Philadelphia's pizza scene isn't just restaurants. It's a community — of makers, eaters, importers, farmers, millers, and obsessives — that generates events, pop-ups, collaborations, and one-night-only experiences throughout the year. Here's how to stay on top of it.
The Pizza Event Calendar
Philadelphia doesn't have a dedicated pizza festival in the way that some cities do, but it has something better: a dense calendar of food events that consistently feature serious pizza work. The city's food festival scene — including the annual Made in America festival, the Passyunk Avenue block parties, and the Philadelphia Food and Wine Festival — all typically include pizza vendors, and the best ones use these events to debut new products and collaborations.
Pop-Ups
Pop-up pizza is one of the most exciting developments in the Philadelphia food scene over the past five years. A pop-up is a temporary restaurant operation — often a single chef or team working out of a borrowed kitchen or bar — that appears for one night or a limited series of nights. Pop-up pizza operations in Philadelphia have produced some of the most innovative pizza in the city.
The advantage of pop-up pizza: the overhead is low, which means the operator can take risks. You might see a natural-wine-pairing pizza dinner in someone's living room, or a Detroit-Neapolitan hybrid served from a food truck in a brewery parking lot. These events tend to sell out quickly. The way to find them is through Instagram — the city's food pop-up scene is primarily organized and announced through social media.
Brewery Collaborations
Philadelphia has an excellent craft brewery scene, and several of the city's breweries have developed ongoing relationships with pizza operations. The pairing is obvious: good beer and good pizza are natural companions, and a brewery with a taproom and no kitchen has an incentive to host a pizza pop-up that draws customers who stay for drinks.
Some of these collaborations have become semi-permanent — a specific pizza operation showing up at a specific brewery on a specific night each week. Others are one-offs tied to a beer release or a festival. Follow both the pizza makers and the breweries you care about to stay informed.
Seasonal Specials
The best pizza restaurants in Philadelphia change their menus seasonally, which means there are pizza experiences that only exist for a few weeks a year. Summer means heirloom tomatoes — a brief window in July and August when the quality of tomatoes available to Philadelphia restaurants jumps dramatically, and some kitchens release special margherita pizzas made with local, in-season tomatoes that taste completely different from the San Marzano-canned versions available the rest of the year.
Fall means squash, mushrooms, and truffles. Winter means the slow-cooked, rich toppings that make sense in cold weather. Spring means ramps and asparagus and the general excitement that comes with the first fresh produce after a long winter.
How We Stay Informed
At The Philly Pizza Project, we stay on top of the pizza event calendar through a combination of Instagram follows, newsletter subscriptions, and old-fashioned relationships. The food community in Philadelphia is small enough that word travels quickly. Subscribe to our newsletter and we'll pass along event information as we hear about it. We're also starting an events section on this site — check back regularly.