By Ray LaVoie Photography
Columbus is a mecca for food – from food trucks and fast casual to gourmet and farm-to-table. And pizza in the capital city is no different.
In the ’90s, Columbus earned the title of pizza capital of the world, according to Jim Ellison’s Columbus Pizza: A Slice of History. Today, the challenge isn’t finding the best pizza in Columbus, it’s choosing a personal favorite from the city’s many styles. Thick or thin, round or square, we’ve broken down some of Columbus’ most loved pies.
Thick
Chicago
One local joint taking on the iconic Chicago style of pizza is Yellow Brick Pizza. It’s become well known for offering an extra-thick pie option: Tristano’s Chicago-style stuffed pizza.
Yellow Brick piles mozzarella cheese between two layers of pizza dough and tops it with chunky red sauce, Romano cheese and oregano. The thick, golden outer crust anchors an equally deep layer of cheese.
Yellow Brick pizza operates in Franklinton and is slated to open a booth in the Trolley District’s new East Market.
For a Chicago-bred take on the deep dish, try Giordano’s. The Polaris pizzeria serves pies that follow the stuffed pizza tradition Giordano’s has followed since its 1974 founding in the Windy City.
Detroit
Detroit-style pizza is an airy pan pizza topped with a crispy layer of cheese around the entire crust.
Closely related to Sicilian-style pizza, the deep rectangular pans of Detroit-style pies allegedly date back to those used by factory workers. On Detroit-style pizzas, caramelized edge-to-edge
cheese is coved with toppings and chunky sauce.
Square Slice Pizzeria, which debuted in Old North Arcade last fall, makes 8-inch by 10-inch focaccia from scratch as the foundation of its pizza, which comes outs fluffy and chewy. Jet’s Pizza, with origins in the suburbs of Detroit, prides itself on serving pizzas with a light center and crispy edges.
Ohio Valley
By Ray LaVoie Photography
It’s deceiving to call this Steubenville creation thick. The crust isn’t much thicker than that of a traditional New York-style slice, but the edges rise up to create a ledge around the rectangular pies. That’s necessary to keep on the generous amount of cheese that’s added after the pizza leaves the oven.
“We’re not supposed to be thick,” says co-owner Anna DiCarlo. “If you go and you eat it and it’s thick, it’s wrong. It’s not thick, it’s not thin and it’s crunchy. It’s so unique.”
If we had a crunch section, that might be where Ohio Valley-style pizza belongs – less like a cracker and more like crispy Italian bread. Its origin is a popular bread recipe used by style originator DiCarlo’s when it pioneered the pizza in 1945.
The process includes large baking sheet pans that trace back to the cookie trays used in DiCarlo’s origins as a bakery. The dough and sauce are cooked first, followed with freshly-shredded provolone cheese and pepperoni added in the box right before it’s handed to customers.
The style has been gaining in popularity beyond the Ohio Valley. The Greater Columbus area, already home to DiCarlo’s pizzerias in Hilliard and the Short North, will add a Westerville location in early March.
“One guy wrote to me and said, ‘I grew up in the Ohio Valley, I’ve lived in Westerville for 20 years now, I can’t wait for my kids to grow up on your pizza just like I grew up on it as a kid,’” says Westerville franchise owner Mike Carlson. “I don’t think people write that kind of thing for a Pizza Hut or a Little Caesars.”
Thin
New York
Pizza’s beginnings in America are generally traced to the heavy concentration of Italian immigrants in New York City in the late 19th century. That tradition has made New York’s take on pizza the gold standard: thin crust, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni on top.
There’s no shortage of New York-style pizza in Columbus. Paulie Gee’s, located in the Short North, came from Brooklyn in 2016, and the shop’s wood-fired pizzas are still true to New York. Borgata Pizza Café sticks to a simple take on the style at its locations in north Columbus, Worthington and Italian Village. Mikey’s Late Night Slice delivers New York-style with added flair, including signature spicy pepperoni and a unicorn dipping sauce.
Columbus
By Ray LaVoie Photography
Also known as simply Ohio-style, this style is a staple of the Columbus pizza scene. Columbus-style pizza comes on an extra thin, crispy crust. Above that, it’s all about the toppings. These pizzas don’t waste any space that could be used for toppings. Massey’s Pizza is known for totally covering pies in slightly overlapping pepperoni.
Massey’s Chief Marketing Officer Rich Folk says this style has become a tradition for many Ohio natives.
“People grow up with it and it becomes part of their family culture,” he says. “They want to pass it on to their kids.”
True Columbus-style pizza comes cut in rectangles, as is common in the Midwest, but these slices are noticeably smaller than those from pies served in Ohio Valley-style or other neighboring traditions.
You can find these pizzas made with cornmeal to keep the bottom from burning, smaller pepperonis than on traditional Italian-style pizza and plenty of other variations. Donatos Pizza is known for extra-thin, almost cracker-like crust. Tommy’s Pizza may leave a little room at the edge on top, but still features the crispy crust signature to Columbus-style pizza.
Wood-fired
At least as thin as New York-style, wood-fired pizza has grown increasingly synonymous with gourmet. These pizzas cook extra crispy on the bottom due to the heat of the flame and thin dough, and have an almost smoky flavor to the crust.
It’s no coincidence that this artisanal approach to pizza coincides with local ingredients and unique toppings. Harvest Pizzeria – with locations in the Brewery District, Bexley, Clintonville and Dublin – uses only locally sourced ingredients. Menu items include a Spicy Yuma pizza – which includes jalapeno, corn and chorizo – and an almond pesto pizza that’s topped with artichoke, spinach and mozzarella.
Goremade Pizza, another popular wood-fired choice favoring local ingredients, serves out of Italian Village.
Alternatives
By Ray LaVoie Photography
Pizzerias of all kinds are expanding options for people with different dietary preferences and restrictions. Whether you’re vegan, gluten-free or just a flexitarian looking to reduce meat or wheat consumption, there are plenty of options available in central Ohio.
Donatos has responded happily to that trend in recent years, says Cynthia Ottavio, director of research and development at the locally based pizza chain.
In general, she says, focus has shifted with Generation Z toward an appetite that cares about what’s good for our bodies and the world in general.
“People want more sustainability,” Ottavio says.
Donatos introduced cauliflower-crust pizza and plant-based sausage a couple years ago, the latter performing well enough to justify the launch of plant-based pepperoni this year. Ottavio says Donatos’ innovation team sampled dozens of types of plant-based pepperoni, the brand’s No. 1 topping on a pizza, before selecting the one offered by Field Roast, a plant-based artisanal meat and cheese brand.
Ottavio noted that the pepperoni stood out to Donatos based on its similarity to the real thing, with rich flavor and charring on the edges.
“The texture is hardly any different than (real) pepperoni,” she says.
Many other pizzerias have added gluten free or vegan cheese options. However, High Horse Vegan Pizza Co. makes vegan pizza the priority.
The online-only pizzeria sticks to the delicious tradition of greasy cheesy pizza, though. Pepperoni, chorizo, buffalo chicken – High Horse delivers classic flavors without the meat.
By Ray LaVoie Photography
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