If you're a regular reader of Slice, Paulie Gee needs no introduction. For the rest of you heathens who drop by only occasionally, I'll spell it out. Paulie Gee is all over the comments here on Slice, responding with great tips on eating pizza in the NYC area and with sage advice on making pizza at home.
He knows what he's talking about. The guy seems to be at every pizzeria at once, and when he's at home, he's making what looks to be a killer line-up of pies in his backyard wood-burning pizza oven. Here's his Flickr set, aptly titled Paulie Gee's Pizzeria, though I've seen him refer to it at times as Cucina Paulie Gee.
Long story short, Paulie has just been profiled on GoodEater.org, where one of the bloggers there scored an invite to a ten-course pizza tasting with Mr. Gee at his home in Warren, New Jersey. It's a great story and a nice profile of one of the voices we've really come to love on Slice here.
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got some intel on Aperitivo in Midtown from Dustin, who checked in in early October with some dirt on Flatbread Co. in Maine. Enjoy. —The Mgmt.
Ahoy Adam!
Hope all has been well with you these days. Big downer about Co., right? Well at least for those of us who have yet to try it anyway :)
Aperitivo
780 Third Avenue, New York NY 10017 (b/n 48th and 49th street; map); 212-758-9402
Anyhoo, since I first read about Aperitivo (the new brick-oven spot in Midtown) on Eater about 2 weeks ago, I have been eagerly awaiting somebody (nudge nudge) to review it, so that I knew whether it was worth dropping slightly over $20 for a pie.
My main reason being is that I work so close to it and Midtown East kind of struggles with good pizza joints (sans Naples 45). So after much googling and continually coming up empty, I said screw it and just went myself (along with the wonderful ladyfriend who I have not ordered to do anything since that day at Flatbread Company up in Maine). And, boy, am I glad we didn't wait any longer!
In which Slice wades waist-deep into the plaintive muck of Craigslist's Missed Connections in search of pizza-related longing. Such is the swamp of love that spawns That's Amore. —The Mgmt.
RE: you're a liar and i hate your guts (Boston): Why I think about you....worry about you.....even give 2 shits about you is currently beyond my comprehension........it's because you loooooooooooove me. Like a fat kid and a cheese-stuffed pizza crust.
Target date was December 2. Lahey and company said December 5 or 9 were other possible opening dates. Stay tuned.Update: Time Out New York says it's been delayed till 2009. Possibly January 2. More on Co. here on Slice »
I had no idea that the goofy little "quick bite" post I did on the deer-butchery in Allentown, Pennsylvania, would get so many comments—or a link to this funny photo. Thanks, Boscoep!
"[Stromboli Pizza manager John] Okumus said one of the pizza shop's cooks mistakenly started butchering the deer, and a girl using the women's restroom peered into an open door to the kitchen and saw what was happening. A health inspector wrote up a report but the pizza shop was not cited." [The Morning Call; via Daniel M.]
Popular food blogger Orangette dropped some awesome news on her site early last week: Her husband is opening a pizzeria. It's in their Seattle neighborhood, too, which I assume is within walking distance of their home. How cool would that be, to own a pizzeria and be able to walk to it? Here's what she says about his pizzamania:
[Brandon] is also obsessed with pizza. As a grade-schooler, he used to go to a pizzeria near his parents' house in New Jersey and pepper the owner with questions about dough and mozzarella. When I met him, he lived on the Upper West Side [of New York City], but he trekked out to the middle of Brooklyn at least once a week to wait patiently in line at Di Fara. Last year, he agreed to drive a car from San Antonio to Los Angeles just so he could try the pizza at Mozza, and he took an overnight trip to Phoenix for the sole purpose of eating at Pizzeria Bianco. So when he told me that he wanted to make pizza, it didn’t exactly surprise me. It may have scared me a little, but it didn't surprise me.
The place, which doesn't seem to have a name yet, is slated to open in spring, and judging by the 200-some comments on Orangette Molly's post, her readers will be out in full force to support it. Good luck, Brandon and Molly!
Posted by Daniel Zemans, December 3, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Edwardo’s Natural Pizza Restaurant
1321 East 57th Street, Chicago IL 60637 (map); 773-241-7960; 8 other locations Getting There: Metra to 57th Street or 6 Jackson Park Express bus to 57th Street and Stony Island, walk 1/2 mile west Pizza Style: Stuffed and thin-crust available; known for stuffed Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: One of the oldest stuffed pizzerias; still good but, other than the crust, has declined in recent years Price: $20.72 for a medium pizza with one topping
In my review of Bacino’s, I mentioned that the owner of that establishment got his start in the pizza business after entering into a relationship with the owners of Giordano's (review here). That relationship didn’t work out, and Dan Bacin opened Bacino’s in 1978 using an Italianized version of his name. It so happens that there is a second pizzeria that has a similar history.
