1 VA Pizzeria Named Best For Neapolitan-Style Pizza

NORTHERN VIRGINIA — Virginia is home to one of the top Neapolitan pizzerias in the United States, according to a ranking by The Washington Post.

Pupatella, on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, was ranked as one of the best for Neapolitan-style pizza. Founded in 2007 as a food cart, Pupatella now has eight locations in Virginia and D.C. and four other locations in the D.C. area scheduled to open soon.

The Washington Post came up with the ranking by creating its own national directory of pizza styles by asking Yelp to search more than 85,000 independent and small-chain restaurants for reviews of pizza styles.

"We set out to find the country’s best pizzas, from slice shops in New York City to fancy California-inspired pizzas, gathering favorites from experts, historians and pros around the country," The Washington Post reported Thursday. "For a more populist view, Washington Post data columnist Andrew Van Dam analyzed 7.5 million Yelp reviews of pizzerias to see which regional-style restaurants attract the most and highest ratings."

Pupatella was a top-rated pick from Yelp in the California Neapolitan category.

Other top-rated picks from Yelp in the California Neapolitan category were Antico Pizza Napoletana in Atlanta, Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Fuoco Pizzeria Napoletana in Fullerton, California, and Fat Olives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Other regional styles ranked by The Washington Post were New York, Chicago, Detroit and New Haven. Pupatella was the only D.C. area-based pizzeria to make the ranking.

"The history of pizza in the United States mirrors the path of many immigrant foods. Italians brought a version of the Naples-born creation to America in the late 1800s and began opening shops in the early 1900s, pizza historians say," The Washington Post explained. "Thin and crispy pies were used as salty snacks to soak up beer in taverns; industrial pans became the vessel for bubbly cheese-and-sauce-topped dough; and charred Neapolitan-style crusts served as the canvas for farm-to-table cuisine."

The Washington Post said it only considered pizzerias that had at least 100 Yelp reviews and where a substantial share mentioned the pizza style in question.

"We ranked them with a simple formula that accounted for rating (most important), number of reviews (important) and how often reviews mentioned that particular pizza style (less important). For most types, we limited our search to the metro area of the pizza’s birth," the newspaper said.

California Neapolitan doesn’t have a clear U.S. birthplace, so the newspaper's ranking of this style of pizza included pizzerias outside of California. All the other pizzerias are located in the city that made them famous.

Pupatella was recently certified by the Assozione Verace Pizza Napoletana. To obtain the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association certification, the pizza must be made according to the 200-year-old Neapolitan technique.

Enzo Algarme, who was born and raised in Naples, Italy, founded Pupatella in 2007.

In 2020, The Washington Post also named Pupatella as one of the top 10 pizzas in the D.C. area. "The pillowy, salty and light crust has a slight tang, which informs every bite of a pie fashioned with the finest ingredients Naples has to offer," the newspaper said.

See The Washington Post ranking of pizza in the U.S. by region.