San Marzano Pizzeria, Where a Slice Is a Snack

Posted by Adam Kuban, March 12, 2009 at 10:00 AM

With shot glass, for scale.

Serious Eats New York contributor Barbara Hanson visited the Lower East Side's San Marzano, which has been getting some buzz lately, and found the slices there small but tasty. At $3.50 a pop for three-ounce, five-inch-long slices, the place has to be serving some of the most expensive pizza per surface area in the city.

What there is of them, however, is pretty good. The Margherita was not to my taste, sweet and a bit oily, but I tend to find Margherita slices a bit light on flavor. I tossed on some Parm, which perked it up a good deal. The quattro formaggi was better, riddled with creamy puffs of ricotta; the only off note was the gorgonzola, which shouted down the other cheeses each time I bit into it.

San Marzano Brick Oven Pizzeria

71 Clinton Street, New York NY 10002 (b/n Stanton and Rivington; map)
212-228-5060

6 Comments

Tags: Lower East Side, Manhattan, NYC, Reviews, San Marzano Brick Oven Pizzeria, Slice Reviews

6 Comments:

No prices posted for slices? $3.50 each? Within walking distance of Lombardi's and Lasso? Hmmm.

BrianPrestonCampbell at 1:09PM on 03/12/09

The real estate folks calculate dollars per square foot on houses and apartments and now slice as invented the dpi index (dollars per inch) for pizza. In these economic hard times, this is an important and relevant measure. Let's look to create a full listings of dpi's at major pizzerias.
I would guess Dom's dpi is pretty favorable.

famdoc at 2:59PM on 03/13/09

Last time I was there they had a good lunch special - I think slices were $1.85 and a margherita pie was $7.25

boomshanka at 3:41PM on 03/13/09

Geez, I'd have to eat about 20 slices of this to equal the pizza I eat ever week. That's $70!!!

Mooner at 8:10PM on 03/13/09

I've been calculating dpi for whole pies for years, to compare the true prices of my local parlors (some sell a 16 inch as "large", others an 18 inch). There are some suprisingly large differences which aren't apparent to me by just guesstimating from the menu prices.

Never did dpi for slices, but why not, it's even more relevant (a conversion factor of 1.2656 is all that's needed to compare a 16 inch to an 18 inch whole pie).

-San Marzano slice's dpi is 17.83 cents/square inch (assuming four slices per pie)
-Average parlor slice's dpi is 7.86 cents (assuming 18 inch pie, 8 slices, $2.50 slice), or 9.95 cents (assuming 16 inch pie, 8 slices, $2.50)

For me to visit more than once, San Marzano would have to be better than just "pretty good", since one of my local parlors (the one in Flushing's Pathmark shopping center) makes a "pretty good" (I'd say great) non-destination pie.

Hojo at 9:25AM on 03/15/09

Stopped by this afternoon to take a peek -- all slices have prices now. Margherita slice for $3. Specialty pie slices for $4. The Bianca (fontina, gorgonzola, speck prosciutto, caramelized onions) I had was excellent at $4. I wish the crust had a bit more flavor, and was a little fuller and filling. It's too thin and on the crispy side for my preference.

It's BYOB and has a very upscale feeling, I wasn't even sure they did takeout until I stepped inside and saw the counter to the left of the cashier.

kathryn at 10:14PM on 03/15/09

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