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Every year since 2012, food site the Daily Meal taps their mailing list of 50-some critics all over the country to rank the best pizza in America.
This year, they've named two Portland pie spots as among the best 101 pies in America.
No one who eats pizza in Portland should be surprised at the pie they ranked the best in Portland. Apizza Scholls was ranked as the 18th best pizza spot in the nation, better than quite a few New York spots. It was in fact the highest-ranked New Haven-style pie outside of New Haven, falling behind only legendary 80-year-old pizzerias Frank Pepe's, Modern Apizza and Sally's.
The precision and dedication of crustmaker Brian Spangler at the electric-oven pizza spot on Hawthorne Boulevard led Daily Meal to call it the best pizza, "some argue, north of San Francisco." We've been saying the same for years, especially on account of that delicious oven-kissed Sausage and Mama. Apizza moved up a slot this year from last year's No. 19 ranking.
Coming in at No. 58 was Ken's Artisan Pizza on Southeast 28th Avenue, which moved down a slot from 2016's list. Ken Forkish's wood-fired pies were praised for their "tangy, orange-red sauce, featuring heat and savory notes, and a style that, as the name of the restaurant states, is more artisanal than Neapolitan."
But this isn't the first time Oregon has fared so well on this list. Actually, this is kind of an off-year for Portland pizza.
Amid an explosion of pizza nationwide, two Portland pizzerias dropped off this year's rankings. Both Morrison Street's Nostrana and Mississippi's Lovely's 50/50, strong finishers in 2016, are no longer listed among the best in the nation. But perhaps the same thing has happened in Portland, as artisan pizza expands to every neighborhood in the city. When the base-level of pizza gets so good, only the truly extraordinary shines.
For the record, the pizza the Daily Meal critics panel liked best is the same pie they like every year. It's the white clam pie at Frank Pepe's in Connecticut, followed by the Boom! pie at John's of Bleecker Street in New York.