A Tour of Regional Pizza Styles in the United States

Weird History Food took a culinary tour across the United States to learn about every regional style of pizza served.

But if we’ve learned nothing else today, it’s that in these United States, the definition of pizza is limited only by the chef’s creativity and locals’ willingness to claim and defend it as their own.

This mouthwatering tour started in New York City with the iconic foldable version and moved westward to Chicago to talk about not only deep dish pizza but the local favorite of tavern pizza. Next, they moved over to Buffalo, New York, to sample their regional delicacy, to New Haven for some apizza, to New England for a traditional clam pie and Greek pizzas, to Michigan for Detroit style, to Washington, DC, for a jumbo slice, California for gourmet pizza, to Old Forge, Pennsylvania for a slice of their hometown favorite and Miami for Cuban style with gouda.

In Ohio, the first stop was Youngstown for a Brier Hill slice, Steubenville for Ohio Valley Style, and Dayton for their unique flat square style pies. Trenton has its tomato pies, Colorado sells theirs by the pound, and the midwest quad-cities named their pizza after themselves. Philly and Rhode Island go cheeseless while Altoona pizza of Pennsylvania piles it on.

It’s not surprising that this relatively simple dish has so many regional varieties as the US is a very big country, and people love their pizza.

But if we’ve learned nothing else today, it’s that in these United States, the definition of pizza is limited only by the chef’s creativity and locals’ willingness to claim and defend it as their own.