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South Town Pie advances to The Finals
South Town Pie beat Bar del Corso in Round 1. Scroll further for more details.
Margherita
Funghi
Corno di Capra
5/23/2026 - #1 Bar del Corso
Finally, after 8 weeks, we got to try the top seeded pizza spot in our bracket - Bar del Corso. It was the runner-up in the 2024 bracket that the Seattle Times ran, so we had high expectations. It’s also been reviewed favorably in the New York Times, The Infatuation, Conde Nast and Seattle Met.
It’s a popular spot in Beacon Hill, on the opposite side of Jefferson Park from our #2 seed, Stevie’s Famous. We had to make reservations for 4PM. The benefit of running this bracket in the spring is that we’ve been able to eat outside on 3 out of 4 occasions. Bar del Corso easily had the nicest patio setting of the bunch. It is fenced-in and completely covered, yet lets in tons of natural light. For afternoon pizza, it’s a bougie experience. The waitstaff is attentive. The small, 12” wood-fired Neopolitan pies feel authentic and are served lightning quick, because hot ovens don’t have to bake long. The pizza comes uncut, and served with its own pair of scissors. We ordered a Suppli al Telefono as a starter, and for at least this reviewer, it was the highlight of the meal. Think deep-fried, breaded risotto and mozzarella, the size of a racquetball. Perfection.
Since authentic Italian seems to be Bar del Corso’s whole thing, we ordered the following:
Funghi: Crimini mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, pecorino, & fontina without the housemade sausage that comes standard to keep it vegetarian
Margherita: Tomato, mozzarella, basil, & extra virgin olive oil. We had the option to upgrade to bufala mozzarella, which is supposed to be creamier. We stuck with the American standard mozz for a stretchier cheese pull.
Corno di Capra: housemade sausage, pickled goathorn peppers, garlic, mozzarella & grana
Bar del Corso was well-enjoyed, but ultimately a bit disappointing given its stature in the Seattle pizza scene. Every single reviewer had comments about the char on the crust being overdone. It scored a 17.8 out of 20 total possible points, which wasn’t enough to beat the dark horse, South Town Pie. Maybe we caught it on a bad day. Maybe we’d have been won over more if we had more non-pizza menu items. But them’s the breaks. Our thoughts:
Kristin: “I tasted the crust most sometimes & I like to taste more sauce. Very good rice balls & cocktails”; 4.8
Funghi Crust - 4.5
Funghi Sauce - ??
Funghi Cheese - 5.0
Funghi Toppings - love the garlic & peppers; 5.0
Funghi Overall - 4.75
Margherita Crust - too charred; 4.5
Margherita Sauce - very fresh; 5.0
Margherita Cheese - not too heavy; 5.0
Margherita Toppings - hard to mess up; 5.0
Margherita Overall - Nice pizza; 4.75
Corno di Copra Crust - 4.5
Corno di Copra Sauce - was there sauce?; ??
Corno di Copra Cheese - 5.0
Corno di Copra Toppings - love the garlic & peppers; 5.0
Corno di Copra Overall - 4.75
Ron: 4.5
Funghi Crust - Perfect cook, great salt, a bit too charred; 4.5
Funghi Sauce - honestly, it didn’t stick out; 4.0
Funghi Cheese - holy canoli, this cheese really saved the za; 5.0
Funghi Toppings - loved the mushrooms!; 4.8
Funghi Overall - 4.6
Margherita Crust - Perfect cook, great salt, a bit too charred; 4.5
Margherita Sauce - I don’t think I’ve ever had better; 5.0++
Margherita Cheese - Great mozz but they were small; 4.7
Margherita Toppings - Good balance, love the basil; 4.8
Margherita Overall - 4.8
Corno di Copra Crust - Less char on this one; 4.7
Corno di Copra Sauce - again, nothing notable; 4.0
Corno di Copra Cheese - nothing special; 4.0
Corno di Copra Toppings - Sausage was meh but peppers were great; 4.5
Corno di Copra Overall - 4.4
Liz: 4.5
Funghi Crust - Good but a lil too char; 3.0
Funghi Sauce - sauce was pretty hidden; 4.0
Funghi Cheese - mmmmm good flavor & saltiness; 5.0
Funghi Toppings - shrooms poppin off; 5.0
Funghi Overall - 4.5
