Slice

Students of Pizza: Bookmark These Links Now

Posted by Adam Kuban, September 25, 2007

Last week, the New York Times did away with its Times Select pricing scheme and at the same time opened up its archives from 1987 to present, bringing them out from behind its "paywall."

That means that several seminal moments of pizza journalism are once again available to all you homeslices. Although they deal primarily with New York–based pizzerias, anyone who loves pizza will pick up some historical context in which to place one of America's favorite foods. These bits of required pizza reading follow after the jump.

That's the short story. The longer one is that many of these stories are Slice's raison d'être. When I first moved to New York City in 2000, I began my online hunt for the Big Apple's best pizza. Considering that almost every conceivable topic under the sun seemed to have a "fan page," I was surprised no such thing existed for the saucy, cheesy stuff that pretty much stands as New York's most iconic dish. Had I been blessed with foresight, I would have created Slice right then and there. Instead, I collected links such as those below, bookmarking them in my browser for reference as I tried the big-name pizzerias and "hidden gems" all over town.

Later, in October 2003, when handy blogging apps first came to my attention, I saw that I could easily create a website to summarize, link to, and keep track of all this pizza intel I'd been hoarding and keeping to myself. I began to think of this body of writing as the "Slice Syllabus."

Below are the greatest hits of the Times—articles that I returned to again and again. May they be of as much use to you as they were (and still are) to me. Presented, more or less, in order of importance. Dig in!

PRIMARY TEXTS

• New York Pizza, the Real Thing, Makes a Comeback [June 10, 1998]
  Excerpt: "As recently as 10 years ago, the classic pizza was on the endangered list, treasured as an artifact of old New York but bypassed by a culture that preferred its pizzas fast, cheap and delivered. Just a few pizza landmarks, most famously John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street, Patsy's Pizza in East Harlem and Totonno's Pizzeria Napolitano in Coney Island—all presided over by rival clans—zealously preserved the traditions. Disciples were required to make pilgrimages to these hallowed halls for a taste."
  
  Crib sheet: Written by Eric Asimov, this is the story that will bring any New York pizza newbie up to speed quickly on the city's top-name, oft-referenced pizzerias.
  
  Joints mentioned: All the New York coal-oven biggies—Grimaldi's, Lombardi's, Nick's, Candido [R.I.P.], Polistina's [R.I.P.], Zito's [R.I.P.], Angelo's—along with La Pizza Fresca (Neapolitan-style) and Maltese Pizza (for Sicilian, in Whitestone, Queens).
  
  Bonus: The original story had a handy little illustration of New York's "pizza family tree." Slice has a photo of it here.


• Pizza 2002: The State of the Slice [November 6, 2002]
  Excerpt: "Of course, if the origins of New York's pizza slices is a bit murky, the fact that New Yorkers love the things is not in doubt. Slices are cheap, almost always $2 or less. They are convenient, with a pizzeria seemingly on every block. And they are often filling, thanks to the thick blanket of cheese that covers most pizza-by-the-slice sold these days. (Many pizza lovers credit the Ray's Pizza shop at Avenue of the Americas and 11th Street with popularizing the half-pound slice, though Columbia University students often cite the gigantic slices at Koronet, at Broadway and 112th Street, as the original good-value portion, at nearly 15 inches long.)"
  
  Crib sheet: Ed Levine rounds up six of the city's top slice joints, leaving whole-pie-only places out of the mix. Levine focuses heavily on cheese quality and freshness of sauce, judging pizzerias on their plain slices.
  
  Joints mentioned: Louie & Ernie's, Nunzio's, Di Fara, Joe & Pat's, Joe's, Patsy's (East Harlem).


• At a No-Frills Pizza Spot, a Perfectionist's Pie [November 21, 2001]
  Excerpt: "In Midwood, Brooklyn, though, one holdout stands solidly against the tide. Sandwiched among kosher food shops is DiFara Pizza, where the owner, Dominic DeMarco, fashions his pizzas in a glorious tribute to the way things ought to be."
  
  The back story: Di Fara was already well known by Chowhounders and the pizza cognescenti by the time this pre–Thanksgiving Day "$25 and Under" piece by Eric Asimov appeared in the Times. Still, I'd credit the article with opening the floodgates and inundating otherwise quiet Brooklyn neighborhood of Midwood with pizza tourists from all over the city and beyond. Anecdotal evidence? Prior to the $25 and Under column, only one laudatory press clipping hung on the wall—the entry from alpha Chowhound Jim Leff's Eclectic Gourmet Guide to Greater New York City. Soon, Asimov's own column was mounted on a plaque and slapped up. And after that, the wall-mounted accolades muliplied at an alarming rate—along with the crowds—today taking up almost all free wall space.
  
