Summer 2025 | Cover Story

A Slice of Heaven

Pizza slices from Noble Pie Parlor, Smiling with Hope Pizza, and DOPO Pizza & Pasta, all in Reno. Photo by Shea Evans

Rounding up Reno-Tahoe’s must-try pizza pies.

When we think back on some of the most special memories in life — birthday parties, moving days, post-win team celebrations, and classroom rewards for students — pizza was there. It’s how we say, “Thanks,” “Cheer up!” or “Take a load off!”

Whether you’re a purist like me (just pepperoni, please!) or take yours loaded with toppings, and whether you prefer it thick or thin, there’s a pizza place in the Reno-Tahoe area to suit you. Here’s just a handful.

The Classics
The flood of new pizza joints with exciting offerings are standing on the shoulders of giants — pizza geniuses from way back who have been making us delicious pies for decades and are still at the top of their game.

1. J.J.’s Pie Co. in Downtown Reno not only has survived but thrived for 42 years. Established in 1983 by Ron and Sharon Rogers, who named the business for their sons, Jason and Jeff, J.J.’s current owner, it’s an institution. The place still bears much of the pop culture décor that was placed there in the ’80s. With its high-top and picnic tables, TVs running nonstop sports, and jukebox, it’s also a time capsule.

Jason says that the secret to J.J.’s success has been its consistent use of quality ingredients and processes.

“The ingredients you get on one of our pizzas today are the exact ingredients you’d get in 1983,” Jason says. “We make our dough fresh daily and hand throw each dough ball. We grate our cheese fresh daily. We slice every piece of meat and every vegetable, every day. We’ve never gone away from what my dad did initially, which was to just create a top-notch product.”

That extends to the crust, which Jason explains was the result of a year’s worth of experimentation in Southern California, a consultation with food scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, to adjust it to our elevation, and even a special water-filtration system at the restaurant. 

In researching this story, I had the pleasure of being reminded why it’s still packed every weekend. The pepperoni is a go-to pie, with its addictively hearty, pillowy, chewy crust with a crisp exterior that will tempt you to pluck discarded crusts off even strangers’ plates. (I like it plain, but dipped in the restaurant’s homemade ranch or honey is popular.) If something outside the ordinary interests you, try the Valdez, topped with locally made chorizo from Flocchini Family Provisions in Carson City, sliced green bell pepper and tomato, jalapeños, and a dash of cumin. The vegetables add a garden freshness and sweetness that balance the heat of the peppers and sausage.

2. Since 1986, Mofo’s Pizza in Incline Village (and now a newer location in South Reno) has been cranking out delicious pizzas, served alongside salads from the beloved salad bar. Founded by the Morrison family, the restaurant’s recipes have extraordinary origins.

“Our marinara sauce and pizza sauce come from my grandfather, who was a pilot in World War II. He was shot down over the ocean and swam to a small island off the coast of Italy. He lived with sheepherders and learned to make traditional Italian food,” explains Melissa Negrillo, the founders’ daughter, who purchased the business, with her brother, in 2015.

Negrillo says the team has stuck with old-world methods in general — making pizza dough by hand, grating cheese, and slicing vegetables in house daily, and even making its pastas from scratch.

The crust — made with eggs — has a soft, chewy texture and is just thick enough to hold up even under the thick layer of stretchy, satisfying cheese and toppings. But the star dish here, it must be said, is garlic chips, a local legend. That same pizza dough is rolled thin, then liberally brushed with olive oil and fresh, minced garlic, then topped with a thick layer of cheese and baked to a golden brown. You’ll inhale it in the blink of an eye and start asking for more.

3. In West Reno, Eclipse Pizza Co. is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Dave Fish and his partner, Joe Parker, co-own and operate the business in the tiny, two-story building that’s usually standing-room only on Friday nights, brimming with neighbors hugging and asking about each other’s families or local school ball games. Summer’s when the place really gets hopping, especially on its roomy patio.

