Happy Fourth
Hola. Just wanted to say Happy Fourth of July!
Spangledly,
Slice Dude
June 28, 2009 - July 4, 2009
Dom DeMarco Undergoing Minor Oral Surgery; Di Fara Pizza Closed Indefinitely
I just got back from a trip to Di Fara to check out unsubstantiated rumors of a Di Fara closing. The pizzeria was indeed closed, but Dom DeMarco's daughter, Maggie, was there and reports that her father was at the doctor for "minor mouth surgery."
No word on when the place will reopen. Stay tuned.
Update: It has reopened.
Wig & Pen Offers an Iowa City Twist to Stuffed Pizza
Serious Eats contributor Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel from the road, this time in Iowa City. —The Mgmt.
Wig and Pen Pizza Pub
1220 Hwy 6 West, Coralville, IA 52241 (map); 319-354-2767; wigandpeneast.com
Pizza Style: Thin crust, stuffed and Flying Tomato
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: The Flying Tomato is short on tomato, but will still appeal to those who like mozzarella in very large quantities
Price: Large Flying Tomato with one topping, $24.35.
On my way back to Chicago from Omaha a little over a week ago, I took a break from the rolling hills of young corn that were interrupted by the occasional wind farm to stop in Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa, for a late lunch that would get me through the rest of the drive. In doing my research before starting the trip, I discovered that Iowa City did not seem to be a particularly notable pizza town. That said, I did find a popular place that offered a new type of pizza: the Wig & Pen Pizza Pub.
In the 16 years since Dick Querrey took over the Wig & Pen and made significant menu changes, the popular Iowa City spot has expanded to three locations, one of which bounced back from some serious flooding last year. Querrey, who runs the place with help from his kids, serves three kinds of pizza: thin crust, stuffed, and the Flying Tomato Pie.
The Flying Tomato is a cross between a stuffed pizza and a pan pie that was invented by a cook at the Wig & Pen who was having fun experimenting in the kitchen. Since I am always eager to try new types of pizza, ordering a Flying Tomato was a no-brainer.Leftovers: The Day's Stray Links
- Pizza in a Cone: Yes, again. Cone pizza just doesn't seem to be catching on—at least not here in the States. Yet another company, this one Spanish, is tilting at windmills. [EMD]
- Pizza Vending Machines: "I have had the future of pizza and it is not good." [Internet Food Association]
- Pizza Site Review: Worstpizza.com, analyzed. [Blog Pizza]
- Speaking of Which: "Pizzaexpert" offers to sell worstpizza.com to AOL. [SAI]
- LA: S. Irene Virbila reviews Bottega Louie, whose thin-crust pizzas are "not particularly inventive but fine." [LAT]
- NYC > Openings: A wood-fired pizzeria is coming to the new Eataly Italian supermegamarket. [AHNY]
- NYC > Openings: Pizza and more at West Village sister spot to Alexandra. [ZagatBuzz]
- NYC > Openings: Angelina Pizza Bar opening on UWS with "what may be the world's first rotating brick oven." Whatevs. There are already two in NYC. [ZagatBuzz]
- NYC > Openings: South Brooklyn Pizza coming to Manhattan. Eh. [Eater]
Liquid Pizza in a Bulbous Test Tube
Photograph from Life, hosted by Google
Bloomberg reports on something wacky:
A deconstructed pizza in a bulbous test tube featured this week at a dinner in London where each course was prepared by a different Italian chef. The event took place on Monday at Dolada restaurant, whose chef Riccardo de Pra created the liquid pizza with mozzarella, tomato, basil and olive-oil components to be guzzled in one go, accompanied by chunks of crust for texture.
Oh my. [via Eater SF]
I Don't Even Know What This Means
"The pissaladières, baked in a wood-burning oven, reach out to the ever more rapacious ranks of pizza hounds..." —Frank Bruni, in his review of Bar Artisanal
Money Pizza
Money Pizza is an promotional concept for an imaginary pizza chain that sells a $5 pizza. The magnetic fridge-based coin keeper holds $5 in change. As its creator, artist Matt Brown, says, "The concept eliminates the shame people feel when they pay for something all in change. No counting involved with this, both cashier and customer know exactly how much money there is on that pie."