Margherita Crust - Good but a lil too char; 3.0
Margherita Sauce - Hard to discern; 3.0
Margherita Cheese - Yes!; 4.0
Margherita Toppings - fine; 4.0
Margherita Overall - 3.5
Claire: 4.0
Margherita Crust - Charred crust tastes bitter. Too much for me; 2.0
Margherita Sauce - 3.0
Margherita Cheese - 5.0
Margherita Toppings - 5.0
Margherita Overall - 3.75
Corno di Capra Crust - Char was not an issue; 4.0
Corno di Capra Sauce - There is none; 3.0
Corno di Capra Cheese - I’m becoming a big fan of the grainy texture of grana; 5.0
Corno di Capra Toppings - I’m obsessed with these ridiculously flavorful peppers; 5.0
Corno di Capra Overall - 4.25
Additional Reviewer’s Note: I’ve heard of cutting a pizza with scissors before, but this is the first time I’ve ever done it. It adds a certain novelty. Perhaps it’s more authentic - I’m not sure. We cut our pizza into quarters to share with 4 adults. In hindsight, these were slightly too large, and I know at least a couple of us ended up folding the slices, New York style. This technique puts a lot more crust on your tongue first. The charred crust issue being what it was, I can’t help but wonder if the slices were cut to a proper size by a pizza professional, if that would have eked out an extra quarter-point on my overall score. Who knows?
The Wee Baby Hugo
Hugo ate more than ever, loved the marg most
Coming Up Next: The Finals!
Probably in about a month. Let’s say, oh, Moe June 20th or so.
The Pastrami (left) and Steak Al Pastor (right)
The Wee Baby Hugo demonstrating his menu reading skills
5/9/2026 - #4 South Town Pie
A couple hiccups had us scratch in a new #4 seed. We didn’t get reservations in time for our #3, Bar del Corso, so we took a shot at booking our previous #4, A.K. Pizza. A.K. was almost certainly ranked too low - you have to order your pizza online a day before you pick it up. Ron got online to do the ordering. Within a second of them opening, they were sold out. BOTS! So we scratched A.K. off our list, because fuck that. Ron found us a new #4 seed, South Town Pie in South Park. Redditers ranked it as Seattle’s most underrated pizza.
If we were voting on vibes alone, South Town Pie would dominate this contest. It’s situated on 14th Ave, South Park’s main thoroughfare, and feels like an integral part of the neighborhood. There’s a bar setting inside, but we chose the back patio. Sublime and Beastie Boys played over the speakers. Other patrons were chatty in a way you almost never see in Seattle. We met multiple dogs. The waiter/bartender was cracking solid jokes. South Town feels like the kind of place where regulars hang out, and I love that almost as much as I love pizza.
South Town’s specialties are giant 18” pizzas with unorthodox toppings. They have rotating daily “Unicorn” and Veggie pies. They’ll let you split a pizza down the middle, so we got two half-and-halfs with the following:
Daily Unicorn - Steak Al Pastor: Sun-dried Guajillo chili pepper pesto base, fresh mozzarella, steak al pastor, black whole beans, pineapple, pickled habanero onions, drizzled salsa verde
Daily Veggie - The Lost Forest: Spinach base, mozzarella-provolone blend, balsamic mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto drizzle, fresh burrata
The Pastrami: Gruyere fondue, mozzarella blend, pastrami, dill pickles, caramelized onion, everything crust
Margherita: Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil
South Town was a hit! The inventive toppings were mostly well-loved, but the margherita impressed as well. Win or lose, it feels like a place worth coming back to for a good hang. It scored an impressive 18.3 out of 20 total possible points. Our thoughts:
Kristin: “all delicious. nice vibes & people. good beer selection. not pretentious”; 5.0
Steak Al Pastor Crust - no extra seasoning & I was spoiled by [The Pastrami]; 4.9
Steak Al Pastor Sauce - 5.0
Steak Al Pastor Cheese - almost missed it; 4.5
Steak Al Pastor Toppings - so tasty & well balanced; 5.0
Steak Al Pastor Overall - 5.0
