Perfect Pizza Co., Portland

You don't mess with good dough. It’s a lesson the Perfect Pizza Company owners learned the hard way when they tried to add butter to Head Chef Luis Delores's tried and trusted recipe. They recounted how their failed dough experiment forced them to throw away 58 balls of the unstretchable stuff but restored their unwavering faith in the expertise of the chef.

Today, the owners concern themselves with the quality of the pizzeria's ingredients and service and let the chefs flex their creativity in the kitchen. Their famous hand-tossed crusts emerge from a brick oven brimming with a unique and diverse smattering of toppings. Specialties include pies such as the Perfect Chicken pizza, which swaps out red sauce for alfredo sauce and includes generous sprinklings of red onion, grilled chicken, feta, and bacon bits.