The United States of Pizza, mapsplained
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Those are scams for the feds to get your DNA, I don't care what 10% of someone is.
PSA: DO NOT GIVE YOUR GENETIC INFORMATION TO A FOR-PROFIT COMPANY, ESPECIALLY ONE OWNED BY PRIVATE EQUITY LIKE MYHERITAGE.
already done it and sent three close relatives to jail for being criminals who left their dna behind at the crime scenes. kidding.
but seriously, i was having a convo with a georgian immigrant friend of mine (country not the state) and he was exclaiming that nothing was "really american." for example, what is american food, like what cuisine is american that is NOT a very close derivative or just a direct knockoff of a non-american alternative? me not being a foodie was a taken aback by his assertion. So first i said something about america not being a very old country. then i thought of fortune cookeis which are uniquely american. and burritos. which never existed in mexico afaik. then i thought of a "midwestern delicacy" of a rice krispy treat christmas tree AND pennsylvania scrapple. but frankly what i didn't say but ran through my mind was more along the lines of the deservedly pejorative connotation of the "standard american diet" - all the crap processed foods made in large quantities and sold through all the successors of piggly wiggly and fast food restaurants to get lots of people to live to age 50 or 60, but maybe not much beyond that.
surely there must be a more complete list/history of more uniquely american foods that while derivative perhaps, are still much greater than sum of parts. care to tackle? i bet it could be mapsplained and have interesting overlap to immigrant groups.
Bruv I ain't gonna lie but 0:00 to 0:08 was really cringy in an elder millennial way, kinda like that meme about the guy holding too many lemons. Great video though.
@@unaminous00 in my dreams would i look that good holding limes
Phil posting this on national Pizza day is diabolical
And even more diabolically I had no idea. PIZZA FATE
Pizza day should really be July 22nd or March 14.
@@stevk5181Pi Day is more sacred than being only associated with pizza however celebrating Pi Day with pizza is perfectly acceptable.
Source: I am a mathematician
Premeditated even
@@softllamaspajamas hmm forgotten about pi day. i agree
Everyone else is being nostalgic about their regional pizzas meanwhile us here in Iowa are side eyeing our taco pizza
xD I haven't lived near Iowa but my favorite novelty pizza is the limited papa murpheys taco pizza. It is so unreasonably good xD
Taco pizza seems to be a very Midwest thing from my experience. My wife from Ohio loves taco pizza, but only from a Midwest Pizza Hut 😂
Real thin crust with extra sauce is popular in north west Indiana, and taco pizza is trash. regional all the way
Moved to the south east and it doesn't exist here at all :(
God I want a taco pizza from Casey’s now
This is the video Michelangelo would be watching if he was a middle aged ninja turtle.
Hahah lol I feel somewhat cooler that it's not just Donatello.
My father always told me that he was one of the first pizzerias in Buffalo, NY to use a corrugated cardboard box. He says that no one knew how to break them down yet, so he would drive through neighborhoods and see them sitting on top of trash cans. It was an interesting way for him to see his distribution radius.
I think anyone with a few brain cells can look at a cardboard pizza box and understand how to, as you say “break it down” it’s not like he invented the cardboard box, something no one ever has had a issue understanding it’s made from a material that can easily be folded and broken down in any way you please
These maps mapsplained videos are great. They could make even the most boring subject matter interesting by showing how different it is in other places.
We sometimes walk to our classic Pizza Hut. It’s dirty, understaffed, old and sticky. It’s absolutely perfect.
The McDonald’s in my hometown was recently renovated from the 80’s style with the continuous PVC tables and red terra cotta perpetually sticky floors to the modern style a few years ago. Tragic
@@MakeSomething I still miss the personal pan pizzas in the metal pans. The best!
This is an award winning episode Phil. The ending by the car evokes memories!
If you draw a line diagonally through NJ between NYC and Philly you will only find pizza that ranges from pretty good to the best you've ever had.
Except all the undercooked floppy junk you'll find.
Nah, Philly is so overated when it comes to food. Lived in CT, and Providence had better pizzad overall.
Philly it is like... All the places taste the same, and it is so generic. I'll honestly take some frozen pizza instead.
