2728 Broadway, New York NY 10025 (104th/105th streets; map); 212-932-1000; angelinapizzabar.com Pizza Style: Neapolitan and thin-crust square Oven Type: Revolving-floor brick oven The Skinny: A pizza "concept" rather than a pizzeria with heart and soul Price: Pies range from $14 to $22
With all the press attention on new-fashioned pizza, it's not surprising that fresh pizza "concepts" are opening all over the U.S. There's gold in them thar pizza, these folks are saying to themselves.
That's probably what the owners of Upper West Side Japanese restaurant Tokyo Pop were thinking when they swapped their Japanese concept for pizza and renamed it Angelina Pizzabar. Build a fancy brick oven with a rotating floor and they will come is the reasoning.
Well, I came and brought my pizza-loving son, Will, and two of his friends. We ate pizza, and we left sorely disappointed. So disappointed I insisted on taking them afterward to nearby Sal and Carmine's for a slice of pizza with soul.
I'm not kidding.
We ordered one each of the three styles of pizza they serve at Angelina:
A personal verde pizza ($14), with baby spinach, garlic, arugula, and mozzarella drizzled with balsamic vinegar and oil, had a dull, dull crust and virtually no flavor. For that matter, every crust we sampled was in desperate need of salt and character.
An "Old Fashioned" pancetta e cipolline ($22), with pancetta, scallion, fresh tomato, and mozzarella, was a rectangular pan pizza with areas of underbaked dough but well thought-out toppings.
A Super Thin Crust Margherita ($18; shown at top), with tomatoes, buffala mozzarella, and fresh basil, had a dry, stiff crust; sauce that had no fresh tomato flavor; and perfectly acceptable if generic buffalo mozzarella.
Angelina Pizzabar reeked of concept instead of passion. That's why when we left I took Will and his friends Max and Seth two blocks south to Sal and Carmine's for a slice with heart and soul. No rotating oven or faux brick or burning wood, just a solid, seriously delicious slice of pizza with a bready tender crust with a crunchy exterior.
We need more good owner-occupied pizzerias in the world, and fewer pizza "concepts," which I am sad to report is exactly what Angelina is.
That's too bad, Ed. Onetime SE commenter Sandro emailed me saying that it was good but "probably not a destination place." Sounds like your comments here bear out that assessment.
That's the danger of installing fancy-ass ovens and making a BFD about them. No need for a whirlygig gizmo. There are some amazing pies coming out of plain ol' steel-deck gas ovens and ancient-tech wood-fired dome ovens. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Sorry to hear you had a mediocre dining experience. I dropped a note to Adam about the place coming from the perspective of someone who, if looking for a nearby "little more than a slice joint" (agreed that Sal & Carmine's is superb), we'd have to truck down to Dean's on West 85th - Angelina's was just a couple blocks north and that proximity for me is worth some points. Yes, it's soulness and opportunistic, but I can walk there. (There's a Woody Allen line in there somewhere.) Anyway, last weekend we discovered the M116 bus which gets us from West 106th to East 116th and 1st Ave. - 20 minutes later, hello, original Patsy's!!!!
Oh, man, Sandro. I think I would have been plotting routes to Patsy's the minute I moved to wherever it is you live on the UWS. Glad you found the M116!
Mathew Tivy is a wonderful chef, I am really sorry to hear this place is such a dud. This is the third place I've read about this place being not just bad, but bad with an attitude.
bad service. bad attitude. mediocre pizza. when i complained about the long waits before ordering, before receiving our (uncooked) antipasti, and before receiving our pizza, manager carlo responded by telling me how many minutes i'd waited. (He was wrong: He told me how long I'd waited before inquiring, not the much longer I waited before actually getting food.) "You can run your business with a stopwatch," i told him, "but i'm never coming back here." His response? "That's perfectly understandable." So i guess we have a meeting of the minds!
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9 Comments:
That's too bad, Ed. Onetime SE commenter Sandro emailed me saying that it was good but "probably not a destination place." Sounds like your comments here bear out that assessment.
That's the danger of installing fancy-ass ovens and making a BFD about them. No need for a whirlygig gizmo. There are some amazing pies coming out of plain ol' steel-deck gas ovens and ancient-tech wood-fired dome ovens. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Adam Kuban at 12:23PM on 07/30/09
Sorry to hear you had a mediocre dining experience. I dropped a note to Adam about the place coming from the perspective of someone who, if looking for a nearby "little more than a slice joint" (agreed that Sal & Carmine's is superb), we'd have to truck down to Dean's on West 85th - Angelina's was just a couple blocks north and that proximity for me is worth some points. Yes, it's soulness and opportunistic, but I can walk there. (There's a Woody Allen line in there somewhere.) Anyway, last weekend we discovered the M116 bus which gets us from West 106th to East 116th and 1st Ave. - 20 minutes later, hello, original Patsy's!!!!
Sandro at 12:41PM on 07/30/09
Oh, man, Sandro. I think I would have been plotting routes to Patsy's the minute I moved to wherever it is you live on the UWS. Glad you found the M116!
Adam Kuban at 12:44PM on 07/30/09
WTF - Soul in pizza? I grew up on Bettye Swan and Bobby Bland.THAT is Soul.
Pizza's flour, water, salt and yeast.
seriouspizza at 1:37PM on 07/30/09
There is soul in pizza- especially at Sal & Carmines!
SmokedMeat at 2:00PM on 07/30/09
Mathew Tivy is a wonderful chef, I am really sorry to hear this place is such a dud. This is the third place I've read about this place being not just bad, but bad with an attitude.
hondo3777 at 2:10PM on 07/30/09
Not being a disciple of Brother Reinhart or Donald Altman I've never tasted it !
seriouspizza at 2:13PM on 07/30/09
And to boot, it looks like the are playing the name confusion game with the similarity to Adrienne's Pizzabar.
Ciao,
Paulie Gee
pauliegee at 3:05PM on 07/30/09
bad service. bad attitude. mediocre pizza. when i complained about the long waits before ordering, before receiving our (uncooked) antipasti, and before receiving our pizza, manager carlo responded by telling me how many minutes i'd waited. (He was wrong: He told me how long I'd waited before inquiring, not the much longer I waited before actually getting food.) "You can run your business with a stopwatch," i told him, "but i'm never coming back here." His response? "That's perfectly understandable." So i guess we have a meeting of the minds!
hungrygrl at 8:41AM on 08/09/09