Edward Jacobson split from the Broglio brothers (then the owners of Giordano's) and went out on his own in 1978. There was no way to Italianize Jacobson, so he added an o to the end of his first name and opened the first Edwardo's Natural Pizza Restaurant on the far northern border of Chicago in Rogers Park. A year later, he opened his second location, this time on the south side in Hyde Park.
Edwardo's sought to carve out a niche as the healthier version of stuffed pizza. They pushed (and may well have invented) a spinach-soufflé-stuffed pizza, which was full of finely chopped fresh spinach. Hydroponic basil and oregano was grown in each restaurant and they used it on the pizza and sold it separately to people who wanted to take home some fresh herbs. Edwardo's tried out a whole-wheat crust as early as 1981. A concern with quality was also evident in the restaurant's use of San Marzano tomatoes in the sauce.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 2, 2008 at 11:30 PM
I just watched last night's Gossip Girl episode ("It's a Wonderful Lie"), the one where Vanessa has a gift certificate to Grimaldi's ("I'm thinking double pepperoni"). For all you non–New Yorkers, yes, it's a real place (you can read all about it here on Slice), and, yes, it does offer gift certificates (I called to make sure).
Vanessa Abrams
I agree with New York magazine's recap assessment—Vanessa would totally be a "Di Fara diehard." All the way. Why? Vanessa sucks. She's annoying and oppressively self-righteous in that way that only certain chip-on-shoulder Brooklynites can be. If you were unlucky enough to befriend her—or worse, date her—she would totally twist your arm, reverse-snob you, and schlep your ass all the way out there. "OMG, Nate! I totally know this little place that's hidden and has, like, the best pizza ever! None of your Constance Billard or St. Jude's friends would be caught dead there." And then she'd secretly judge you if you grumbled about the long wait or what a mess the dining room was.
"Vanessa had a gift certificate to Grimaldi's? No way would she admit to that. She'd be a Di Fara diehard all the way. Minus 3." —From New York magazine's always hilariously dead-on Gossip Girl recap [And, yes, Grimaldi's does offer gift certificates.]
As if things weren't confusing enough when it comes to the name Ray's and the world of pizza. The New York Times chronicles the move of Ray's Real Pizza, once a Times Square pizzeria whose customers included (at some time or other) Alec Baldwin, Puff Daddy Diddy Dude, and Dom DeLuise.
The story mostly details how the former Times Square location attracted celebs and how the new Hazlet digs are devoid of famous eaters: "The Russo brothers keep a camera under the counter just in case a celebrity happens to stumble in. Some customers claim they’ve seen Jon Bon Jovi, the drummer Max Weinberg and Bruce Springsteen drive by."
Given the way that most pizzerias (and restaurants in general) seem to exaggerate star appearances, it's hard to tell if Ray's Real Pizza was ever a celeb magnet, but when you're touting a Max Weinberg drive-by, things have definitely slowed down in the limelight department.
Truth Hammer: The First Ray's
Also, I've gotta bring out the Truth Hammer here. You may see some other websites (ahem, Grub Street) getting confused and dubbing Ray's Real Pizza "the actual original Ray's Pizza," but that is far from the case. Ray's Real is said to have opened "in the late 1970s," according to today's Times story. Compare that to this nugget from the Times archives:
Documents gathered during the Rays' legal battle show that there was no Ray's Pizza listed in the 1959 Manhattan telephone book. That was the year Ralph Cuomo, the 22-year-old son of immigrants from southern Italy, opened a pizzeria in Little Italy, using his mother's recipe.
It was at 27 Prince Street, between Mott and Elizabeth Streets, on the first floor of a building that his family lived in and owned. The next year's telephone book listed the name: Ray's Pizza.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 1, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got some scholarly research to delve into. (Emphasis mine.) ...
I'm in the American Studies graduate program at Penn State-Harrisburg. A link on your blog about Northeastern Pennsylvania being the Pizza Capital of the U.S. led me to a short research paper last spring, so I thought I'd share it. Most of this is nothing new to you experts, but you may find some of the info I found in mid-century city directories interesting.
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