It is their sauce, and dough. It is so basic. Bare minimum ingredients. Nothing you cant find anywhere else. Nothing you can't cook at home.
I am generalizing. I am sure Philly has a few places, but I never found them. The famous places, overrated.
Even the Franchises here suck. Never had a Pizza Hut with such hit or miss quality.
Best Philly Cheese steak hands down I had was in Rhode Island, lol. Lady did opened a shack a few hours a day, because she did as a form of charity. So it was dirt cheap too.
Philly just sucks. I thought CT was bad. So suprised to see it here. Never knew.
@@adrianmcmillan9011 I like my pizza to taste how the mutant turtles pizza looks. Just because the dough is stretchy doesn’t mean it is undercooked.
@@dianapennepacker6854 OK, diana - Pennypacker - troll harder.
Northern NJ has excellent pizza
Neapolitan style margarita, well done and to go in an airport terminal. Hearing everyone speaking different languages while I eat makes me feel worldly as I fly from Minneapolis to Cleveland.
very cosmopolitan
I literally just finished eating Pizza to some average content, my life, short of perfection by 10 mins 😭
Watching this on lunch break while eating pizza. All is right in the universe...until i go back to work at least.
Great video!
I had Round Table pizza growing up in a small mountain community in Southern California. Friday nights were family movie nights; we would rent a movie from the local video store, go over to Round Table and order a pizza,and then my brothers and I would convince my parents to give us quarters for the arcade while we waited. There was a thick crust pizza with a white sauce and bacon. Yep, it's the best pizza ever that has never been replicated.
Pizza Hut and the fast spinning clock at the sit down restaurant! A staple of our mid western Friday night life.
I grew up on the pizza from the one Southern Italian region you didn’t touch on - Calabria. It’s crisper than a New York pizza, but not as crisp and thin as a New Haven pizza. It’s more like Detroit style, including that it’s usually served on a sheet pan and cut into rectangular slices. A sweet pizza is only sauce, no cheese though you can order it that way. My great grandmother would make it with no sauce or cheese. Just olive oil, salt, red pepper and anchovies.
That sounds like absolute 🔥
Near me a Pizza Hut in the original building has become a Pizza Hut Classic. I love it.
Before I came to the USA I listened to Alistair Cooke's " Letter from America" on the BBC. I loved it. It was warm, inviting and informative in a way that allowed me to see America from the inside. I've listened Phil Edwards on this channel for quite a while now and today I realised that he gave me the same kind of feeling about America as Alistair Cooke.
ah that's very nice, thanks!
I laughed out loud at that strip club at the end. I grew up in the area and remember my parents and I eating at that spot semi-regularly. However, it was never a Pizza Hut or any other kind of pizzeria, despite the somewhat familiar look to it. It was originally a Sizzlers. It's also in Springfield, Eugene's neighbor to the east. I loved seeing it, though. That place holds a prime spot in my childhood memories. When the Sizzlers closed sometime in the mid- to late-1990s, it may have become another restaurant very briefly, but I always remember the string of strip clubs that went in and out of that building over the decades.
Thanks for the Eugene shoutout. You made my day.
One of the best ones, Phil. Really smashed it out of the park with this one.
Little Star pizza in San Francisco is amazing. I ate there literally every week when I lived in SF.
Phil rocks. Deep diving on deep dish.
"Deep-dish pizza is not only not better than New York pizza, it's not pizza. It's a casserole." -Jon Stewart. Everybody knows the rules 🍕
💙 From Detroit. There's no such thing as a bad pizza, only better ones.
I took Scott's Pizza Tour in 2008 when he was so new to it that his mother was on the tour with us to fill out the numbers and not make it look too empty. I thought I knew a lot about pizza. I doubled my knowledge that day and it was a tiny fraction of what Scott knows. I took the tour 2 more times after that, including a free tour to film an American Express commercial where my then-2 year old twins ate more pizza than most of the adults. Unfortunately, I don't think the commercial ever came out, or if it did, I never found it.
Pizza and maps? hell yea
People in the filmmaking community often dunk on TH-cam and describe the material here as "content," but this is a fantastic story, well-told. Thank you for passionately offering something more.
