What is it about Portland, Oregon?!? The place has not one, not two, but three (THREE!) artisanal pizza carts. Pizza CARTS, mind you — not pizzerias.
I'm not super in love with the word artisanal, but I'm using it here as shorthand for the type of pizza made that employs an "...oven running at 800 degrees slinging out freshly made pizzas with ingredients like fresh mozz and doughs allowed to ferment for 24 hours," as Nick Zukin writes in his Portland pizza cart roundup on his blog, ExtraMSG.com.
1080 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx NY 10461 (Williamsbridge/Lurting aves; map); 718-409-9069 or 718-792-1704; patriciasmorrispark.com Getting there: Nearest train is the 5 at Morris Park Station; get out and walk south-southeast down Paulding to Morris Park Ave.; bang a right and walk a couple blocks more to Lurting Ave. Pizza style: Neapolitan-inspired Oven type: For now, wood-fired or gas-fired The skinny: Very good Neapolitan/New York–Neapolitan hybrid that leans closer to Neapolitan. It's like a supersized Naples-style pie. Changing locations soon Price: Absolute steal at $13 for "regular" size plain pie; the "regular" is any other place's "large"
It's been a shamefully long time since Slice has gotten its crust on in the Bronx. And an even longer time since this site hit up Patricia's of Morris Park, one of our favorite pizzerias in the northernmost borough of this great city.
I had originally planned to do a Morris Park mini pizza crawl*, that would have included Patricia's and some other places in the neighborhood. But then I saw something intriguing going on at Patricia's — it's building out the space next door and will move there within a month. Once I saw the new awning and signage next door, I put my plans for a crawl on hold. But more on the new space later.
Patricia's of Morris Park serves some fine Neapolitan-inspired pizza. The crust is flavorful, tender and crisp (made with Caputo "00" flour). One of the more tender-crisp crusts I've had in this city. The sauce is a simple, fresh mixture of canned San Marzanos from Italy, and the cheese is fresh mozzarella from Aiello Brothers in Brooklyn.
Rejoice, Long Island expats and Long Islanders who commute into NYC for work: Eddie's of New Hyde Park is bringing its renowned bar pizza to Manhattan. In May, Eddie's will dispatch a pizza truck to rumble along the city's not-so-mean streets.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Eddie's pizza, which features a crust not much thicker than one of those pieces of cardboard sandwiched inside my laundered shirts. Though the crust is cracker-thin, it's surprisingly pliant. You can fold a slice of Eddie's pizza. Through five owners and seven decades, Eddie's has been pleasing Nassau County residents determined to save the bulk of the room in their stomachs for beer, not pizza.
Slice has contacted Eddie's for comment on location, hours, and offerings. Will update you when we find out more.Update: We just heard back from Eddie's with additional intel. Find it after the jump.
"It's exactly like toast. You take it too far and you can't eat it and it smells burnt, not enough and it's not properly toasted and lacking that signature toasted taste and aroma. And, of course, people like every shade in between." —kenito
It was late in the day on Friday when Slice learned that Antonio Starita of Naples's Pizzeria Starita would be in town making pizzas at Kesté Pizza & Vino for one night only.
Starita is an instructor at the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, the Naples-based governing body that both teaches pizza-making and certifies pizza-makers as adhering to authentic Neapolitan ways.
Why Kesté? Among Starita's protegés is Kesté's Roberto Caporuscio, who now works as head pizzaiolo at Kesté and who teaches and certifies aspiring pizza-makers on this side of the Atlantic for the APN.
Starita was on his way back to Naples from the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas and decided at the last minute to work the dough alongside Caporuscio in a sort of one-night-only pizza supergroup secret show. Here are photos from the evening.
When I first started eating pizza from coal- and wood-oven joints around NYC and made my first forays onto the various food boards discussing pizza (this was around 10 years ago), I noticed that "char" was something pizza hounds desired. Pies coming from intensely hot ovens seemed to be considered failures unless they had just the right splotchwork of flaky, black, carbonized crust.
On Monday morning the question was whether you liked white pies. Seeing as how I rarely see them flying out of the oven whenever I'm at a pizzeria, I didn't expect this style of pizza to do so well. But, check it out: 60% of Slice'rs dig the white pies And if you add the 28% of people who think that white pies have their occasion, you've got 88% of people who either strongly favor or simply like white pies. Basically, only 11 percent of us never did white pies. Pretty strong consensus.
Here's another piece of community-submitted intel from the field from Guil Barros. Thanks, Guil! And remember, if YOU want to submit your review, here's how. —The Mgmt.
[Photographs: Guil Barros]
Pizza Brutta
1805 Monroe Street, Madison WI 53711 (map); 608-257-2120; pizzabrutta.com Pizza style: Neapolitan Oven type: Wood-fired Notes: Possibly the only Neapolitan pizza in Madison? Price: $7 for 12-inch Margherita
Walking into Pizza Brutta is like waking up to that wonderful day in Livorno, sitting on plastic chairs at the beach... but with nice wooden benches :) The oven and large marble prep slab are front and center, the staff is engaging, and the smell... oh, the smell. Goose bumps from just imagining it. There is something about the smell of basil crisping in a bed of tomato sauce that brings tears to my eyes. But I digress :)
The crust is supple but forgiving, there is just enough chewiness to make it an integral part of the slice without overwhelming the texture of the tomato sauce and cheese. Beautiful cornicione surrounds a San Marzano base, lightly salted with spots of fresh mozzarella and large basil leaves.
The crust cant quite hold up the slice, but this is a good thing, no need to thicken up just for structural integrity. The base Margherita is my favorite, but the menu shows so many excellent options, it's worth spending a night and trying a few. At $7, it can't be beat. —Guil Barros
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