Food - Drink
What Makes Altoona-Style Pizza So Unique
By ELIAS NASH
The modest Pennsylvanian town of Altoona certainly doesn't come to mind when you think of the world's pizza capitals—you presumably think of Naples, New York, and Chicago instead. Altoona pizza is one of the state's many regional specialties with devoted followings.
Altoona-style pizza was invented over 50 years ago, but it only became popular in the last decade.The Altoona Hotel was the only place to get the specialty pizza for decades, but after the hotel burned down in 2013, other eateries in the area opted to recreate the dish in memory of the lost hotel.
With a thick, square, Sicilian-style crust, tomato sauce, salami slices, green bell pepper rings, and American cheese on top, it is immediately clear that Altoona-style pizza is in a league by itself. Each square, or "cut," when cut, contains precisely one salami slice and one green pepper ring underneath the cheese.