The Lost Forest Crust - no extra seasoning & I was spoiled by [The Pastrami]; 4.9
The Lost Forest Sauce - nice & not distracting; 5.0
The Lost Forest Cheese - Fresh burrata so good!; 5.0
The Lost Forest Toppings - I could tell mushrooms were marinated!; 5.0
Utica Green Overall - 5.0
The Pastrami Crust - Everything seasoning!; 5.0
The Pastrami Sauce - tasted delicous, but could not discern; abstention
The Pastrami Cheese - 5.0
The Pastrami Toppings - I love pickles on pizza; 5.0
The Pastrami Overall - 5.0
Margherita Crust - 4.9
Margherita Sauce - Best! fresh & bright; 5.0
Margherita Cheese - nice light parm; 5.0
Margherita Toppings - I like how they cut the basil up; 5.0
Margherita Overall - Biggest surprise! Impressed they could do simple; 5.0
Ron: “vibes were amazing”; 4.8
Steak Al Pastor Crust - Great balance, a bit chewy; 4.8
Steak Al Pastor Sauce - Not too strong, which made it hard to taste; 4.5
Steak Al Pastor Cheese - Shadowed by toppings; 4.5
Steak Al Pastor Toppings - I love the pickled onions and cilantro but it was too much; 4.0
Steak Al Pastor Overall - 4.5
The Pastrami Crust - Everything crust?? Pefect; 5.0
The Pastrami Sauce - Love the sauce so much; 5.0
The Pastrami Cheese - Great cook and texture, a little light; 4.8
The Pastrami Toppings - Love pickles and it was well balanced; 5.0
The Pastrami Overall - Best pizza so far!!; 4.99
Margherita Crust - Nice, perfect salt; 4.8
Margherita Sauce - Whoa! Such a fresh tomato!!; 5.0
Margherita Cheese - Could really taste the parm; 5.0
Margherita Toppings - Simple, beautiful; 5.0
Margherita Overall - 4.9
Claire: “Vibiest”; 4.0
Steak Al Pastor Crust - 4.0
Steak Al Pastor Sauce - Too spicy, overwhelmed toppings for me; 3.0
Steak Al Pastor Cheese - 4.0
Steak Al Pastor Toppings - Weren’t there supposed to be pineapples? I could barely make out the taste of anything beyond the spice of the sauce; 4.0
Steak Al Pastor Overall - 3.5
The Pastrami Crust - Everything bagel crust! This would work well on so many pizzas; 5.0
The Pastrami Sauce - Gruyere fondue is great! Can’t go wrong with cheese on cheese; 5.0
The Pastrami Cheese - 4.0
The Pastrami Toppings - Very fun toppings that I’ll probably order again, but I like pizza more than I like a pastrami sandwich and this sits somewhere in between; 4.0
The Pastrami Overall - 4.5
Margherita Crust - 4.0
Margherita Sauce - Indeed a very fresh tomato flavor, but I wish it was more seasoned; 4.0
Margherita Cheese - Parm is good, but I don’t taste the mozzarella. Seems more like a tomato pie than a marg; 4.0
Margherita Toppings - 4.0
Margherita Overall - 4.0
Liz: 4.5
The Lost Forest Crust - good classic crust; 4.0
The Lost Forest Sauce - 3.5
The Lost Forest Cheese - 4.0
The Lost Forest Toppings - The mushroom are great & special. Burrata was cool & a good choice; 4.5
The Lost Forest Overall - Very balanced & tasty, everything works well together; 4.5
Margherita Crust - 4.0
Margherita Sauce - A surprise! Fresh & spicy. Yum; 5.0
Margherita Cheese - you can still taste the parm; 3.5
Margherita Toppings - 3.0
Margherita Overall - Kind of strange. Looked unassuming but tasted surprisingly good. Better thant the sum of its parts; 4.5
The Wee Baby Hugo
The Pastrami Overall - Hugo LOVED the everything crust
Coming Up Next: #1 seed, Bar del Corso
In a couple weeks, back to Beacon Hill for Bar del Corso to conclude Round 1. Stay tuned!
Stevie’s Famous advances to Round 2
Stevie’s Famous beat Tivoli in Round 1. Scroll further for more details.
4/26/2026 - #3 Tivoli
The space at Tivoli is a rather typical looking restaurant you’d find in the heart of Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood in 2026. Inside, you’ll find industrial elements like concrete floors and ceilings with exposed pipes and conduit running overhead. Shelves full of wood flank the kitchen waiting to be fuel to bake the next pizza. There is a generously sized outdoor dining section. It was a warm and sunny day on our visit, so we opted to dine al fresco.
