The reality is that there’s a lot of good pizza made in the US and elsewhere now. When I moved to CA in 1995, it wasn’t easy to find a good pizza. Now I can get a great pizza two blocks from my house. BTW I’ve been to Lombardi’s which is #100 on their North America list, and there are probably thousands of better places in the US. The others I’ve been to, I would say belong on the list (e.g. Sally’s, John’s, DiFara) as they are among the best I’ve had - but you only have to read the threads on DiFara’s here to see that a bunch of people disagree.
Oh people will always disagree. That’s what makes it fun but agree the quality of pizza has risen dramatically in North America. One of the best places I’ve had pizza recently was in Tulsa Ok at Andolini’s. Haven’t finished the list to see if it make top 100 but it sure should have.
I see that Pizzeria Bianco is #2. Here is an article about pizza in Phoenix that has a bit about Chris Bianco’s approach to making it (he mills his own flour, for one thing).
Bianco is near my wife’s office so we meet there for lunch occasionally. It is excellent, but there is also a wood-fired place about 3 minutes from home that makes very good pizza.
If by an uptick in business you mean it went from a short/no wait for a table to lines going around the corner then yes. Fortunately it’s still easy to get take out. Not as good as fresh from the oven but still really good and the walk home is usually shorter than waiting on line.
Lovely’s 50/50 is really good in PDX but kinda chichi for me sometimes. Red Sauce is moving which breaks up the best west coast pizza block as they will no longer be neighbors with Pizza Jerk.