August 07, 2009
When lazy Friday blogging is the only kind of blogging I do (BUMPED)
I've been really uninspired to blogging, especially the political kind, this summer. I've thrown around the idea of quitting this blog. And then, of course, as soon as I think that, I get completely inspired and have a lot to say. Today, though, is not a day where I have a lot to say to say about politics. Today is a day dedicated to my favorite food: pizza.
New York, already a pizza-heavy town, has been having something of a pizza renaissance lately. Both NY Magazine and Time Out NY did Best Of pizza lists (with NY Magazine proclaiming this time to be "The Great New York Neoclassical Neapolitan Pizza Revolution") and Frank Bruni at the NY Times had a piece on his faves. This is my review of places I've been lately. While I still love Totonno's in Coney Island (it had a fire several months ago and has yet to reopen) and L&B Spumoni Gardens (still my favorite square slice in the world. I'm a sauce-is-most-important kind of pizza girl) I haven't been to either of these lately. So I'm just reviewing where I've visited in the last month or two.
I haven't been to all the new spots yet, Keste in particular has been so hyped that there is always a line outside and everytime I try to go during the day they're closed! (Big minus! Pizza is a daytime food and so a pizza place should be open during the day).
***No matter where I've eaten though, it remains a fact that Dom DeMarco at DiFara Pizza in Brooklyn still makes the best pizza anywhere. Yes, yes, it's now $5 a slice but as IC says "I'd pay double if it meant skipping the always long line." The NY Times has an article on it today (hat-tip Jamie) wondering about the significance of the price hike. I don't think it will reduce the crowds at all. It is worth every penny:
(That's a photo of a young Dom to the right of the CPR sign!)
***My second favorite pizza spot in NY is Artichoke, a spot that was very hyped when it opened but no longer seems to make the best-of lists. It still gets long lines, especially at night (so I hear, I've only been during the day and had short waits). They're regular pie is pretty killer:
And they have two specialty pies that are amazing, a crab pie and an artichoke/spinach pie:
***Company is a pizza place that had been getting a lot of attention so IC and checked it out recently. A testament to how unimpressed we were is that I have no photos of the visit. It reminded me very much of this Franny's pizza, soft, fluffy with only a hint of cheese or sauce. I love Jim Lahey, the owner of the place, the #1 wow dish I make at home is his no-knead bread, but the pizza was seriously underwhelming. Not as bad as Franny's but that's mostly because they didn't have a pretentious philosophy on the menu.
***Frank Bruni called the Margherita pizza at Veloce Pizzeria his second-favorite pie in the city (his first favorite, Una, has since closed) and then mentioned Veloce a couple of more times on his blog. So I had high expectations. They weren't met, exactly, but I was entirely disappointed either. I checked it out on my own a few days ago. I wasn't aware that they did slices so I sat at the bar and ordered a pie, figuring I'll take home the remainder for IC. They only do squares, which seems to be the trend right now:
Oddly, the pie was only four slices. And it took a loooooong time. But they did play nice jazz music, the bartender was very nice, and I had the place mostly to myself except for the older couple behind me having their first date. I listened to them recount their divorces and then knew they weren't going to work out when they split the check.
The pizza was good, fine, definitely fancier than the regular corner slice. But if Veloce is a "destination" pizza place, it wasn't good enough to make the trip especially for it again:
***With the fancy pizza trend, "artisanal pizza" it's being called, it's easy to forget that random corner pizza places all over NY still do a regular old slice or square about a million times better than just about anywhere outside NY. Two such regular squares that I've had lately were at Vic's on Kings Highway in Brooklyn and LaylaJones in Cobble Hill.
My brother, himself something of a pizza connoisseur, swears by Vic's squares. I don't have picture of them, it's just not that kind of place, but Vic makes a mean, mean square with just enough deliciously perfect sauce and cheese. No magazine is going to write about Vic's. But they should.
LaylaJones is a cute little spot with a nice backyard where my friend Ren and I sat around yesterday and polished off a whole pie of squares (they only do squares). When we got the pie, I envisioned us eating two slices each and taking the rest home to our respective spouses. Yeah, that didn't happen. We ate the whole thing, it was delicious:
Again, I'm all about the sauce and the sauce at LaylaJones was really great.
Still on my list to try, Keste, though I'm holding that no-daytime grudge a little bit, Motorino, which is moving into the Una space, Lazzara’s, because every photo I've seen of the pies look super-saucy, Zero Otto Nove, though, seriously, when am I getting to the Bronx?, and the original Patsy's in Harlem, somewhere I have surprisingly never been despite living like 20 blocks away from it at one point.
Maybe I'll update this post when I visit those. But I pretty much promise to only do these kinds of posts on Fridays, you long-time Alarming News readers have suffered enough. :-)
UPDATE: At Difara's you run the risk of a celebrity stealing your pie.
UPDATE: My brother and I ended up checking out Patsy's in Harlem last Friday. Give it a miss. It does not belong on any Best Of lists. And they still have a picture of Eliot Spitzer proudly displayed on their wall.
UPDATE: I'm going to give Lazarra's another shot, despite trying it for lunch yesterday. For one thing, we got it delivered. And for another, we ordered the "margherita" thinking that was the "plain" but it came with tomatoes on it. I like tomatoes, but I think it lessened how much sauce they put on. Finally, they have 2 locations and their "original" location was closed yesterday. This is from their new branch. And everyone knows you have to go to the original location to get the best pizza.
