Bay Area’s TonyG wins #1 Pizza of the Year honors with a vegan creation

The Bay Area’s pizza king, Tony Gemignani, can add two more honors to his long list of culinary accomplishments.

On Thursday night in New York City, Gemignani won the #1 Pizza of the Year title from the 50 Top Pizza USA 2024 for his Impossible Pizza and he took No. 2 in that group’s ranking of the nation’s best pizzerias for Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, his flagship San Francisco restaurant. His Las Vegas restaurant, Pizza Rock, ranked 28th.

Gemignani’s winning pie, a vegan creation, is topped with Selfish Cow vegan cheese, Impossible taco meat, black and red kidney beans, tomato, white onions, serrano peppers, bell peppers, vegan mayo, garlic, sriracha, lime and cilantro.

That pizza is available only at Tony’s Pizza Napolatena in North Beach, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary in business.

The Fremont-born pizzaiolo, who mastered his pizza-tossing skills at Pyzano’s in Castro Valley, holds more than a dozen world pizza champion titles. He launched the Slice Houses in San Francisco in 2010 and now owns or franchises 12 of them in the Bay Area (including Mountain View, Belmont, San Leandro and Walnut Creek), Sacramento, Southern California, Las Vegas and beyond. More franchises are coming soon to California and several other states.