Of course you're still left scrounging for the tip. [via EMD]
Chowhounder's One Post Sums Up All of Site's Di Fara Wisdom
If you're a participant or lurker on Chowhound, you know there are certain restaurants or vendors on the boards there that have attained mythic status and are and talked about over and over. The Arepa Lady, Lotus of Siam, and, yes, Di Fara are just three of many such places.
If you've been reading long enough, there's very little new to be said about most of these places. But I thought I'd point out this recent Di Fara thread because Chowhounder "pizzajunkie" seems to have summed up several years' worth of Di Fara wisdom in just 101 words:
Okay, so after lurking here and on the Manhattan board for several weeks, I have gleaned the following information about Di Fara:
It plainly has its local following with people who think it is the best, while others think it is overhyped and not worth the exhaustively long lines.
The best time to go is on a weekday mid-afternoon.
The square pizza is the best pizza to order (and I'll be ordering mine plain cheese).
Be prepared to wait an hour (?) after sitting down for your pizza.
BYOB (does anyone do this?).
It closes for a period between lunch and dinner.
That's pretty much Di Fara in a nutshell—except, as "demigodh" is quick to point out, "I wouldn't be so definitive about the square. they're both excellent in their own right. You should order the style of pizza you prefer."
I totally agree.
Leftovers: The Day's Stray Links
- Tweetza: PizzaTweetup.com—the name pretty much says it all? [PizzaTweetup]
- Dough Recipe: This Mario Batali recipe uses white wine to "presumably to mimic the acidic contribution of a starter." [pizzamaking.com]
- Mozzarella Ideas: What to do if you have a surplus of fresh mozz. Not that anyone here on Slice would.... [SE Talk]
- Vegan "Mozzarella": Cruzer Pizza in L.A. is using Daiya, a vegan alternative to mozz that melts and stretches and tastes like the real thing. [quarrygirl.com]
- Frozen Pizza Review: Whole Foods 365 Mediterranean Pizza. [Freezer Burns]
- Free Pizza in Bay Area: It's from Domino's, though, so whatevs. A free 10-inch American Legends pizza with every purchase on July 4. [Daily Loaf]
- Baltimore: Charm City favorite Iggie's closed for vacation. [Pizza Blogger]
- Boston: The pizzas of various Beantown neighborhoods. [Boston Globe]
- LA: JAB reviews Pizza Go—"For what it is, it's pretty good." [LA Pizza]
- New Haven: A visit to Frank Pepe's. [Goodies First]
Correction: Renown Spanish Chef Ferran Adria NOT Opening a Pizzeria
Lisa Abend on Goumet lays to rest the rumor that Spanish superchef Ferran Adrià is opening a pizzeria:
"Albert [Adrià, Ferran's brother] was in Italy and eating pizza," recounts Ferran. "Someone from the press asked him if he ever thought of opening a pizzeria, and, trying to be polite, he said, 'Sure, someday, why not?' We are developing a lot of projects, and pizza might be one of them sometime in the future. But not anytime soon, not by a long shot"
I'm sorry that Slice was not diligent enough to debunk this at the time we blogged about it. I was lazy and went along with this story like a lemming. This editor regrets the error.
Sal and Carmine's: A Post-Sal Pilgrimage
"His slices were so good that they didn't have to deliver."
The other night I started thinking about Sal and Carmine's. Adam reported on Sal's untimely death, but somehow I feel the only true way to pay one's respects to a pieman (and Sal was one of the all-time great piemen) is to have one of his pies.
So last Friday I left the Slice–Serious Eats office around 7 p.m. and took the 2 Train to 96th Street and Broadway. I know I could have taken the local one more stop and ended up a couple of blocks closer, but I wanted to start my homage to Sal by acknowledging the location of the original Sal's Pizzeria on 95th and Broadway, where my love affair with Sal Malanga's pizza began in 1973.
