I love Alan Richman's write-up on Artichoke Basille's, the East Village newcomer that has been more than well-documented on this site. Richman, known for just a bit of cantankerousness, gets in almost 500 curmudgeonly words (long, mismanaged line; shabby digs; annoying patrons) before coming out with it: He likes it. He really likes it. "This is ordinary pizza," he says. "It’s also fabulous pizza."

He digs the fact that the place is free of pretense, "No flour from an ancient fattoria in Tuscany. No basil smuggled in from a dissident farmer’s market in Croatia. No fanatical obsessiveness."

Of the three slices on offer there, he liked the regular plain slice the most ("beautifully balanced"). It's not clear whether he was able to try the signature spinach-and-artichoke-dip slice, as a fresh pie of that variety was about two hours out when he visited.

The pizza here, he says, is what ordinary food used to be like in New York: "... superficially no different from food anywhere else, but in reality considerably better. It had little to do with superior ingredients and everything to do with New York know-how."

Artichoke

328 East 14th Street, New York NY 10003 (East Village; map)
212-228-2004