In times like these, with the Super Bowl here and Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s important to remember the old saying: You can’t make everyone happy; you’re not pizza. And if you, too, love a great pie more than you love the Eagles, the Chiefs or most people, our island and its neighbors have a topping and a dough for nearly every palate, just in time for National Pizza Day! (Feb. 9th)
Italian styles run the category but why not go Greek? Though it’s well known as a family-friendly spot with an extensive menu of satisfying and approachably priced Italian specialties, sandwiches, salads, wings and more, after-hours pies at Nikolas Pizza have been a rite of passage for Newport revelers of all stripes since the restaurant opened in 1980. I remember being part of the throngs who would spill out onto Bannister’s Wharf in the 90s just after Ethel Mermon’s “God Bless America” signaled last call in the Boom Boom Room at the Clarke Cooke House, and wending my way up Memorial Blvd. to wait in line for the late night, Greek-style pies, which my friends and I would devour handily and happily.
Greek pizza dough, made from a lower gluten content flour and baked in a shallow pan rather than on a stone or the oven floor, renders a slightly thicker but lighter, more crackly crust than Neapolitan styles, while the sauce tends to be a bit less sweet than that of its Italian cousins. Nikolas offers three levels of thickness with a “razor thin,” a thin, and a Chicago style thick crust, and gluten-free diners are in luck with a GF dough available as well. Can you really say you know Newport if you’ve never housed a Nikolas pie? I don’t think so.
The new kid on the block, already serving one of the best burgers and one of my favorite pasta dishes in Newport, is The Quencher. To be honest, I’ve been so into their entrees that I’ve overlooked the pies here, but being the pizza-seeking missile I am, I had to get around to it eventually. They’ve got 14” pies that are “a cross between Neapolitan and a slightly thicker bar pie,” said owner Scott Kirmil, who added that the goal was to satisfy fans of the NY style while maintaining a crust thick enough to “hold up some funky toppings.” Their thick crust, deep dish “Grandma Squares” are made of a thick and fluffy house-made focaccia with a high olive oil content that keeps it from getting dry in the 700-degree Italian Mara Forni brick oven. Test it out for yourself on National Pizza Day, which happens to fall on Super Bowl Sunday, when all dine-in pies from 5 p.m. to close are half price. Or, buy two to go anytime that day and get a third one free.
As a born and raised New Yorker, so far, no one’s handed me a slice that looks and tastes like those saucy, cheese-pull-perfect, giant triangles of love I get over the counter in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but if you’re asking the Italians themselves, we have award winners right here in Newport and South County.
Just a 15-minute ride from Newport in Wakefield is Pasquale’s, which was listed 14th in the list of the 50 Top Pizzerias in America in 2024, a list considered by many to be the most significant in the U.S. In addition, the restaurant has the distinction of AVPN certification. The Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana is a 40-year-old organization made up of some of Italy’s oldest Neapolitan pizzaiolo families, created to cultivate knowledge and set standards for the art of Neapolitan pizza making. Chef Pasquale is among a select group, worldwide, recognized by the association.
There are three styles of pie to be sampled here, and all are solid, but the pizza that won the restaurant its certification is the wood-fired Napoletana. Charred bubbles and a lightly crisp exterior give way to a delightfully chewy dough, topped with simple, naturally sweet San Marzano tomato sauce and rounds of gooey and chewy fresh mozzarella. The NY Style pie, a larger format with a thinner crust, droops a bit at the top of the triangle but then holds up nicely as you go. It’s not a carbon copy, but it’s at least reminiscent of my hometown stuff.
In just over its first year in business, Mother Pizzeria was named one of the best pizzerias in the USA by the Italian publication, 50 Top Pizza USA for 2024. Pies here are made from naturally fermented dough using local, stone-ground flour and baked, like their Quencher neighbors, in a Marra Forni Neapolitan-style pizza oven. They come as 12-inch, individual pies or thicker, crustier Neapolitan pan slices baked in a standard pizza oven from the slice shop, to go. The sourdough “mother” or starter used makes for a crust that retains the hallmark “chew” common to this style while being lighter on the gut and easier to digest. Toppings are creative and seasonal. It’s a must-try.
Satisfying and solid Neapolitan-style pies can also be found at Imbriglio’s, with its chewy and lightly charred crust, a terrific, salty-tangy sauce, and fresh mozz. The tasty pie, while not soggy, is juicy enough to be worthy of a knife and fork. Two additionally solid options, similar in style, can be found at both Pasta Beach and Surf Club.
National Pizza Day + the Super Bowl offers a bar food match made in Heaven, but if you’ve got a true pizza lover in your world, who’s to say a pie tasting, some candles, and a couple bottles of bubbles from the sparkling new Gold’s Wine & Spirits in Middletown wouldn’t rock your Valentine? Love is love.
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