Tucked into a corner on 14th Street at Florida Avenue in Northwest D.C., pizza master Giulio Adriani is serving up the second best pizza slice in the U.S. at Slice & Pie, according to the latest annual ranking by 50 Top Pizza.
“50 Top Pizza is the biggest award that pizzerias look for,” Adriani said. “They are independent. They’re not sponsored. They have no sponsor that, you know, pushes pizzerias. They’re very, very fair.”
The Italian pizza evaluation site, based in Paestum, Italy, ranks pizzas across the world annually.
Last year, Slice & Pie ranked 41 on the organization’s list of best pizza in the U.S. This year is the first time 50 Top Pizza has included a list of rankings for shops that serve pizza by the slice.
The top pizza slice — according to 50 Top Pizza — comes from L’industrie in Brooklyn, New York. Adriani said it is a big accomplishment to be the only D.C.-based shop on the list.
“Of course, like everybody would expect every [shop] on the list to be in New York, or almost. We made the list as a Washington place,” Adriani said.
Not only did he make No. 2 on the slice list, but 50 Top Pizza ranked Slice & Pie 98th in the world for best overall pizza.
Adriani said what makes the difference between a good pizza and a bad pizza is the amount of passion and care put into the daily process. For example, 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,” Adriani 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 help remove minerals from the water used to make the dough.
“For us, pizza is important, it’s been my life, and I don’t like when it’s considered a subpar product and a product that you eat only for convenience,” Adriani said. “Make your mile to go eat a better pizza.”
He said he wants pizza to be important to everyone. That’s part of the reason Adriani said the store has a nontraditional color scheme.
Fashioned with bright pink walls and a neon sign in the front, Slice & Pie strays from the classic red and green tones seen in other pizza shops. Adriani said that’s intentional.
“There is, I think, a part of femininity in the colors that we wanted to show because in the past, pizza wasn’t always a product for women,” Adriani said. “Nowadays, we saw that there is a huge increase of female customers — which is beautiful to see.”
He’s also hoping to shop will help people move away from the idea that pizza is bad for your diet, he said.
Adriani said D.C. has everything his store needs to serve pizza on-par with New York quality, what’s missing is more slice shops.
“Here, people tend to take pizza, bring it home,” he said. “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.”
Adriani added that beginning in October, Slice & Pie will start serving single slices on a plate in order to encourage immediate consumption.
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