O’Scugnizzo Pizzeria

I always like visiting the oldest pizzerias. Besides the appeal of living history, they are also useful reference points to show what American pizza looked like before styles became standardized and almost everyone started calling themselves “New York Style”. The oddities are often the most interesting part. O’Scugnizzo has been making its pizza for 112 years, and nobody would invent this exact pizza from scratch today.

@oscugnizzo_utica opened in 1914 and is the second-oldest pizzeria in the United States. Founder Eugenio Burlino, an immigrant from Naples, started by selling tomato pies for a nickel at church festivals before opening the pizzeria (the name being what festival goers would call out when they wanted a slice).

O’Scugnizzo makes a specific upside-down pie in their electric deck oven. The key point is that the pizza is baked sauceless. Then a very healthy amount of sauce (heated separately) is ladled on post bake. Adding the sauce post-bake allows the dough to rise better without that extra weight. The result is very tomato-forward, with the generous cheese providing richness underneath rather than dominating the pizza.

I was skeptical when the pizza came out. The crust is thick and very pale. By appearance it looked liked some of the tasteless crusts meant only to hold up extra toppings you see at lesser pizzerias. But it was definitely not that. The crust had a very nice flavor, the bottom crisp, and the interior light. I would eat it alone as bread.

The sauce is really the defining feature. There is a lot of tomato here, balanced by the salty grated cheese on top and melted cheese underneath. We added peppers, which worked especially well with the sweetness and acidity of the sauce (I guess 112 years of testing has allowed a lot of perfecting).

O’Scugnizzo is obviously worth visiting for the history, but this is not just a museum piece. It is a genuinely distinctive regional pizza. Recommended.