Pizzeria Bianco – Phoenix, Arizona

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of pizza in America, Ed Levine, the creator/founder of Serious Eats,  ate nothing but pizza for an entire twelve month period, taking a representative pulse of the best from among thousands of pizza purveyors. His terrific tome, Pizza A Slice of Heaven, published in 2005,  provides a definitive guide to a much-loved product that in its elemental form is simplicity itself–bread, cheese and whatever toppings a pizzaioli artisan might care to add. To the surprise of many, Levine declared the best pizza in America (and the world, for that matter) to be made in the unlikely town of Phoenix, Arizona where the intensely brilliant Chris Bianco plies his trade as no other.

Before a business trip to Phoenix in 2002, I also learned that a writer for Travel & Leisure magazine definitively proclaimed Pizzeria Bianco as “the best place in America for pizza.” I also found that in its 1998 edition, Zagat’s respondents rated Pizzeria Bianco the top restaurant in Phoenix with a lofty rating of 29. Despite these proclamations, I couldn’t accept that a pizza could possibly be that good. The impunity of all these blasphemers to place on the loftiest pedestal, a pizza crafted in what I then perceived to be the culinary wasteland.  Many visits to Phoenix later, my opinion of the Valley of the Sun’s eateries has certainly changed.

Pizzeria Bianco has proven it is not a flash in the pan.  Over the years since my inaugural visit, it has sustained the excellence about which Ed Levine and other similarly credentialed food writers have waxed eloquent.  That excellence has been acknowledged through the receipt of several James Beard Foundation awards and nominations.  James Beard awards are considered the “Oscars of the food world,” signifying the very best.  Among the honors bestowed upon Pizzeria Bianco’s legendary owner Chris Bianco are Best Chef: Southwest in 2003 (making him the first pizzaiolo to ear that accolnade) and Outstanding Restaurateur in 2022.  Pizzeria Bianco has also received nominations for “Outstanding Restaurant” in 2013, 2014, and 2020.

Perhaps because he’s suffered from asthma since childhood, you won’t be seeing Chris Bianco lovingly tending to his wood-burning ovens.  In 2010, years of inhaling flour dust and wood-fired smoke, led to a severe attack that forced him to step back from his ovens.  The condition is called “baker’s lung.”  It’s essentially an allergy to airborne flour.  The condition is well-managed with medication and lifestyle changes which include limited time in the kitchen he loves so much.  Fortunately, Bianco has a knack for business.

Not only has Pizzeria Bianco had unprecedented staying power, owner Chris Bianco has proven himself quite the restaurant impresario.  In 2005, he founded Pane Bianco about four miles from his flagship pizzeria. Pane Bianco’s causa essendi is to showcase his fresh-baked breads and focaccia sandwiches, focusing on simple, high-quality ingredients baked in a wood-fired oven.  Pane Bianco is my very favorite sandwich shop across the fruited plain.  It should come as absolutely no surprise that the world’s premier pizzaioli also creates sandwiches that are the equal of his pizza.

What might surprise you is that the James Beard Award-Winning Chef doesn’t create his sandwiches–each of which would be considered any other sandwich-maker’s chef-d’oeuvre–on an array of different breads.  At Pane Bianco, only one type of bread is used in the construction of most of its sumptuous sandwiches–a split focaccia.  In its list of the Best Sandwich Shops in America, Thrillist describes the focaccia as “boy what a bread it is — a focaccia that’s crispy and glistening with olive oil on the outside, pillow-soft on the inside.”

In 2013, Chris Bianco founded a restaurant he originally called Italian Restaurant but later renamed “Pizzeria Bianco: Town & Country.”  It evolved from a broader Italian concept into the pizza-centric restaurant it is today.  The Town & Country location has proven very good to Bianco who, in 2016, founded an Italian trattoria he christened Tratto.  It’s his first venture not focused on pizza or bread.  Instead, Tratto offers simple, upscale Italian dishes crafted with local ingredients.  Like the second instantiation of Pizzeria Bianco, Tratto is located at Town & Country Shops on Camelback.

