Pizza Baker of Midland tops the list for “Neapolitanish-style” pizza in Michigan in The Washington Post’s online national directory of pizza styles online published Aug. 31.
“I had no idea this was even happening,” said Pizza Baker owner Jim Baker, who was surprised and excited. “This morning, my friend who owns a different pizza place in Ohio told me that he was sixth on their list for New York-style. So of course, I checked it out right after – and there we were, at number one.”
The Post’s pizza directory ranks pizzas by style in each state. The six styles include Chicago, Detroit, Neapolitan-ish, New Haven, New York, and Sicilian. For each style, a maximum of six restaurants are ranked per state.
According to Baker, the “ish” tacked on to Neapolitan style is due to the fact that a true Neapolitan pizza – named for Naples, Italy – must have ingredients fresh from Italy. While it may not have ingredients fresh from Italy, its 800-degree wood-fired oven helps Pizza Baker stand out among the countless other pizzerias.
“This (Neapolitan-ish style) is what we do,” Baker said.
Jim and Janet Baker have owned Pizza Baker in Downtown Midland since 2019. Before their brick and mortar location, the pizzeria used to be mobile dating back to 2014.
The Pizza Baker Food Truck was a popular stop at both the Larkin Beer Garden and the Farmer’s Market in Midland. After a few years of success, they moved to a more permanent location at 240 E. Main St. Among their employees is their son, Jameson Baker.
For their article, the Post turned to Yelp and searched more than 85,000 independent and small-chain restaurants for reviews that mentioned 35 styles. The article states:
“We only considered pizzerias that had at least 25 reviews and where a substantial share mentioned the pizza style in question. We ranked them with a simple formula that accounted for rating (most important), number of reviews (important) and how often reviews mentioned that particular pizza style (less important).”
View the complete directory for Michigan or any other US state by searching for “Look up the best regional pizza in your state” on The Washington Post’s website.