PrintThe City's New Best Pizza?
The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema thinks he's found it at Il Brigante:
At its heart, Il Brigante is a pizzeria, and a damn good one. The rear wall is dominated by a flickering wood-burning hearth inside a limestone proscenium, where a sweating and grunting pizzaiolo is the star of his own small repertory theater. In the style of southern Italy, the 10-inch pies are intended for individual consumption. In fact, the margherita ($10) is the city's most perfect evocation of the true Naples style (even surpassing top spots like Una Pizza Napoletana and La Pizza Fresca). Starting with an irregular round of glove-soft dough with no yeasty taste, the margherita is dampened with plain tomato sauce and excellent cheese, bravely wearing a pair of fragrant basil leaves on its bosom. Eat it with a knife and fork—this is no New York pie.
Il Brigante
Address: 214 Front Street, New York NY 10038 [South Street Seaport area; map]
Phone: 212-285-0222
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3 Comments:
I visited Il Brigante and ordered 3 Margherita 10-inch pies this Saturday. If this is considered the best 'authentic' Naples style pizza NYC has to offer then consider me not impressed. The cheese was very ordinary, defintely not Buffalino quality, the sauce was equal to Patsy's in East Harlem (and that's not saying much, considering Patsy's decline over the years). Overall, the bread was semi-charred on bottom, and was about the only part of the pizza I enjoyed. I'll stick with other village pizza eateries before I ever go down to South St. Seaport again.
Slice Chris at 11:38PM on 05/20/07
i am going to have to check this place out. the best pizza i have had on planet earth was in calabria. a place called pizzeria vecchio forno (old oven) in tropea. if you find yourself there, get one with the local specialty sausage nduja on it.
Slice kanoa at 8:05PM on 05/21/07
i had lunch at Brigante on Thursday. i am shocked that anyone would compare this pizza to Una. there is no comparison. it was good, but it didn't hold a candle to Una. not even close. the cauliflower was amazing, however. and, i am not a huge cauliflower guy. i also found the service to be awful. i was the only person in the main dining room (i ate around 2:30 PM) and i had to get up twice to get the waitresses attention (once for a water refill and once for a check). there was no one in the restaurant and the service couldn't have been worse.
Slice mark at 6:32AM on 06/02/07