First place I had pizza after moving from home in 1997 as a young guy, was in Eugene Oregon. The owner - an Italian lady - made all of the pizzas with stuffed crust. The stuffing was unusual in that it was similar to pot pie ingredients (peas, carrots, potatoes, etc). Her story was that back in Italy, she got tired of guys from the outfit (the mafia) eating her pizza but leaving the crusts. So she started putting all these vegetables in the crust so there was no excuse for these grown men to waste her food.
I swear, ordering a medium-sized pizza from her would last several days! I believe her shop was called 'Mafia Pizza', although it's likely to be under a different name these days and her family as far as I recall still keep the place going.
The second place I need to mention is Ice House Pizza in Hope, Idaho. Hope is a very small town , just a few hundred people total. This place makes some of the best pizza I've had and it's very underrated. Open year round, the employees do a fantastic job and if you're out there, take some time to dine in. It faces Pend Oreille Lake and you won't regret it.
It was Bruno's Mafia Style Pizza in Eugene! I've been there! It was in an industrial complex. 2 pizzas were 12 pounds! You're the only person I've heard speak of it.
@philedwards - Another great video! I live in New York and have access to all the best pizza snob OG pizza spots, but the ending of your vid time portaled me back to Friday nights in high school. The marching band gathered up after games at our hometown classic Pizza Hut and basically over ran the place. The memories! Thanks for that!
I dig the disclaimer you added for the intro to deep dish. Damn right. Vito and Nick's has been discussed as, and imo is STILL, the best Chicago pizza. Since 1932. And it's cracker thin crust, square cut, sausage-onion-green pepper. That's the classic Chicago topping combo. Prove me wrong.
yes peter mentioned that sausage has always been a chicago staple! i'm probably a pequods and father and son fan in chicago myself
I was born in Chicago and have grown up in the Chicago area, and as people like me say, if you cut me I bleed pizza sauce. Thin crust definitely is the way, and sausage onion and green pepper is definitely the topping. I think there almost isn’t a definitive best Chicago Pizza as much as there is the pizza you grew up on in your neighborhood, the one you remember with that distinctive homemade sausage, and that particular recipe for the sauce. There are as many minor variations on Chicago style thin crust pizza as there are small one-off pizza shops in Chicagoland.
I still delight in pizza variations, and I’m getting a taste for getting some Detroit style pizza from Jet’s. And now that I’m not a kid anymore and I understand why it happens, I want some St. Louis style pizza with Provel cheese.
And it’s been a long time but we used to always enjoy a supreme pan pizza at Pizza Hut.
Born and raised in Chicago myself, and thin crust, cut into squares pizza is predominantly what most people in Chicago eat. It's our normal Friday night pizza. Deep dish, or stuffed pizza, is a once in a while type thing.
11:07 'same exact recipes obviously with differences' ... so ... then ... not the same recipes!?
I didn't actually realize I was taking it for granted that we have a "Pizza Hut Classic" in Ringgold about 10 mins from home...
Guess me and the Mrs. are going out tonight
I grew up in Chicago, as one other person mentioned I also appreciated the disclaimer you added about deep dish pizza lol. I've always thought it incredible how many variations of pizza you can find in the US alone and have had the opportunity of trying many different kinds myself -- tavern style, deep dish, detroit style, quad cities style, st. louis style, etc.
My absolute favorite place, though, will always be Pat's Pizza in Chicago (near Printer's Row, different place from the photo shown earlier in the video). Considering that I grew up with Pat's, I think your point about emotions and memories hits the nail on the head. Thank you for making this wonderful video!
Not only is Chicago pizza not pizza it's a flipping casserole - Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an idiot
Phil, thank you for this wonderful video. As someone originally from New Haven, PLEASE share the map of New Haven style apizza places. I need it. Thank you!!
New Haven apizza! Now I want to go home (Norwalk) and get some Pepe
Shoutout to Dayton OH style pizza. There are three closely related local chains in Dayton: Cassano’s, Ron’s, and Marion’s. Of these Cassano’s was the first, and Ron’s and Marion’s came about after Cassano’s employees left and opened their own shops. They all share a style - very thin but not cracker crust, edge to edge toppings, small square cut slices. They all went different directions as well - Cassano’s became a widespread local “cheap” chain, Ron’s still only has one location, while Marion’s is the most popular with several sit-down restaurants popular for family gatherings and unique bite-sized square slices and ground sausage on top. While it’s not nearly as high quality as we used to think, Marion’s in particular is very nostalgic for a lot of Dayton folks and we definitely draw lines at which chain we prefer.