Sal and his brother Carmine opened the original Sal's in 1959, three blocks from my first New York apartment. I was making $111 a week working for the Department of Cultural Affairs in the New York City Parks Department, and though Sal's slices were 25¢ more than every other pizzeria's, it quickly became my go-to slice. How could it not? Sal's slightly bready crust was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Therein lies the magic about Sal and Carmine's crust: It never gets hard, no matter how long it's been out of the oven. The sauce was slightly seasoned (maybe it was canned pizza sauce—no matter), and the aged mozzarella they used had just the right touch of salt.
Once you had a Sal's slice you could accept no other. They were magical, more workmanlike and less idiosyncratic than Di Fara, but no less artful and satisfying. That's it, now that I think about it: Sal's slices were just so damn satisfying. And you didn't need a finely honed pizza aesthetic to know that. One bite was all it took. That was the way it was then, and you know what? That's the way it is now.
'Pizza Blogger' Interview with Joe Edwardsen of Baltimore's Joe Squared
Speaking of pizza blogs, one that I've been enjoying immensely as of late is Baltimore-based Pizza Blogger. And this interview with Joe Squared's Joe Edwardsen (above) illustrates what I like about the site.
"Pizza Blogger," as the anonymous author prefers to be known, asks Edwardsen a series of knowledgeable questions about Joe Squared's coal oven and the dough-making process. The questions are obviously informed by PB's experience working at D.C.-area bakery Uptown Bakers. PB's knowledge and passion shines through in all his posts. I come away from the site with the feeling that the entries are well-researched and trustworthy. And I always feel like I've learned something after a visit.
'Grub Street' Does Crowd Check on Crop of Recent Pizzeria Newbies
Grub Street checks in on the recent gaggle of new pizzerias to see which is busiest (and presumably best—or at least most hyped) on a Friday night between 8 and 9 p.m. From least- to most-crowded: Tonda, Veloce, Pizza Mezzaluna, Spunto, Kesté, San Marzano, and Co. Company.
Slice Reviewed on PBAHTEOIPO: 'A New York Times of Pizza'
As part of its series of pizza-site reviews, Pizza Blog About How to Eat/Order Italian Pizza Online recently featured Slice and had some really nice things to say, among them:
Slice offers many different features that may at first be a bit overwhelming, but that is only because there is so much depth and history to the site. Slice has various pizza maps of the many pizza places that have been reviewed. Slice also has pizza recipes, pizza videos, and pizza reviews. If you would like to search Slice, they have an easy drop-down menu to browse pizza by location or you can browse their archives by date or category. This is very important for a website that has been around posting almost daily for about 6 years.
And my favorite:
Burke Pizza Topping Guide
The Burke Guide to Fully Cooked Meat Toppings [pdf], available at burkecorp.com, lists the terminology and sizes of various precooked meat-based pizza ingredients the company sells.
Hand-Pinched Style: Hand-Pinched Style brand by Burke is a unique product that is defined by the craggy, irregular appearance of raw meat that has been directly pinched onto a pizza. At the same time it offers the safety and convenience of fully cooked meats.
The size chart, complete with a handy ruler to show scale, should assist the pizza aficionado when it comes to discussion of "fine crumble," "crumble," and "100/oz" meat toppings. [via pizzamaking.com]
Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan in Kevin Smith's 'A Couple of Dicks' at L&B Spumoni Gardens
Albert Grande mentioned last week that his pizza tour was canceled because one of the stops—L&B Spumoni Gardens—was closed for a movie shoot.
Here's a photo from the shoot, courtesy of NBC Universal's Recent Postings blog.
Leftovers: The Day's Stray Links
As you may know, I was on vacation last week. I barely looked at the web. And that, ladies and gents, was AWESOME. But it also means I missed a lot of pizza news. This link dump is, therefore, loooong and may contain things you've seen already. Deal with it. —The Mgmt.
