D.C.’s Slice & Pie Has 2nd Best Slice in U.S.
Slice & Pie, 2221 14th St. NW, serves the second best pizza slice in the U.S., according to 50 Top Pizza’s annual ranking.
A slice of Slice & Pie’s Truffle Pie, which 50 Top Pizza highlighted. (Photo: Slice & PIe/Facebook)
Based in Paestum, Italy, the independent online guide ranks pizzas around the world each year using an anonymous group of Italian food and drink journalists.
Last year, Slice & Pie ranked 41st on the organization’s best pizza in the U.S. list. This year, 50 Top Pizza added rankings for shops that serve pizza by the slice for the first time.
“Located in the heart of Washington, D.C., in the lively Dupont Circle neighborhood, Slice & Pie is a must-try pizza if you are in Washington,” the 50 Top Pizza website says. “Born from the decades of experience of pizzaiolo Giulio Adriani, Slice & Pie has a strong American character, recognizable from the majority of products used, which aims to maintain as much Italian identity as possible.
“In addition to the classic slices ‘cheese’ and ‘pepperoni’, on the menu you can find the ‘Truffle Pie’ with parmesan cream and mushrooms, the ‘Burrata Pie’ with California tomato and the ‘Square Pie,’ a very tasty Detroit-style square pizza with provolone, honey and pepperoni.”
According to 50 Top Pizza, L’industrie Pizzeria in Brooklyn, N.Y., had the best U.S. slice.
Owner Giulio Adriani stands in front of Slice & Pie on 14th Street NW.
(Photo: Slice & Pie/Facebook)
Italian-born Adriani, who has three decades of experience, said it is a big accomplishment to be the only D.C. shop on the list. Slice & Pie serves New York and Detroit style pizzas.
“Of course, like everybody would expect every [shop] on the list to be in New York, or almost,” Adriani told WTOP. “We made the list as a Washington place.”
50 Top Pizza also ranked Slice & Pie 98th best pizza in the world.
Adriani said he adapts his pizza recipe based on the city.
“The water situation in D.C., unfortunately, is not ideal for pizza — and that’s probably part of why the pizza game in the past has been subpar,” he said. “It’s too rich in minerals, and minerals make the dough tough and chewy.”
He said Slice & Pie uses a filtration system, which is constantly maintained to remove minerals from the water used to make the dough.
The pizzeria at the corner of 14th Street and Florida Avenue NW with bright pink walls and neon signs in the front, strays from the classic red and green tones seen in other pizza shops.
Adriani said D.C. needs more slice shops. “Here, people tend to take pizza, bring it home. In New York, you see people take it on the plate, eat it right away, because (you need to eat) pizza at the moment when it’s warm and out of the oven. And that is something that here we still haven’t reached, but it’s coming.”
Beginning in October, Slice & Pie will begin serving single slices on a plate to encourage immediate consumption.
The only other DMV pizza shop to rank in the listings was Chef Tony Conte’s Inferno Pizzeria Napoletano, 12207 Darnestown Road, Darnestown, Md. It ranked 22nd on 50 Top Pizza’s U.S. listing. The shop ranked 23rd on the same list last year.
