These days, it feels like Las Vegas does everything well. It’s a sports town. It’s a music town. It’s a comedy town. But it’s long had another identity as a spectacular pizza town.

Drive through the different neighborhoods around the Valley and it feels like Las Vegas has more pizzerias than casinos. And there’s a lot of personality in these pies—not every city has a multitude of restaurants cranking out authentic renditions of Neapolitan, Detroit or Brooklyn-style pies.

When 13-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani opened Pizza Rock just off Fremont Street in 2013, the scene looked drastically different. 

“I knew [about] Metro Pizza before, but there was no Good Pie. There was no Evel Pie. A lot of those places weren’t really around,” says Gemignani. “It was kind of sacrilegious, like baseball. The Giants hate the Dodgers, the Yankees hate the Red Sox. So when it comes to pizza, this guy did New York. This guy did Chicago. You never really married them together.”

Today, the embrace of different regional styles from across the country and around the world by chefs, restaurateurs and dedicated diners has boosted Las Vegas’ reputation as a diverse and unique pizza destination. 

“The Vegas style that I think has been developed has to do with people traveling from different parts of the country, retelling the stories of what they experienced as pizza,” says Vincent Rotolo, founder of Good Pie on Main Street. “If you look at Naked City, that’s Buffalo. At Yukon Pizza, it’s the story of the sourdough starter from [Alex White’s] great-great-grandfather. At Pizza Rock, it’s the story of Tony Gemignani’s pizza greatness.

“Vegas pizza style is telling the story of the pizza maker and his version of it.”

But do you know the story behind your favorite pizza? It’s time to dig in and savor each slice, to explore some of the city’s strongest styles, what makes them special, and why local pizza makers love them.

Neapolitan

Nobody takes pizza more seriously than the people of Naples, considered the birthplace of the craft. It’s one of the world’s most prevalent pies and also the most regulated. Italy’s Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) governs ingredients down to the gram and measures dough diameter to truly deem it authentic. But those strict guidelines are what keep it so consistently “charred, chewy, slightly wet and pillow-like,” says Gemignani. 

The Margherita is a classic entry point to Neapolitan pizza. It’s baked in a wood-fired oven, its leopard-spotted crust becoming more pronounced. Eight-time World Pizza Champion Floriana Pastore, of mobile pizza truck Signora Pizza, makes a stellar version with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh fior di latte mozzarella, basil and olive oil. “Our slogan is ‘simple Italian pleasures,’” she told the Weekly in 2022. “You don’t have to exaggerate. You don’t have to put too much.” 

Meanwhile, Double Zero Pie & Pub in Chinatown embraces neo-Neapolitan, a style that breaks tradition while “still following what Italians really expect pizza to be,” says Erica Bell, general manager and pizzaiolo. 

“When you start making Neapolitan pizza in America, then you really have fun with it,” says Bell, who studied under award-winning pizza maker and Double Zero consultant Michael Vakneen. “It’s different than the way the guys in California are making it. It’s way different than the way I’m making it here with this team.”

Neo-Neapolitan tosses the rule book. The wood-burning oven isn’t necessary. While AVPN demands specific flour, Double Zero uses several imported blends. “Depending on what you’re blending, it’ll change the flavor, the structure, the color, the way the leoparding is,” Bell explains.

Want a white pie with smoked Fumella mozzarella, goat cheese and lemon ricotta? Or a short rib pizza with orange chimichurri? Double Zero nails both, reinforcing how this kitchen’s approach thrives off experimentation. 

Sicilian

Trendy Detroit-style pizza gets a lot of attention, but Sicilian stands out as a worthy, thick-crust contender. It’s light, fluffy and focaccia-like in texture, cooked in a pan with olive oil and delightfully crispy when done right. 

Originally coined as sfincione by Sicilians for its sponge-like crust, Sicilian-style pizza is steeped in savory, aromatic ingredients—herbs, thick tomato sauce, oftentimes anchovies—and history. Sicilian square pies strike an especially loud chord with pizza aficionados with Italian American backgrounds. Italians who migrated to the United States in the 1900s brought their culture and their cooking with them. 

Good Pie’s Rotolo, a grandson of two Italian immigrants—one from Naples and the other from Sicily during a time when that was culturally unacceptable—views the two styles as a permanent part of his personal pizza lore. So he loves to honor that at Good Pie, serving authentic Brooklyn slices, but also Sicilian and Detroit.

