Over the last decade Seattle’s pizza status has soared, from too many chains to too many choices. These days pie lovers enjoy all kinds of greatness at performers like Serious Pie, the Independent Pizzeria, Flying Squirrel, and Delancey.

But they only traffic in whole pies. Where are the best slices?

I chewed on this over dinner at Ernest Loves Agnes, itself an atmospheric slice of Ernest Hemingway’s Cuba on North Capitol Hill (reviewed in February’s Seattle Met). Foodwise, pastas and the overall irrepressible creativity quotient scored high; to-go slices, however, suffered toughening tours of duty under the warmer.

It frankly made me daydream a little about the big, hot, juicy, foldably New Yorkish slices at Capitol Hill’s Hot Mama’s and Big Mario’s—the last partly owned by Ernest Loves Agnes partner Jason Lajeunesse, and duplicated just a couple months ago in Lower Queen Anne, with more to come.

Till then, blistered Neapolitan slices continue to emerge from the wood-fired ovens at Veraci in Ballard, and unlikely flavor combos (wasabi-pineapple) intrigue-by-the-slice at World Pizza in the International District.

Downtown, I’m a sucker for the throwbacky deliciousness of the slices at the dive bar called A Pizza Mart, and wish to the tips of my toes that the even more throwbacky bright-sauced tomato pie emporium, Italian Family Pizza, sold by the slice. (They do sell personal-sized pies, roughly equal to two or three slices.)  

Further south, Pizzeria Gabbiano in Pioneeer Square tops thick-crusted Roman pizzas with mod combos of fresh produce and robust cured meats, then sells them by the kilo. (More like hunks than slices...but semantics.) Eastward at the gateway to the Rainier Valley lies Humble Pie, that eco-friendly land of outdoor picnic tables and chicken coops and good beer, and slices of fiercely local combos like apple-bacon-Beecher’s Cheese.

And your choice for great slices way further south? The inimitable Proletariat Pizza in beautiful downtown White Center, a joint where starving artists and screaming children find solace together in simply perfect slices of pizza.

Which great slicerias have I left out?