Tony’s Pizzeria Napoletana is #5 In The World—And We’ve Got New Pizzas

by Joe Bonadio

When I first started writing this blog, now just over eight years ago, I heard the same question again and again. You’re going to write two stories a month—about a pizzeria? How are you possibly going to come up with enough material?

Eight years and over 150 articles later, that question has clearly answered itself. You see, when I started this project (which we christened the Seven Ovens Blog), I already knew something about Tony and his pizzeria. Namely, that Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was an operation that never stood still.

Tony and his ultra-talented staff are constantly working, improving, and pushing the boundaries of what a pizzeria can be. It might have to do with an event, the pizza competition circuit, another new location, or yet another brand-new pizza, pasta or sandwich dropping on the menu. But one thing is for certain: when it comes to Tony’s, there is always, always, always something new to talk about.

Case in point: the most prestigious listing of its kind, 50 Top Pizza has been featuring Tony’s every year since 2021, when they named the restaurant the #1 pizzeria in the US. And the stakes were raised even higher earlier this month at the 2026 50 Top Pizza Awards in Naples, Italy, where Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was named the #5 pizzeria—in the world.

There are about a quarter million pizzerias out there, to put that in perspective. And as a bonus, Tony’s shared the World’s Top 50 honor with two other California pizzerias, Pizzeria Sei in Los Angeles and Truly Pizza in Dana Point. This is a powerful testament to California’s flourishing pizza culture (and here’s a special shoutout to John Arena, Donna Baldwin, Chris Decker and Mike Vakneen’s Truly Pizza, which reached this milestone after only three years in business).

Just before the awards, I had the chance to talk with Tony about one of his favorite subjects: adding new things to the Tony’s menu. Lightly edited for length and clarity, our conversation is below.

Joe Bonadio (JB): I understand you’re rolling out some new items on the menu.

Tony Gemignani (TG): Yeah, I’m working on some new things. Of course Chef Oscar’s winning pizza, the Blossom & Hatch, that’s on the menu now. I judged it—Oscar works for me, but I have to judge fairly like I always do, and that pizza is delicious. It’s gonna be on our High Five crust, so it’s ultra thin and crispy.

JB: I love that crust.

TG: It’s really…the pizza’s great. We’ve also got a new pizza called the Black Betty, and that has black garlic, along with five different types of tomatoes and fresh basil. So it’s like a five tomato sauce, which is sort of unique.

JB: I saw it on social, and it looks amazing.

TG: That’s ultra-thin, but it’s even crispier than our most crispy pizza. You can get it with white or brown anchovies as an option, and it’s just a really beautiful pizza that came out nice.

JB: What’s the difference between white and brown anchovies?

TG: They’re white and brown. No! (Laughter)

The brown ones are usually packed in salt for months then put in oil, and the white ones are brined and marinated. So they’re totally different.

JB: Do you prefer one over the other? The readers would love to know…

TG: You know, it’s funny. Back in the day I hated the brown ones, when I was a kid. Then I started to like brown anchovies a little bit. Getting into the business, we would have anchovies in a tin in oil, and we would serve them once in a while, somebody would get a side of anchovies. This is like 35 years ago.

JB: Probably not the best anchovies?

TG: No, they were the same thing, same anchovies. You know, imported and canned with oil, salty. I got to be older, not a kid anymore, and I started to cook with them in sauces. Just enjoyed them, liked the flavor. Would have them on crostinis or whatever.

I loved sardines when I was a kid though, and I used to eat them with my grandpa in the shed out on the farm. And he would never go in for lunch, he would just have a hard cheese, and that was kind of nasty for me as a kid. But we had crackers and sardines, so I would have that with my grandpa.

I started getting into anchovies later once I got into the pizza business, but we barely sold any. Then I started using them in pasta sauces and things like that. Then when I opened up Tony’s over 17 years ago, I was talking to an importer and he asked if I had ever tried white anchovies. Again, they’re marinated, silver. I tried them on a Caesar salad, and added them to my Caesar, and started making my own Caesar dressing, but with brown anchovies. And when I started Tony’s, we opened with that. We also added them to our wood-fired pizzas: white anchovy pizza with fresh lemon was one of our first.

JB: I remember that.

TG: And then you started seeing them more often. After I started working with them, I thought oh, what about white and brown? I don’t think you see that very often on a pizza. So it has a really nice look, and if you’re an anchovy fan and love anchovies on a pizza, it’s fucking great.

JB: Anchovy rich.

