Who Has the Best Pizza?

As I was sitting in the cafe during lunch a conversation was brought up about pizza. I can honestly say I have no idea how the subject came about, but what stood out was the bickering back and forth between fellow lunch goers as to what pizza was better. For example here was a quick excerpt of part of a conversation between two people:

"La Festa is good, but if I'm going to Dover to get pizza, I'm getting Rogers!"

"Eww...Are you serious?"

"Oh Rogers is the best...I would eat it every day if I could!"

"That's funny because whenever I drive by Rogers I actually think to myself, 'God that stuff is awful!'"

As the two and others threw their opinions back and forth I sat there thinking, what is my favorite place? I chimed in a few times, but as I sat back at my desk this afternoon I really had to think. It's a very hard question. There are so many factors to think about. So many tastes and flavors to savor in my mouth.

Plus there's the fact that I love pizza and would eat it every single day if it didn't mean I would weight a thousand pounds because of it. I decided it was hard to state one pizza is better then all the rest so I decided to list my top 5 pizza places.

First I need to give a shout out and express my love for this "honorable mention" pizza place that won't make the list. I worked at a place in York, ME called La Stalla Pizza which was run by the same place at Fazios Restaurant. I loved their pizza. Unfortunately after I left those summers working for them the food went a little downhill. The pizza dough got a little too 'doughy' for me after that. Then they shut down, so I am excluding them off the top 5, but wanted to at least mention them....

#5. Best Fast Food Pizza: Domino's Pizza

Domino's is one of those cravings you get where you can't stop thinking about it. You get all hyped up for it and then eating it is delicious until the very end. Then you regret ever touching the stuff. You realize that the crust is all bubbly and dry and cheese isn't the best either. It's a quick fix when you're in a bind and out does any other big chains in my book. (IE: Pizza Hut, Papa Gino's etc.)

#4. Best Greasy Pizza: Joe's NY Pizza

Joe's has amazing pizza, but it can be tough to handle at times. It is very greasy and sits like a rock in your stomach afterwards, but you still don't regret it quite as much as you would Domino's. The best portion is the Meat Pizza which has about a pound of meat in each slice. This is an artery clogger if there ever was one. Delicious...

#3. Best I'd Travel Far Far Away to Get it Pizza: Village East Pizzeria

This is a pizza place in the East Village of New York City. I lived there for a summer while attending New York Film Academy (another story for another time). This place was off the beaten path in the East Village. We were shooting in the area one day and decided to stop in this little pizza shop. (I may have gotten the name wrong though because I could not remember the exact location, but would find it if I were there)

I saw a pizza with little bits of sausage with peas of all things. I thought to myself that it looked like the grossest thing I had ever seen. Peas on a pizza? No way! But I decided to try it for whatever reason and it was amazing. I loved it. I loved it so much I went out of my way to go back there again on two different occasions. One of those occasions I was with my future wife, brother-in-law and pregnant older sister. My apologies to them because it was not an easy place to get to from the subway station...

#2. Best Slices of Pizza: La Festa Pizza

This pizza place is right in downtown Dover, NH. It has great slices. Although they can be greasy at times, they are thin crust and very tasty. I would highly recommend getting a white buffalo slice and a bbq chicken slice. Those are my favorites. They are excellent pieces of pie and don't make you feel like crap afterwards either. Nice and crunchy crust too which is always a plus...

#1. Best Overall Pizza: Bratskellar

Simply the best BBQ Chicken pizza I have ever had. The pizzas are small, but fill you up so much. Lots of cheese, flavorful sauce and big chunks of BBQ chicken to boot. The crust is crunchy and not too thin or thick, but a perfect mixture of the two styles. If I could only eat one type of pizza for the rest of my life this would be the one. It melts in your mouth what can I say...

I can't go without mentioning the World's Worst Pizza: Some place in Italy (yes the country)

I don't know if I was just tired from the long flight with my fellow seniors on our class trip or what. Maybe I expect too much of it. We were in the Pizza capital of the world. I was expecting heaven on my mouth I guess. What I got was this crappy doughy pizza with splattered on chunks of tomato (chunky sauce is a big no-no in my book) and sparse amounts of some gawd awful cheese. It was disgusting. I hope it was only the one place, but maybe that's just how they roll in Italy. It was a major disappointment...

But again, these are all just one man's opinion...