I've had a lot on Slice lately about Scott's Pizza Tours, but you know, there's another pizza tour out there, one that's been around for a bit longer and that takes folks through perhaps the best pizza borough* in the city. And that tour, my friends, is Tony Muia's A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour.
Muia started his tour in 2005 and has been taking pizza-hungry folks around Kings County ever since, mixing stops at Grimaldi's and L & B Spumoni Gardens with spin around neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst. It's thanks to Muia that I can point out the house where Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito character gets whacked in Goodfellas (it's in Bay Ridge) and that I know which pizzeria John Travolta's Tony Manero buys two slices from, eating them as a double-decker, in Saturday Night Fever (Lenny's in Bensonhurst).
A "Today Show" segment helped build buzz, as did word of mouth from enthusiastic tourgoers. Their favorite part is often Muia himself, who with his accent, slicked-back hair and tattooed forearms might seem as exotic to some Middle Americans as an Amish farmer.
These days, instead of sweating empty buses, Muia is juggling his roles as tour guide, marketer, publicist and accountant, while planning to grow his business with additional tours. His first spinoff, a tour of the Christmas lights in Dyker Heights, launched last winter; this summer he'll start a neighborhood tour taking in parts of brownstone Brooklyn and Victorian Flatbush, with a stop at Junior's for cheesecake and an egg cream.
The story does touch on the fact that rabid pizza freaks should be aware that this is a hybrid tour, a necessity after an early downshift from three to two pizzerias: "The change shifted the balance a bit on a pizza tour/Brooklyn tour hybrid that causes occasional confusion for foodies expecting a tasting tour."
Dear Adam ,I grew up in Bensonhurst,son of Sicilian immigrants and I am sure glad That non-Italian americans are finally finding out what REAL Pizza and Italian food in general,is. I am 55 years old and Spumoni Gardens was there as long as long as can remember.The funny thing is that in the 60's when I was a kid the old "cumpari" -Immigrant Italians-didn't think that Spumoni Garden's Sicilian Pizza was that great-my grandma Paolina's (bon ai'ma) homemade was much better. However, the old folks thought that L&B was a good place to take their grandkids for "gelati" on Sunday afternoon because it had outdoor space and tables.This was when most people outside of NYC didn't know gelato from Shinola!Spumoni,BTW, is an ice cream flavor-of Neapoltan origin. I now live in the Tampa Bay area,and if there was a place like L&B here -it would get rave reviews in "The Weekly Planet" and people would be standing on line to get in,but to the old cumpari it just was "gooda fo' da bambini to play". You visited Lenny's Pizzeria on 86th St. and 20th ave-featured in Saturday Night Fever-The EL train overhead of Lenny's -the B train that goes from Coney Island into the City (Manhattan in Bensonhurstian) was the Train that Gene Hackman raced up 86th St. to keep up with in a car to catch the Corsican French gangster that had tried to shoot him in "The French Connection". Sal's Pizzeria up in "Da Ridge" (Bay Ridge) on 4th Ave.&86th was also OK by Bensonhurst standards; it would be a rave outside of the Northeast.I don't know if Sal's is still there though. La Grand Dame of the area-Totonno's -is actually in Coney Island and not in the 'Hurst. Totonno's is probably the best Pizzeria I can think of-though there are contenders in NYC.Totonno's is better than pizza that I have eaten in Italian cities like Verona,Vicenza, Roma and Palermo-in fact I can only think of 2 places in Italy that are better! Ci' sintemmu!
I don't know about Sal's on 4th Ave, but Pizza Wagon is still goin' strong on 5th and 86th Street. And their slices are as good as ever. One thing you can still get in Lenny's that's hard to find are fried Calzones. They can't compare to the ones at the newly remodeled House of Pizza and Calzones on Union and Hicks though. Are you on Orbitz yet bookin' your flight home for Christmas?
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3 Comments:
No no, I think it's pretty clear that Brooklyn has the best pizza of the boroughs. No contest.
Prairie at 9:46AM on 05/06/08
Dear Adam ,I grew up in Bensonhurst,son of Sicilian immigrants and I am sure glad That non-Italian americans are finally finding out what REAL Pizza and Italian food in general,is. I am 55 years old and Spumoni Gardens was there as long as long as can remember.The funny thing is that in the 60's when I was a kid the old "cumpari" -Immigrant Italians-didn't think that Spumoni Garden's Sicilian Pizza was that great-my grandma Paolina's (bon ai'ma) homemade was much better. However, the old folks thought that L&B was a good place to take their grandkids for "gelati" on Sunday afternoon because it had outdoor space and tables.This was when most people outside of NYC didn't know gelato from Shinola!Spumoni,BTW, is an ice cream flavor-of Neapoltan origin. I now live in the Tampa Bay area,and if there was a place like L&B here -it would get rave reviews in "The Weekly Planet" and people would be standing on line to get in,but to the old cumpari it just was "gooda fo' da bambini to play". You visited Lenny's Pizzeria on 86th St. and 20th ave-featured in Saturday Night Fever-The EL train overhead of Lenny's -the B train that goes from Coney Island into the City (Manhattan in Bensonhurstian) was the Train that Gene Hackman raced up 86th St. to keep up with in a car to catch the Corsican French gangster that had tried to shoot him in "The French Connection". Sal's Pizzeria up in "Da Ridge" (Bay Ridge) on 4th Ave.&86th was also OK by Bensonhurst standards; it would be a rave outside of the Northeast.I don't know if Sal's is still there though. La Grand Dame of the area-Totonno's -is actually in Coney Island and not in the 'Hurst. Totonno's is probably the best Pizzeria I can think of-though there are contenders in NYC.Totonno's is better than pizza that I have eaten in Italian cities like Verona,Vicenza, Roma and Palermo-in fact I can only think of 2 places in Italy that are better! Ci' sintemmu!
vastedda at 11:03AM on 11/21/08
Being a Sicilian-American from Brooklyn with a screen name like vastedda, I know these photos are gonna make you very friggin' homesick:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauliegee/sets/72157600948101692/
I don't know about Sal's on 4th Ave, but Pizza Wagon is still goin' strong on 5th and 86th Street. And their slices are as good as ever. One thing you can still get in Lenny's that's hard to find are fried Calzones. They can't compare to the ones at the newly remodeled House of Pizza and Calzones on Union and Hicks though. Are you on Orbitz yet bookin' your flight home for Christmas?
Ciao,
Paulie Gee
pauliegee at 2:14PM on 11/21/08