Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Atlantic: Brother's Pizza, Hammonton
"Atlantic City'' isn't automatically the answer to every best-food question about Atlantic County. For the county's best pizza, take a ramble down the White Horse Pike (Route 30) to Hammonton ("the blueberry capital of the world''). There are any number of regrettable strip mall pizzerias;
Brother's is not one of them. Order the Old Fashioned Tomato Pie (in photo); it's one of the best of its kind, tart and tomatoey.
Runners-up: Maurizio's, Hamilton;
Tony's Baltimore Grill, Atlantic City.
Bergen: Kinchley's Tavern, Ramsey
This was an especially tough county to pick - so many worthy contenders! I'll give the slight edge to
Kinchley's Tavern, open since 1957 and one of the state's thin-crust legends. It's a pizza roadhouse, with a cozy bar, spacious dining room, and model trains on display. Bring cash; no credit cards accepted. High-quality ingredients, especially the sausage, and a tangy, distinctive sauce.
Runners-up:
Lido Restaurant, Hackensack;
Vesta Wood-Fired Pizza, East Rutherford.
Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Burlington: Tacconelli's Pizzeria, Maple Shade
Tacconelli's is a Philly pizza legend; Giovanni Tacconelli built an oven with friends and started baking bread in the City of Brotherly Love in the 1920s. In 1946, he started making tomato pies. Tacconelli's opened a Moorestown location, moving to Maple Shade about four years ago. The secret to great pizza? "The dough,'' says owner Vince Tacconelli, shown in the photo. "If you don't have good crust ...''
Runners-up:
Palermo's, Bordentown Township;
The Vault, Bordentown City.
Peter Genovese | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Camden: Bricco Coal Fired Pizza, Westmont
This was the toughest county to pick, not the least because Camden had two of
the ten finalists in our N.J.'s Best Pizzeria showdown. Originally, I had Angelo's Pizzeria in Haddonfield here, but owner Danny DiGiampietro has since re-located to Philly (although he hopes to re-open in New Jersey some day). So the nod goes to
Bricco in Westmont (owner Vincent Barone in photo), with its excellent Neapolitan-style pizzas.
Runner-up:
Holy Tomato, Blackwood.