Where To Get The Best Pizza In NYC According To Anthony Bourdain

The late Anthony Bourdain is probably best known for his culinary globetrotting through the various television shows he hosted — from "Parts Unknown" to "The Layover" — but he had a special place in his heart for New York City's culinary offerings. He traveled the world and always managed to find the best restaurants abroad by tapping into local resources to discover the best spots. When it came to New York City, where he was born in 1956 (he grew up in New Jersey) and lived for much of his adult life, he didn't need to ask anyone.

While the chef and author specialized in French cuisine, he had a deep, abiding love for New York City's down-to-earth eats, including pizza. His favorite spot in a city known for its pies was a pizzeria called Di Fara, which Bourdain called "the best of the best" in a piece he wrote for The Guardian in 2005. The original location, on Avenue J in Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood, has been around since 1965, and remains so popular you're more than likely going to have to queue up to get inside on any given weekend.

Anthony Bourdain liked to tell visitors to the Big Apple to "go for things that we do really well and the rest of the world doesn't." And while the city has "some of the best high-end restaurants in the world," it was the Jewish delis — like Katz's Delicatessen, which he believed was the the best spot for a pastrami sandwich — pizzerias, and even hot dog joints that Bourdain recommended to visitors, and craved himself when he was back from his travels.

When it came to pizza, Bourdain admitted it was one of the subjects "on which New Yorkers have strong opinions." But he swore by Di Fara Pizza and he wasn't alone. The pizzeria continues to top numerous lists for the best pizza in New York City. The founder, Domenico De Marco, was born in Italy in 1936 and immigrated to the U.S. from the Province of Caserta in 1959. He was known for taking his time to create his Sicilian and Neapolitan-style slices, generally pulling them out of the oven by hand and carefully slicing fresh basil over each pie. The New York Times, in an article at the time of De Marco's death in March 2022, called him "a living link between the cooking of Southern Italy ... and New York City's corner-slice culture." While Di Fara's founder may be gone, his family continues the tradition and even opened a second location in Manhattan's South Street Seaport in 2022.

Besides Di Fara, Anthony Bourdain had a few other New York City pizzerias he loved, including Lombardi's on Spring Street in Manhattan's Little Italy, and NY Pizza Suprema, located near Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. Lombardi's lays claim to being "America's first pizzeria," according to the Pizza Hall of Fame (yes it's a real thing). Lombardi's opened in 1905, and unlike Di Fara Pizza, uses a coal-fired oven rather than gas, and only serves whole pies. Bourdain's favorite order was the white clam pizza.

NY Pizza Supreme was another of Bourdain's go-to spots. Like Di Fara, an Italian immigrant opened this pizzeria in the mid-1960s, and it's still family-owned. Salvatore Riggio launched his pizzeria in 1964 and specialized in plain cheese slices for many years. These days you can get a slice with a variety of toppings. If you do stop by, look for the larger-than-life photograph of Bourdain on display. While Bourdain had his favorite pizzerias, he wasn't above grabbing a slice at "any of the ubiquitous mainstream joints." But if you do go, be sure to look for the red flags that should send you running, including a dirty interior and an overly extensive menu. And be sure to follow Bourdain's instructions for eating pizza on the run: "feet slightly apart, head tilted forward and away from the chest to avoid the bright orange pizza grease that will undoubtedly dribble down" (via The Guardian).