Five Best Pizza Places Outside Of NYC In 2011

Last week, I took a look back at the best New York City pizza places I ate at in 2011. Believe it or not, nearly four times as many pizzerias featured on IDOP throughout the year were located outside of New York. And today, I present my list of the five best. Although the places below didn't necessarily open their doors this past year, they are all spots that I ate at for the first time:

5) Green Door Pizza Bakery (Jerusalem, Israel)
Easily the most unique pizza place I've ever eaten at, this hidden spot in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter features a cigarette smoking man cooking pies out of a hole in the ground.

4) Salvo - (Naples, Italy) 
Few tourists make it out to the suburbs of Naples, but following a trip to the Caputo Flour Mill, a stop at this highly recommended spot resulted in some of the best pies I ate during my trip to Italy.

3) Pizza Hacker (San Francisco, CA)
A Bay Area pizza enthusiastic churns out delectable pies from a makeshift Weber Charcoal Grill. It's some of the best pizza I've ever had from a mobile pizza vendor.

2) Ken's Artisan Pizza (Portland, OR)
A summer vacation down the West Coast kicked off here and their Spring Onion pie was one of the culinary highlights of the trip.

1) Pizzeria Starita - (Naples, Italy) 
During my trip to Italy in February, this spot featured my favorite pies. Operated by famed pizzaiolo Antonio Starita, the highlight of my meal there was the Pizza Del Papa featuring butternut squash, smoked mozzarella, peppers, and zucchini.