This popular NC pizzeria was named one of the very best in the US (again)
Just down the road, a pizzeria in Winston-Salem has been named one of the best in the country.
Mission Pizza Napoletana, a Neapolitan style pizzeria from Winston-Salem native Peyton Smith, was recently ranked 18th in the annual Top 50 Pizza USA guide for 2025.
The Top 50 guide is a Michelin-style ranking organization that only reviews pizzerias, sending anonymous diners around the world. Beyond the US ranking, there are also guides for Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Italy. A worldwide ranking of 100 pizzerias will be released in September.
This is the fifth year Top 50 has published guide for the US and every year Mission has been ranked, starting at 29 in 2021 and rising every year since.
This is the first year Mission has cracked the top 20. The New York City icon Una Pizza Napoletana claimed the top spot for another year.
Charlotte’s Pizza Baby is the only other North Carolina restaurant to make the list, landing at 41, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Mission Pizza Winston Salem
Mission has collected plenty of acclaim over the years, including a James Beard semifinalist mention for Smith in 2022. This list, Smith said, adds something special.
“I would say lists are tricky,” Smith said. “You’re sort of balancing your barometer of what success means to you with this external validation. But the Top 50 is really an industry list so it certainly lands a little different. This is made by people who understand what you do every day, so it’s a different level of recognition.”
Smith grew up in Winston-Salem and played college soccer at Wake Forest in the 1990s.
Later while working in New York, he was introduced to coal and wood-burning pizza ovens and caught a spark.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t we have this (in Winston-Salem?),” Smith said.
Mission started as a mobile pizza oven more than a decade ago before Smith launched the brick and mortar restaurant in 2014.
Neapolitan pizza
The pizzas are Neapolitan-style, cooked quickly in a ripping hot wood-burning oven, coming out with a dappled and charred crust that’s airy and chewy. Mission serves a variety of red and white pies.
Now Mission and Winston Salem have been a destination for pizza lovers for more than a decade.
“Now 12 years on, certainly Winston-Salem is the least likely place to be on a pizza list,” Smith said.
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 10:06 AM with the headline "This popular NC pizzeria was named one of the very best in the US (again)."
