As alluded to in a recent post, my food cravings meter has lately been veering more in the direction of pizza than cheesesteaks. One reason for that is the increasing amount of time I spent watching Dave Portnoy’s pizza review videos on YouTube during my blogging hiatus. The other is the mini-explosion of new Philly pizzerias that have been garnering raves in recent years – and even more so, recent months.
I’m not one to fight my cravings, so it’s likely that I’ll be posting more often about pizza for at least the near future. But before diving more deeply into exploration of the new Philadelphia pizza scene, it felt right to go back to the long-standing pizzeria that was widely regarded as the city’s best for many years – until the referenced burst of highly regarded new pie purveyors.
Tacconelli’s, which is in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, has been serving pizza since Giovanni Tacconelli opened it in 1946 with the oven he had previously used to bake bread. I had eaten there once before – roughly around the turn of the century.
There is another Tacconelli’s in South Jersey that I posted on in late 2022. They are owned by members of the same family, but operated separately. The pizza is similar, but not the same; probably because of the difference in ovens.
As you can see, the only decisions to make when ordering at Tacconelli’s are what types of pizza and non-alcoholic beverages to order. They have no appetizers or any other food options. Diners are welcome to bring their own wine or beer.
We opted for one basic plain pie, another with mushrooms on one half and sausage on the other and a Tacconelli’s Special, which is a white pie topped with spinach, crushed tomatoes and garlic.
The wait for our pizzas to come out was a long one, but that’s the norm that people who have eaten there before expect. The restaurant has one relatively small oven, and I believe the pizza maker cooks one at a time. The place was pretty crowded when we were there and most of the other customers had ordered before us.
Yet the conversation with the family members who joined my wife and me was excellent, and the wait merely increased our anticipation.
At first glance, the pizza at Tacconelli’s didn’t have the visual Wow-factor that a few other pies I’ve posted about possessed. The crust wasn’t as consistently charred and the bubbles were a little less impressive looking.
But these pies were strong evidence that you can’t always judge a book by its cover, at least when it comes to pizza.
Additional investigation showed that all three pizzas featured an excellent under-carriage and little to no floppage.
Then came the first bite, which was from a slice of the plain pie in my case. It was fantastic from both a flavor and texture standpoint.
The crust was very thin and crispy in addition to being extremely light. I ate five slices of pizza that night and didn’t feel that full by the time we finished. That may have been my norm when I was younger, but it hasn’t been for many years.
Aside from the crust, another factor that makes the pizza at Tacconelli’s lighter than most is their sauce-to-cheese ratio. They use a lot of extremely flavorful sauce and a relatively small amount of mozzarella, which happens to be how I prefer my pizza.
I didn’t try any of the mushroom slices, but the Italian sausage that they use is excellent and was proportioned nicely, while the Tacconelli’s Special was bursting with garlic flavor, something you’ll never hear me complain about.
But the basic plain pie was my favorite. It was so simple, yet delicious.
I’m not yet in a position to say where Tacconelli’s ranks among area pizzerias with the competition now being so much stiffer. But they clearly haven’t lost a step since the days when they were the king of the Philly pizza scene.
BZ Maestro Eats 