The menu features an array of whimsically named, sports-themed specialty pizzas (e.g., The Moustache Ride, The Tour, and Ironman) served on whole-wheat thin crust. I recently enjoyed a Pep Talk — double pepperoni, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, garlic, oregano, and “friendly encouragement” — and Moustache Ride, featuring chicken, fresh red onion, spinach, Roma tomatoes, pesto, and tomato sauce. The latter has a touch of heat that’s balanced by the fresh tomatoes and pesto, as well as the sweetness of baked red onions, which also add a touch of crunch. Gluten-free and keto diners will appreciate Eclipse’s cauliflower and zucchini crust offerings, not to mention the friendly neighborhood vibe Fish strives to cultivate and, of course, the pizza joint’s delicious, inventive pies.

4. It’s also been 20 years since Dean Christopher became owner of three local Blind Onion Pizza & Pub restaurants: one in South Reno and two in Sparks. Later, he went on to open two Reno locations of Wild Garlic Pizza & Pub, a spinoff of Blind Onion that serves pizzas on the distinctive braided crust but takes a few “spicy” detours, Christopher explains.

Let’s talk about that crust, which is renowned — it’s soft and thick, with buttery folds of moist bread that make it almost a dessert finale to your meal. Christopher explains that it’s prepared with dry malt extract to create a bread-like texture, then carefully braided by hand, to order, every time. Once toppings are added, cooks must babysit the pizzas carefully in the restaurant’s brick oven, lovingly spinning them to arrive at a perfect, evenly golden crisp. Fans liberally dunk it in the gallons of honey left out for customers to serve themselves, or its homemade ranch.

New York State of Mind
There’s no question that New York-style pizza is the original and most popular American pizza. Distinctive for its thin crust (except for its pillowy edges), huge slices, high-gluten crust, and thick layers of whole-milk, low-moisture mozzarella, baked in a deck oven, New York ranks as the No. 1 style on the Pizza Today list of Top 10 Pizza Styles in America for 2025.

5. Smiling with Hope Pizza in Reno is a hugely popular New York-style eatery founded by Walter Gloshinski and his wife, Judy, in 2015 that quickly shot to the top of Yelp’s Best Pizzerias in the USA list. In 2022, it was sold, recipe and all, to Buffalo, NY, native Andrew Silvaroli, who now runs the business with his family, including his mother, Robin.

Whereas Gloshinski and his team had operated on limited hours, making a limited number of pizzas, Silvaroli and his family decided to give people more of that award-winning, crave-worthy pizza, whenever and wherever they wanted it, in a welcoming family atmosphere. Silvaroli not only has expanded the menu with additional toppings and his family’s own recipes (including a gluten-free cauliflower crust and square, thick-crust Sicilian-style pizzas) but also the restaurant itself, with a dining room and a patio, and its hours.

It’s hard to top Smiling with Hope’s pizza with cup pepperoni that offers the pools of savory oil true fans of New York pizza seek. It sits atop a thin, chewy, flavorful crust coated with a fine layer of flour, slightly sweet tomato sauce, and a properly thick layer of chewy mozzarella, cut into large, foldable slices. Just thinking about the salty, almost nutty flavor of the baked cheese, crisped on the edge of that deliciously charred crust, makes my mouth water.

6. According to Ryan Goldhammer, owner and chef at Noble Pie Parlor in Midtown Reno who approaches his work like a passionate, slightly mad scientist, certain ingredients distinguish New York-style pizza from others: Wisconsin brick cheese and All Trumps high-gluten flour.

“All Trumps has the highest gluten index and is the highest protein flour on the market, so it’s a quintessential classic for New York, New Jersey, and American-style pizza, or what I call street style,” Goldhammer says. “It’s able to hold more water, so it has more elasticity and gives you a lot of chew.”

Goldhammer has reformulated the dough on his already-popular New York-style pizzas. The new crust is deliciously light, with a crispness that keeps the pizza from sagging while still remaining soft and chewy. On my recent visit, I enjoyed a simple cheese pizza, to truly taste the crust paired with the slightly salty baked cheese and leaves of fresh basil. I teamed that with a Pep in Yo Step, decadently featuring an impressive three kinds of pepperoni: Boar’s Head large slice, Italian cup ’n’ char, and house-made pepperoni bacon.

