4 Greater Cleveland restaurants lauded by Food & Wine; Ohio ranked as 9th best pizza state
2 min readCLEVELAND, Ohio – Food & Wine magazine has ranked Ohio the ninth best pizza state in the country, citing a slew of restaurants including Greater Cleveland spots Geraci’s, Harlow’s, Il Rione and Mama Santa’s.
The ranking is a timely look at pizza, a sector of the restaurant industry that held up well during the pandemic, with its delivery distribution already established at a time when the takeout model was being embraced and enhanced.
“Pizza-wise, this is as balkanized a state as you will find, each city and region very much into their own style,” writes the magazine’s David Landsel.
Says the magazine about the four places:
“In Cleveland, there are pan-style pizzas topped with a provolone at institutions like Geraci’s in University Heights, now over a half-century old, or Mama Santa’s, in the city’s Little Italy. … At some point, however, you’ll be happy to snap back to the pizza present, and there have been some impressive new developments – there are the lovely, neo-Neapolitan pies at Il Rione, one of Cleveland’s best restaurants, summer nights and Margherita pizzas on the patio at Harlow in Lakewood. …”
The magazine did a nice job of covering the entire state, with Steubenville, Youngstown, Columbus, Miamisburg and Dayton all getting nods, as well as Akron for its accompanying cheese-topped salads (clearly a hat tip to Luigi’s).
By the way, it was an East Coast triumvirate at the top, with New Jersey, Connecticut and New York taking the first three spots, respectively.
I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 7:05 a.m. Wednesdays for “Beer with Bona and Much, Much More” with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler. Twitter: @mbona30.
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