The only thing people like doing more than eating pizza? Debating about pizza. Which regional variety is the best? An O.G. Neapolitan? A classic New York slice? Pizza from Chicago? Detroit? Pittsburgh? New Haven? California? Do you like it thin and crispy, or thick and layered? Laden with outrageous toppings, or kept simple and traditional? How do you feel about pineapple?
In Sarasota, you’ll find a huge variety of pizzas in places that range from stylish fine-dining restaurants to hole-in-the-wall, strip-mall joints that specialize in takeout and delivery. To help you whittle down your endless list of options, we’ve compiled our first guide to the area’s best pizzas. To do it, we crisscrossed Sarasota and Manatee counties, measuring the dimensions of crusts, quizzing pizza makers about the heat of their ovens and eating our weight in mozzarella. It wasn’t an easy task, and plenty of more-than-decent pizzas fell by the wayside as we put together our final rankings.
Behold: Sarasota’s best pizzas.
2053 Reynolds St., Sarasota, (941) 487-8677, capopazzo.com
New York transplants from around the county flock to this itty-bitty pizzeria just south of Gulf Gate for charred thin crust pizza and classic toppings. Try the spicy burrata pie, topped with shaved prosciutto and tomatoes, and believe the menu description—this pizza is spicy. Arancini (deep-fried rice balls), are tamer, but still impressive in size and flavored with a house-made bolognese that would make your nonna cry.
3604 Webber St., Sarasota, (941) 927-4992, solarzanospizza.com
Sometimes you just need a good ol’ neighborhood-style pizza pie that boasts nothing other than solid execution on a crowd-sized crust. That’s where Solarzano’s Pizza has you covered. Not to be confused with other pizzerias of a similar name, at Solorzano’s on Webber Street, you can grab a 20-inch “super-size” pie with a myriad of topping combinations. We like the “centrello” pizza (a white pie with onions, spinach, tomatoes and basil), but we would never tell you how to order your favorite.
1580 Lakefront Drive, Sarasota, (941) 866-8692, osteria500.com
You could eat at Osteria 500 dozens of times and never make your way through the whole menu. Sure, we love its fresh pastas, traditional appetizers and grilled meat entrées, but the pizza beckons us back, again and again. The pizzas here are Neapolitan-style pies, so expect individual-sized portions and a puffy, blistered crust. Osteria 500 co-owner Giuseppe Del Sole was previously a co-owner of south Sarasota’s Napulè, which is just as famous for its pizza—no surprise that the pies here are excellent, too.
1551 Main St., Sarasota, (941) 330-9200, trattoriabellanapoli.com
Other styles of pizza (like Detroit and New York) lend themselves to takeout boxes far better than these wood-fired discs inspired by Naples, Italy. That’s one reason why Trattoria Bella Napoli has captured our loyalty—its Neapolitan-style pizza somehow maintains its crisp crust even if you grab it to go. We don’t know what the secret is, but we do know we can trust a pick-up order anytime.