The NEOpolitans
Neapolitan pizza, also called pizza Napoletana, is the queen of pizza. Created in Naples, it’s defined by a few specific traits: According to the True Neapolitan Pizza Association, the nonprofit organization tasked with promoting and protecting the “Verace Pizza Napoletana” designation, these traits include a soft, tender crust that’s cooked quickly at high heat, in a wood-fired oven, giving the crust its distinctive leopard spotting; ingredients, including type 00 flour, that hail only from Italy; a diameter that does not exceed 35 centimeters; and minimal toppings.

While Neapolitan pizza is beloved the world over, its stringent requirements don’t leave much room for creativity with toppings, crusts, or cooking methods. Enter a new breed of American pizzamakers, known as the New Neapolitans, or NEOpolitans, who respect and honor the original traditions while taking some liberties.

7. Ian Madan, owner and chef of SouthCreek Pizza Co. in South Reno, is one of them. Originally from New Jersey, Madan got his start in the pizza biz early, growing up with a father who invented the DoughMate, a plastic tray for proofing and transporting pizza dough, which ended up being used by the likes of Domino’s Pizza. Madan’s father was such a pizza fan that he installed a wood-fired pizza oven on the family’s patio when Madan was a teenager and frequently hosted big service-industry pizza parties that several luminaries of the area’s pizza world would attend. Several became role models for Madan, giving him lessons that are the foundations of SouthCreek Pizza.

Madan imported a dome-shaped, wood-fired convection oven from Naples, which turns out a pizza in two minutes or less. His menu is comprised of pizzas ranging from strictly traditional — a Margherita, for example — to the Frankie P., Madan’s bestseller, a white pizza topped with sausage, soppressata, basil, mozzarella, and a drizzle of hot honey.

Madan takes no shortcuts. His delectable mozzarella is made in house, out of curds purchased from Wisconsin’s premier cheesemaker, Grande Cheese Co., then sliced by hand; Madan also purchases 100 percent of his basil from a private local hydroponics grower who lives down the street. The freshness is evident in every bite.

8. There’s peak freshness and attention to detail at Liberty Food & Wine Exchange in Downtown Reno as well. As Tommy Linnett, culinary director and partner at Liberty’s parent company, Local Food Group, explains, the restaurant sources ingredients as close to home as possible, including fresh, high-quality Stanislaus, Calif., tomatoes. LFG’s partnership with Minden’s Park Ranch Meats ensures that the beef in all its restaurants (Liberty, Great Basin Brewing Co., Cucino Lupo, Overland Restaurant & Pub) comes from 100 percent local cows.

The restaurant’s deliciously fluffy crust has a rich, baguette-like crustiness that’s pillowy soft inside and not heavy or filling. Linnett’s menu features remarkable pizza combinations. On my last visit, I enjoyed its best-selling specialty pizza, the Bee Sting, topped with soppressata, red onion, basil, serrano peppers, mozzarella, and honey. The combo produces a respectable amount of heat and saltiness that is perfectly balanced by the savory salami and sweet honey.

Lovers of an authentic carbonara pasta will adore the Liberty pizza that shares its name; it’s as if Linnett has captured the pasta flavor, but on a pizza crust. It has a delicate cheese-and-garlic flavor accentuated with a healthy dose of black pepper, and its small, square slices are ideal for picking up and dunking in the sunny-side-up egg placed in the center, adding carbonara-like creaminess.

I finished with the Sunshine, a bright, fresh, tangy, white pizza topped with mozzarella, paper-thin lemon slices (in summer, Linnett swaps this for fresh peaches), exceptionally fresh slices of aged prosciutto, arugula, and a swirl of balsamic reduction. It’s light, refreshing, and cool, perfect for a summer evening.

