NJ Italian Restaurant Named Among Nation's Best

An immensely popular New Jersey pizza joint was recently ranked among the best in the country, according to a new survey.

The Daily Meal's "America's 50 Best Italian Restaurants" list included Razza in Jersey City at number 23. The New Jersey pizza place had already been declared by The Daily Meal as one of the best pizza places in the country is Razza in Jersey City.

The place was not listed among the best "old school" pizza places in New Jersey. Based on The Daily Meal's description, however, it could have been.

Read more: 11 'Old School' NJ Pizzerias Among America's Best: The Daily Meal

Razza was second on New Jersey's list on The Daily Meal's 2018 ranking of America's 101 Best Pizzas. Read more: 7 In New Jersey Are Among 101 Best Pizzas In America In 2018

The Daily Meal noted that Razza just opened just across the Hudson River from New York in Jersey City in late 2012, and it "quietly became renowned locally for its wood-fired pizzas prepared by chef-owner Dan Richer."

Richer was a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Award last year and "is so meticulous about his craft that he was nicknamed 'the Jiro of Bread,' after the sushi chef featured in Jiro Dreams of Sushi," according to The Daily Meal.

"But it wasn't until New York Times critic Pete Wells showed up last year that pizza lovers across the river really took notice. Wells gave it about as glowing a review as possible, even going so far as to deem it 'the best pizza in New York,' " The Daily Meal wrote.

The mozzarella on his Bufala pie, for example, comes from water buffalo from Jersey’s Sussex County; "he had to wait years for the herd to grow large enough to ensure a steady supply of the notoriously difficult-to-perfect cheese," according to The Daily Meal.

Read the full list at The Daily Meal.