“For me, every square pizza came from Sicily, every round pizza came from Naples. So doing squares and round is a way of uniting Sicily and Naples,” Rotolo says. “I was never gonna have a place that didn’t do both because of my family. I got in touch with their experience through food, through preserving recipes. The nostalgia of my youth could be recaptured through eating pizza like nothing else,” he says. 

Chicago

Known for buttery crust layered with toppings—usually sausage and thick-cut pepperoni—along with freshly grated mozzarella and chunky tomato sauce on top, Chicago-style deep dish pizza is the perfect pie for a chilly day or a night out drinking. 

“Being from the Midwest, with the weather and all that, there’s something about the deep dish that reminds us of home. It’s a heartier pizza,” says Joe Papa, owner of Amore Taste of Chicago in Henderson and the southwest.

When Papa bought Amore from the former owners in 2004, he kept the chef who made the pizza that brought his tastebuds back to the Windy City. Even Amore’s 63-year-old “high production” oven was shipped from Chicago, Papa says. Classic deep-dish takes about 30 to 40 minutes to bake at 500 degrees, but it’s worth the wait, and so is the Chi-style “sandwich” of pies, the stuffed pizza, and its cracker-thin companion, the crispy tavern-style. 

“[That’s what] you would have when you went to a tavern,” Gemignani says. “You would have beers, and you’d order a snack, which was a tavern pizza. It’s the perfect pizza style for Vegas, if you think about it.

“If you’re from Chicago, you love tavern,” Gemignani continues. “I worked at Connie’s for a little bit, tossing pizzas for them … and I would say, ‘Man, these thin crusts are great. It’s funny nobody knows Chicago is known for that.’ Well, if you’re from Chicago, you know! Who doesn’t like a great, thin-crust pizza that’s crispy?”–Shannon Miller 

Detroit

The Motor City’s auto industry helped define its rich pizza history. One of the city’s first pizza pans came from a car’s steel drip tray—and it was off to the races from there.

“Someone along the way figured out that you could make focaccia bread and let it rise in the pan. And because it was blue steel, it was great,” explains Rotolo. “Then someone put the cheese on top, and as it rose, the cheese went to the edge and created the caramelized cheese crust.”

That ingenious recipe led to the creation of the first Detroit-style pie, now a national treasure among aficionados everywhere.

“Detroit pizza is the story of Sicilian immigrants leaving Sicily, leaving New York, going to Detroit, and then trying to keep their focaccia alive, organically turning it into Detroit pizza,” Rotolo says. “As you preserve that tradition with the limited means you have through struggle to keep it alive, these styles are born.” 

A true Detroit—available at Northside Nathan’s on West Lake Mead, Good Pie, and Red Dwarf on the East side—delivers on that buttered, chewy crust. It’s thick and savory from a metric-ton of mozzarella plus Wisconsin brick cheese broiled on the edges, with sauce ladled on top. 

“That caramelized cheese really changes it,” Gemignani says. “It’s almost like that slightly burnt mac and cheese that’s toasted a little bit, and you have that residual flavor, slightly sour. It’s all about the characteristics of what’s on the outside, with two race stripes of sauce over the top. I like to put it after the bake, because it’s a stronger, crispier pizza than having sauce through the whole bake.” 

Indian

While most pizza styles obsess over crust consistency and cheese-to-sauce ratios, Indian-style pizza puts the spotlight on your spice cabinet. In Vegas, Northern Indian recipes have become the star of American-style pizza, with cumin, coriander, turmeric and ginger turning out tandoori chicken and curry-infused pies. 

“They each taste different and have their own flavor profile and blend of spices,” says Aman Kahlon, owner of Curry Pizza House on Maryland Parkway. “There’s a curry base, a white garlic base, and a nice crunch on the bottom, softer dough on top. Structurally it can hold up to a lot of ingredients. And it’s not oily at all.”

For years, India’s relationship with pizza felt a bit exotic. Kahlon remembers his parents bringing home pizza, but only on rare occasions. “Once in a month, we would get pizza on the weekends,” Kahlon says. “So whatever they would get, they would transform their pizzas with chilies and curry sauces and this and that.” 

At Curry Pizza House, the crust is traditional but unique. Dough rests for up to 48 hours, allowing the gluten to break down for a lighter and healthier-tasting pizza. It’s then hand-stretched and tenderized to retain its moisture. Because Indian cuisine is so diverse, no two pies or their toppings are the same. Kahlon says each chicken gets marinated for 24 hours in its own blend of dry spices, such as tandoori, butter or tikka, before being applied to a pie for a strong, aromatic pop you can’t find with other pizza presentations.

