Masters within the artwork of pizza are tucked into the James Beard Basis’s checklist of semifinalists, introduced this week forward of the coveted 2026 James Beard Awards. In the course of the subsequent spherical, nominees might be introduced March 31, with winners celebrated June 15 on the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony in Chicago.
Excellent Restaurateur Semifinalists
The checklist of semifinalists within the Excellent Restaurateur class consists of Leslie McCrorey Wells, co-owner of Pizzeria Verità , Trattoria Delia and Sotto Enoteca in Burlington, Vermont. Pizzeria Verità gives Neapolitan pizzas and maintains a devoted gluten-free pizza oven onsite. The pizzeria additionally has a cell wood-fired pizza oven to serve Neapolitan pizzas at catering occasions inside 35 miles of Burlington. As of the autumn, Wells was rumored to be opening an Italian café and market referred to as Alimentari.
Elizabeth Blau is the founding father of Blau + Associates, which operates Buddy V’s Ristorante and Honey Salt, each in Las Vegas. Each properties serve pizza, with Buddy V’s positioned within the Venetian lodge and Honey Salt working within the Summerlin neighborhood of Las Vegas. At Honey Salt, Margherita, Truffle and Capicola & Sizzling Honey Pizzas are on the sharing menu. In the meantime, Buddy V’s gives 4 varieties of “artisan-style” pizza, stretched to order.
Frank Callero, Kara Callero, Joe Flamm and Steven Zaleski’s restaurant il Carciofo serves pizzas that includes elevated toppings akin to pumpkin and pistachio pesto. The eatery is a part of the Chicago-based Day of Group chosen as a semifinalist for Excellent Restaurateur by the James Beard Basis. (Notice: Pizza At this time referred to as out pistachio as certainly one of its “scorching pizza toppings in 2026” within the Pizzeria Trade Tendencies Report. Join our webinar to get different insights about coming developments.)
Excellent Chef
Peter Pastan, proprietor of 2 Amy’s pizzeria in Washington, D.C., is a semifinalist for the muse’s Excellent Chef award. Notably, he’s additionally the one pizza maker within the class. 2 Amy’s serves Neapolitan pizzas akin to Marinara and Margherita in addition to Neo-Neapolitan variations with sausage, anchovy and fried eggplant. The “NoAmys” pie is just dough, salt and olive oil.
Excellent Restaurant Offered by Acqua Panna Pure Spring Water
Twenty semifinalists are vying for winner of the longest award identify. Amongst them? Blackbird Kitchen in Bozeman, Montana. The eatery’s menu adjustments repeatedly however consists of pizzas akin to Margherita, Diavola (that includes Soppressata and Calabrian Chiles) and Mostarda, topped with Prosciutto, apple mostarda and arugula.
Excellent Bakery
Along with being a semifinalist for Excellent Bakery, Niedlov’s Bakery Café in Chattanooga, Tennessee, hosts a weekly pizza evening every Friday night. The menu consists of pizzas constituted of high-hydration dough combined from natural entire grains and fermented as much as 72 hours.
Not one to overlook out on the Friday evening enjoyable, Portland, Maine-based bakery Evening Strikes additionally gives a Friday pizza evening that includes 14-inch pies made with naturally leavened dough. Choices embrace cheese, pepperoni, pizza rossa and a rotating veggie particular akin to oyster mushroom, breadcrumbs, purple onion and basil with tomato sauce.
Charleston, South Carolina-based Weltons Tiny Bakeshop gives a Focaccia Pizza topped with Parmigiano Reggiano, tomato sauce and chili garlic oil for simply $10. The semifinalist for Excellent Bakery additionally has a day by day focaccia providing. Working in a fewer than 1,000 sq. toes, Weltons is open from 8 a.m. till it’s offered out.
Excellent Hospitality
Birmingham, Alabama-based Bottega’s eating room books reservations weeks upfront, however its café is walk-in solely, and it serves pizza! The pizza lineup encompasses a golden fingerling potato pie with caramelized onion, farm egg and chili. We might go on, however why mess with perfection?
Additionally mixing Excellent Hospitality and pizza is Louie of Clayton, Missouri. The neighborhood mainstay encompasses a wood-burning oven and rotating pizza specials akin to pumpkin with ricotta, sage and pepitas.
Excellent Wine and Different Drinks Program
New York-based Chambers is a semifinalist within the Excellent Wine and Different Drinks Program class, however that doesn’t cease them from serving pizza – without spending a dime, no much less! Diners who keep for dinner obtain a complimentary serving of Sesame Pizza Blanca, which extra carefully resembles sesame-crusted focaccia. Company who’re there for a drink or a snack can pay $5 for the aspect dish.
One Legged Magpie in Crimson Lodge, Montana, is house to a scratch kitchen serving 5 menu pizzas together with a “Pie of the Week.” The Harvest Moon, a menu staple, is topped with blue cheese, purple onion, pear, ricotta, pine nuts, fried sage and honey.
