welcome, vegetarians
and vegans 
With a menu as stylized and tricked-out as the pierced and tattooed staff, PIZZA LUCÉ has earned its reputation as a Twin Cities fave for vegetarian and vegan pies. Fresh crusts come laden with soy cheese or flavorful nut-based “rinotta.” Choose from six meat substitutes, including expertly seasoned, buffalo-style mock breaded chicken. With an exhaustive toppings list of fresh vegetables and local cheeses, you’re guaranteed a veg-friendly pie that tastes just as rich, hot and decadent as carnivorous fare. Don’t skip the garlic mashed potato pizza—buttery, dense and savory, this is comfort food of the highest order. [Five metro locations]

local ingredients
Any time you order a pizza with goat cheese at BRYN MAWR PIZZERIA AND DELI, it comes with chevre from Donnay Dairy in Kimball, Minn. It’s a popular topping at this vegetarian-friendly pizza spot, where we recommend the rosemary bianco pizza, with olive oil, cayenne, rosemary, artichoke hearts, walnuts, garlic, goat cheese and wine-soaked Kalamata olives. Manager Alex Anderson (whose parents own the place) continually looks to local sources of seasonal ingredients for the pizzas, sandwiches and soups made here. Slices are available during lunch hours every day except Sunday. [404 Cedar Lake Rd. S., Mpls.; 612.377.5501]

gourmet caliber
When a chef of Steven Brown's caliber offers to cook you anything at all, you nod, smile wide and accept without question. Brown is the only person who can get us to eat beets. So it stands to reason that if he cooks you pizza, nothing but the edible equivalent of unicorns and rainbows will emerge from the kitchen at PORTER & FRYE. What you’ll receive is something a little more restrained and sophisticated than that: The crust is serious, meaning real thought and technique go into it—hands down the best in town. Toppings are straightforward gourmand: parmesan, cappicola, arugula, et al. [1115 2nd Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.353.3500]


best lunch special
Since 1975, family-owned Powderhorn haunt JAKEENO’S PIZZA AND PASTA has been making hot, fresh, thin-crust pies worth leaving your delivery zone for. The dough is light but chewy, with an airy crunch that pairs nicely with the traditional red or olive oil and garlic sauce.
Top it off with unusual ingredients like Asiago cheese, shrimp or kraut. Of Jakeeno’s specialty pies, its Greek version delivers a savory mix of artichokes, plump Kalamata olives and tangy feta cheese on an olive oil and garlic base. Hungry for lunch? Recession-proof specials rotate daily at its two south Minneapolis locations. [3555 Chicago Ave., Mpls., 612.825.6827; 920 E. Lake St., Mpls., 612.767.1102]

calzones: the original
hot pocket
There are places that overstuff calzones with ingredients, overwhelming the meager crust pocket—making it soggy and sad—and leaving you with a deplorable bread-to-fillings ratio. Not at PUNCH, where the calzone is as revered as the black-blistered Neapolitan pizza zipping in and out of the 800-degree oven. Here you can order your choice of four signature calzones (we’re suckers for the Lombardi: ham, mushrooms, goat cheese and basil), or you can order any of their pizzas calzone-style as well (hello, spicy Vesuvio!). They’re equal parts light-as-air crust and perfectly rationed ingredients. Just don’t forget to add the mozzarella di bufala! [Six metro locations]