How a San Francisco garage spawned the world's greatest pizza

"Pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri is probably the most famous chef you've never heard of. There are a few reasons for that. Mangieri has no investors, no restaurant group, no PR machine and no sponsorships. He has spent the majority of the past 30 years in a closet of a dough room, perfecting his near-spiritual pursuit of Italian flour, tomatoes and cheese."

"Mangieri has only ever owned one restaurant: Una Pizza Napoletana. He started it in New Jersey in 1996 and moved it to New York City in 2004 before spending nearly eight years, from 2010 to 2017, serving up pies in a nondescript garage in San Francisco's SoMa district. You might recall waiting an hour in line for one of the heavily tattooed, native New Jerseyan's naturally fermented, wood-fired pizzas. There were five on the menu, nothing else."

Anthony Mangieri founded Una Pizza Napoletana in 1996, moved it to New York City, and operated in San Francisco's SoMa from 2010–2017. He maintained a restrained menu and nightly limit of 100 dough balls, closing when sold out. Mangieri worked without investors, PR, restaurant groups, or sponsorships, devoting three decades to perfecting dough, tomatoes, and cheese. Una Pizza Napoletana earned top honors as the best pizzeria in the U.S. and the world, reaching No. 1 solo in 2024. The years in San Francisco had a major influence on the pizzeria's evolution.

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