Republic Pi

When Jonathan Sweatt and his partners — the family behind Downriver Grill and The Flying Goat — came across the river in 2015, the South Hill got its own wood-fired pizza pub in the Manito Shopping Center, deliberately roomier than the perpetually packed Goat and deliberately not a carbon copy: different sauces, different crusts, and pies of its own. The menu reads like a South Hill map — the Manito is the Margherita-style benchmark, the Cliff Park brussels sprouts come fire-charred with bacon and balsamic, the Qualchan Caesar and Perry Street plates round it out — all fired through an oven running north of 700 degrees, with a long wall of craft taps and outdoor seats around an enclosed fire.

A decade in, it's settled into being a reliable neighborhood favorite rather than a hype spot, and that's meant as a compliment. One honest split to know about: that blistering oven gives the crust a real Neapolitan char, and reviewers divide into the camp that considers it the whole point and the camp that calls it burnt. Know which camp you're in and order accordingly.