He then goes on to talk about, yes, Co. and Motorino.
Geesh, now even I am officially sick of hearing about Co., so I'm not going quote extensively from Bruni's post. Suffice it to say that he digs the Popeye pie there: "one of the most memorable things I've eaten in months."
@ Prairie: You're not alone. I was only there once, about 2 weeks after it opened, I went in with an open mind. I liked some of the flavors, but didn't like the pizza overall, and what's worse it made both me and my girlfriend really sick. I've heard they've changed the time they take to cook their pizzas, but honestly, I don't have a reason to go back - there's too many other great places out there, and $14 per person for pizza is a hard sell unless its great, great, great.
@JudgeFudge I find $14 to be very reasonable for a pie with high quality toppings. I only had one less than great pie at Motorino and that's because it was just after they opened for the day and they had a problem getting their oven up to full blast. I find that Motorino's crust is fast approaching the quality of UPN's with better toppings and a UPN margherita the same size as Motorino's is $21 plus tax. If price is an issue, perhaps you should check out their $10 weekend brunch. And don't forget to bring some vodka for their killer Bloody Mary mix. BTW, who's pies do you like?
@PaulieGee: Motorino just makes a boring pizza, in my opinion. I've got many favorites in both styles (Neo & NY) in the 5 boroughs but Motorino just isn't going to be one of them.
I consistently find it *amazing* how often I encounter indifferent service in NYC. It's as if servers here feel that they can get away with it because of the sheer amount of potential clientele. When I travel to other major cities I never see such a proliferation of this kind of treatment, even in bustling restaurants. I used to think people who got poor service were poor customers to begin with, but since moving here... wow. I mean, there are times where I had to laugh because I just was floored by the servers' apathy.
I mean, that's the general vibe I get at Motorino but I can't say i've experienced it at many other places in the city.
My table ordered 3 pizzas, a Margherita, a Margherita DOC, and a Prosciutto di Parma. Both of the Margherita's came out in a decent amount of time, and were perfectly acceptable when stood up against previous pies here.
The PdP arrived possibly 10 minutes later, with a 'eh' apology from the expediter. Nothing from Mathieu but a general shrug when he was told that the pizza was forgotten. We were sitting right by the ovens so it was sort of awkward. To top things off this pizza was blonde on the bottom, they tried to get it out as quick as possible. I just wish they would have taken their time with this pizza, even if it was late.
Mathieu doesn't seem to be passionate about pizza. He likes the attention that he's received (my first experience @ Motorino was the weekend the lunch specials were introduced), and he was doing an interview with a random TV show. We were the only customers there and it took about 20 minutes for him to start making our pies as he needed to finish the interview with the folks. No worries, the pizzas were perfectly fine.
I'm not saying the place isn't good- it's quite good. But without passion, what is it?
@prairie As far as MP's passion for makng pizza goes, last night I saw plenty of evidence to disprove your theory while I was enjoying a killer Brussel Sprout and Speck pie. He kept a keen eye on everything that came out of the oven and displayed great satisfaction when his puffy crusts had that elusive leopard spot look.
Thanks for commenting! Your comment has been accepted and will appear in a moment.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it pleasant. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
Print
11 Comments:
I'm starting to think that there's only one or two pizza places in NYC.
Co. and some other one.
:D
Mooner at 9:00PM on 02/24/09
Yes. It's the same: Is It 'Co.' or 'Company'? I think I'm just going to start calling it Co. Company.
Adam Kuban at 9:30PM on 02/24/09
I'm gonna confess that I may officially hate Motorino.
Prairie at 6:35PM on 02/25/09
@ Prairie: You're not alone. I was only there once, about 2 weeks after it opened, I went in with an open mind. I liked some of the flavors, but didn't like the pizza overall, and what's worse it made both me and my girlfriend really sick. I've heard they've changed the time they take to cook their pizzas, but honestly, I don't have a reason to go back - there's too many other great places out there, and $14 per person for pizza is a hard sell unless its great, great, great.
JudgeFudge at 11:24AM on 02/26/09
@JudgeFudge I find $14 to be very reasonable for a pie with high quality toppings. I only had one less than great pie at Motorino and that's because it was just after they opened for the day and they had a problem getting their oven up to full blast. I find that Motorino's crust is fast approaching the quality of UPN's with better toppings and a UPN margherita the same size as Motorino's is $21 plus tax. If price is an issue, perhaps you should check out their $10 weekend brunch. And don't forget to bring some vodka for their killer Bloody Mary mix. BTW, who's pies do you like?
Ciao,
Paulie Gee
pauliegee at 3:59PM on 02/26/09
@PaulieGee: Motorino just makes a boring pizza, in my opinion. I've got many favorites in both styles (Neo & NY) in the 5 boroughs but Motorino just isn't going to be one of them.
Prairie at 4:02PM on 02/26/09
PS: I've been there 3 times now, and after indifferent service and again feeling that they were WAY overstaffed, I won't be going back.
Chris Bianco has just about as many seats and does it all with 10 person staff.
Prairie at 4:04PM on 02/26/09
I consistently find it *amazing* how often I encounter indifferent service in NYC. It's as if servers here feel that they can get away with it because of the sheer amount of potential clientele. When I travel to other major cities I never see such a proliferation of this kind of treatment, even in bustling restaurants. I used to think people who got poor service were poor customers to begin with, but since moving here... wow. I mean, there are times where I had to laugh because I just was floored by the servers' apathy.
santoslhalper at 5:16PM on 02/26/09
I mean, that's the general vibe I get at Motorino but I can't say i've experienced it at many other places in the city.
My table ordered 3 pizzas, a Margherita, a Margherita DOC, and a Prosciutto di Parma. Both of the Margherita's came out in a decent amount of time, and were perfectly acceptable when stood up against previous pies here.
The PdP arrived possibly 10 minutes later, with a 'eh' apology from the expediter. Nothing from Mathieu but a general shrug when he was told that the pizza was forgotten. We were sitting right by the ovens so it was sort of awkward. To top things off this pizza was blonde on the bottom, they tried to get it out as quick as possible. I just wish they would have taken their time with this pizza, even if it was late.
Mathieu doesn't seem to be passionate about pizza. He likes the attention that he's received (my first experience @ Motorino was the weekend the lunch specials were introduced), and he was doing an interview with a random TV show. We were the only customers there and it took about 20 minutes for him to start making our pies as he needed to finish the interview with the folks. No worries, the pizzas were perfectly fine.
I'm not saying the place isn't good- it's quite good. But without passion, what is it?
Prairie at 6:17PM on 02/26/09
@prairie As far as MP's passion for makng pizza goes, last night I saw plenty of evidence to disprove your theory while I was enjoying a killer Brussel Sprout and Speck pie. He kept a keen eye on everything that came out of the oven and displayed great satisfaction when his puffy crusts had that elusive leopard spot look.
Ciao,
Paulie Gee
pauliegee at 10:02AM on 02/27/09
@ famdoc You're making me blush. Thanks. However, when it comes to pizza gurus, there's only one and we all know who that is.
Ciao,
Paulie Gee
pauliegee at 6:57PM on 02/28/09