Woody Allen supposedly said, "Pizza is a lot like sex. When it's good, it's really good. When it's bad, it's still pretty good." Whether he really said it or not, it's pretty much my philosophy. I grew up in a place full of 1st and 2nd generation Italian immigrants and we ate a lot of truly great pizza. I've also on occasion had some pretty terrible cheap frozen pizza, and I've had a whole lot of stuff across the spectrum between those extremes. The good stuff is infinitely more desirable, of course, but I've never yet seen a pizza I didn't want to eat at least a little bit.
The best pizza I've ever had was from a literal mom & pop place, very tiny, that doesn't exist anymore. It had a chewy yet crisp crust that was flavorful in itself, sauce that contained caraway seeds and some mix of herbs that they wouldn't tell and I've never been able to recreate perfectly, and fresh mozzarella, plus a small selection of optional but consistently delicious toppings. It was beautiful.
I also used to say "but I've never yet seen a pizza I didn't want to eat at least a little bit" but then I saw that american cheese pizza in this video
@@Yakkers lmao!!
@@Yakkers Ha! You make an excellent point, my friend. :D I'd have to see it in person to be completely sure (after all, I can eat a grilled cheese made with that, so... maaaaaaybe??), but you're right, that might very well be enough to turn even me.
Phil, I always enjoy your videos. They're informative and entertaining. Toward the end of this one really had a wonderfully warm sentiment. When you hit on the idea of people being intimately tied to certain types of pizza or a specific pizza joint because of nostalgia it really got me. I think this phenomena of our preferences for some things due to memories and familiarity is fascinating. I love listening to folks tell about their experiences and talk so genuinely about their favorite pizza and the place it came from was great. Couldn't help but to think about a few specific places here in my hometown where I shared a delicious slice with great friends and loved ones over the decades of my life. Thanks for all the work that you put into your videos. This is far better content than a lot of what has millions spent on it being produced these days.
ah thanks a lot. it's funny, until this video came out i kinda let my nostalgia stagnate at pizza hut just so i could get the video done. but now i'm thinking of all the new-city-as-a-kid pizzas, new apartment pizzas, etc...
I really enjoyed the point too. Its something I've discussed with friends here in St. Louis, where I'm a recent-ish transplant. Phil showed Imo's pizza for STL Style, which is the most iconic chain. In person and on reddit, theres plenty of debate about Imo's. You either love it or hate it. And there does seem to be their aura of a lot people love it just because its what they grew up with.
Although I will say, if you like thin crust square pizza, for a delivery chain, Imo's is pretty decent. And I'm probably a bit biased myself just because ordering Imo's feels in a way like rooting for a local sports team. You do it for the local pride, not because its the best.
I grew up on Pizza Hut too. Our classic Hut roof never closed, but they stopped doing dine-in during the pandemic and haven't reopened. Visiting New York was still something special. My favorite was a place near Penn Station. Just by chance I tried Lombardi's too.
Didn't expect to get goosebumps & teary-eye thinking about geography and pizza memories 😭
You are absolutely one of my favorite creators on TH-cam, and have been since your time on Vox, and this amazing video is a great example of your excellent content.
Thank you for the wonderful videos.
When recommending meals in NYC, one of 5 restaurants where you cannot fail is John's of Bleecker Pizzeria. They sell pizza by the pie only.
i actually stumbled onto it last time i was there - amazing!
You didn't mention the most important part of a Great Pizza! The Box! There are 2 types Cardboard what you show Exclusively and the Clay box a clay impregnated box , the clay box makes the delivery pizza! Its just like real NY deli sandwiches the material used to wrap them makes a huge difference. Now Cardboard is easy to handle its stiffer . But tales up a lot of space before its assembled! Clay is different you need to practice assembly I used to do hundreds an hours, it definitely needs a Barbie Table in the box especially when more than one is stacked. You need to be almost athletic to handle them during delivery i don't think I ruined 1 in the years i made and delivered NY style pizza for a University Town in Pennsylvania on the NJ border. The Box makes or break's the pizza. It came be a great pie but Cardboard changes it in a bad way.
