Northern New England pizza spots that are worth a trip

Pizza starts with just a few basic ingredients: yeast, flour, water, and salt. Yet the sauce and topping variations—and opinions—on what constitutes great pizza are endless. Some people say you can’t make New York–style pizza without New York City tap water (we beg to differ). Some demand only superfine double-zero flour imported from Italy while others swear by locally milled wheat.

One thing is certain—everyone has a favorite spot, be it their hometown joint or a place requiring a hundred-mile drive.

We know we are treading in controversial territory, and this is by no means an exhaustive exploration of the region’s pizza. Rather, it is a roundup of a half-dozen places that we think are worth a trip. There are some spots we just couldn’t get to—one popular pie is now available only by lottery. And our bucket list also includes a convenience store in distant Lubec, Maine. We skipped chains, even though Northern New England has some excellent examples.

My guests and I ordered a pepperoni pie everywhere we went— after all, it’s the country’s most popular topping. We also ordered a vegetarian option in each spot.

Here’s a highly subjective list of places—we’d love to hear about your favorites, too, at AAAexplorer@aaaec.com—where yeast, flour, water, and salt add up to magic.

Portland has many excellent pizza options, but the combination of thick Sicilian-style pizza, slightly sweet sauce, and valleys of a fresh mozzarella-provolone blend keeps us coming back to Slab.

Each slice is airier than one would think for something that weighs a pound. While the menu recommends 1 slice per person, we find that sharing is a good idea, especially if you include one of the excellent, well-dressed salads. That said, leftovers reheat beautifully.

The pepperoni at Slab is a little spicy and very generous. For veggies, we like the mushroom pie topped with a caponata sauce, red onion, and a mix of mozzarella and provolone. 

You can’t get extra cheese on your pizza here—there’s so much cheese on it already that adding more would make it a gloppy mess.

Years ago at home, owner Mark Hopper started experimenting with Detroit-style pizza—a focaccia-like crust baked in a special tapered pan that lets the cheese drip over the side, coating the crust with crispy, stretchy mozzarella goodness—and it seemed like a natural addition when he opened his counter-service shop in October 2020.

The pepperoni’s natural casing causes it to curl when cooked. Cured-sausage lovers should seek this out—popular in New York and New Jersey, it’s rare in New England (but also available at Luigi’s in Portsmouth). The sauce is a tasty trade secret.

Bangor Sandwich does not offer any special vegetarian options, but you can customize one: Our black olive and mushroom pie did not disappoint. There are a few tables inside, but if it’s nice out, stroll over to Norumbega Parkway to admire the Penobscot River views. 

At this spot, opened by chef Matt Louis and his partners in July 2019, the chefs start thinking about your pizza 2 days before you’re hungry for it. That’s because the dough gets a 48-hour rise that yields a chewy thin crust perfect for folding.

Luigi’s keeps the sauce simple: It’s made with the best tomatoes they can find, barely seasoned and cooked lightly to let the natural flavor shine through. The sit-down space is casual and fun with high ceilings, exposed brick, and booths that can accommodate a crowd.

You can get regular ol’ pepperoni, but for $2 extra, we recommend the thick “cupped and charred” variety that’s also available at Bangor Sandwich Co.

For a unique vegetarian pizza, order the Korean Bánh Mì without the pork. It’s topped with ricotta, pickled veggies, garlic, scallions, and sesame seeds, then drizzled with Luigi’s sweet-spicy “K-Funk Sauce.” Feeling virtuous? The salads are excellent. Feeling less than virtuous? Add a couple of meatballs or the delicious garlic knots.

For more than a quarter century, this joint has been hand-tossing New York–style pies with a lovely, pillowy crust that could be the result of a refrigerated 2- or 3-day rise.

Darryl Erickson and his nephew, Manchester native Eliot Lawrence, bought the business in 2020 and extensively renovated everything but the menu. Lawrence’s great-grandmother helped come up with the original sauce recipe that hasn’t changed.

Through many owners, the quality at this counter-service spot, with a just a few tables covered in red-and-white checked vinyl, has remained constant—perhaps due to longtime employees, some of whom have been with Alley Cat for decades.

Toppings are fresh—the high-quality pepperoni had a gentle spice and barely any grease. The Aristocat carried just the right amount of feta cheese, spinach, and sauce, magically avoiding the soggy-crust problems that plague many
veggie-loaded pizzas.

You can taste tradition in the tomato sauce at this stylish sit-down spot. Deeply flavored and clearly slow-cooked, the sauce is made from a recipe brought over from Sicily by owner Eduardo Rovetto’s uncle John, who immigrated to the U.S. and opened a string of pizzerias in upstate New York.

Eduardo and his wife, Sarah, have operated Piecasso in Stowe since 2000, moving and expanding a couple of times over the years as more fans caught on to their hand-tossed New York–style pies.

The soft, chewy dough, which tempts even the crust-averse to polish off every last bite, benefits from a 48-hour rise before baking in a state-of-the-art stone-decked conveyor oven that can handle high volumes without compromise. The pepperoni is classic, with just a touch of spice.

For veggie, we went with the Positive Pie—a white pie topped with fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, and a chèvre from Vermont Butter & Cheese, dotted with roasted red peppers that brighten the pie without overwhelming the flavors.

It’s a family affair at Ransom Tavern, tucked improbably inside a historic inn in the tiny village where owner Simran Johnston grew up. You’ll probably find her mother greeting guests and seating them in the airy dining room; her husband manages the bar and various relatives take shifts in the restaurant when they can.

The pizza is the real-deal Neapolitan style—a beautiful Forza Forni oven, imported from Italy, is the heart of the restaurant, and a certified pizzaiolo from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, which sets international standards for the style, stops in every few months to make sure everything is up to par. Make reservations to avoid disappointment—even in the off-season, tables are at a premium.

Neapolitan pizza is cooked quickly at very high heat, making big puffy air bubbles topped with a slight char. The pepperoni is tasty, but if you’re willing to venture into new territory, explore the menu of specialty pizzas, many made with local ingredients.

There are many vegetarian options and even some vegan ones, but we chose The Gardener. Originally a seasonal winter pie with roasted butternut squash puree, mushrooms, and roasted garlic, it became so popular it’s now a mainstay. 

Frequent contributor and New England native Jeanne O’Brien Coffey delights in sharing stories about her corner of the world. Her work has also appeared in Boston and Naturally, Danny Seo magazines.