Berkeley Pizzeria Tops Yelp's National Top 100 List

BERKELEY, CA — A Berkeley pizzeria has topped a newly released list of America’s 100 best.

Berkeley’s The Cheese Board Collective (1512 Shattuck Ave.) was ranked No. 1 by Yelp in a list the social networking review site released Feb. 9 commemorating National Pizza Day.

The collective was among three Berkeley pizzerias that made the list. Zachary’s Chicago Pizza ranked 28th, and Sliver Pizzeria placed 36th.

Oakland’s Zachary’s Chicago Pizza ranked 15th.

The Cheese Board Collective might also be among the nation’s most unique.

The pizzeria is an offshoot of The Berkeley Cheese Collective (1504 Shattuck Ave.) located two doors down on the same block.

“We started making pizzas for ourselves by cutting off hunks of extra sourdough baguette dough, grabbing favorite cheeses from the counter and throwing on vegetables from the market next door,” the collective explained of its origins going back to the mid 1980s.

“In 1985, we started serving pizza to our customers after regular hours on Friday nights. The idea was that we would make one type of vegetarian pizza each night, using fresh ingredients, unusual cheeses from the Cheese Board, all on top of a thin, sourdough crust.”

The recipe stuck, and the pizzeria has since added salad, cookies, buffalo milk soft serve, sodas, beer and wine to the menu.

“Live music at both lunch and dinner is part of the daily schedule,” the collective said.