Love that you accurately listed Ypsilanti as the birthplace of Domino’s but why’d ya have to switch it to Ann Arbor on the next map? Ypsi needs all the love it can get! 15:00
Love the ending particularly much this time around. Great work as always.
Thank you for the Chicago note. As a junior delegate of the Chicago Pizza Counsel, thanks!
In Miami, I grew up with Cuban style pizza which uses an almost biscuit type crust, and tangy tomato sauce with processed mozzarella cheese. I ate this stuff every day for four years when I was in high school. Thanks for the episode, your channel is great!
The Buffalo-style half-tray with pepperoni. Been my go-to for almost 30 years.
yo I've never had that but from pics it looks amazing! I gotta try it next chance I get
Louisa / Gordonsville, VA has a surviving pizza hut, classic with all the bells and whistles!
No love for Ohio Valley style pizza? The one with the uncooked cheese? Hello?
i think it being so tied to dicarlos for a long time made it fall a smidge short of a style (but maybe that was the wrong choice)
@ even as a footnote, I think many would be interested to learn of it. Uncooked cheese can be quite shocking to some. It’s a bit more polarizing than even thin/thick crust. In the greater pittsburgh area there are at least two places, another (maybe more) in West Virginia and of course, in Ohio.
It’s also very unique in that, more so than any other style, it really needs to be eaten as soon as it’s out of the oven. You can get it to go, but it’s much different after it sits.
This love letter to pizza was really a treat, thank you
in my hometown in wisconsin there’s two beloved pizza joints that have been around for 50+ years. the legend goes that they were originally one location owned by two guys named pat and frank. eventually they parted ways to form competing pizza joints and it made pat into a bitter old man in the process so naturally, his spot became known as Cranky Pat’s. frank's was just called frank's pizza tho lol.
The buffet at Pizza Hut was truly legendary, especially if you were sat in the sunroom
I wasn’t able to contribute a video from Wichita because of the blizzards that hit. But getting the shout out mid video is what I needed - and the button on the video made me cry. As a Wichita boy I can’t stress how important Pizza Hut is to me. Thank you Phil.
Went to visit that Pizza Hut museum in Wichita not to long ago. It explained the question asked in the video about why it was called Hut. Yes, the original was hut shaped but more importantly, it needed the word Pizza in its name and at 3 letters hut fit on the sign.
10:01 Seeing New Haven style pizza make this vid made me so happy. Being from CT, it’s the only thing we have worth visiting for 😂
Phil, your adoring audience is still waiting for the triumphant return of that fabulous mustache!
I am now only an occasional Pizza Hut guy, but as a kid I was a PH stan! We used to go almost every Friday night to what is now a PH Classic and had the iconic red mansard roof. I have a lot of fond memories from that time. We of course participated in book it and got the personal pan pizzas while my parents shared a pie of their own. We used to bring quarters to put into the machine that dispensed those Lisa Frank looking stickers and temporary tattoos that went on with water. The salad bar layered with kale that back then was only for decoration. Even my small town that didn't have much going on and had no fast food restaurants had a pizza place. Pizza was and is still one of my favorite foods. It's so American and I love it!
That last shot hit pretty hard.
Hope you enjoyed your slice of nostalgia.
it was pretty dang good!
For a kid growing up in rural Nebraska in the 1980s, the Pizza Hut “Book It!” Program was the best! 😊 My family didn’t go out to eat often so it was a great excuse to get pizza!
i got so much pizza cause i read so much lmao
I love most varieties of pizza (perhaps too much), but my fondest memories are getting my personal pan from the "Book It!" program. It felt like a special treat!
Yes! It's what made me so attached to Pizza Hut as a kid. I read sooooooo much it was absurd, and it paid off. It's a shame Pizza Hut is just too greasy for me to eat these days, it would be wonderful nostalgia.
Book It was the only reason my family ever went to Pizza Hut. Little Caesars was our go to for four kids. Now that I have six kids it’s the only Pizza I can afford, and my kids claim it is the best. Meanwhile myself and their mother know that a classic Neapolitan margherita from a local wood fired joint is the best in town. Childhood memories form core beliefs in the “best” pizza, period.
