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Grimaldi's on 'Law & Order'
One of last night's reruns of Law & Order on TNT contained a Grimaldi's reference. In the episode "Tabula Rasa," detectives Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) and Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) are investigating a suspect who claims he's never been to New York before. After obtaining his credit-card receipts, they find he has visited Grimaldi's—alone, no less.
Lieutenant Van Buren: [reading list of card charges] United Airlines, TKTS, Museum of Modern Art Bookstore, Barneys, Grimaldi's Italian Restaurant.
Briscoe: Grimaldi's in Brooklyn?
Van Buren: You know another one? Charge was for twelve bucks and some change.
Briscoe: [with the wisecrack] You can't feed a family of four mice on that.
Van Buren: So he was by himself.
Curtis: Guy's never been to New York before and he manages to find the best pizza in the five boroughs?
Van Buren: Right. Check it out.
The scene then cuts to Grimaldi's, where Briscoe and Curtis grill someone at the pizzeria. (It's not Patsy, that's for sure. He might be the guy who bought the place from Mr. Grimaldi, but I don't know what he looks like.)
The guy is of marginal help to the detectives, and they leave the store—each munching on a slice.
Briscoe: So fifteen, twenty years ago, Mr. Fallon hung out at Grimaldi's.
Curtis: The guy was at UCLA. Long way to come even for a pie from Grimaldi's.
Ha. Always with the wisecracks, those L&O guys.
Thing is, Grimaldi's doesn't sell slices. Whole pies only. So either Curtis and Briscoe ate most of their pizza inside and then finished their last slice on the street, or the owner made an exception for New York's finest and gave them each a slice to go, or, oh yeah, it's TV.
Another thing: They actually used the real name of the pizzeria, as opposed to a name just barely changed from the original, à la "Hudson University" or, in this episode, "New York City University." Columbia and NYU must not want to be associated with dead vics and shady perps, whereas Grimaldi's was most likely pleased with the plug they got.
Regardless of Curtis's assessment, we don't think Grimaldi's is the best in the five boroughs. (That would be http://slice.seriouseats.com/tags/Di Fara">Di Fara.) Grimaldi's is good, but it's too inconsistent and often lacks the crisp crust that a coal-fired oven should impart on the pies baked within it.
Grimaldi's
Address: 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn. (Under the Brooklyn Bridge)
Phone: 718-858-4300
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11:30 a.m.-10:45 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m.-11:45 p.m.; Saturday Noon-11:45p.m.
Payment: Cash only