In Spring 2019, Mark Gluck bought Detroit-style pizza to the Valley. His square pies boast the style’s signature thickness and darkly browned, cheese-crisp crust. Topping-wise, pies keep it classic or veer into zany territory with combinations like bacon and alfredo, Hatch chile and crema, and even spicy pickles. There are vegan and gluten-free options. The rec has expanded to a second West Valley location, also in Peoria. 

Raised by a Southern Italian family in the Switzerland-adjacent reaches of Piedmont, in far Northern Italy, Fabio Ceschetti brings something different to the metro Phoenix pizza scene. Ceschetti operates in a newly renovated space in Peoria, in the West Valley, where pizza of high caliber is a little harder to find. His pizza has strong Neapolitan leanings — lightness, minimal toppings, puffy crust — but isn’t wholly Neapolitan. Toppings are traditional. Classic dessert options like tiramisu, cannoli, and cookies are popular. 

Matt and Lindsey Pilato oversee one of the most popular pizzerias in North Scottsdale. Matt Pilato offers a dizzying array of Neo-Neapolitan pies baked in his red-tiled oven, finishing most with parmesan. He uses a blend of flours that includes 00 from Italy, resulting in a crust with chew and lightness. After testing numerous domestic and imported mozzarellas, Matt decided to stick with the one he makes himself. White pies seem to especially thrive at Lamp. Matt’s most impressive creation might be his Geppetto, topped with Sicilian sausage, gorgonzola, and caramelized onion marmalade. 

Justin Piazza’s Glendale standby has unlikely range, serving both Neapolitan-style and Roman-style pizza. His Neapolitan closely follows the Old World method (San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, blistering heat, and a lightning-fast cooking time) and is a faithfully thin, soft example of Italy’s original pizza. More unique for the Valley, his Roman style is equally traditional: thick crust, high-hydration dough, with rectangular slices. A few of his Roman al taglio pies get creative, including one that uses bacon, tomato, and pecorino to emulate the Roman pasta Amatriciana. 

Where South Phoenix starts to thin into farms, Domenico Cavallo, who grew up not far from Naples, is making the Neapolitan pizza of his youth. He uses Italian 00 flour and a high-hydration dough for lightness, hewing closely to tradition. The most exciting thing about this young pizzeria is that it is starting to ramp up produce sourcing from its own four-acre farm, Cavallo Vineyard, also in Laveen. Though Cavallo’s 300 olive trees aren’t producing oil just yet, he gets some ingredients, like basil and garlic, from his rural plot not unlike the one he grew up on near Salerno. 

One of the intimate settings for pizza downtown is Guido Saccone’s Cibo, a haven of sauce and dough inside a century-old bungalow. Inside feels almost like a warm older relative’s red-brick house; the outside patio’s chimineas, plants, and trees banish, if only briefly, the bustle of the city. Saccone learned the pizzaiolo’s art at his brother’s restaurant in Caserta, a town in the same region as Naples. His pizza has the soupiness and puffy rim of Neapolitan and often has hard char blisters. His diavola, powered by spicy salami, is a cult favorite. 

The Gagliano family has roots in Liguria, and a Valley of the Sun pizzeria right by Phoenix Art Museum. The low-key eatery really takes on a vibe of eating in a simple Italian cafe, a place of spritzes and handmade gnocchi and strong coffee, where time pauses as folks tuck into sparsely filled panini made from dough that sees the wood-fired pizza oven. Pizzas follow suit; they’re straightforward and lovingly made, with a freshness to the tomatoes and bready depth to the crust. The family’s signature might be the Testosterone, a pie draped with prosciutto, tangled with bell peppers, and crowned with two eggs. 

Housed in a repurposed midcentury beauty parlor, the Parlor is one of the rare pizzerias that can really nail wildly non-traditional toppings. Dan and Aric Mei use a wood-fired oven to blaze pies like barbecue chicken; Calabrian salumi and watercress; and a union of fig jam, prosciutto, sweet potato ricotta with salted almonds. Though this restaurant is a reliable purveyor of classics like margherita, it’s hard not to spring for a pizza with smoked tomatoes or sausage and saba (an Italian, grape-based reduction).

Now with locations in Scottsdale and Chandler, Craft 64 remains a stalwart of metro Phoenix’s robust Neo-Neapolitan pizza culture. Josh Ivey oversees both kitchens, putting the produce of area farms — chiefly McClendon’s Organic Selects — to careful use. The pizza here is thin but retains a fresh, wholesome bready quality. Signature pies include the Smokehouse, a white pie that gains a hint of muskiness from smoked onions and smoked sausage, as well as the Aji, warmed through with jalapeno sauce. 

Former accountant, Proof Bread apprentice, and part-time sidewalk pizzaiolo Myke Olsen moved to a full-time oven in downtown Mesa early in 2019. Olsen ponders the fine points of pizza’s artistry on a level that calls to mind Chris Bianco, Arizona’s longtime pizza master. Olsen employs a Neo-Neapolitan style marked by American flour blends, long fermentations, and shaved aged gouda on finished pies. When the season is right, he doesn’t hesitate to add fruit, like pineapple (for a pie with Jersey pork roll) or sliced peaches (for one with sage and pistachios). Other standouts include a marinara inspired by eating garden tomatoes with his grandfather, and a white pie with potato and garlic cream.

Chris Bianco is a giant of local and national pizza culture. The Bronx native who learned to make mozzarella when working at red sauce joints back East started blazing pies in a Phoenix grocery store three decades ago. Since then, he has tirelessly refined his technique and ingredients. Bianco grinds his own blends of Western grains for a high-protein dough, uses his own brand of California tomatoes, and draws inspiration from local farmers and ranchers. His pizza defies category, but has a rusticity that conjures the ancient flatbreads from which pizza evolved. The Rosa (red onion, rosemary, pistachio, and Parmesan) and Wiseguy (roasted onion, smoked mozzarella, fennel sausage) are probably his two most famous pizzas. Recently, he has added 18-inch “Bronx-style” pies embracing many elements of classically New York-style pizza. 

This new slice-first downtown shop by Tanner Locust might be the biggest Phoenix pizza opening in years. Locust uses lengthy fermentations and humble deck ovens to bake a soft, ample crust with all the hot-bready goodness of a fresh-from-the-oven roll. Slices are huge and floppy, with the exception of the thick, square grandma slice). Locust rains pizza with ample basil and grated cheese. He is still expanding his menu, but already his vodka slice and white slice (caramelized onion and sesame seed) are two local favorites.