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THE QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE PIZZA SLICE IN NYC




There is no denying that New York City has had a long standing connection to the Pizza slice as one of its hallmark culinary offerings and culture symbols.

The pizza slice even has an economic tie to the city, suggested by the Pizza Principle - a correlation between the price of a slice and that of a subway ride.

What is it that makes “the best’ slices? Researcher Jared Lander set out to find the reason for highly rated pizzas, looking at location, price and the type of fuel used for the oven. Lander's research found that Midtown pizzas are slightly less favorable and that coal fired ovens draw larger crowds, but also concluded that they were able to discover much differentiation in quality. They suggested that “as is the case with wine, people in general do not have a sophisticated enough palate to fully appreciate the many facets of pizza.”

Pizza is a food loved by many, and lists rating the best slices in town are often compiled . We decided to create our own ultimate list. We tried out the best pizza slices in the city, and using photogrammetry, we re-created the slices in 3D so that you can view these slices in augmented reality.

There are x businesses within the five boroughs that offer pizza in the city, according to the foursquare API. Out of these thousands, there are several famous spots who come up in all the lists rating the best pizzas in the city. 60 restaurants appear in the lists we looked at for the best pizzas, and from that group only 23 restaurants appear in more than one list.

For this article, we looked at lists by published on Thrillist, EaterNY,TimeOut, New York Times, and a personal list made by a friend and independent Pizza enthusiast Yotam Hadar.