New Haven

Last year, Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro created an uproar by describing New Haven as the “pizza capital of the United States.” East Coast pizza makers were ready to throw dough and possibly hands. But if we slice through all the noise, DeLauro was onto something. 

Connecticut or New Haven-style, sometimes referred to as “apizza,” is a coal-fired, thin and chewy pie that’s hard to find in Las Vegas. Chef Elia Aboumrad, a Food Network star who owns at Boom Bang Fine Foods & Cocktails in Green Valley, has long been a fan of Connecticut pies, and she serves her own version during happy hour. 

“I loved the idea that it was totally different from what I know: the Neapolitan pizza,” she says. “I like the fact that you don’t eat it from a pan, like a Chicago-style pizza, but you actually take it out of the pan and crisp it more. Then you have your super thin crust, semi-crisp, semi-soft.” 

Aboumrad also adds cheese to the edges to get that crisp, choriqueso quality. Light toppings are also key so the pie isn’t weighed down. 

“Why isn’t this more around? It’s delicious,” Aboumrad says. “It’s that thin-crust pizza, but it’s not completely gooey, like the Neapolitan-style, which I also love. I saw there was a need for it. And the bite is the perfect bite. You’re satisfied, but not completely full.”

New York

It doesn’t get more classic than a New York street slice. 

“That triangle that you fold, it’s got that perfect balance of acid, fat and sweetness, and salt and texture,” says Rotolo. “It’s slightly chewy, slightly crunchy, and it’s got all those things that we look for in a slice of pizza.”

Richard Verhagen, director of brand operations at Downtown’s daredevil pizza joint Evel Pie, echoes that sentiment. 

“I’ve always liked the New York slice. It’s very approachable and it’s very versatile,” Verhagen says. “We stick with the traditional New York vibe and ingredients. But I can also go goofy on it and still maintain it.” 

Verhagen’s version of goofy runs the gamut, including a garlic-roasted grasshopper pie and rattlesnake pizza (some were for charity!).

But when it comes to an authentic New York slice, his team locks in. Dough must be hand-tossed and fermented for three days. Classic deck ovens give New York-style pizza that crisp bottom crust, strong enough to hold pepperoni and sausage but flexible enough to fold. And for that buttery, distinct taste, Evel Pie uses Grande whole milk mozzarella, “the Ferrari of cheese,” Verhagen says. 

Brooklyn

Breaking down Brooklyn-style pizza and distinguishing it from the concept of that iconic New York City slice comes down to the delicious details.

“Because I grew up in Brooklyn, the main difference for me was that a lot of the pizzerias were there at a time when commercial cheese wasn’t available,” says Rotolo. “For me, my own memories of it, it has fresh mozzarella and not shredded mozzarella. And that mozzarella was made within a couple days somewhere in Brooklyn.”

At Good Pie, Rotolo uses four cheeses on his cheese pies, beginning with a base of Pecorino Romano (“It’s kind of like your seasoning salt”) and ending with an aged Grana Padano for that umami flavor. Brooklyn-style dough proofs in round, metal tins, building an airy texture with time. The pizzeria’s pâte fermentée, or pre-fermented dough, has been around for several years, developing strength, elasticity and depth of flavor for future batches.

A standard Margherita slice done the Brooklyn way is just built different because of that. The sauce hits bright and acidic on top, a haymaker of flavor. The crust is firm, slightly tangy from the prefermentation. And the freshly melted mozzarella mingles with garlic for one blissful, Brooklyn bite. 

Grandma

We all love our grandmas. The popular sheet-pan rectangular pizza derives its name from Italian-American grandmothers who migrated to Long Island, where the homemade pies took shape in their kitchens.

“The grandmothers would go around and do something I refer to as the great acquisition, which is their shopping list for the weekend,” Rotolo says. “Because times were hard and it was a struggle, they were pinching pennies. They would go to the fish market for the best fish. The meat market to find scraps of meat or inexpensive cuts. And along that journey in the neighborhood … they would encounter the local pizzeria.”

Nonnas would purchase dough, stretch it over a cookie-sheet pan and bake with little proofing time, giving it that familiar thin and crispy crust. “If you look at the bottom, you should have those craters, those little micro blisters. That’s where the flavor lives,” Rotolo explains. 

Good Pie offers a nostalgic nod to nonnas with its Grandma slice, featuring cup and char pepperoni, a nice glaze of olive oil and an unbeatable crunch. 

“People who were searching for that [can now] identify with something that could remind them of when they were a kid,” Rotolo says. “It’s emotional because it represents a time and a place for everything.” 

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