Back in November 2008, I dragged NYC native and master baker Art Meyer around the city with me, sampling some of the newer crop of independent pizzas, especially those that fans felt were of the New York persuasion (see “Indie Pizzas,” Nov. 14, 2008). Since that article ran, readers have lobbied for spots they think should have been included, and new independent pizzerias have been popping up around town with regularity, perhaps because pizza is considered a thrifty and soul-satisfying food in these hard economic times.

We put together a new round of reviews, continuing our quest for the perfect thin-crust pizza, deciding once more that a half-plain/half-Italian sausage pie is the ideal canvas to judge. All of these pizzerias offer more complicated and exotic combinations, but with a basic pizza, the finer nuances of the crust, the sauce, and the cheese are laid bare. No gourmet ingredients are there to sully the assessment. Sausage is selected because it’s an ingredient that some pizzerias make in-house, and it is one of the cornerstones of building old-school pizza flavor.

Part II features seven popular new spots, as well as Rounders, which was reviewed six years ago (Aug. 1, 2003). On our way out north, Art and I couldn’t resist the temptation to stop by Niki’s in the Tech Ridge Center for a refresher taste to calibrate our taste buds, since Niki’s had been our favorite in Part I. It might not have been completely fair to the next pizzeria in line, since once again Niki’s blew us away, but what are you gonna do?

This article appears in September 11 • 2009.

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Mick Vann is a retired Austin chef who is a food writer and restaurant critic, cookbook author, restaurant consultant, and recipe developer. He moonlights as a University of Texas horticulturist with a propensity for ethnic eats and international food, particularly of the Asian persuasion, but he also knows his way around a plate of soul food or barbecue.