Hi there, I’m Dan, local Pittsburgh pizza journalist. Next week the City Paper has declared that it will be “#pghpizzaweek” where they will be highlighting pizzas from, at the time of publishing, 11 pizzerias. This is a city that has one of the highest amount of pizzerias per capita. This is a city where each neighborhood has a signature pizza and blocks are dense with pizza shops. 11 doesn't seem like enough, so I'm going to lend a hand.

In the past couple of years, Pittsburgh has experienced a pizza renissance. There’s a healthy mix of wonderfully greasy pies, mobile pizza heroes and neopilitan pizza that seem to import flavor from Italy.

Pizza has that effect on people. It’s a powerful food that can calm your nerves, put you at easy and transport you into a delicious pizza trance.

Over the next couple days I’ll be highlighting a number of local pizzerias as part of #pghpizzaweek. Pittsburgh is a pizza town as much as NYC, I truly believe that. We have some of the best pizza in the world here and it’s my job to highlight that.

So, over the next week you’ll see pictures, videos and essays on the following pizzerias:

Spak BrothersSlice IslandPizza BoatDriftwood OvenCalientePizza TaglioMama Lucia’sSlice on BroadwayFiori’sBella NotteStone PizzeriaIl PizzaioloPizzuvioFazio’s Pizza

I've covered many of these places in the past, and it's always fun to look back on great pizza from great pizza places. #pghpizzaweek may be one of the best weeks yet! Pizza ya later.