During my inaugural visit–as if validating a Pygmalian effect (a self-fulfilling prophecy that essentially says you get what you expect)–I wasn’t as enamored of Pizzeria Bianco as its legion of fans. Could it be I was a Bob Newhart in a world of Daryls and Larrys. Not only did the spangled restaurant fail to live up to its billing, it wasn’t, in my estimation, even as good as some local wood-oven pizzerias.  Sure, it was fun to watch Chris Bianco as he held court at his wood-fired oven, but insofar as enjoying the pizza, I was somewhat underwhelmed.  Admittedly, the one-hundred degree plus temperature may have had something to do.  It’s hard to enjoy anything when sweltering heat drains your enthusiasm.

My disappointment started with an appetizer called speidini in which skewers of Prosciutto de Parma are wrapped around Italian Fontina (a straw-colored Italian cheese with a soft flesh and a mild, delicate flavor) and served warm. It was much too salty for my taste, a consequence of very strong (and very authentic) prosciutto. This antecedent to my pizza was accompanied by a wonderful crusty bread served with extra virgin olive oil.  6 January 2026:  My taste buds may have changed between the years 2002 and 2025.  That’s one explanation for how much I enjoyed the speidini the second time I  had it.  Admittedly, my Kim and I took our time between bites, allowing the salty and rich notes to wash over us.  Speidini is outstanding, the essence of wood-fired smoke making sweet love to superb ingredients.

The pizza which introduced me to the magic of Chris Bianco was the “Wise Guy,” a twelve-inch, thin-crusted, white (no tomato sauce) pizza with pecan wood roasted onion, house-smoked mozzarella and fennel sausage. Only the mozzarella made an impression thanks to its creaminess and pliable texture. Perhaps an unconscious desire not to succumb to mass hysteria would still not let me accept that perhaps, I was truly tasting greatness–yet, inexplicably this pizza left an indelible impression on my mind and I knew a return visit was inevitable.

6 January 2026:  After perusing the menu, my Kim’s eyes came to rest on the aforementioned Wise Guy (house-smoked mozzarella, wood-roasted onion, fennel sausage).  I’m happy to have given it a second chance.  Like the speidini, it was so much better the second time around.  Marcos, who has lovingly tended the oven for fifteen years and learned from the master himself, showed us a small video of the mozzarella smoking process.  He explained that a mix of pecan and oak woods are used. They impart a delightful smokiness to the pizza crust, onions and mozzarella.  That smokiness is actually reminiscent of well-smoked (but not overly so) barbecue.  For my Kim, the sweet, smoky onions and fennel-enriched sausage were the most exceptional aspects of the pizza.  Staff of life lover that I am, it was the crust I became most enamored with.  Though it may have been twenty years since my last visit, I’m still over the moon in love with Pizzeria Bianco.

27 October 2005:  Three years elapsed before my second visit, but rather than approach it with an admittedly preset opinion, I was determined that tabula rasa (a blank slate), not a desire to prove everyone else wrong, would dictate my ultimate impression. Count me among the believers! My second meal was an epiphany–a revelation that Pizzeria Bianco just might be the best pizza restaurant in the world. For my penance, I should say 5,000 “Hail Chris Biancos” as I sorrowfully rue the wasted opportunities for multiple visits. My turnaround started with a salad of homemade mozzarella, local tomato and basil with extra virgin olive oil. The mozzarella was smoked to absolute perfection with a taste that left me wondering if I had just experienced the best mozzarella in my 39 years of fromage fanaticism. The flavor combination of fresh basil, garden fresh tomatoes and that trademark virgin olive oil made for a tremendous antecedent to what I hoped would be a better pizza than I first experienced in 2002.

Rather than risk another Wise Guy, I opted for the Rosa, another white pizza–a gem made with red onion, Parmigiano Reggiano, Rosemary and Arizona pistachios. Let me say unequivocally that it was one of the two or three best pizzas I’ve ever had–at least the equal of some the very best pizzas of my youth in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. The crust, although thin, is substantial enough to support the high-quality ingredients with which Bianco tops his creations. It is crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside–a masterful canvas for a masterpiece by a true maestro.