9. Nearby, at DOPO Pizza & Pasta, General Manager Eric Schoenfeld-Mineur and his team follow in the footsteps of its pizzas’ creator, Aaron Foster, who started the now-defunct Food + Drink restaurant in Midtown in 2020. Foster, who wanted to learn how to make “killer pizza,” learned from the master, Tony Gemignani, owner of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco’s North Beach, reality TV chef, and winner of 13 world titles in pizzamaking. With pizza skills learned from Gemignani, Foster opened his restaurant in 2020, but the pandemic made the business unsustainable. Greg Buchheister, founder and CEO of Coffeebar (in Reno-Tahoe and Northern California), approached Foster about purchasing the recipes from him. Schoenfeld-Mineur absorbed Foster’s skills like a sponge and strives to maintain that quality and hard work at DOPO.

DOPO’s pizzas adhere to the Neapolitan spirit, but not to the letter. The dough is fermented for 48 to 72 hours and baked in a three-deck oven, so pizzas can be made more quickly. The resulting crust is crispier on the bottom than a traditional Neapolitan, enabling it to hold more toppings while maintaining its soft chewiness. Many of the specialty pizzas were developed by Foster himself, including his Purple Potato Eater, now DOPO’s Pizza Verde, a strangely delicious combination of pesto, mozzarella, purple potato slices, artichoke hearts, arugula, and stracciatella — the cool, decadent, creamy center of burrata — dolloped on after the pizza is removed from the oven.

That stracciatella also tops the Cherrypicker. I think of it as an ode to tomatoes, with its tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, creamy and salty cheeses, basil, and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. This combo is everything, a salty-sweet-tangy, fresh flavor explosion.

10. Chris Costa, who co-owns Cosmo’s Snack Bar in Midtown Reno with his brother, Tony, says the two got their start in pizzamaking at Reno’s Blind Onion as teenagers. As adults, they developed Cosmo’s to pay homage to Italian snack bars. The restaurant offers a tightly focused menu of pizzas, seasonal soft-serve ice creams, a handful of appetizers and salads, Italian-style spritzes, Negronis, and wines. Opened in fall 2023, Cosmo’s already is a locals’ favorite and often is full on weeknights with folks clamoring to order.

Hands down, Cosmo’s most popular pizza is the Rojo Tone, a respectably fiery pizza featuring tomato sauce (or it can be made as a white pizza), mozzarella, pepperoni, sliced red onion for sweetness, pickled jalapeño, and fresh basil. The effect is sweet, spicy, and saucy, just right to pair with an icy Aperol spritz. We also enjoyed the Meatball Pie, featuring tiny meatballs, whipped ricotta, Calabrian chiles, and herbs. Ricotta can be overwhelming in large doses, but this pizza features many small dollops, balancing the chunks of Italian-style meatballs for a hearty, flavorful pie with a nice balance of textures and flavors.

11. South Lake Tahoe’s popular draft beer-and-pizza spot Lake Tahoe AleWorX recently added an East Reno location, and a recent visit reminded me why this place is a beloved pizza destination. As chef Walter Suen explains, the restaurant’s Neapolitan-leaning crust is addictively chewy, with big, baked, cheesy bubbles; you’ll be tempted to rip it off in a giant strip and munch all day.

Suen’s extensive experience working with some of the Reno-Tahoe area’s finest chefs informed the restaurant’s distinctive and unexpectedly delicious pizza combinations. For example, the Mora is topped with mozzarella, Prosciutto di Parma, ricotta, fresh basil, and … blackberries? It’s all topped with swirls of hot honey and balsamic glaze. Previously, I was firmly anti-fruit when it came to pizza, but I admit, this one works. The tartness of the cooked berries lightens the thick ricotta and salty ham, pleasantly occupying the entire palate.

12. Locals don’t often think of Fernley as a dining destination, but thanks to Fire Forno, co-owned by Jose Hermosillo and Frank Cresci, they should. Growing up in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Hermosillo’s first job at a pizzeria inspired his lifelong love of Italian food.