- Video: Albert Grande, on a pizza tour of the East Coast, finds "the next rising star of pizza" (above) in Stefan Ambrosch. [Pizza Therapy]
- Movies: Bruce Willis films a motion picture at Brooklyn's legendary L&B Spumoni Gardens. [Pizza Therapy]
- Celebs and Slices: Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) at Bleecker Street Pizza; Emeril Lagasse at Otto. [Grub Street]
- Music: The duo Das Racist honors(?) those odd combination Pizza Hut–Taco Bell locations. [BrandFreak]
- Katy Perry Naked [SFW]: The pop star in the bathtub with a strategically placed pizza. Doesn't look half bad, either. The pizza, mind you, the pizza! [EMD]
- Peter Reinhart's Pizza Class: Cary Steiner talks about his experience learning from the baking and pizza master. [Passion-4-Pizza]
- Domino's: Not much news here but for the fact that the chain's Pizza Tracker is now embeddable in Facebook. Everything else is old hat. [Gizmodo]
- Pizza Hut: The chain's summer "twintern" posted her first message on Twitter on Thursday. [@pizzahut via NRN]
- Pizza Hut: Not changing name to "The Hut." Only being used in some marketing efforts, says chain's chief marketing officer. [NRN]
- Reprehensible: Illinois man gets 81 years for murdering delivery driver with hammer. WTF? [cbs2chicago.com]
- More links ahead: Pizza reviews from around the country, after the jump.
Pizza Is Like Sex, Sex Is Like Pizza
When you've been blogging about pizza for more than five years, you've heard the old "pizza is like sex" joke—"even when it's bad, it's good."
It ceased to amuse me by, oh, about the second time I heard it, which is why I was surprised when I found myself LOLing at a recent thread in the Serious Eats Talk section: Sex is like pizza...or is it...
You look back on your experiences with it in college, and say, "What was I thinking?"
(If you've already seen this thread, forgive me. I'm still catching up on stuff I missed while on vacation last week and thought this one was worth highlighting.)
Individual-Size, Slice-Accompanying Pizza Wine in Greenpoint
Miss Heather of the blog newyorkshitty.com finds Pizza Wine at a Greenpoint liquor store. It's a small 375 ml bottle of wine that claims to have been crafted specifically for pizza.
At $3 a bottle (even with tax included) this isn't really much of a bargain. If one bottle is designed to accompany two slices, I'd guesstimate it would take five bottles to match a ten-slice pie. That totals to $15. For that kind of money, you can buy a couple six packs of decent beer.
Ten-slice pie? Where is Miss Heather getting a ten-slice pie? Note: A pizza is usually cut in eight- or six-slice configurations.
T&N Wine and Liquor
983 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11222 (b/n India/Huron streets; map)
Related
Video: Pairing Wine with Pizza
Tom Seefurth's Pizza Beer
A Novel Way to Deliver Pizza in Paris
From the New York Times comes word of this charming-bordering-on-twee way of getting pizza delivery in Paris:
By the water, there is a small pink dot of a helium balloon, bobbing in the intermittent breeze. The balloon is key. It was given to you by Pink Flamingo, a pizza parlor down the nearby Rue Bichat, whose bicycle deliveryman will use it as a beacon to locate you and present the five pies you've ordered (10.50 to 16 euros each). They're not all for you, of course—you've got friends to help eat the pizza and drink the four bottles of red wine (40 euros) you picked up from Le Verre Volé, a wine bar across the canal.
Maybe some enterprising pizzeria will set this up in NYC.
The place in question apparently has "quirky toppings": goat cheese and sliced duck breast, and an "Obama" pizza with bacon and pineapple.
Pink Flamingo
67 Rue Bichat, Paris, France 75010 (map)
33/01-42-02-31-70; pinkflamingopizza.com
Dear Slice: 'What Does Pizza Cost in Rome?'
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got, um, a question I can't answer because I've never been to Rome. Anyone out there wanna chime in? —The Mgmt.
Hello,
What does a pizza cost in rome? I need a little help/direction before I can start. Any nuggets of wisdom would be absolutely great and very much appreciated. Please help. Thank you for your help.Warmest Regards,
Janet
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