@@monkreeder Hey man, it's great to have kids loving the cheap stuff for as long as possible haha. I don't blame them, you have a much simpler palette as a kid and more complex flavors can be too off-putting. Little Caesars is basically the Platonic form of "It's pizza". That two word sentences represents everything it is.
I'm actually really jealous of people (and children) with simple palettes because at the end of the day, they may not want to try anything new but they tend to like very simple, cheap things. And that sounds like an INCREDIBLE win, I would pay money to love eating the same plain, cheap food all the time. Way more convenient than desiring complexity...
There are TWO locations that used to be Pizza Huts in my area that are not on "Used to Be a Pizza Hut". One is now a Smokehouse/BBQ joint, the other is now a Crab Kitchen/Seafood Spot. I'll try to grab pics of both and get it submitted.
Here in Massachusetts, we have Greek pizza. Every decent sized town has (or used to have) a Pizza House or House of Pizza (or both) run by Greek families putting their own spin on pizza. Some people love it, some people don't. I personally love grabbing a greasy, smothered with toppings pie, a sausage grinder, some spanakopita, a Greek salad, and some baklava to feast on while watching the Pats game.
If you're gonna talk about Spago, you have to talk about Wolfgang Puck and Ed LaDou's timeless contribution to the pizza lexicon. BBQ Chicken pizza. The unique american invention that took a simple Italian dish and made it something that the whole nation can eat and New Yorkers can rightly mock
Growing up my father and my grandfather worked at pizza shops. I was at pizza shops all the time. I grew up around it. There was always pizza in the fridge at home. I used to play arcade games all the time like Madden Blitz and Street Fighter. One of the pizza places was known for its big handmade pizzas. The pizzas were up to 28 inches. Lots of fond memories.
I loooove mapsplained sooo much thank you for these
We had this family run place for a few years that had this amazing dough. Whatever it was that made it special, whether it is the spice blend or sacrificial ritual I continue to mourn their closure 8 years later.
I got this in my recommendations without even realizing that I had watched some of your videos before. The one about blackcurrants, the one about lace, and I think the one about graphing calculators.
The ending had so much emotion.
I loved this
Native Chicagoan here, and growing up pizza (50s, 60s) was not deep dish but what is called tavern style, but it was what every mom and pop pizza place made. Square cut, sausage with fennel #1 ingredient (what is pepperoni anyway?) Everyone was aware of deep dish, I ate at Uno's in 1970 on a date, Gino's East ditto (Lou Malnottis was suburban out of reach by bus) . It was a date place primarily because of location. But until Giordano's opened with multiple locations in the early 1970s with thei take on deep dish, "tavern style" pizza was the main. Then an explosion of variations on a theme happened with all sorts of takes on deep dish, just like there are so many varieties of "not deep dish" pizza around the country. And now more places opened up more than one location, and of course, delivery was present since day 1. (Cardboard circle, paper bag "box".) Many good, a few great, some not so good pies of all kinds. But I do reject the idea that deep dish crust is like a (fruit) pie. Maybe roughly regarding the side crust visually, but that's it. Different flour types, side and bottom thickness, moisture, dryness, crispiness. And lots of folks eat both deep dish and not deep dish, but it depends on why you want pizza and what your favorite place sells.
I took one of Scott's pizza tours a few years ago I learned a lot about pizza, pizza crust, and buffalo mozzarella. It was great.
I first had pizza at Doyle's on West 34th Street in Houston around 1962. We didn't go out to restaurants when I was growing up, Mom wouldn't have it. But that night we were with some friends of my parents', so this was a special occasion. There was a sign in the dining room assuring us that it was standard practice to pick up the slices with your hands, not a knife and fork. I chose a Romanian pizza, which is a type I almost never see anymore. I had no idea which one to choose, so I chose the Romanian because I was map-obsessed at the time.
Thanks Phil! I think I’m done of the many people who requested a pizza video. It doesn’t disappoint! What a well-researched, considerate, and artfully done take on this! Thanks for the amazing content!
I used to live in a small town called Mill City, Oregon. Whenever I mentioned to somebody where I was from, if they recognized the town at all, it was because it was where Giovanni's Mountain Pizza was located. That small pizza restaurant seems to be the town's only claim to fame.