A few years ago, happenstance and the intense Southern California heat led Hermosillo to take a spur-of-the-moment camping trip to Lake Tahoe, where Cresci, an entrepreneur from Sacramento, had the neighboring campsite. The two hit it off and developed a strong business relationship. In 2024, Cresci called with an interesting idea: A new retail center in Fernley had an available restaurant space. Would Hermosillo want to partner with him to open one? Hermosillo questioned whether it was a crazy idea, but after only one night in Fernley, seeing its dearth of food options, he knew it could work. In October, Fire Forno was born, and Fernleyans immediately welcomed it with open arms.

I smelled the wood-fired oven upon entering — it provides a perfect, flavorful char on the soft, springy crust. I enjoyed the Stracciatella — an elevated take on pepperoni pizza with dollops of the cool, creamy cheese and a drizzle of hot honey added after cooking. I also tried the Pesto Lover, featuring a pesto-heavy cream mix that mellows the pesto’s intensity, topped with roasted chicken breast, crispy bacon, and cherry tomato halves, reminiscent of a BLT on a deliciously mild, fragrantly herbaceous base. Buon appetito!

The Californians
California cuisine undoubtedly has influenced pizzamaking. Defined by its combination of various features, it usually has thin crust and is topped with fresh, healthy, unconventional toppings. You’re as likely to find artichoke hearts, avocado, and goat cheese as you are mozzarella and basil.

13. One heavy hitter serving California-style gourmet pizza is Base Camp Pizza Co., at Heavenly Village in South Lake Tahoe. Its extensive menu of specialty pizzas ranges from mundane to delicious-but-insane. Base Camp recently even ranked No. 5 on Yelp Elites’ list of the nation’s Top 100 Pizza Spots. Though the pizza menu is shared with its sister restaurants, Fireside Pizza Co. in Olympic Valley and Rubicon Pizza Co. in Truckee, all founded by Tahoe Restaurant Group, Base Camp is by far its highest-performing pizzeria, says chef and operator Marc Vaccaro.

Base Camp’s cooks preroast the vegetables, adding a distinctive charred flavor that gives depth and a slight sweetness to the pizzas. Adding to its uniqueness, Vaccaro’s culinary training took him around the globe, exposing him to a multitude of ingredients and flavor combinations. Take, for example, the Thai Chicken Curry (a Yelp voters’ favorite), and the staff favorite, Smoky BBQ Chicken with Bacon. The Thai Curry is a feast for the taste buds and the eyes. On a base of spicy curry sauce sits roasted chicken, crisp yellow bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, red onion, and, surprisingly, mascarpone cheese, which adds creaminess and mellows out the curry’s heat. In the center sit lime wedges; the squeeze of citrus adds a bright zing that awakens the senses and adds perfect balance.

Meanwhile, the Smoky BBQ Chicken with Bacon is a salty, smoky, sweet treat with a hint of charbroiled flavor, thanks to the chunks of crispy bacon, smoked Gouda cheese, and hickory barbecue sauce. A pinch of cilantro finishes it, adding, once again, that light, bright, eye-popping freshness.

14. Whitecaps Pizza, in Kings Beach, is the brainchild of Oscar Havens and Bryant and Lanay LaFerriere, who took over the building and opened the pizzeria in 2017. Since then, it’s received rave reviews and placed 14th out of 110 in the International Pizza Expo. As chef Joe Stecker explains, the sausages, pastrami, sauces, and focaccia bread all are house made. California-style pizza offerings include the Shrimp Scampi, Broccolini, and Pesto Artichoke. By far its best-selling pizza is the Soppressata Honey Drizzle, topped with Boar’s Head Italian salami, jalapeño slices, caramelized onion, goat cheese, and honey.

During my visit, I enjoyed The Italian, covered with a delicious jumble of tomatoes, peppers, and arugula, making for a juicy, savory salad vibe, but with a peppery, briny, almost giardiniera-like bite. The crust has great Italian chew and an almost baguette-type flavor. Stecker’s focaccia also is the base for Whitecaps’ increasingly popular Detroit-style pizzas.

