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Big Mario's Pizza
Big Mario's Pizza opened its Capitol Hill location in 2010, backed by a group of Seattle hospitality figures including Jason Lajuenesse, Mike McConnell, David Meinert, Jordan Neff, and Mario Vellotti — a genuine cross-section of local restaurant and bar operators rather than a single chef-founder, which shows up in how confidently the concept blends a real pizza program with an unapologetic bar-food attitude. The pizza is built in the New York style — big, foldable slices sold both individually and as whole pies, the kind of format built for late-night orders and a fast in-and-out counter rather than a sit-down dinner. Thrillist summed up the vibe directly, noting there aren't many places in Seattle where a customer can "slug an Olde English 40 and bask in the glory of true New York-style pizza" — a description that captures both the pizza's quality and the restaurant's deliberately dive-y, no-pretension setting. Beyond the standard menu, Big Mario's has built a reputation for creative specials that push past a typical New York slice shop — macaroni and cheese pizza and rotating seasonal offerings keep regulars checking back for something beyond the reliable classic slice. The concept expanded from that original 2010 Capitol Hill location to Lower Queen Anne in 2015 and Fremont in 2017, growing into a small but well-regarded local chain without losing the late-night, cheap-beer-and-a-slice identity that defined the original. For a Seattle pizza list, Big Mario's is the essential "real New York slice, dive-bar attitude" entry — big, foldable, by-the-slice pizza built by a team of Seattle hospitality veterans, served in a setting built for a cheap beer and a late night rather than a quiet dinner.
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Windy City Pie
Windy City Pie brought genuine Chicago-style pizza to Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood, built around two distinct styles most of the rest of the city's pizza scene doesn't attempt: true deep-dish, with its tall, buttery crust and cheese-heavy layering, and Chicago's other, less internationally famous tradition, tavern-style thin-crust pizza cut into squares. Offering both under one roof signals a kitchen genuinely committed to Chicago pizza culture rather than borrowing just the more famous deep-dish half of it. That dual-style approach matters for anyone who actually knows Chicago pizza — plenty of transplant pizzerias around the country lean entirely on deep-dish because it's the more recognizable export, while skipping tavern-style entirely even though many Chicagoans consider it the more everyday, more authentically local of the two traditions. Windy City Pie's willingness to serve both suggests real firsthand knowledge of the style rather than a surface-level recreation. Deep-dish pizza is a genuine rarity in Seattle specifically — a city with its own strong, thin-crust-leaning pizza identity, built around wood-fired and Neapolitan traditions more than Midwestern casserole-style pies. Windy City Pie's decision to plant a dedicated Chicago-style kitchen here, rather than in a market already saturated with the style, has made it something of a destination for transplanted Midwesterners and curious Seattleites alike. The restaurant has built its following specifically among people seeking out something genuinely different from the wood-fired, thin-crust pizza that dominates most of the rest of the city's scene — a useful counterpoint on any Seattle pizza list that would otherwise be entirely thin-crust, and proof that there's real local demand for the Chicago tradition even this far from where it originated. For a Seattle pizza list, Windy City Pie is the essential "the one deep-dish option that's actually good" entry — a Phinney Ridge pizzeria serving true Chicago-style deep-dish and tavern-style thin crust in a city that otherwise runs almost entirely on wood-fired and Neapolitan traditions.
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