The city of Asheville is tucked away in the west of the state of North Carolina between the Great Smoky and Appalachian mountain ranges. It's surrounded by extensive national forest lands too, but it's not just the beauty of nature that attracts visitors to Asheville. Asheville is renowned for its art, literary, and music scenes as well as its street theater events. If you're looking for a cultural fix, you won't go short in Asheville. There's a surplus of outstanding architecture to admire too with styles as varied as Art Deco to Gothic Revival. It’s a well-known fact most creatives, unless they're exceptionally fortunate to find rapid success at their craft, are frequently short of funds. It could well have been the need for an economic meal for cash-strapped artists that inspired the opening of the city's first pizzeria when it was converted from an ice cream parlor in the early 1930s.

New York-style pizza was the first to arrive in Asheville and it's been the mainstay on pizzeria menus there for decades. It wasn't long after the thin-crusted pie first appeared in the Big Apple that the recipe was brought to Asheville and keeping to its authenticity is what's made New York-style pies longtime favorites.

How to make a pizza is no secret, they've been around in various European countries for centuries. It's making it right that makes all the difference, especially when it comes down to Americanized adaptations of the original, and that's what New York-style pizza is.

You'll find the way a New York-style pie is baked in Asheville varies from pizzeria to pizzeria. Some cook in wood-fired ovens, others in brick, and some by gas-fired. What doesn't change is the thin base with a thicker crusty edge that's dished up in slices big enough to fold before you eat them. One thing you can be sure of in Asheville is they make pizza with as much finesse as any of the old masters did when creating their legendary works.

Best delivery pizza in Asheville

Black Bear Pizza on Sweeten Creek Road knows exactly how to send out the best delivery pizza in Asheville. When you're as hungry as one of those big hairy beasts, forget raiding your empty fridge for leftovers, or the nearest dumpster if you're desperate, and order a delivery from them.

Black Bear Pizza have a premises that totally reflect their name and the style of the city. Black leather bench seats, aka 1970's retro, line the walls and are separated by Formica-topped tables. Overhead ceiling fans, rather than air-conditioning, add to the establishment's avant-garde look.

When you get a pizza delivery in Asheville from Black Bear, you know you're going to get a beastly sized portion. There's a great and omnivorous choice of toppings too so whether you're a vegan or a dedicated meat feaster, you'll find just the right pizza on their menu for you.

Best takeout pizza in Asheville

When there's an interesting street performance happening, you won't want to miss a single minute of it. You can get the best take-out pizza in Asheville from Piazza in Old Eastwood Village and eat while you're watching it. It may well turn out to be a movie-ing experience.

Piazza's pizza menu is a nod to cinematic creativity with pies entitled The Godfather, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, and the Italian Job. While they do have a trendy wood-hut-style premises, it may not set your creative muse on fire, but their wood-fired pizza probably will.

The murals on the kitchen walls will be a great distraction too while you're waiting for your take-out pizza to cook. Piazza is an Asheville pizzeria that really knows just how to bubble-up the crust on a New York-style pie too so be prepared for plenty of charred, flaky leftovers in your take-out box.

Best pizza near Asheville

Weaverville

Asheville isn't the only city with cultural tendencies in North Carolina. Visit Weaverville and you'll discover it has them too. Weaverville is a town ten miles north of Asheville in the depths of the Cherokee National Forest with serious artistic aspirations. There are more artisan boutiques in Weaverville than there are permanent residents. If shopping is not your thing, then drop into Blue Mountain Pizza for a pie washed down with some hand-crafted beer.

Marshall

Marshall is a town that's developed along the banks of the French Broad River in North Carolina. It's a time capsule of a place that doesn't appear to have moved on from somewhere around the mid-1950s or even before. The town's motto is – one street a mile long – so don't expect too much if you're passing through. You can get a good pizza at Sweet Monkey on Main Street though. Main Street won't be hard to find either as it's the only street there is.

Mars Hill

There's probably not a lot that would draw you to visit Mars Hill in North Carolina unless you'd been to the nearby Bailey Mountain Bike Park. Just because there's not a lot going on in rural Mars Hill doesn't mean you can't get a decent pizza there. If you've built up an appetite pedaling over the tracks in the Pisgah Forest, cycle into the Original Papa Nicks pizzeria and you'll be in for a real home-style pie.