You'll Never Guess Where the Best Pizza in the US Is

Who’s going to tell New York? The city that everyone knows has the best pizza in the US, possibly the world, has been dethroned. And you’ll never guess where the best pies are. Modernist Cuisine, the labor of love of former Microsoft chief technical officer Nathan Myhrvold and his collaborator Francisco Migoya, made an exhaustive search for the best in the nation. Their upcoming book, a three-volume set with more than 1,000 recipes, Modernist Pizza, details the search, CNN Travel reports. The pair visited 250 restaurants, squeezing in the end of the tour before the beginning of pandemic lockdowns.

Yes, they went to Chicago. They went to New Jersey and Los Angeles, too. All strong contenders, but the best of the best? Well, you might want to sit down. It’s Portland. The one in Oregon. Myhrvold and Migoya called out Apizza Scholls and Ken’s Artisan Pizza specifically. And they say Lovely’s Fifty Fifty on N. Mississippi Ave. is one of the two best pizza restaurants in the country, Geekwire reports. The other one is in a much-less-shocking location: Jersey City, New Jersey. As for New York? Skip Manhattan and go to the boroughs. That much, at least, won’t shock any New Yorker who has ventured up to the Bronx for a great pie. (More pizza stories.)