Excellent Bar
Does the bar Double Rooster Please on New York’s Decrease East Aspect provide pizza? No. Have they got a cocktail referred to as Chilly Pizza? YES! Oh, and they’re a semifinalist for the James Beard Basis’s Excellent Bar award. Along with cocktail requirements akin to tequila and egg whites, Chilly Pizza is made with Parmigiano Reggiano, burnt toast, tomato and basil.
Greatest New Bar
Lower than two months after it opened, Bar Bucce obtained a rating of 8.1 from Dave Portnoy in his One Chew Pizza Opinions. Now, the Miami hotspot is a semifinalist within the Greatest New Bar class of the James Beard Awards. What a 12 months!
Detroit-based Bar Chenin is a wine bar providing Instagram-worthy pan pizzas cooked in a tiny oven. As soon as phrase of the bar’s semifinalist standing will get out, they may have to broaden past the Siren Lodge.
Roasted Oysters. Hamachi Crudo. Pizza? Houston-based Lees is one other semifinalist for Greatest New Bar, and their elaborate menu of snack meals runs the gamut from $25 steak tartare to $13 Margherita pizza. For the bougie pizza crowd, the $34 Truffle pizza is topped with black truffle, bechamel and king trumpet mushroom.
Greatest Chef: Mid-Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)
Matthew Adler is a semifinalist for Greatest Chef: Mid-Atlantic, because of his work at Cucina Morini in Washington, D.C. Amongst different Italian favorites, Adler gives Sfincione, or house-baked tomato focaccia with roasted garlic oil and wild oregano. Patrons can add anchovies or a half burrata.
Greatest Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)
The wood-fired oven is busy at Ellinor, the Appleton, Wisconsin-based restaurant the place chef Adam Marty is a semifinalist for Greatest Chef: Midwest within the James Beard Awards. Along with its wood-fired pizzas, Marty additionally serves Wooden Wings in Gochujang glaze and the steak mix Wooden Burger.
Greatest Chef: Mountain (CO, ID, MT, UT, WY)
In search of the most affordable pizza eats among the many James Beard Basis’s 2026 finalists? Look no additional. Odell’s Bagel in Denver gives Pizza Bagels for $2 (cheese) and $2.50 a chunk (pepperoni). The catch? You must purchase six. Twist our arms! Miles Odell is a semifinalist for Greatest Chef within the Mountain area.
Greatest Chef: Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
These wishing to strive chef Tiara Adorno’s pizzas have from Might to mid-October to take action. The James Beard semifinalist for Greatest Chef: Northeast solely serves pizza at The Crooked Ram’s out of doors idea, The Yard, positioned onsite in Manchester, Vermont. We are going to simply have to attend. …
Proprietor-operator Luke Fetbroth is a semifinalist on this class for his work at Boston’s Tonino. The neighborhood store within the Jamaica Plain space serves pasta and pizza constituted of components sourced with intention.
As one would anticipate from a restaurant referred to as Fancy’s, chef Paul Trombly serves up croquettes and clams on the eatery in Burlington, Vermont. However come Sundays, it’s Pizza Evening at Fancy’s, as Trombly collaborates with space bakers and cooks to combine up the menu.
Greatest Chef: Northwest & Pacific (AK, HI, OR, WA)
Pizza in paradise? Michele Di Bari solutions the query with Sale Pepe, a pizzeria in Maui that makes use of flour, mozzarella, olive oil and tomatoes imported from Italy. Di Bari is a semifinalist for Greatest Chef: Northwest & Pacific.
One other semifinalist within the class, Jordan Koplowitz, operates pizza and pure wine spot Starla’s in Bellingham, Washington. After discovering success with the Seattle pop-up Blotto, Koplowitz is making an attempt to seize lightning in a bottle as soon as once more. Judging by his semifinalist standing, we’d say it’s working.
Cafe Olli in Portland, Oregon, advertises all the pieces you’d affiliate with a Stumptown restaurant: seasonally targeted, domestically sourced and worker owned. What’s extra? Cooks Taylor Manning and Siobhan Speirits are semifinalists for the James Beard Awards’ Greatest Chef: Northwest & Pacific.
Greatest Chef: South (AL, AR, FL, LA, MS, PR)
Geri-Martha O’Hara and Ryan O’Hara, whose Birmingham, Alabama-based pizzeria, Pizza Grace, obtained Michelin Information’s Bib Gourmand designation for delicacies of fantastic worth in 2025, are semifinalists in James Beard’s Greatest Chef: South class. Pizza Grace gives 100% naturally leavened sourdough pies topped with seasonal components.
Greatest Chef: Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)
Colin Marcelli is making stunning pizzas in a fantastic location: Renzo, a historic storefront in Charleston, South Carolina. The manager chef is a semifinalist for Greatest Chef: Southeast who combines a seasonal, scratch kitchen with the house owners’ curiosity in pure wine.
Greatest Chef: Southwest (AZ, NM, NV, OK)
Chef Danny Calleros makes pastas, breads and pizza dough in-house at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing, which hosts farmers markets in Sunland Park, New Mexico. Along with his in style brunch menu, Calleros makes a speciality of specialty wood-fired pies such because the Full Home Pizza, which is gentle on the Uncle Jesse and heavy on the New Mexico inexperienced chili. Have mercy!
