Best Pizzas In America? WNY Made the List

Where can you find the best pizzas in America?  You don't have to drive far.  The website thedailymeal.com has published a list of the 101 Best Pizzas in America and Buffalo placed three pizza shops on the list.

How did they come up with the list?  They put together a panel of chefs, restaurant critics, bloggers, writers and what they describe as just plain pizza experts across the country and asked them to share their pizza experience.  There were a total of 56 qualified pizza experts on the panel.  They could only vote for places where they've actually eaten.

New York State far and away was the leader in most entries on the list with 35.  Illinois was second with 12.  California had 10.  A total of 23 states made the list.

• LaNova's came in at #90 on the list.  With 21 toppings to choose from and 19 specialty pizzas, LaNova is celebrating its 50th year in business.  They're also famous for inventing barbeque wings.
• Deniro's in Depew placed #89 on the list.  It was described as the perfect representation of Buffalo-area pizza featuring pepperoni with the classic "cup and char".  Also recommended was Deniro's Stinger pizza with hot sauce, mozzarella, steak and chicken fingers.
• Bocce Club Pizza placed at #74 on the list.  In business since 1946, it was the first pizzeria to offer takeouts in corrugated boxes in 1955 and the first to offer half-baked pies.  They even will ship pizzas across the country.

Perhaps it was because so many of the pizza experts were from the New York City area, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that five of the Top-10 pizza places on the list were from New York.  Three of the Top-10 were from New Haven, Connecticut including the #1 pizza place in the country - Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.  It was opened in 1925 by Frank Pepe, an Italian immigrant and its seven locations are all operated by his 10 great-grandchildren using original recipes to make their coal-fired pizza.

Here is the complete list of the Daily Meal's Top 101 Pizzas in America.