Thick-Crust Crafters
No longer is thick crust relegated to Chicago. It’s also the domain of grandmas, Romans, Sicilians, and the latecomer, Detroit. A thick crust is hearty enough to stand up to mountains of toppings — sauce it up, load it with meat and cheese, pile on the veggies, and get out your knife and fork.

15. Let’s start with the capital city’s Mangia Tutto, owned by Richard Bragiel, the man behind Carson City’s Bank Saloon and U.S. Sub Base. A Chicago native, Bragiel soaked up the area’s strong Italian and Greek influences, which inform the restaurant’s menu.

Deep-dish pizza is assembled upside down: crust, then cheese, then meats and vegetables, with sauce generously ladled over the top. Mangia Tutto also serves tavern-style Chicago pizza, a thin pizza on a cracker crust that won’t compete with flavorful toppings.

I recently enjoyed one of each: the South Side Deluxe, a deep-dish pizza coated with Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions; and the tavern-style Kiss Me, featuring fresh garlic, Italian sausage, pepperoni, hot giardiniera, and onions. The marinara on the South Side is thick, sweet, and juicy, comprised of hearty stewed tomatoes, and the onions add sweetness to mellow the savory meat. It sits atop a thick cornmeal crust that offers a touch of sweetness. The outside is crispy, to stand up to the weight of the toppings, yet inside it’s moist and chewy.

The Kiss Me, a white pizza, gives off a surprising amount of heat from the giardiniera, an Italian relish of pickled vegetables frequently used as a condiment in Chicago. That paired with the garlic make for a flavorful explosion of tang and spice that awaken the palate.

16. Detroit pizza is hot right now, and so is R Town Pizza in South Reno. Owner Marvin Kinney opened the restaurant in March 2022, and it was an instant hit, helping to exceed owner Kinney’s five-year projections by the three-year mark.

Detroit style is characterized by a thick, rectangular, focaccia crust with a crispy, savory, baked-cheese edge that serves as a foundation for toppings. At R Town, these include a blend of mozzarella and Wisconsin brick cheese, adding a buttery note when baked; double-cut pepperoni, in both cup and crisp varieties; and house-made sausage.

For my first visit, I went with pepperoni, which hit all the right notes of salty and spicy, with that buttery, cheesy crust that’s thick enough to balance the spice. Kinney insisted I try the most popular pizza, the one that speaks to Detroit heading West (in the film Beverly Hills Cop), the Axel Foley. It features the unlikely combination of R Town’s house-made fennel sausage, red onion, Calabrian chili, arugula, shaved Parmesan, and Kinney’s signature D-Hive Drizzle, his own vegan hot honey. It wowed me. The freshness of the arugula pairs beautifully with the savory sausage and salty cheese, and the D-Hive Drizzle is lighter and thinner than actual honey, which benefits the fresh greens. It’s a complex, fantastic marriage of flavors.

What did we miss? A lot. Time, space, and digestion prohibited us from including every pizzeria from Reno-Tahoe’s abundant supply, so we’ve highlighted a handful that “dough-lighted” us. Head over to our social media pages and let us know your favorites!

Base Camp Pizza Co. Basecamppizzaco.com
Blind Onion Pizza & Pub Blindonionreno.com
Cosmo’s Snack Bar Cosmosreno.com
DOPO Pizza & Pasta Dopopizzapasta.com
Eclipse Pizza Co. Eclipsepizza.net
Fire Forno Fireforno.com
J.J.’s Pie Co. Jjspieco.com
Lake Tahoe AleWorX Laketahoealeworx.com
Liberty Food & Wine Exchange Libertyfoodandwine.com
Mangia Tutto Mangiatuttopizzeria.com
Mofo’s Pizza Mofospizza.com
Noble Pie Parlor Noblepieparlor.com
R Town Pizza Rtownpizza.com
Smiling with Hope Pizza Smilingwithhopepizza.com
SouthCreek Pizza Co. Southcreekpizza.com
Whitecaps Pizza Whitecapspizza.com