Listmaker and I went to DeMarco's sit-down last night.
What a major bummer.
Some Japanese girls next to us were totally talking about your site ("They took pictures of the bottoms of the pizza!" was the clue) but were giving MUG the credit. WTF, I wanted to ask, but we wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
Youthlarge was referring to Manhattan User's Guide, a handy site filled with great links, events, and information about New York City. MUG had included our entry about DeMarco's in its daily e-mail newsletter Tuesday, and that's likely what caused the Japanese women's confusion.
But what was so bad about DeMarco's, we wondered, as we've found it to be quite tasty, at least the slices we've had from the take-out portion. Youthlarge explained:
We were put off by the price first of all. Thought the crust was way too hard. And we felt robbed by the lack of pepperoni. There were like 2 to 3 pieces on each slice. Boo hoo.
I have to agree that DiMarco’s is dismal. My boyfriend and I ordered slices in the Take-out portion of the restaurant, waited a very long time and listened to the employees freak out as they misplaced orders and ran way behind. There was a lot of vocal bitching, but very little action to rectify whatever problems they were having. They also never acknowledged that they had a crowd of people waiting for slices. I chalked it up to getting things running after being open less than a month and we decided to give them another shot a few weeks ago. This time we sat down in the restaurant. Despite it being only moderately busy, we never received menus until a waiter came over to ask what we wanted to eat. Bad start to a pretty bad meal. We finally received menus and drinks, but waited a long time for someone to take our order. At times, there seemed to be two waiters, but they would disappear for long stretches and a busboy would be the only one fielding requests from other patrons for water refills, bread etc. The pizza finally arrived, but, of course, we had no plates or silverware. The waiter disappeared again and after waiting (too long) I had to take plates and silver off an empty table next to us. When the waiter finally returned he was visibly annoyed that I had taken some initiative so we could eat before the pie was stone cold. We ordered a large square pie and, like Youthlarge, were unpleasantly surprised by the stinginess in toppings, as well as the hardness of the crust. The sauce and cheese were both fine, but the overall pie was extremely disappointing, in addition to being pretty expensive. To wrap up, awful service and substandard pizza mean I’ll never visit again as long as I can grab a slice at Famous Ben’s or a pie at Lombardi’s – my neighborhood favorites.
Word.
After hearing so much love, esp about their cheese, bf and i finally had a pie delivered last Sat. There was almost no cheese on it. Maybe it got dropped in the street on the way to our house. Little sauce, too. It was basically a bread pizza, and hard to chew. BF swore he's had it good there before, but we weren't feeling it. I'd rather go to Joe's or John's or Bleecker Street or even a pie out of a box in my freezer.
Ah, DeMarco's... As a local I was intrigued after reading the review here and visited right away. It's next to Raffetto's, after all.
Well, I've been back again and again, but not for good reasons -- instead, more like a rubbernecker overlooking the scene of a horrible accident. On my first visit I actually left in disgust after seeing the staff and their behavior (the wet coughing into the dough was the real kicker); but return visits, in compulsive horror, confirmed again and again: it's a disaster. I've even come up with a recipe for non-locals to duplicate the experience. 1. Crust: use a flavorless, thin bread material -- unsalted matzoh bread is fine; 2. Tomato sauce: just spread a stingy and uneven layer of Hunt's canned tomato paste; 3. Cheese: once, just once, it was interesting, but in general the experience can be duplicated by piling on lumps of supermarket packaged white cheese (mozzarella, jack). Heat to tepid and enjoy, if possible! The "artistic" non-regularity of the pizzas looks less like "craft" and more like incompetence. To complete the experience, spread on some supermarket parmesan (Kraft will do) -- at De Marco's, when the staff is not busy picking their noses, they offer to sprinkle parmesan cheese on your pizza -- it happened once in six visits -- what a sad state of affairs when that condiment has to substitute for actual flavor/quality.
It's all depressing... but then again there's no underestimating the lack of discrimination of the American consumer. My upstairs SoHo neighbor, immensely wealthy, frequently orders pizza; this person lives less than 3/4 mile from John's, Lombardi's, Arturo's, and even Ben's of SoHo, but when they order in it's from DOMINO'S!
Still, it's likely better than De Marco's.
OK, if you travel to god-knows-where Queens to sample something I can see that the effort and the distance might compel you to enjoy the product or at least claim to do so to avoid losing face; but this is Manhattan, and right on the "pizza axis" after all! I suspect (and secretly hope) that despite the hype, we'll see "for rent" signs in the space within five months. Hey, maybe the staff should turn off the ovens and just place Domino's orders for the customers!
I too am disappointed with DeMarco's.. not so much for taste but for the over abundance of incompetence. I've only eaten slices at the take out area and I can say this: they don't have their act together. I went for the first time soon after they opened and I had to wait 10 minutes for a slice. I found the slice to be tastey though I didn't like the graded cheese they put on without asking. Thinking it was just opening day jitters I decided to give it another shot a couple of weeks later. There was no pizza. I was told a fresh pie would be ready soon, "like in 15 minutes" are you crazy? of course I didn't wait. Finally, I went back this weekend hoping they got all the kinks out; I was wrong. I think it took 3 people to place my simple order -- 2 slices. It's a shame, really. I was really pulling for them.
