They Say We've Got a Pizza Revolution

From the plainest slice to a gluten-free pie, pizza has the heart of most of us. Lately, it seems pizza makers are reinventing the pie, be it through local ingredients, new ethnic twists or memorable delivery methods.

My personal favorite: Upscale pizza delivered by superheroes from Minneapolis' Galactic Pizza: Planet Saving Pizza. The deliverymen, although dressed in full costume and driving electric-vehicles, aren’t more amazing than the delicious pies. Galactic is an innovative pizzeria, offering organic, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. And they’re all about local food: The CSA Pizza is topped with fresh, seasonal and organic crops sourced from a local co-op farm, while the Paul Bunyan Pizza uses all ingredients native to the Minnesota ecosystem, like morel mushrooms and free-range bison sausage.

New York City is home to K! Pizzacone, a twist on the traditional slice. Dough is baked into a cone shape and filled with cheese, sauce and toppings of customers’ choice. Owner Ingo Pinot saw the concept in Portugal, Brazil and Italy before deciding to bring it to Manhattan.

In Los Angeles, pizzas are going ethnic. Brami’s Kosher Pizza in Reseda stuffs malawach, a Yemeni flatbread that is dense but flaky like phyllo, with mozzarella, crumbles of feta, diced tomatoes and green olives. Brami’s also offer kosher pizzas that are rabbinically-approved reproductions of the classic. At Guelaguetza, customers can get an Oaxacan pizza called the clayuda, a parchment-thin tortilla smeared with asiento (rendered pork fat) and black beans and topped with cheese, lettuce and meat. It is served with a choice of Oaxacan string cheese, chorizo, tasajo, cecina or chicken. And 60-year-old  A. Partamian Bakery offers up Armenian pizza. The lahmajune is made of flatbread covered with a mix of ground lamb, tomatoes, bell pepper and spices, then baked. —Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.