  More info: All Slice intel on Di Fara


• The Sacred Art of Pizza Making, and Secrets to Perfect Pies [March 9, 2005]
  Excerpt: "All over the country, from Phoenix to New York to New Haven, pizza is now made by obsessed creative types on a mission, eaten by sophisticated diners who appreciate the nuances of the perfect pie, and discussed in hushed tones by adoring fans and pizza lovers who talk of the different schools of pizza-making as if they are comparing Monet and Degas. Here are six pizza makers who have turned the humble street-corner meal into their personal works of art."
  
  Namechecked: Dom DeMarco (Di Fara, Brooklyn), Flo Consiglio (Sally's Apizza, New Haven, Connecticut), Lawrence and Louise Ciminieri (Totonno's, New York City), Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix), and Anthony Mangieri (Una Pizza Napoletana, New York City).

SECONDARY TEXTS

• The Road to Pizza Nirvana Goes Through Phoenix [July 7, 2004]
  Excerpt: "Mr. Bianco, the chef and proprietor of Pizzeria Bianco here and the only pizzaiolo to win the best regional chef designation of the James Beard Foundation, was searching for words to describe what he does. He presented the pizza-making craft in terms a Zen master might appreciate. 'There's no mystery to my pizza,' said Mr. Bianco, who won the Beard award last year. 'Sicilian oregano, organic flour, San Marzano tomatoes, purified water, mozzarella I learned to make at Mike's Deli in the Bronx, sea salt, fresh yeast cake and a little bit of yesterday's dough. In the end great pizza, like anything else, is all about balance. It's that simple.' "
  
  The back story: This is the first time I recall reading about Chris Bianco and his singleminded pizza madness—herbs grown on premises, cheese made on-site. Sadly, I still haven't visited.


• Hints From 59 Years in Pizza: Crust Is Thin, and No Avocados [April 2, 2002]
  Excerpt: "While pizza-making may seem like a minor trade—an occupation no more or less important than pest control or painting traffic lines on city roads—Mr. Palladino has managed to transcend his job. He has gone about this in two ways. Over the years, he has amassed an impressive body of knowledge about the craft of making pizza. More important, he has transformed himself from a mere slinger of sauce and dough into that rare New York phenomenon, a neighborhood institution. Proof of the first: he seasons sausage pies with a little sprinkling of oregano, but puts a dusting of garlic powder on mushroom pies, because that's the way it's done. Proof of the second: some of his older customers have been eating his pizzas longer than they have been married."


• The Albanian Connection: As Italians Move Up, a New Group Does the Pizza and Pasta [April 3, 2001]
  Excerpt: " 'The Italians can't do the work anymore, they've gotten fat in America,' said Joe Carnevalla, an Italian-American whose company supplies groceries to 700 pizzerias in the New York area. 'You go into an Italian restaurant now, you see Albanians. You think they're Italian. They speak Italian, they look like us, the food is great.' "
  
  Crib sheet: Albanians have cultural ties to Italy and have quietly gone into the Italian food business—including operation of the original Patsy's in East Harlem.
  
  Joints mentioned: Famous Famiglia (a New York mini chain), Patsy's (East Harlem), Tony & Tina's (The Bronx, Arthur Avenue)


• Where Pizza Is a Calling [November 17, 2004]
  Excerpt: "But [Anthony Mangieri's Una Pizza Napoletana] is not a restaurant that makes apologies. It is focused, solely and narrowly, on one idealized style of pizza—which may not be yours—and is guided by an uncommon clarity of purpose. The menu spells it out: 'There is too much pride behind this pizzeria—its life, heart, and passion—to offer anything less. It is Neapolitan, it is love.' "
  
  Crib sheet: Peter Meehan's $25 and Under review of Una Pizza Napoletana, the Naples-style pizzeria that opened in late 2004 and quickly rushed to the top of many pizza lovers' best-of lists.


• ‘Brooklyn Style Pizza’ Meets the Real Deal [November 8, 2006]
  Excerpt: "It took no small amount of courage to walk into one of the great Brooklyn pizzerias with a Domino’s Brooklyn Style Pizza in our hands. 'Get that thing out of here,' was the first thing Totonno’s owner, Louise Ciminieri, said when she saw the Domino’s box."
  
  Crib sheet: In late 2006, Domino's launched its "Brooklyn-Style Pizza," much to the derision of New Yorkers everywhere. Rather than review the Brooklyn Style straight up—because, really, what can you say about it?—Kim Severson's wry article compares the national pizza chain's creation to one of Brooklyn's original coal-oven institutions.

OPTIONAL READING

• The City Life: Can You Walk and Chew Pizza? [November 8, 2003]
  Excerpt: "In the to-go lifestyle—and in a city where apartments and kitchens are small and cramped—food resumes its primal human purpose: fuel. There's also the real estate issue. Mobile foods are accessible on practically every city block, but places to sit are not. Most New York delis and stores don't have seating that is comparable to their volume of customers, if they have seating at all. The shortage of chairs discourages patrons from ordering to stay. So we take our to-go fare and go—to the office or a public park or onto the street."
  
  Crib sheet: See above. New Yorkers eat on the go. Pizza's one of many foods that can be eaten while walking.

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