Daily Slice gives a quick snapshot each weekday of a different slice or pie that the folks at the Serious Eats empire have enjoyed lately.
[Photographs: Michael Berman]
It's been years since I've stopped anywhere along McGuiness Boulevard. When I lived in Willamsburg in late '90s, the Key Food near Greenpoint Avenue was my "big shop" grocery destination. And I did spend a handful of evenings playing pool at La Cue, near Calyer Street. There were house phones along the walls provided to expedite beverage orders.
But lunch on McGuiness? Never. It's a road for trucks and cars traveling between the BQE and Long Island City. Of course, McGuiness (and much of Brooklyn) has changed since the late '90s. Now, along its still rather un-scenic expanse, one will see pedestrians—and, I learned the other day, a good new option for pizza.
Tuttobene's, located across the street from La Cue, serves brick oven pies in three sizes. They do not offer slices, but the personal size (10-inch) works as lunch for one. At $6 for a plain (made with fresh mozzarella), it's a good value.
There were two people working behind the counter when I visited last week: Sal (the owner's son) and Maria (Sal's cousin). Maria told me that the oven could handle wood, but the pizzeria prefers gas because it enables pies to "cook more evenly and get crisper."
6755 Washington Street, Yountville CA 94599 (map); 707-299-5030; redd-wood.com Pizza style: Really its own thing; individual pies are Neapolitan-sized but with a much thinner crust, and a bit of semolina flour worked into it. Oven type: Wood-fired The skinny: Awesome and intelligently-topped pizzas from a Michelin-starred chef Price: Large individual pies $10-27
When we editors are out on eating tours, like we did with Ford Escape in Napa a few weeks ago, we map out our own itineraries. But Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine does chime in with opinions from time to time—and when he does, they tend to be pretty spot-on.
"Redd Wood is Richard Reddington's new pizzeria," he emailed us. "I just met him [in Los Angeles] tonight. I had apps at his other restaurant in Yountville, Redd, and they were really good. I bet his pizza is pretty damn good. You should try it."
A few pies later, we decided that "pretty damn good" was indeed a correct assessment.
If you've spent any time here at Slice, you've probably read some of this guy's work and seen his comments. Some of them might have even caused you to pause, raise an eyebrow, or maybe shake your head in disbelief. So who is the guy who writes this stuff??? It's high time we find out; Pizzablogger has resisted his turn in the hot seat for far too long.—Craig Lindberg
[Photograph: Adam Kuban]
Over the past year or so, I've gotten to know him a little bit, and I'm proud to call him a friend. Somehow, I managed to leverage that friendship and twist his arm to open up a little, so without further delay, here it is—the long awaited Pizzablogger interview. You might want to send the children out of the room for this one.
I'll dispense with the niceties and dive right in. When and how did you first "discover" pizza? Was your path to pizza obsessivness gradual, or did you have an epiphany one day?
It's been a gradual journey with lots of kindling being laid out over the years to help fuel a relatively recent dousing with lighter fluid and sparking a conflagration of sorts.
My first crap-the-pants moment was in 1993 or so when I was working in the Uptown Bakery on Connecticut Avenue in Cleveland Park, DC. Next door was Vace's Italian Delicatessen. They still make a decent slice—a tad too sweet, but a decent slice. One day a person at the counter and I talked about pizza and he told me about how I needed to try Patsy's in Harlem, NYC. Later on that year I went to NYC and made it to Patsy's. We got a whole pizza and it was one of those moments where you realize a seemingly simple food item can be an object of desire if made well. That was when the seed was planted, but it remained largely dormant for years.
After that, I ate pizzas out and about in DC from time to time, with Pizza Paradiso being the earliest wood-fired pizza joint I can remember visiting back in the mid-90's when I lived in DC. Over time I ate at places like 2Amys, Tocanelli's in Philadelphia, etc, but I was not one of those people that knew a lot about pizza. This was also before broadband, YouTube and blogs really came to the fore and just blew open the available knowledge base on a particular topic for the average person.
We opened up the Serious Eats Mailbag this monday to find a package addressed to Official Serious Eats Mascot and Chief Financial Officer Hambone (a.k.a. Jamón). Inside the box was the most darling pizza-shaped dog toy, complete with squeaker in the crust. The toy came to us from long time Slice'r dhorst's dog Miss Ellie, whose friend Tammy Johnson seems to be a master at creating cute things out of cloth over at Fessenden Hill Creations.
This edition of My Pie Monday is a real mashup! We have Slice'rs making pies from other Slicer's, like dmcavanagh's rendition of Thezaman's Youngstown Sicilian from last week. There are Slice'rs making famous pies, like Norma's Cherry Jones, and Slice'rs turning two famous pies into one, a la Dhorst! Oh, and jimmyg throws a pie varietal mashup in the mix with his hybridized Sicilian-NY pie. Nice one! Both Thezaman and Bierebeer take a ride on the gluten free crust train—very apropos after the Domino's and Don Antonio coverage from Adam Kuban last week. BKMatt gets nostalgia with a bacon, egg, and cheese pizza in honor of the suburban breakfast sandwiches of his youth. Pizzabinge adds a little sweetness to his pie with a touch of honey, TXCraig1 dresses his Margherita up with some "extra stuff," and amusebouche1 fires up a "Four Seasons" pie. This week also includes Imwalkin's "best taste of the year," a mushroom, spinach, and herb pie from Hogeltboglet, and a first time submission from JEL! Awesome pies, everyone!
To add your pie to next Monday's gallery take a snapshot of a pie you made recently, describe your cooking method (in 80 words or fewer), and follow these instructions to get it to Slice HQ by Thursday at 8PM EST. Be sure to let us know your Slice/Serious Eats screen name.
Want to see more awesome homemade pizza photos from previous weeks? They're right here »
About the author: Meredith Smith is the Slice editor. You can follow her on Twitter: @mertsmith.
Since Meredith is asking about fried pizza in this week's poll, I figured I'd throw this old slice in the oven for a reheat. Here's how deep-fried pizza slices are done at the Chip Shop on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue. Please forgive the crap quality. This was made way back in 2006.
It's easy to dismiss Los Angeles' pizza heritage. Before Mozza, before CPK, before delivery chains, red leather booth Italian joints were baking enticing pizzas throughout the Hollywood area. The best of which (and they are few) have endured to this day.
Palermo Restaurant, in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood, is one of the better examples of local pizza history. The current location, which opened in 1979 after a three year stint on Hillhurst Avenue, offers standard red sauce Italian dishes; all of which are not worth consideration. Only one item is a must have: the Pizza Rosa (med $11.25/large $16.45).
