Pizzeria Mozza, and our very own Spacca Napoli, among others.

The complete list of 25 is below.

01. Great Lake (Chicago)
02. Lucali (Brooklyn, NYC)
03. Pizzeria Delfina (San Francisco)
04. Pizzeria Bianco (Phoenix)
05. Bob & Timmy’s (Providence, R.I.)
06. Sally’s Apizza (New Haven, Conn.)
07. Tomato Pie (Los Angeles)
08. Co. (Company) (Manhattan, NYC)
09. Tacconelli’s Pizza (Philadelphia)
10. Totonno’s (Brooklyn, NYC)
11. Tarry Lodge (Port Chester, N.Y.)
12. Frank Pepe (New Haven, Conn.)
13. Luigi’s “the Original” (Harrison Township, Mich.)
14. Gialina Pizzeria (San Francisco)
15. Buddy’s (Detroit)
16. Antica Pizzeria (Marina Del Ray, Calif.)
17. Gialina Pizzeria (San Francisco)
18. Al Forno (Providence, R.I.)
19. Galleria Umberto (Boston)
20. Famous Joe’s Pizza (Manhattan, NYC)
21. Tomatoes Apizza (Farmington Hills, Mich.)
22. Osteria (Philadelphia)
23. Santarpio’s Pizza (Boston)
24. Niki’s (Detroit)
25. Una Pizza Napoletana (Manhattan, NYC)

[Photo: Helen Rosner]

Tags:

GQ Declares Great Lake’s Mortadella Pie ‘The Best Pizza In America’