Tivoli calls itself Italian-American-ish, which feels like an apt description. Pizza is baked in a pretty true-to-form New York style, although topping choices split in two directions - traditional and inventive. Some menu items (Chicken Riggies and Utica Greens Pie) suggest that there might be an upstate New York undercurrent. Alas, there were no Steamed Hams on the menu. We chose the following dishes plus beverages:
Caesar Salad: The most reviewed dish at this pizza place is a salad! To be fair, it’s very good. Romaine, chicories, Caesar dressing, parmesan, and pankograttato. We also added the optional anchovies for a small fee.
Black Garlic Knots: Black garlic butter, parmesan, chives
Pepperoni Whole Pie: Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Ezzo’s pepperoni
Utica Greens Pie: Four cheese white pie, kale, mushroom, spicy pickled peppers, pankograttato
We enjoyed good food and good company on a sunny day. I think maybe everybody agreed that the salad and knots starters outshined the pizza itself. There was some discussion on whether supporting actors could contribute to the overall score in a pizza bracket, and we decided that that was best left to each critic. The food was good at 17.4 out of 20 total possible points, but we unanimously decided that Tivoli’s run in the pizza bracket ends here. Our thoughts:
Kristin: “other place just pipped it (spicy just overwhelmed too much)”; 4.9
Pepperoni Crust - 5.0
Pepperoni Sauce - 5.0
Pepperoni Cheese - 5.0
Pepperoni Toppings - 5.0
Pepperoni Overall - 5.0
Utica Green Crust - 5.0
Utica Green Sauce - white sauce so hard to isolate in taste; 5.0
Utica Green Cheese - 5.0
Utica Green Toppings - spicy pickled peppers great but overpowered the rest; 4.5
Utica Green Overall - 4.875
Caesar Salad Lettuce - not soggy!; 5.0
Caesar Salad Sauce - lots of dressing; 4.5
Caesar Salad Cheese - yum; 5.0
Caesar Salad Toppings - yum anchovies; 5.0
Utica Green Overall - 4.875
Ron: 4.5
Pepperoni Crust - perfect. great fold. crispy. no sogginess; 5.0
Pepperoni Sauce - tastes great but too much; 4.5
Pepperoni Cheese - no cheese pull but tasty; 4.5
Pepperoni Toppings - too oily from the pep; 4.5
Pepperoni Overall - 4.4
Utica Green Crust - Again, perfect; 5.0
Utica Green Sauce - really like the white sauce, a little sweet; 5.0
Utica Green Cheese - A bit too much, clouded other flavors; 4.0
Utica Green Toppings - Great choices but too sparse, different bites; 4.8
Utica Green Overall - 4.6
Claire: 4.0
Pepperoni Crust - flops right, folds right. no soggy bottom. texture and flavor are fine; 4.0
Pepperoni Sauce - not enough. I can’t tell it’s there; 3.0
Pepperoni Cheese - classic NYC orange slice. low moisture mozz is good for on-the-go eating, but for today’s purposes, I’d prefer a gooier cheese pull; 4.0
Pepperoni Toppings - The best part of the pizza. Cupping pepperonis absolutely full of flavor. I love the texture of grated parmesan sticking to oily pepperoni. The biggest downside is, it’s about the only thing I can actually taste; 5.0
Pepperoni Overall - peps dominated the flavor. perhaps for the best. I suspect it would be rather average otherwise. 4.0
Side Note: I tried a slice of the pepperoni with the Caesar Salad piled on it, like I’d seen in Seattle Magazine’s feature on Tivoli. The salad itself was excellent, but pizza+salad was a net loss in my opinion. So I’m only rating the pizza alone.
Liz: 4.0
Utica Green Crust - Good bready flavor. Good crisp & structure; 4.0
Utica Green Sauce - Kind of sweet in a weird way; 3.5
Utica Green Cheese - Solid cheese. low stretch; 3.5
Utica Green Toppings - very interesting but spice was all or nothing; 4.5
Utica Green Overall - good but wish I tried the pesto; 4.5
Garlic Knots “Crust” - Yum; 5.0
Garlic Knots “Sauce” - Oh god so creamy and delicious; 7.0
Garlic Knots Overall - put it in my mouth; 100,000,000.0
The Wee Baby Hugo
Pepperoni Overall - Hugo loved the crust and a single pep, asked for more
Utica Green Overall - Hugo only had a mushroom but loved it
Coming Up Next: #1 seed, Bar del Corso
In a couple weeks, back to Beacon Hill for Bar del Corso, probably. Stay tuned!
