Looking Back at 2011: The Ten Best Pizzas We Ate

10. Paradise Pizza
This place might want to think about delivering. If they did, I'm sure we would be eating it a lot more often than we do.

9. Tacconelli's Pizzeria
These guys make a terrific pie for sure. But it is simply impossible to avoid knocking off points for their pretentious "reserve your dough" bullshizz and service that often acts like they are doing you a favor by taking your order.

8. Perrotto's Pizza
We only ordered this pie so we could write jokes about how they share a space with The Valley Forge Beef & Ale, a sort of last bastion for reprobates that still allows smoking within its walls. We expected the pizza to taste like a carton of Marlboro's, in other words. It is actually legit. Just walk in the back entrance if you don't want to smell like a smoke stack on the way out.

7. Mack & Manco Pizza Too
The Jersey Shore (region, not show) staple knows a good sauce-to-mozzarella ratio when they see it. The fact that you can down a slice under the summer sun while listening to the seagulls squawk? That helps too. Providing the birds don't organize a sudden divebomb in search of nourishment.

6. Marzano's Pizza and Steaks
How good was this pizza? We drove out to Exton only to realize that the place had no seats. No matter. We sat at a counter and ate the whole pie with a toddler balancing tenuously in our laps. Well worth it.

5. Olce Pizza Grille
We braved a thunderstorm to head out to this Skippack spot that's nestled into an area that looks like a collection of country stores. The pizza was flavorful, foldable, and expertly prepared. Served by one of the friendliest waitresses in the history of the food service industry.

4. Mack's Pizza
To think: We were blowing out of Wildwood after a wonderful family vacation when we decided on a lark to delay our departure and grab a pie at this Boardwalk standout. Always a wonderful idea. The slices were huge, greasy, saucy, and oozing with cheese. Everything you want in a Jersey shore slice.

3. Pepperoncini Restaurant & Bar
On a rare date night, the wife and I decided to go to this place in Conshohocken. We only went because we had some sort of coupon. Being that it was slightly fancy inside, I didn't even know they served pizza. They did. We bought it. And didn't regret the choice.

2. Rubirosa
An absolutely splendid version of New York pizza! Second-best sauce I had all year. Tomatoes tasted like they were just plucked off the vine. Thing was so good Saucy Jr. sat still for longer than he has in the last six months. That is about three minutes and 22 seconds, but still.

1. Charlie's Pizzeria
This place does not look like it is going to make you the best pizza you will taste all year. It's hot as hell in there. Ambience is equivalent to your average truck stop bathroom. There are fridges lining the walls and most of the space is taken up with Miller Lite, Coors Light, MGD 40s, Budweiser, etc. One would think a place selling beer for people with no taste would offer up a pie with the same qualities. Um...no. This pie was astounding. A tremendous tomato sauce is applied in abundant amounts whether you are ordering the red-top or the conventional. The cheese tastes spectacular with just the right amount of ooze. A complexly textured crust serves as the perfect base. If you should choose to get a topping (and you should), the pepperoni is spicy and distinct, supplying the customer with a taste that contrasts wonderfully with the other main ingredients. Let's be honest: The folks behind the counter? Yeah, they look like some serious characters. But when it comes to making pizza, they might as well be celebrity chefs.
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The Pizza Project
Just a nibble: http://twitter.com/ThePizzaProject
Single slice: http://www.facebook.com/ThePizzaProject
The full pie: http://thepizzaproject.blogspot.com/

Tale of the Pie: Mack's Pizza (Wildwood)

Now this is Boardwalk pizza.

Recently, the wife and I were heading home from Wildwood when we realized that during our two days in the shore town we had failed to have one slice of pizza. This was a wrong that needed immediate correction, so we decided to partake in a slice of Mack's Pizza before we departed. As we headed up to the boards and got hold of the extremely pleasing aroma escaping from the shop, we quickly decided that we would get a full pie instead of a mere segment.

If we went down in the midst of the busy season, I am sure we would not have gotten the terrific service that we received. This would be excusable because the place would have been crawling with teenagers and tourists. But as it was, we were some of the only people in the shop and the people operating the place treated us like V.I.P.'s. The guy behind the counter making the pies pointed us to our seats. The gent who served us was particularly awesome, taking our drink and food orders within minutes and getting crayons for Saucy Jr. without provocation. A master in rewarding kindness with scorn, Little Man quickly used them to paint the establishment's walls. Everything was topnotch service-wise and it made us feel right at home.

Monthly Roundup: July's Top 5 Posts

My mom called us to be sure we didn't miss this

news segment. See the video at

http://thefw.com/bulldog-dragging-kiddie-pool-inside-home-video/

To close each month, we'll do a quick roundup of the top five not-to-miss posts. In a blog with so much fascinating content, it could be easy to miss one or two good posts.

Boy, it's hot out. And according to our readers (and bloggers), these July posts are just as hot as your a$$crack is approximately five seconds after you leave your air conditioned home/car/workplace.

•  Margate Posts - Headed down the shore? Don't pack your speedo until you check out our posts on Luciano Lamberti's Sunset Marina & Grill, Junior's Donuts and Dogs, and Mack & Manco Pizza Too.

Tale of the Pie: Penny's Pizza

I remember the days when my dad would bring home a pie from Penny's Pizza and we were the only ones that would eat it in the house. It was a sad day when my dad and I heard that they were closing. No more pie to ourselves. Penny's was known for their unique red top pie, using a sweet and chunky sauce over a delicious blend of cheeses. The crust was unlike any other using a heavy dose of cornmeal in the dough.

The Pizzeria was closed for almost four years, reopening this past October. At the very beginning cars were lining up on the road just to order. The waits were exceeding 2 hours just to get a pie. We finally were able to revisit Penny's Pizza this past weekend. To my delight the same family owns and operates the shop. They still use the same recipes as before which means the pie is exactly as I remembered it.

Tale of the Pie: Mack & Manco Pizza Too

The two things I enjoy most about going down the shore are running on the beach and eating a slice or two from Mack and Manco's. Since I was recovering from strep throat this past weekend, I could not go for my beach run. I did, however, go for plenty of Mack and Manco's.

Since we were sharing with my aunt, uncle, grandmom and both halves of Ellio Totino, we ordered the two large pie special, one plain and one pepperoni for $26. Delivery took about 40 minutes, definitely not bad for the Fourth of July weekend.

Thoughts from the Pizza Gallery: Franzone's Pizzeria

Looks like this Pizza Project thing is taking off! Someone actually filled out our pizza survey and left some notes. With that being said, we would like to share their experience:

Franzone's offers a thin crust sweet sauce on top pizza, which led this reviewer to proclaim them "the best sweet sauce on top of the cheese pizza west of Mack & Manko!"