Technorati Tags: Pizza+in+NY Best+pizza+NYC
What is with all this pizza places having fires? Steve's pasta in Long Beach recently had one too. Shady!
Have you been to Adrienne's on Pearl Street? From the Nick's guys and great outdoor seating!!
Posted by: Ren at July 31, 2009 02:24 PMNo, I'll add Adrienne's to my list. Is it "artisanal"? :-)
Posted by: Karol at July 31, 2009 02:55 PMI am staying true to Totonno's until it is finally gone forever! Hopefully they are coming back soon because then I may have to look for a new place to call my favorite!
I love them so much I did a photo shoot there in Feb 2009 before they burned down - check it out - http://danmarinophoto.com/pizza
Posted by: Dan Marino at July 31, 2009 02:55 PMI live on Wall Street and go to Adrienne's all the time. It's perfectly good and serviceable, but I don't think you'll think it's in the league of any of the greats. It's superior, but not god like. The Stone Street scene is worth a good look though.
Posted by: Jamie at July 31, 2009 03:01 PMWhat about Two Boots?
Posted by: Dorian Davis at July 31, 2009 03:11 PMTwo Boots sucks. It's like my least favorite pizza in the whole city. I prefer any random corner joint. You disappoint me, Dorian Davis.
Posted by: Karol at July 31, 2009 03:13 PMDan, I love Totonno's in CI. It's sort of depressing that the other Totonno's branches don't even come close in character or taste.
Posted by: Karol at July 31, 2009 03:14 PMThat is pure ignorance.
What about 99 Cent Pizza on 42nd?
Posted by: Dorian Davis at July 31, 2009 03:16 PMHahaha, it's called good taste. :-) I haven't been to 99 Cents but actually heard it's decent despite its dumb name.
Posted by: Karol at July 31, 2009 03:17 PM99 cents is good for 99 cents, btw Vic's has been open for around 30 years and has been in magazines and newspaper articles.
Posted by: Ronnie at July 31, 2009 03:44 PMTwo Boots really does suck. I was so disappointed. It was like eating cardboard.
Posted by: Petitedov at July 31, 2009 04:19 PMI know! It's such a mystery that people like it. It's not even "ok" pizza, it sucks!
Posted by: Karol at July 31, 2009 04:23 PMI haven't found any mainstream press mentions of Vic's but it is often mentioned by commenters as a "sleeper" pizza slice:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/249349
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2003/10/di_fara_the_voi.html
Kevin Spacy is a bag of douche.
Posted by: Gerard at July 31, 2009 05:58 PMZero Otto Nove...if ever there was an excuse for us to have a business meeting.
Posted by: John D. at July 31, 2009 07:52 PMThere's a new one opened out here in Bed Stuy. It's called Saraghina, and it's classic Italian brick oven pizza. The neighbourhood is completely gaga over it.
Posted by: Kat at July 31, 2009 07:58 PMThe only place as overrated as Two Boots (gimmicky pizza for people who don't really like pizza) is L&B. For a gal who loves sauce, the squares at L&B's looked like doughy watercolors. I think you are just neighborhood-loyal.
If you ever find yourself in the area, try Nick's in Forest Hills. That is a hell of a place too but ... Queens. If you drag yourself out there, treat yourself to a calzone, too.
As for Artichoke, it was good but it is a destitute man's DiFara. The sauce is almost as good but you can really tell that they don't spend for the good cheese like Dom does and the slices are so big that they aren't stable enough to eat with one hand.
Posted by: Charles at July 31, 2009 09:03 PMI've seen a lot of differing opinions about which restaurant makes better pizza. Everyone has their own particular taste regarding what constitutes a good pizza, and they patronize that pizzeria accordingly.
But honestly, we need the government to step in and take control of pizzerias.
If the feds were to do that, then the bureaucrats could decide on our behalf which pizza recipe is best for us.
Besides, once the profit motive is taken out of the equation, the bureaucrats could simply focus on making the best pizza for us, and not be distracted by whether or not their pizza is one which people actually want to buy, or whether or not the competition is attracting business with a "buy one get one free" promotion or a "30 minutes or less" policy.
I can't wait to drive down the street and see the neon sign at "Papa Barack's"
Posted by: IamTheWalrus at August 1, 2009 03:51 PMLazzara's is good. Weirdly located on a rando side street up like 90 flights of stairs and behind a secret wall though. Don't get pepperoni. Plain cheese is better.
Posted by: dawn at August 7, 2009 04:20 PMArtichoke has a Sicilian that's to die for.
Posted by: dorkafork at August 8, 2009 10:46 AMI tried to go to Spumoni Gardens last night. It was packed. The line for take out went out the door and down the sidewalked.
I went to another pizza/deli place a couple blocks away that was completely empty.
The Pizza was pretty good and I didn't have to wait in any line so I was happy.
Dom DeMarco at DiFara Pizza is still the best i have had. I love how the old guy works in slow meticulous motion.
Paul, the line begins outside (there is no inside) and it moves really, really quickly. You should've waited. We were there this weekend and the only problem was they ran out of seating so you were sharing the park benches with strangers. Other than that, quick and easy.
Posted by: Karol at August 10, 2009 12:40 PMI have not forgotten and am very hurt by your comments about New Haven pizza from over 10 years ago.
Despite that, I'd still love to one day again join you at Spumoni Gardens. That's too bad about Totonnos. That was a good pie.
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