An eighteen-inch foldable pizza slice sold past 2am along Adams Morgan's 18th Street strip, the closing-time meal that absorbs a Saturday night.
The jumbo slice was born on 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan as a late-1990s response to the corridor's late-night bar crowd. Pizza Mart, opened around 1999, and Duccini's Pizza both lay claim to popularising the format: eighteen-inch slices cut from a thirty-inch pie, served folded in foil after 22:00 and especially after 02:00. The slices are designed for the after-bar walk, not for serious eating; the cheese-to-sauce ratio is engineered for absorption rather than balance. The Pizza Mart-Duccini's rivalry runs the strip; both stay open until 04:00 on weekends. The slice has become a DC visual shorthand, written about in Washingtonian's late-night annual round-ups and parodied locally as the city's anti-tasting menu.
3 editor picks for Jumbo slice in Washington DC, ranked by editorial score. All Washington DC signature dishes · Jumbo slice across every city.
Pizza Mart Adams Morgan ★ 3.7
2445 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Pizza Mart Adams Morgan in Washington DC is the 18th Street late-night pizza counter, one of two rooms claiming to have invented the jumbo slice in the late 1990s for the bar crowd.
Duccini's Pizza Adams Morgan ★ 3.6
2400 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Duccini's Pizza Adams Morgan in Washington DC is the 18th Street jumbo-slice counter facing Pizza Mart, the other Adams Morgan claim to the jumbo-slice late-night format invention.
Jumbo Slice Pizza ★ 3.4
2341 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Jumbo Slice Pizza in Washington DC is the third 18th Street late-night pizza counter on the Adams Morgan strip, holding the same 04:00 weekend close as the Pizza Mart and Duccini's neighbours.