Just about everyone around here knows that Tacconellis has been sited by several authoritative sources as (drumroll and trumpets) THE BEST PIZZA IN PHILADELPHIA. They also know that you have to call and reserve your dough in advance. To further complicate matters, Tacconellis is located in Port Richmond, which is not in many people’s daily travels, and for that reason, out of their comfort zones. This is why many people know of Tacconellis but much fewer have actually gone there.

Unlike most folks, I have traveled a bit in the extended area for legendary pizza, even making it deep into Brooklyn to Di Fara’s several times. Like everyone else, I had heard of Tacconellis for years, and like most folks, never made it there. Recently I did something about it. I organized a group of 15 friends and called to reserve dough for the next day. They were closed for vacation. But luckily there were reopening that next day. The message said to call back in the morning.

Being a first timer, I of course felt stupid asking about reserving dough balls. The woman on the other end of the line was really nice. She recommended one dough ball for every two people. So I reserved eight. As someone posted on the Web, order more than you expect to eat since you can always take it home with you, but you can’t get another pie if you haven’t reserved the dough. Later that evening, armed with a mixed case of Sly Fox cans, we finally made it to Tacconellis.

Port Richmond is a very nice rowhouse neighborhood, located less than 10 minutes by car from Center City. Street parking for Tacconellis is no problem…

More after the jump!

Tacconellis is surprisingly rather large with seating for 115. We got seated right away. The waitress recommended we order four pies, see what we liked, and then order the other four. That, combined with the case of beer, made for a very leisurely and sociable meal. We were there for almost three hours.

I know the question you are waiting for me to answer is, “how was the pie?” FANTASTIC! Using a brick oven, Tacconellis makes very thin crusted pizza. The crust is amazing, very thin, yet incredibly firm, which makes for some very easy and neat pizza eating.

Tacconellis makes four types of pizza, Tomato, Regular, White, and Margerita. We had several of each and mixed up the toppings. The toppings were very fresh. Every slice was delicious. Due to the thin crust, they recommend no more than two or three toppings per pie.

How good was it? Three of our party couldn’t make it, so we had eight pies for twelve people. Two more than suggested. We only had about one pie worth of pizza to take home with us. We didn’t have any beer to take home either. It was a wonderful time and we all want to go back ASAP.

Make the phone call, you won’t regret it. It’s pain free.

Tacconelli’s Pizzeria
2604 East Somerset Street, Philadelphia, PA 19134
(215) 425-4983
http://www.tacconellispizzeria.com

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