Good Taste: Pizzeria Beddia

To call Pizzeria Beddia hot is an understatement.

This tiny Fishtown corner takeout is as inconvenient as possible - open only Wednesday through Saturday, with a limited cash-only menu and no phone.

But I'd endure the hour-plus wait again because Joe Beddia puts so much love into every crispy New York-style round.

From the locally sourced ingredients to his meticulously fermented dough, he practically sends each one into the oven with a goodbye kiss. But things get genuinely hot with the Arrabiata, an "angry" pizza whose thick Jersey tomato sauce is spiked with so many chiles, both pickled serranos and thinly shaved fresh Thai peppers, that it's bound to become Philly's new object of spicy desire.

That other ingredients, like the nutty Old Gold cheese, ring through with a lingering savor is a testament to this: Pizzeria Beddia's not just hot, it lives up to the hype.

- Craig LaBan
Arrabiata, $20, Pizzeria Beddia, 115 E. Girard Ave.