Pizza Three, St. Paul

When a national chain delivered him a pale imitation of a pizza, Eddie Lane thought, “I can do better than this.” The winner of more than 37 Minnesota State Fair ribbons put his money where his mouth was, laboring away until he perfected Pizza Three's stone-cooked thin-crust pies. Eddie and his culinary team craft more than 10 specialty, veggie, and chicken pizzas ranging from classic pepperoni to a loaded-baked-potato pizza topped with garlic mashed potatoes and bacon. Their culinary innovation extends to dessert with the s'mores pizza, a chocolate-, graham-cracker-, and marshmallow-topped pie that evokes memories of sitting around campfires in the Coliseum. Chefs also fold pizzas into calzones, douse wings in award-winning barbecue sauce, and whip up pastas from some of Eddie's Blue Ribbon–winning recipes.