It’s hard to go from one place to another in Somerville’s Davis Square without being reminded that you could be eating pizza. Three of the main roads to the center have pizza joints placed strategically to incept the thought as you walk or drive, and there’s more when you arrive.
Which pizza you should be eating is the big question – is the pie right in front of you also the right one to buy? Or is it worth it to walk all the way to the opposite end of the block, or even to cross a couple of streets?
We had to answer this definitively for ourselves, and we’re sharing the (utterly subjective) findings here in case others had the same feelings of indecision. For those who feel decisively differently, you should email us at editor@csindie.com and tell us why we’re wrong, or what we’re missing.
Keep in mind that some things we’re missing on purpose: There are even more places for pizza in the area than we’re including in the competition, even though their removal feels deranged for a variety of reasons. It felt odd not to include Davis Square Pizza in a roundup of slices of Davis Square pizza, but this joint feels too remote at 351 Highland Ave.; it’s unlikely anyone in Davis Square is going to leave Davis Square to go get “Davis Square Pizza.” It feels strange also to exclude Sacco’s Bowl Haven by American Flatbread, which is right in the square at 45 Day St., but it serves only whole pizzas. Five Horses Tavern and Domino’s can’t play for the same reason – they serve whole pies, not slices.
That leaves four, which are ranked in order of preference.
Mortadella Head
$4.50 A superbly balanced mix of red sauce under mozzarella, pecorino and some trifling scraps of basil, and over a terrifically chewy-but-charred Roman-style crust. There’s an option for a round thin-crust slice here as well, which is what we sampled at the other sellers, but it seemed a crime to sacrifice the Mortadella Head specialty for the sake of an apples-to-apples comparison when we already liked these apples plenty: This is our favorite slice in the square. (Founders Charles Sillari and Sebastian Fricia call it The Perfect Cheese and, eh, you know what? Close enough.)
Mortadella Head, 20 College Ave., Davis Square, Somerville
Dragon Pizza
$4.55 Charlie Redd opened his pizzeria in 2018, the same year as Mortadella Head, and elevated the square with a no-frills artistry that makes Dragon perhaps the perfect Davis Square restaurant: It’s an exceedingly casual place with a globally sophisticated palate. Yet there’s something in me (it might be excess gluten) that makes me rank Dragon’s thin crusts the barest notch below its competition on College Avenue. A cheese slice at Dragon is aromatic, comes out sizzling and pulls the neat trick of being two distinctly satisfying meals in one: a mild center experience of mozzarella, provolone, and Parmigiano, sauce and crust; and the outer rim of chewy, charred crust alone. You won’t go wrong here.
Dragon Pizza, 233 Elm St. Davis Square, Somerville
Mike’s Food & Spirits
$4 Mike’s was in Davis even before the current family ownership, which dates back to 1980, and has earned generations of loyalty with reasonable prices, generous portions, a good vibe and a menu so sprawling it’s almost bewildering – so maybe it’s forgivable to give its standard slice of cheese pizza fairly low marks. Despite being a big, earnest serving with housemade ingredients, it is also extremely mild. The ingredients lack vibrancy. The central floppiness of the crust is arguably not far from Dragon’s, but without a char and without a chewiness and heft at the rim. Thin-crust slices should offer the possibility of being folded and eaten taco style; this crust is a little too slack even for that. I’d come to Mike’s for many dishes, starting with its pastas and a solid, basic burger, but it has to be my third choice to grab a slice of pizza.
Mike’s Food & Spirits, 9 Davis Square, Somerville
7-Eleven
$3 The minor miracle behind the very good egg salad sandwiches stocked in this minimart’s refrigerators hasn’t made it the front-of-store heat lamps. These 7-Eleven slices are the cheapest in the square, and should be: They’re smaller than the rest and tend to be stale, with the crust hardened and the layer of saturation where it meets the sauce and cheese turning into a slightly odd mush. We’re told these pizzas are made every two hours. That suggests that getting a good slice at 7-Eleven might be mainly a matter of good timing.
Six 7-Elevens in Cambridge and Somerville and two Speedways with 7-Eleven stock including Central Square, East Somerville, Davis Square, Inman Square, Kendall Square, Magoun Square, North Cambridge and Porter Square.
