Preferential treatment for regional styles

[bradurani]

My quandary around this list is what - if any - advantage should be given to local styles. Take a look at Missouri > St. Louis: Joe Boccardi's (my submission), is a style distinct to St. Louis. It's a crisp, barely leavened crust with sweet tomato sauce, and Provel cheese, which is a process cheese that no one likes except St. Louisans. You cannot get real St. Louis style pizza in any other city, and even the places in St. Louis that claim to serve it often get it wrong (I.E. The much over-rated Frank and Helen's). Imo's (which I also love) is a more mass market version of the St. Louis ideal. If the Imo's cheese stuck to the roof of your mouth just a bit more like Joe Boccardi's, I would consider it a pure example of the St. Louis style. Pi makes NY style thin as well as deep dish, but is mostly known for the deep dish. President Obama tried Pi deep dish when he was in town and claimed it was his favorite pizza ever. However it's not St. Louis pizza (and it's not as good as the nearby St. Louis Italian deep dish). Pi calls its deep dish 'San Francisco style' deep dish (whatever that means), I guess because there's corn meal in the crust. Pi also has branches in DC, Miami and other cities. Randolfi's is phenomenal, but it's Neapolitan style pizza. The ingredients are 100% imported from Italy - even the flour (and the brick oven). Do we want to list any style in any city just because it tastes good, or should we use this list to instead highlight the pizza styles that are unique to the region?

CC: @thecoleorton