As someone who worked at a Pizza Hut for 5 years (I did everything but mostly waited tables in the nostalgic lil dining area) I found this video incredible! It’s chain pizza but it hits a spot… especially the personal pan ones
I will say tho I was always so confused why people would come to my Pizza Hut when all around us were SO MANY great pizza places as it’s jersey
Every high school memory I can think of is attached to me eating, working or spending time with coworkers and friends at Peter Piper Pizza Store number one on Glendale and 43rd Ave. in Phoenix, Arizona. 36 years later I still love a PPP pepperoni and jalapeño 🍕
I worked at a university for years and often said that all you need to circumvent even the best security measures was a pizza box. The students will let you in anywhere if they think you're delivering someone a pizza.
Shoutout to Tony T’s Winner’s NY Pizza in Agoura Hills, CA. Not well-known but I grew up with it and it’s what I chase every time I search for a new pizza place.
Fantastically fun and well researched video, Phil!
I eat pizza so often that I started to think I had a problem but when I think about it, it's really something special.
Glad to have backed you on Patreon! 💜
The parens of a friend of mine in high school were from Sicily, and she cooked all sorts of Sicilian stuff, and her pizza was the best I ever ate.
My friend often brought leftover pizza in his lunch, and he shared.
THANK YOU! YES. So much honesty here, especially about how what matters about pizza is how the pizzas you know made you feel.
It’s why we can get emotional about someone talking down a type of pizza, or saying their pizza is the only “real” pizza. _Your_ pizzas are the special pizzas for you, and the montage of people sharing the pizza they love, with joy and without the need to diss, that was some beautiful humans doing beautiful human things. 🥹
It made me remember so many beautiful times that were connected to pizza in my life. All kinds of pizzas over the years. Pizza (usually) happens with fun, like one of your guests pointed out. Lots of us have pizza memories, and it was beautiful you made this connection so clear. Who knew there was a thread of pizza memories??!
I’m saving this video to paste into comments every time I see a pizza video going forward that sh*ts on someone’s pizza or suggests there’s a correct or “best” pizza. Pizza is memories! Pizza is love!
The best pizza? It’s the kind you share with people who care about each other.
You made me cry, Phil! Beautiful work! 🍕💜✨
haha thank you - and it is true! you are sending me on a pizza nostalgia trip in my brain right now
For a birthday treat, I got to eat at Pizza Hut. What I remember mostly wasn't the pizza, but the Asteroids stand-up arcade game. It was the first time I'd seen a vector-graphics arcade game, and it was one of those moments when you think "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!" As far as pizza, though, I love all kinds. Thin crust, deep dish, pineapple, anchovies... it's all good!
what a great video essay. it was lovely
It is so interesting hearing about retail architecture. I feel with u guys
My mother (born in 1925, Indiana near Chicago) said that during her dating age ( so probably 1940s).... she said there was this new thing that nobody had ever heard of called "ahhhh pizza pie!"
Only 8 Pizza Hut dine ins left in Australia. Straight back to my childhood.
The mini marshmallows!
loved the ending!! amazing work Phil.
I grew up in a small town in central mass. There is this Greek owned pizza parlor called Spencer Pizza. They make pizza in a deep dish pan without it being deep dish.
Its amazing!
The Pizza Hut in the town I grew up in is a sushi restaurant now. But that roof will always make me think of those days of being taken there by my parents after soccer or baseball practice.
I grew up on two local pizza delicacies: Pepi's Pizza in Oneida, NY (thin crust, square cut perfection) and Utica tomato pie (thick crust with sauce and grated Parmesan cheese, served cold). Both taste like home to me.
If you ever go out to North Dakota. A visit to Rhombus Guy's in Grand Forks or Fargo will bring a tear to your eye.
shout out to Scott Wiener for rejecting his nomen affinity and branching out into Pizza
Ohio Valley Pizza. Square Pizza on a firm crust. Sweeter sauce and Motz cheese. Pizza is cooked with only a dusting of cheese and when pulled from the oven the other toppings added. Great fresh when the interplay of hot and cold is best.
