Amuse Bouche: The Fourth-Best Pizza In The Country

Travel & Leisure just published their annual list of America’s Favorite Cities. The website has a neat feature where you can click on each of the twenty-five cities profiled and see how it ranks on everything from attractive people (Boston is #16) to vintage shopping (the Hub ranks tenth). We were, of course, interested in all of Boston’s food rankings (we must take umbrage with Boston’s rankings in both barbecue (#24, above only DC) and overall food/dining, where we placed twelfth. Really? Below San Antonio? For reals?), but the one which most intrigued us was our high ranking for pizza. Boston placed fourth, below only Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia (sidebar: our boyfriend is both a pizza enthusiast and a Philadelphia resident and we must say that in our humble experience, Philly pizza is awful, so we don’t know what T&L; is on about). Although we may dispute Travel & Leisure’s methodology just a touch, we’re very proud of Boston’s pizza accolades, so we’ll present you with our five favorite pizzas in Boston, just because we love you. Even those of you who leave us spam comments like “I like your diary. Allow to be friends!” followed by links to pornography.

•We went to high school in the Fenway and thus, Little Stevie’s Pizza was a staple of our diet during those years. The pizza is insanely cheap, the slices are huge, and to our mind, it’s a near-perfect example of a certain pizza archetype: greasy, unhealthy, and wildly delicious. Also, we enjoy playing pinball in the back.
•As regular readers of this blog have doubtless deduced, we are not actually that cool. Exhibit A? Bertucci’s carries some of our absolute favorite pizza in the city. We’re a bit embarrassed to hold a chain in such high esteem, but honestly, the pizza is just so good that we don’t care all that much. The margherita has been venerated by no less an authority than Ed Levine and we can personally attest that even though it’s fantastic hot, it’s even better when eaten cold the next morning.
Same Old Place is absolutely our favorite neighborhood pizzeria in Boston. Don’t bother with the menu’s many non-pizza choices, but do delight in their excellent cheese pizza. Obviously, you should feel free to follow your pizza up with a scoop from JP Licks across the street.
•We spent a summer working at Harvard and we became a little bit obsessed with Beauty’s during those three months. We usually prefer our pizzas fairly unadorned, but we delight in Beauty’s pies, stuffed to the gills with goodies like spinach and olives and feta.
•Of course, the ne plus ultra of Boston pizza is, now and forever, Santarpio’s Pizza. How good is Santarpio’s? It’s worth braving airport traffic during rush hour. That good. We cannot stop raving about the garlic pie and the sausages are to die for.

[Photo: Bertucci’s]

Amuse Bouche: The Fourth-Best Pizza In The Country