Pizza is not Nashville’s native food, which is exactly why the city’s best pizza places feel like genuine finds rather than obligatory entries on a food checklist. Nashville’s pizza scene has developed real range since 2015.
Five Points Pizza
East Nashville. Walk-up window open until 3am on Friday and Saturday, midnight other nights.
The East Nashville community standard. New York-style by-the-slice pizza sold from a walk-up window at hours that make it the default destination for anyone in the neighborhood after midnight. The crust folds properly. The cheese is applied correctly. The sauce has no identity crisis. None of this sounds like a ringing endorsement until you consider how many pizza places fail at one or more of these basic criteria. Five Points doesn’t. It is also one of the few places in Nashville where you can walk up, buy a slice, and eat it standing outside at 2am, which is the correct way to eat New York-style pizza.
Nicky’s Coal Fired
Multiple Nashville locations.
Coal-fired pizza with a thinner, chewier crust that develops char from the heat. The technique produces a result that is different from both New York and Neapolitan styles in texture. Consistent quality across locations. The white pizza options are particularly strong.
312 Pizza Company
Chicago-style deep dish in Nashville. The format is polarizing because deep dish requires a specific kind of patience and a stomach that has set aside time for recovery. 312 does it correctly, which matters because deep dish done badly is unusable. Vegan options available.
Sho Pizza Bar
East Nashville Riverside Village. Sean Brock’s Japanese pizza bar opened in 2025 and represents the most unusual approach to pizza in the city. Brock treats pizza through a Japanese culinary lens, using fermentation and ingredient sourcing from his Appalachian-to-Asian research. The result is not gimmicky. Brock’s other projects (Husk, Joyland) have been serious, and this one follows the same standard. Worth visiting once to understand what he is doing; worth returning to if the approach clicks.
Frankies
White pizza with ricotta squash and hot sausage has been a recurring offering. The menu is seasonal in a way that requires checking before you go, because the options change. The food is careful and the room is good.
The Broader Picture
Nashville does not have a Neapolitan pizza tradition comparable to what you would find in New York, Chicago, or Naples-influenced cities. The best Neapolitan-adjacent options are at upscale Italian restaurants rather than dedicated pizzerias. What Nashville does have is Five Points Pizza for the late-night NY slice format, Nicky’s for coal-fired quality, 312 for Chicago-style depth, and Sho for an entirely different conversation about what pizza can be. For most visitors, Five Points Pizza represents the clearest and most satisfying answer to “where do I get good pizza in Nashville?”
Sources
- Nashville Guru, Five Points Pizza listing, nashvilleguru.com
- Visit Nashville, restaurant listings, visitmusiccity.com
- Nashville Lifestyles, dining listings, nashvillelifestyles.com
- Do615, “Late Night Bites in Nashville,” do615.com