Corvallist Awards: Best Pizza

I'm going to alienate some of my readers with a bold statement: There is no pizza that can compare to real New York pizza. I'm not talking about the "New York style pizza" touted by restaurants around the globe; I mean authentic, paper-thin, malleable, drippy, greasy, fold-it-in-half pizza found in tiny shops throughout New York and neighboring states. If you can pick up a slice without it drooping precariously toward the floor, it's just not the real thing. If it has more than a topping or two, sparsely dotted across the surface, it's poseur pizza. None of those newfangled toppings, either. The last time I was in New York and dared ask for pineapple, the guy behind the counter actually asked, "You want what now? Nah, nah, we don't do that crap here." Beautiful.

There. Now you know my bias right up front, so you can take my pizza rankings with whatever size grain of salt you would like. That being said, Corvallis has some decent pizza. Let's cover the highs and lows, shall we?

Corvallist's personal fave: Cirello's Pizza, which calls itself New York style, but the crust is really too thick and the toppings too plentiful. No matter. What they do, they do extremely well. I may just lobby the restaurant and ask them to create a Corvallist special: linguica, broccoli, pineapple, artichoke hearts and extra garlic.

Best place to sit and have a slice: American Dream Pizza, either downtown or by campus. Their restaurants are typical Corvallis funky style, with amateur artist-decorated furniture, painted pizza boxes and weird stuff. They offer single slices for a good price and you can fold the pizza in half if you want. But the crusts taste like straight flour, so they miss the mark a bit.

Best place to bring the kid's softball team: Woodstocks Pizza. Also the best place to eat pizza, have a beer and get your laundry done at the same time. Corvallis is home to the original Woodstocks, which has now spread to several California college towns. Their wheat crust is fantastic, but their pizzas are best eaten fresh, not delivered.

Best cheapskate pizza/Best pizza when you're impaired: Pizza Pipeline. Yep, it's a chain. But they don't serve typical chain pizzeria cardboard pies. Considering you can get an extra large two-topping pizza with two large drinks for $12.99, this is the perfect option when you're scraping pennies out of the couch to buy dinner for your friends. Bonus: Their cheesy garlic "Tricky Stix" are actually quite good.

Best pizza from a non-pizza-centric restaurant: Izzy's Pizza. Izzy's is a buffet-style restaurant, but they also make a great pan-style pizza. I am generally not a pan pizza fan, but Izzy's has the best crusts in town. Their Western Barbeque Chicken pizza is amazing.

Pizza I have not tried yet that will probably be ridiculously pretentious: Intaba's. I like Intaba's okay, but when I have a hankering for pizza, I don't really want goat cheese, chipotle glaze, toasted walnuts or tempeh chorizo. It's too damned complicated to be pizza.

And finally...

Worst pizza in town, if not worst pizza anywhere: Pizza Peddler, formerly Brand X Pizza. Not sure if this place is even open anymore, but it's the first time I've thrown away an entire pizza after three bites.

I'm not a fan of Domino's, Little Caesar's or Pizza Hut, so they're not included with separate reviews. Similarly, Figaro's, Papa John's and other take and bake places are left off the list. If I'm going to pick up the pizza and bake it myself, I'd rather just make my own.