Santarpio's Pizza
Cornmeal under the whole pie, the toppings baked beneath the sauce and cheese, and a coal barbecue by the door doing lamb skewers at $17.50. Dan Secatore called it the best pizza in Boston.
Why go
The pizza is built backwards on purpose. Toppings go on the dough first, then the sauce and cheese over them, and the base is coated in cornmeal.1 Secatore's warning is that the first bite will not knock you down, and then the pie is gone.1 A barbecue pit sits by the door and the cooks work it over coal in the same room you are eating in: lamb, steak tips, chicken tips, sausage, one skewer at a time.2 The room, in his words, looks like a dated VFW hall full of people still arguing about a 1978 pitching change.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Italian cheese, $16.00, before you add anything to it.2
- Order: a single skewer of choice lamb, $17.50, off the coal.2
- Avoid: the takeout box. Secatore says the pizza goes goopy travelling and stays crisp at the bar.1
What locals & experts say
- Dan Secatore, The Infatuation Boston (November 2019):
The crust is perfect (thin, but not bordering on flatbread). The whole pie is coated in cornmeal. And the toppings are baked underneath the sauce and cheese, making each bite a really well-balanced mix of everything.
1 - The same review, on where it stands:
This is the best pizza in Boston.
1
Good to know
- Different door: the business also trades in Peabody. This entry is 111 Chelsea Street in East Boston.2
- It is in the airport's neighborhood. Secatore's line is that if the only reason you ever go to Eastie is Logan, fix that.1
Verdict
should-visit — Two techniques hold this up and both are unusual: a whole pie built with the toppings under the sauce and cheese, and a coal pit by the door doing lamb, steak tips and sausage on skewers while the ovens run. Secatore called it the best pizza in Boston in 2019 and explained the crust rather than the reputation. It stops short of the top because that review is six years old and I found nothing describing the grill work at the same depth.