In the Atlanta fast-casual pizza wars, who comes out on top?

Pizza is a fast food. That doesn’t mean it should be treated the way we tend to treat fast food, the cheap, industrial, artless junk that barely resembles sustenance. A good pizza deserves to shine with fine ingredients and the careful touch of an artisan, but this isn’t slow food. Fast is the perfect word for it. In fact, few foods happen as quickly as pizza does. The best pies spend only a measure of seconds in rip-roaring hot ovens.

Over the past year and into the coming months, a bevy of new pizzeria competitors have opened and are opening (those coming soon include the Local Pizzaiolo, Harry's Pizzeria and Blaze Pizza) in the metro area in a fast-casual style. That is to say, they marry the kitchen of a proper restaurant with the simple counter service and shared seating of a fast-food joint. It's a perfect fit, so long as the pizza is actually good.

We checked out a few of the restaurants aiming to fight the latest battle in Atlanta's long-running pizza wars.