In the future I'll just suck it up and walk the extra few blocks to Joe's -- a tasty and reliable slice.
p.s. looking for a quick bit but not in the mood for a slice? try the new Chipotle on Varick and Houston. Good stuff. It's my new pizza.
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4 Comments:
I have to agree that DiMarco’s is dismal. My boyfriend and I ordered slices in the Take-out portion of the restaurant, waited a very long time and listened to the employees freak out as they misplaced orders and ran way behind. There was a lot of vocal bitching, but very little action to rectify whatever problems they were having. They also never acknowledged that they had a crowd of people waiting for slices. I chalked it up to getting things running after being open less than a month and we decided to give them another shot a few weeks ago. This time we sat down in the restaurant. Despite it being only moderately busy, we never received menus until a waiter came over to ask what we wanted to eat. Bad start to a pretty bad meal. We finally received menus and drinks, but waited a long time for someone to take our order. At times, there seemed to be two waiters, but they would disappear for long stretches and a busboy would be the only one fielding requests from other patrons for water refills, bread etc. The pizza finally arrived, but, of course, we had no plates or silverware. The waiter disappeared again and after waiting (too long) I had to take plates and silver off an empty table next to us. When the waiter finally returned he was visibly annoyed that I had taken some initiative so we could eat before the pie was stone cold. We ordered a large square pie and, like Youthlarge, were unpleasantly surprised by the stinginess in toppings, as well as the hardness of the crust. The sauce and cheese were both fine, but the overall pie was extremely disappointing, in addition to being pretty expensive. To wrap up, awful service and substandard pizza mean I’ll never visit again as long as I can grab a slice at Famous Ben’s or a pie at Lombardi’s – my neighborhood favorites.
Slice Meghan at 10:58AM on 02/23/05
Word.
After hearing so much love, esp about their cheese, bf and i finally had a pie delivered last Sat. There was almost no cheese on it. Maybe it got dropped in the street on the way to our house. Little sauce, too. It was basically a bread pizza, and hard to chew. BF swore he's had it good there before, but we weren't feeling it. I'd rather go to Joe's or John's or Bleecker Street or even a pie out of a box in my freezer.
Slice me at 12:49PM on 02/24/05
Ah, DeMarco's... As a local I was intrigued after reading the review here and visited right away. It's next to Raffetto's, after all.
Well, I've been back again and again, but not for good reasons -- instead, more like a rubbernecker overlooking the scene of a horrible accident. On my first visit I actually left in disgust after seeing the staff and their behavior (the wet coughing into the dough was the real kicker); but return visits, in compulsive horror, confirmed again and again: it's a disaster. I've even come up with a recipe for non-locals to duplicate the experience. 1. Crust: use a flavorless, thin bread material -- unsalted matzoh bread is fine; 2. Tomato sauce: just spread a stingy and uneven layer of Hunt's canned tomato paste; 3. Cheese: once, just once, it was interesting, but in general the experience can be duplicated by piling on lumps of supermarket packaged white cheese (mozzarella, jack). Heat to tepid and enjoy, if possible! The "artistic" non-regularity of the pizzas looks less like "craft" and more like incompetence. To complete the experience, spread on some supermarket parmesan (Kraft will do) -- at De Marco's, when the staff is not busy picking their noses, they offer to sprinkle parmesan cheese on your pizza -- it happened once in six visits -- what a sad state of affairs when that condiment has to substitute for actual flavor/quality.
It's all depressing... but then again there's no underestimating the lack of discrimination of the American consumer. My upstairs SoHo neighbor, immensely wealthy, frequently orders pizza; this person lives less than 3/4 mile from John's, Lombardi's, Arturo's, and even Ben's of SoHo, but when they order in it's from DOMINO'S!
Still, it's likely better than De Marco's.
OK, if you travel to god-knows-where Queens to sample something I can see that the effort and the distance might compel you to enjoy the product or at least claim to do so to avoid losing face; but this is Manhattan, and right on the "pizza axis" after all! I suspect (and secretly hope) that despite the hype, we'll see "for rent" signs in the space within five months. Hey, maybe the staff should turn off the ovens and just place Domino's orders for the customers!
Slice Andrew at 9:51PM on 02/24/05
I too am disappointed with DeMarco's.. not so much for taste but for the over abundance of incompetence. I've only eaten slices at the take out area and I can say this: they don't have their act together. I went for the first time soon after they opened and I had to wait 10 minutes for a slice. I found the slice to be tastey though I didn't like the graded cheese they put on without asking. Thinking it was just opening day jitters I decided to give it another shot a couple of weeks later. There was no pizza. I was told a fresh pie would be ready soon, "like in 15 minutes" are you crazy? of course I didn't wait. Finally, I went back this weekend hoping they got all the kinks out; I was wrong. I think it took 3 people to place my simple order -- 2 slices. It's a shame, really. I was really pulling for them.
In the future I'll just suck it up and walk the extra few blocks to Joe's -- a tasty and reliable slice.
p.s. looking for a quick bit but not in the mood for a slice? try the new Chipotle on Varick and Houston. Good stuff. It's my new pizza.
Slice petey g at 10:52PM on 03/02/05