Belmont Pizzeria

602 N. Belmont Ave.
888-9861
belmontpizzeria.com

Second Place: Bottom's Up Pizza

Third Place: Mellow Mushroom

Family tradition is what makes Belmont Pizzeria produce such killer pies. "We're the real thing," co-owner Sal Nuara says of his family's Sicilian heritage and the generations of chefs that came from it. "We're 100-percent natural, and we get in fresh produce daily. We've got old-school rituals in the kitchen, and we stick to them to get an authentic product." In part, that means dough for crusts and sandwiches made fresh throughout the day, sometimes as often as every 15 minutes. "We don't miss a beat doing things the way they need to be done," he says. Longtime Shockoe Bottom favorite Bottom's Up remains popular for thick-crust fans while some pie lovers prefer to munch in Carytown at Mellow Mushroom, a chain born out of '70s hippie culture.