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Five Points Pizza
Five Points Pizza opened in 2011 at the East Nashville end of the Five Points intersection, founded by David and Tara Tieman with a straightforward goal: build a genuine New York-style pizzeria in a city that didn't really have one at the time. That original location has stayed a neighborhood anchor ever since, busy enough on a given night that it functions as much as a Five Points hangout as a restaurant. The pizza itself sticks close to New York tradition — thin crust, a proper fold, pies sized and priced for a table that comes back weekly rather than a once-a-year splurge. The Margherita functions as the restaurant's own baseline test, the pie the Tiemans use to judge whether the dough, sauce, and cheese are all working together the way they should, a useful detail for anyone deciding what to order first. Five Points Pizza has been voted the best pizza in Nashville in local polling, recognition for a restaurant that built its reputation the unglamorous way — consistent, well-executed slices and pies rather than a single viral menu item. That kind of steady local acclaim, sustained over more than a decade, tends to mean more than a single splashy write-up. The concept proved durable enough to expand beyond East Nashville, with a second location opening on Charlotte Avenue in West Nashville in 2018 — growth that's kept the New York-style approach available on both sides of the river without diluting what made the original Woodland Street spot a neighborhood favorite in the first place. For a Nashville pizza list, Five Points Pizza is the essential "real New York-style, done right" entry — a thin-crust, proper-fold pizzeria that's anchored East Nashville's Five Points intersection since 2011 and earned its reputation one weekly regular at a time.
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DeSano Pizza Bakery
DeSano Pizza Bakery brought a genuinely strict version of Neapolitan pizza to Nashville, built around the vision of recreating an authentic Italian pizza-making experience rather than an Americanized approximation of one. The restaurant follows the guidelines set by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the Naples-based organization that certifies what can and can't technically be called true Neapolitan pizza — a level of formal adherence most American pizzerias don't bother pursuing. That commitment shows up in the ingredients as much as the technique: imported Mozzarella di Bufala, flour shipped by boat rather than sourced domestically, and Mediterranean sea salt all make their way into the dough and toppings. The pizzas themselves are cooked in wood-burning ovens hot enough to finish a pie in roughly 60 seconds — a dramatically faster, higher-heat process than a standard American pizza oven, and part of what gives Neapolitan crust its distinctive char and chew. DeSano's Music Row-area location leans into an industrial-chic setting where diners can watch the ovens and the pizza-making process directly, turning the kitchen itself into part of the draw rather than hiding it in the back. Reviewers have described it as delivering a genuine taste of Naples — by way of New York, where the format found an earlier American foothold — inside Nashville. The restaurant has built a reputation as one of the most authentic pizza experiences in the city specifically because of that VPN-guideline discipline — it would be easier and cheaper to substitute domestic ingredients, and DeSano's decision not to is a big part of why it's regarded as Nashville's most rigorously traditional Neapolitan option. For a Nashville pizza list, DeSano Pizza Bakery is the essential "true Neapolitan, no shortcuts" entry — VPN-guideline pizza built with imported ingredients and cooked in under a minute, the most authentically Italian pizza experience the city has to offer.
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