Koko Lists
Start a new list
Log in
Sign up
← New random battle
Koko Battle
Tap your pick.
Golden Boy Pizza
Golden Boy Pizza opened on Green Street in North Beach in 1978, founded by Peter Sodini around a style genuinely distinctive to San Francisco: thick, focaccia-style squares topped and baked more like a Sicilian pan pizza than a conventional thin round pie. The format caught on fast — Golden Boy became, in short order, "the place to be" in North Beach, eventually expanding to as many as seven locations across San Francisco and Berkeley along with a wholesale business supplying delis and schools. The pizza itself is built on a thick, chewy, olive-oil-brushed crust with a genuinely bready structure under the sauce and cheese — a meaningfully different eating experience from the thin, foldable slices most San Francisco pizzerias serve, closer to a proper focaccia than to a typical New York or Neapolitan pie. It's sold by the thick square slice, cash-friendly and fast, built for late-night North Beach foot traffic as much as for a sit-down meal. Sodini eventually scaled the business back from its multi-location peak, but he kept the original Green Street flagship running, and it's since passed to his sons, who've kept the format essentially unchanged while recently expanding again with a new Sunset District location — evidence the format still has real demand outside its original North Beach neighborhood. Close to fifty years in the same Green Street storefront, run across two generations of the same family, serving a thick focaccia-style square that's stayed genuinely distinct from the thin-crust and Neapolitan pizza dominating much of the rest of San Francisco's scene, makes Golden Boy a real North Beach institution rather than just a late-night novelty. For a San Francisco pizza list, Golden Boy Pizza is the essential "thick, focaccia-style square" entry — a dive-y, cash-fast North Beach counter that's been serving the same distinctive format since 1978.
VS
Arinell Pizza
Arinell Pizza's San Francisco location on Valencia Street operates as a sister shop to the original Arinell, which Ron Demirdjian opened in Berkeley in 1975 after training under an Italian pizza-maker in upper Manhattan and concluding that nobody in the Bay Area was making real New York-style pizza. The Mission District location has carried that same format and reputation across the bay, becoming, in its own right, one of San Francisco's most reliably cited cult-favorite pizza-by-the-slice spots. The pizza itself is unapologetically New York in style — large, thin, foldable slices sold fast and cheap, cooked with minimal fuss and served without much in the way of decor or ceremony. It's the kind of counter that trades entirely on the quality of the slice rather than atmosphere, a genuine dive in the best sense: bare-bones, inexpensive, and built for speed rather than a sit-down experience. That format has made Arinell a specific late-night and post-bar staple in the Mission, the kind of place regulars duck into for a quick, reliable slice rather than plan a meal around. Nearly fifty years after the Berkeley original opened on the belief that authentic New York pizza simply didn't exist yet in the Bay Area, the Mission location has helped prove that belief right by building its own loyal following on the same basic conviction. The shop's continued commitment to a classic, unfussy New York slice — no gourmet toppings, no elevated presentation, just a well-made thin crust sold fast — has let it hold its own against flashier, more expensive competitors for decades. For a San Francisco pizza list, Arinell Pizza is the essential "no-frills New York slice" entry — a thin, foldable, cheaply priced pie from a dive counter that's been proving Demirdjian's original thesis right since the 1970s.
Next battle
Full comparison
About Golden Boy Pizza
About Arinell Pizza
Popular Battles
1984 vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
1 votes
Friends vs. Curb Your Enthusiasm
1 votes
Ideogram vs. Sora
1 votes
Navy Pier vs. Bishop Museum
1 votes
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree vs. Skittles
1 votes
George Carlin vs. Oprah Winfrey
1 votes
