MISSOURI, USA — Alright, it's time to flex a little bit of bragging rights in the Bi-State. According to Food & Wine Magazine, the Show-Me State has the tenth best pizza in the country, and the Land of Lincoln checked in at No. 4.
Digital Senior Editor for Food & Wine David Landsel traveled around the country taste-testing pizza from all over the country to find the best of the best. Both Missouri and Illinois ended up cracking the Top 10.
Missouri checks in at No. 10 on Landsel's list, with St. Louis area restaurants taking the spotlight.
Provel cheese gets a big shout-out in Missouri's ranking as well as local restaurants like Imo's, Faraci's in Manchester, Frank and Helen's in University City, Liliana's Italian Kitchen, Melo's Pizzeria, Union Loafers and Noto Italian Restaurant in St. Peters.
Illinois checked in at No. 4 on the list, with Chicago deep-dish getting the limelight. The list also highlights some thin-crust pizza available in the state as well.
"Most pizzerias in the region, in fact, sell the absolute opposite [of deep dish] —the thinnest of the thin-crust, always square-cut, like so much other pizza throughout the Midwest," Landsel wrote.
The full list of the top 10 pizza states in the country from Food & Wine goes:
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- New York
- Illinois
- Michigan
- California
- Pennsylvania
- Massachusetts
- Ohio
- Missouri
Landsel said that while there was some collaboration, most of the tasting fell to him. You can check out the full rankings and story on Food & Wine's website by clicking here.