TG: Yeah. So the Black Betty pizza is on the menu now. And there’s one I’m working on right now, which I’ve actually been working on for a while, but I have to run through the kitchen is the Calitalia 2.0. It’s an elevated Calitalia, with balsamic pearls and fresh figs, along with an imported prosciutto. Which I already use, but this one is aged 24 months. Just like Parmigiano Reggiano, the longer you let prosciutto age, the better it is. You can get a 12, or 16, 18, or 20 months. The longer the cure the better, so we are using the 24-month.

So elevated ingredients on a different crust, and you’ve got the Super Calitalia.

JB: A Super Calitalia.

TG: Yeah, a 2.0 version.

JB: That’s so many people’s favorite pizza.

TG: Yeah, it’s on every menu I have, at every single restaurant.

JB: That says it all.

TG: That and the pepperoni—and I guess you could say the cheese pizza. Those are on every menu I have, other than maybe at a stadium or something like that.

But the Calitalia 2.0 version has been the hardest one for me to figure out. It’s such a good pizza, and I’m always trying to compare the new one to the original. So far, I haven’t been able to make one that can beat it.

I’m also working on our tasting menu next week, and we’re going to be adding some new items. One of them is a black and white sesame seed stromboli. It’s a stromboli that I made for Oscar and Natale. I said, try this. It’s done with a tomato compote, with chili strands and basil on top of it. So it’s really elevated, not just in flavor, but in height. (Laughter)

And It’s got fried cup and char pepperoni stuffed inside. Typically when you make a stromboli, you put the pepperoni inside and roll it with cheese or whatever you use, and it cooks in the oven. With this one, I fry the cup and char pepperoni first, and then put it inside with smoked provola. So it’s like a smoked mozzarella, with the sesame seeds, and each individual slice is plated. You’re gonna see that on the tasting menu, and you’ll also see pizzas that are plated, and some pizzas that are whole. You’ll also see pizzas that used to be on the menu that have been totally elevated.

JB: So you’ll be able to get stuff you can only get on that menu?

TG: Yes. I’m working on that. The stromboli will be on there, the Black Betty will be on there. The Calitalia 2.0, or Super Calitalia, whatever we call it, will be on there. And there will be lots of items that will just be different. And it will be per-person, starting at a minimum of two people, and then multiples of two: four, six, eight. A single person coming in would be a little difficult because a lot is plated. Honestly, it’s better to have four people on up.

We’re getting some new plates for this, and there are a few little touches I’m working on that are pretty cool.

JB: Okay, so in terms of timing, when are the new pizzas rolling out?

TG: Well, the Black Betty is on the menu this week, along with Oscar’s pizza.

JB: Yeah, Oscar said that pizza really floored the judges, that it was great.

TG: The bake was perfect, just like that. It’s just everything that we strive for at Tony’s for that style. And with a dough that wasn’t his, that he knew how to adapt.

Understand, when you go into a competition, you’ve been making your pizza nonstop for a year. You give it to a judge: this is my dough, this is my pizza. So you’ve been working, working, working—then you get into a competition where it’s not your dough you are baking with. But you have to make a pizza and use three cheeses. So when you have a dough that you didn’t make, you’re like fuck….I know how to make mine!

But Oscar knows how to adapt, because we make every style here. So if he needs to do Detroit, Sicilian, Tavern, Grandma…

JB: He’s a monkey wrench.

TG: Like Laura, he can adapt to any style. Okay, cool. What do I have, a gas oven? Okay. Electric oven? Sure. Coal-fired oven? Great. You want to do Chicago deep dish? Okay!

JB: (Laughter)

TG: Most competitors can’t do that.

JB: Well, that’s the thing about competition. Obviously being prepared is number one, but you’ve got to be able to adapt on the fly.

TG: Especially with a competition where it’s Okay, here’s your dough, make a pizza. And you’re like, this dough sucks! Or this dough’s not what I’m used to.

So he made one that I was more worried about others copying him, because he was the first to come up to the judge. And he had three other teams right behind him with the same exact dough that he was given.

JB: Really.

TG: Yes, each team was given the same dough. Okay: make a pizza, and use three cheeses on it. And here’s your dough.

So when the first person that goes up, everybody’s watching: How’s it baking? Why does it look like? What are they doing? Oh, we should do that.

JB: They’re learning.

TG: Yeah, they can follow you. So the first one to go up is the hardest. And I’m judging, so I’m thinking to myself, I hope they don’t copy it. Because it was perfect, and you’re likely to see people copy it because they don’t know what to do with the dough. And I believe they might have tried, but there’s skill involved.

I have to say though, all of the pizzas in that category were amazing. The second pizza that I judged was incredible, the third pizza was fricking great.

JB: That was in the three cheese contest, right?

TG: Yeah, the three cheese category, and you get teamed up with somebody you don’t know. That category was like….whoa. They were great, all of them.