Americans love pizza. On any given day, the USDA says that 13% of the population is eating pizza. And in a single day, Americans eat an average of 100 acres of pizza, and every person in America eats an average of 23 pounds of pizza over the course of a year. So yeah, Americans love pizza. But with so many chains and independent pizza restaurants opening across the country, how do you know where the best pizza comes from?
Well Thrillist is here to help. The food and travel website has compiled a list of the best pizza restaurants in the country. Only 33 pizzerias were good enough to make the list, and one Alabama restaurant made the cut.
Post Office Pies, located in Birmingham, is one of Thrillist’s “Best Pizzerias in America” for 2016. The restaurant has been included on lists of the best pizza establishments for the previous two years. In 2014 it was named the best pizzeria in Alabama, and last year it was included on the national list for the first time.
Check out what Thrillist writer (and Alabama native) Liz Childers had to say about Post Office Pies:
I’m obnoxiously, sometimes irrationally, prideful about my home state, so it has made me so thrilled to give Post Office Pies a much-deserved spot on our list for the last three years. Its Avondale ‘hood is a microcosm flaunting Birmingham’s impressive evolution into a vibrant town that fosters local art and businesses, and this pizza spot represents all of that: hometown chef returns after stints at NYC’s Per Se and Gramercy Tavern to open something that can rival the best in the country, but whose industrial, casual interior and Molinari salami-topped pepperoni pie are just the right fit for a changing, re-emerging Southern city.
Post Office Pies is the only Alabama pizzeria to make the list, and one of only five southern pizza establishments. Hog & Hominy in Memphis, PIZZA dominica in New Orleans, Cane Rosso in Dallas, and Via 313 in Austin were also included on the list by Thrillist. The majority of the other restaurants on the list are located in cities famous for their pizza, like Chicago and New York. Alabama should be proud that Post Office Pies is good enough to stand up to such pizza giants.