The wish I made before blowing out the candles on my 13th birthday (“I wish that someday, someone will pay me to write about pizza”) has finally come true. Welcome to the first edition of Pizzavania, a newsletter dedicated to highlighting the best in Pennsylvania pizza.

First off, thank you for subscribing. My hope is that we can build a community of Pennsylvania pizza lovers with this newsletter—one slice at a time. But I’ll need your help. While I love pizza like I love baseball and breathing, and have visited dozens of pizzerias in the state, I obviously don’t know each one. So I’ll be relying on your recommendations and opinions on the pizzerias that you love (more on that below). While you’re at it, I’d love it if you told all your pizza-loving friends about Pizzavania and urged them to subscribe, too.

Secondly, you probably have some questions, such as:

What will I find in Pizzavania?

Why a newsletter about pizza?

What makes you qualified to write a newsletter about pizza?

In the interest of time and space, I’d like to point you here, where you’ll find answers to those questions.

So that’s my introductory spiel. Thank you again for subscribing, and thank you again to my bosses for making my 13th birthday wish come true.

(Editor’s note: NEVER give up on your dreams).

Arcaro & Genell is a reliable choice for classic Old Forge pizza. (Creative Commons)

Old Forge, the Lackawanna County town just south of Scranton, takes pride in proclaiming itself the “Pizza Capital of the World,” much to the chagrin of Naples, Italy, New York, New Haven, Connecticut, and my home state of New Jersey.

The nickname stems from how central pizza has been to Old Forge’s history and development—and how unique its pizza is compared to other, more common styles. 

What made the pizza different wasn’t just its rectangular shape, but also its pan-baked, thick yet light crust. According to the old-time pizza bakers of Old Forge, this was called “luptize”—basic pizza dough and a few toppings, which was both cheap for frugal-minded Italian immigrants and filling for hard-working coal miners.

The pizza grew so popular in Old Forge that the home-cooked, rectangular style began to spread to local bars, visitors started to come to town for it, and soon the town became dense with pizzerias.

If you want more on the history of the “Pizza Capital of the World” along with some local recommendations, you’ve come to the right place.

You can’t swing a pizza peel without hitting a pizzeria in Old Forge. And while Revello’s is generally considered to be the preferred choice among locals, there doesn’t seem to be a clear-cut consensus as to which one is the best—at least not among the NEPA folk in my iPhone contact list.

So, if you’ve frequented the “Pizza Capital of the World,” we’d like to know:

Weigh in with your favorite. Selected OTHER? Reply with your choice, and we’ll run the results in the next edition of Pizzavania.

Marra’s in South Philadelphia’s East Passyunk neighborhood closed on Nov. 30 after being in business since 1927. (Patrick Berkery/The Keystone)

About a month after Delco pizza institution Pica’s ended dine-in service at its Upper Darby location after nearly 70 years (they’re still doing take-out for the time being), South Philadelphia pizza institution Marra’s served its final pie last Sunday after nearly 100 years in business.

This one hit close to home for me. My family had been dining regularly at Marra’s since 1980, becoming friends with the owners and staff (especially waitress Connie Patrone, a neighborhood fixture who worked at the East Passyunk Avenue restaurant for decades) over the years. 

We celebrated countless birthdays at Marra’s. We held my sister’s baby shower, my college graduation party, and my father’s wake there. In the back dining room during the late 80s, my mother got then-Senator Joe Biden to enter a betting pool to guess the birth date of a friend’s baby—something she gushed about until her dying day. Marra’s was a special place for my family, and it was probably where I fell in love with pizza.

Though better, hipper pizza places emerged in Philly over the years, you could always count on Marra’s for a solid pie—something I did plenty of when I lived in the neighborhood a few years ago.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Michael Klein has a great story looking back at Marra’s indelible legacy on Philly’s dining scene.

Like I said earlier, you, the reader, will play an important part in Pizzavania. I’ll be relying on your recommendations and opinions on the pizzas that you love. So recommend away!

If you have someone in your life who is passionate about pizza, the holidays offer the perfect excuse to lean into their obsession.

Whether they’re the type who will drive two hours to see if a buzzed-about pizzeria lives up to the hype, an aspiring pizzaiolo who is meticulous about giving their dough enough time to proof, or someone who simply enjoys eating a lot of pizza from the comfort of their couch, there is no shortage of meaningful ways to give them the gift of pizza.

From pizza-making accessories, to books (I highly recommend “Pizza Camp,” a book of recipes from Lancaster County native Joe Beddia’s award-winning Pizzeria Beddia in Philadelphia) to apparel, to pizza tours, to pizza-scented candles (they exist) we’ve got some suggestions for what to get the pizza lover in your life this holiday season.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Patrick Berkery and edited by Paula Solis.

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