Brooklyn's Best Pizza Bakes in a 100-Year-Old Oven

The beloved Williamsburg pizzeria uses a historic coal-fired oven to create its signature wood-fired pies.

Apr. 16, 2026 at 8:05am

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A brightly colored, high-contrast silkscreen print of a single, iconic pizza slice repeated in a tight grid pattern, utilizing flat, vibrant, and unnatural neon color palettes overlapping with heavy black photographic outlines to turn the everyday pizza slice into modern pop art.Best Pizza's historic wood-fired oven lends its signature pies a unique texture and flavor profile that has kept this Brooklyn institution a local favorite for over a decade.NYC Today

Best Pizza in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood is known for its unique pizza pies, thanks to the 100-plus-year-old oven the restaurant uses to bake them. The oven, which was originally a coal-burning bread oven, was converted to a wood-fired pizza oven in the early 2000s before Best Pizza took over the space in 2010.

Why it matters

In a city known for its pizza, Best Pizza stands out by using a historic oven that gives its pies a distinct texture and flavor profile. The wood-fired oven is a rarity in New York, as environmental concerns have led to the decline of such ovens in recent years.

The details

Best Pizza's oven dates back to 1925, when the building housed a previous establishment that used it as a coal-burning bread oven. A later pizza place converted it to a wood-fired pizza oven in the early 2000s, and that's the oven Best Pizza has used since opening in 2010. The oven's unique construction, with a wood-fired interior and coal-burning exterior, gives Best Pizza's pies a signature wood-fired taste and texture that's hard to find elsewhere in the city.

  • Best Pizza opened in 2010.
  • The building's original coal-burning bread oven was installed in 1925.

The players

Best Pizza

A beloved pizzeria in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, known for its unique pies baked in a historic 100-year-old oven.

Scott Wiener

The founder of Scott's Pizza Tours, an expert on New York City's pizza history and ovens.

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What they’re saying

“An oven within an oven is considerably less common, and aficionados should note that Best Pizza's carries the obvious quality of wood-fired in spite of its coal exterior.”

— Scott Wiener, Founder, Scott's Pizza Tours

What’s next

Best Pizza plans to continue using its historic oven to bake its signature wood-fired pizzas, offering a unique dining experience for pizza lovers in New York City.

The takeaway

Best Pizza's use of a 100-year-old oven to create its wood-fired pies highlights the importance of historic ovens in shaping the distinct flavors and textures of New York City pizza. In an era of declining wood-fired ovens, Best Pizza's commitment to its historic oven preserves a piece of the city's pizza heritage.