Also: on Long Island, we have our own unique style: Grandma's Pie. Invented at King Umberto's in Elmont. I wrote about it in my book on the history of Elmont and Rosedale
For me it's Greek style local joints in New England, it's usually the "[town name] house of pizza" type places. Baked in a rimmed but shallow buttered pan so you get a nice crispy crust that's soft when you bite into it, usually a bit of white cheddar mixed in with the mozzarella which is a big part of the "couldn't place it but you know it when you taste it" flavor profile, and it's all just the right amount of greasy. It's what "pizza" is to me and I'd miss it so much if I ever move
Me: Tearing up at a video about Pizza.
"There is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can't be improved with pizza."
-Daria Morgandorffer
Agree, it is the memories. Every location in the States has its terrible pizza joints, to middle ground (its a late night, lets get a pizza) joints, to great pizza joints. its hard to compare and say who has the best pizza. I can however, a test to having someone from Brooklyn NY crave a great slice. He lived here in Southern California for about a year or so. About 3 months into his stay here he told me, Hey man, I need a really good place that sells pizza by the slice or whole, but man, I haven't found one or a place that is worth anything. I took him to a local mom and pop place, from a Guy from Detroit (he imported along of his ingredients from NY) . We sat down, and I ordered him a plain Pepperoni and just a Plain Cheese. Boom, He was like.. Man.. you don't know how much this hits right now. I told him thats Fantastic. I told the owner and he came over and they chatted about it for a good a mount of time. He never stopped raving about the place. He wasn't out here very long, and has since moved back to NY, but still mentions it. Just goes to show that its all about the care on how its made and the memories. Cheers Phil.
Oh and I am probably not alone on this, but the rectangle school pizza's hit hard. So bad yet so good.
Thanks for adding actual captions for the Deaf ❤
Thank you about that video. I can't stand the trend in social media about "not doing it right" with people dissing on any food made anywhere besides the country "it originates in".
Any food is international and open to change with availability of ingredients and all. Also, food changes with plenty of factors like budget, geography, cooking methods.
Pizza should unite the world and your video makes us feel good about it.
I don't know if your Canadian pizza side journey included anything about Nova Scotia pizza - Most pizza joints in the province were set up by Lebanese and Greek families, and developed some unique styles of pizzas and side dishes. In Halifax we have an iconic street corner we call "Pizza Corner" with three competing pizza places on each of the street corners (the fourth corner is a historic church) - all of them offer Halifax Donairs and "Garlic Fingers" alongside pizza. Donairs are spiced pressed Lamb or Beef roasted on a spit and cut into strips and then put on a pita with some veggies and a sweet sauce (Donair sauce). Garlic fingers are generally a sauceless pizza with mozzarella cheese with garlic and spices added on top of the cheese, then cut into strips. These are then dipped into marinara sauce, or more commonly in the sweet donair sauce. Donair meat is a common pizza topping too, and donair sauce is popular as a dipping sauce or put directly onto pizza with or without the donair meat on it.
Nova Scotia also have another very unique pizza style - Pictou County Pizza. Pictou is a few hours from Halifax, and is a pretty rural town. Their pizza has a special brown sauce made by adding chicken broth and flour to more common pizza sauce ingredients. Pictou County pizza shops always ensure they use locally made pepperoni for their pizzas too.
Old Forge Pizza has been around since the 1920's - it's regionality came from one person's decision to using rimmed baking trays and a cheese blend based on what the family could more readily get. Its not Sicilian, the family is actually not from Southern Italy, but Perugia.
Man, there is some nostalgia in this video! I ate so many free personal pan pizzas from bookit as a kid. It was almost a weekly event for our family. Sadly we don't have any pizza hut classics here in Wichita, which seems crazy to me. The only building left that I am aware of is in Maize, KS, just northwest of Wichita. I don't know when Pizza Hut left it, but I remember eating there in Highschool a couple of times, and at some point it shut down, and some other pizza place moved in. A couple of years ago (now that I think about it, probably a covid casualty) it shut down, and it's been sitting empty ever since. All of our Pizza Huts are the modern style, and it's kind of sad. I definitely miss that cozy pizza hut experience. It always felt special, like "a real restaurant" rather than just another fast food joint.
Shoutout to that one pizza joint that's been around since I was a kid and every time I go in there I hear loud Italian voices in the kitchen.