4/11/2026 - #2 Stevie’s Famous
There's an undeniable diveyness about the Beacon Avenue location of Stevie’s, located within the Time-Out Lounge in Beacon Hill. A disco ball shimmers above, a vacant stage waits for its moment, and the PA blasts classic tunes from David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Specials and Iggy Pop. This outpost offers considerably more breathing room than its original location in Olde Burien.
Stevie's crafts New York-style sourdough pizzas. They serve them up by the slice or by the pie. We opted for two whole pies:
Normie MacDonald: I think it’s fair to say it’s their signature pie. Tomato sauce base, aged mozzarella, coppa, grana, burrata, house-made hot honey.
Mushroom 2.0: Aged mozzarella, mushrooms, red onion, gorgonzola, salsa verde.
The pizza was well-loved by everyone in our small group and scored 18.75 out of 20 total possible points. Here’s what we thought:
Kristin: 5.00
Normie MacDonald Crust - thin & just the right amount of chewy & tasty!; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Sauce - 5.0
Normie MacDonald Cheese - 5.0
Normie MacDonald Toppings - burrata less creamy than I thought; 4.9
Normie MacDonald Overall - 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Crust - 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Sauce - green sauce so good!; 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Cheese - maybe a little too much cheese?; 4.8
Mushroom 2.0 Toppings - 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Overall - 5.0
Ron: 4.65
Normie MacDonald Crust - crispy. folds well. nice taste; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Sauce - great base. not too saucy; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Cheese - nice but sparse; 4.0
Normie MacDonald Toppings - coppa, burrata and hot honey are delicious; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Overall - 4.8
Mushroom 2.0 Crust - a bit soggy in center. not as crispy as I’d like; 4.0
Mushroom 2.0 Sauce - holy moly; 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Cheese - very cheesy but delicious (too much); 4.5
Mushroom 2.0 Toppings - onions were a perfect add on to basil; 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Overall - 4.5
Claire: 4.60
Normie MacDonald Crust - flops right, folds right. no soggy bottom. grainy texture has nice mouthfeel. perfect char. can’t really taste sourdough if I’m being honest; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Sauce - excellent tomato and basil flavor; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Cheese - I love the aged mozzarella, but I wish there was more; 4.0
Normie MacDonald Toppings - not a huge fan of soft cheeses on pizza, but I knew that going in. coppa, grana and hot honey made for an otherwise perfect salty, sweet, and spicy flavor profile; 4.5
Normie MacDonald Overall - 4.6
Liz: 4.50
Normie MacDonald Crust - 4.0
Normie MacDonald Sauce - 4.0
Normie MacDonald Cheese - 4.0
Normie MacDonald Toppings (w/o meat) - honey good; 5.0
Normie MacDonald Overall - 4.5
Mushroom 2.0 Crust - great bake, perfect crunch, taste yum; 4.0
Mushroom 2.0 Sauce - solid; 3.0
Mushroom 2.0 Cheese - salty, good stretch; 5.0
Mushroom 2.0 Toppings - good, solid toppings, good but not special; 3.5
Mushroom 2.0 Overall - 4.0
The Wee Baby Hugo
Normie MacDonald Overall - Hugo didn’t like as much
Mushroom 2.0 Overall - Hugo loved this one
In a couple weeks, we’ll be visiting the #3 seed, Tivoli. Stevie’s Famous set a high bar to clear. The victor will proceed to the finals.
Seattle Pizza Bracket
From the people who brought you Pizza Club and Hear Me Out, comes an exciting new project that is so exciting and new, that you can’t even believe your taste buds. It’s pizza, but in bracket form. It’s Seattle, but in pizza form. It’s bracket, but in Seattle form! It is a Seattle Pizza Bracket! Four chums and a baby will convene upon four pizzerias, and crown a winner in a town that’s not really known for its pizza. Look, we could have done coffee or teriyaki or salmon, but we’re doing pizza, because it is objectively the best food ever invented.
Seeding Methodology
Two pizza joints were chosen by Ron and Kristin (A.K. and Tivoli), and two by Liz and Claire (Bar del Corso and Stevie’s). They were then ranked by average Yelp rating multiplied by total Yelp reviews.