NEPA Pizza Review

I founded NEPA Pizza Review in 2012 as a grad school project as a creative outlet to express my love an appreciation for local pizzerias and pizza making.  Initially, it was just a small, anonymous blog that I didn’t anticipate anyone would care about or read.  All I was interested in was telling stories about the unique, diverse, and awesome pizza available in my region and describing the pizza in a way that was more than a numerical score, and craft a review that people could read and see photos and decide for themselves if this is a pizza that they would like to try.

Growing And Evolving

Over time, I was surprised to see that I had gained a strong local audience who I had connected with.  I was amazed that so many people felt the same way about pizza as I did.  This motivated me to keep going, keep building, keep expanding, and to find new and innovative ways to connect people and pizza.  NEPA Pizza Review continues to evolve as my readers’ preferences evolve – thus the emphasis to expand on social media platforms like facebook, instagram, twitter, YouTube, pinterest, and even TikTok!

Passion for Pizza and Positivity

So much has changed since the inception of NEPA Pizza Review, but one constant remains – my passion for pizza is as strong as ever and the people who also share that passion have helped build a supportive community of local pizza lovers.  It is the positivity of this group, the way they support small businesses, share insights and tips, and the way we treat each other is the thing I am most proud of on this journey!

Never. Every pizza I have every made or eaten has been unique in some way. Each slice of pizza is a new experience which I cherish and learn from.  Every pizza has a story, and I love learning what the story is and sharing it with the world.

You won’t find articles that trash local businesses or that are overly critical for a few simple reasons: 1. There’s enough enough negativity in the world, I choose to be supportive; 2. Bad pizza or service will weed itself out of the market; and 3. As my mother always said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.”

I do not plan to open a pizzeria.  I worked in pizzerias for more than 10 years and loved every minute of it.  I have a non-pizza day job that I love dearly, and I also have this hobby/side hustle known as NEPA Pizza Review that also fulfills me.  You may see me do a charity pop-up or two in the future to raise money for a cause, or to find an opportunity to interact with the NEPA Nation and share my pizza, but you won’t find me opening a shop!

I get this question often.  I know that Top 10 lists get a ton of clicks, comments, likes, and shares.  I know that debating who is great and who is terrible makes for great social circulation.  I don’t do any of this for the clicks.  I do my best to NOT create clickbait, and try to deliver exactly what my headlines say.  I recognize this is not a smart decision for advertising dollars and traffic, but it’s not a tradeoff I want to make.

It’s About Quality Content, Not Clickbait

Top 10 lists, best of lists, and even pizza rating scores are all completely subjective and to me, meaningless.  If I tell you that I rate a pizza a 9.1, what does that really mean?  People want to reduce things to simple number, ranking, or list, but to me, those simple ratings tell a reader nothing.  It doesn’t tell you how sweet the sauce is, if the crust is light and crisp, if it was cooked properly, if they are using a quality cheese or really anything at all.  It’s just a made up number to express one’s opinion.

Top 10 Lists and Instant Scores Don’t Tell the Story

I could easily sort my spreadsheet of all-time ratings and publish in a few minutes.  But doing so removes all context of what the pizza and experience was like in that moment in time.  It also alienates many of my pizzeria operator friends, many of which whom I have developed relationships and friendships with over the years.  It doesn’t make sense to me to publish something for people to simply argue over.  If you want to have a conversation about my favorite pizza spots, PM me privately on social media and I’m happy to compare notes!