If by "dollar pizza in NYC," you mean Manhattan, here are all the 99-cent and/or dollar slice joints we know of in the city. If we've missed any, set us straight in the comments. Without further ado, cheap pizza, from the top of the island to the bottom.
542 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10018 (at 40th Street)
212-695-2642 Intel: "Overall, the 2 Bros. pizza had a better flavor than the 99¢ Fresh Pizza slice. While the 99FP slice was better balanced in terms of crust-sauce-cheese ratio, that's not necessarily a good thing here, since that balance allows you to taste the sauce. It's flavored heavily with what tastes like powdered garlic--acrid and almost metallic-tasting. When scraped away on its own, the 2 Bros. sauce is bland but at least does not assault your tongue." [Cheap-Slice Showdown: St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza vs. 99 Cent Fresh Pizza »]
Note the picture of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, behind the pizzaman. [Photos: Joe DiStefano]
Singas Famous Pizza has always proved somewhat disappointing. Don't get me wrong, their smallish pan pizzas are quite tasty and the way they cut them with a scimitar-like knife is kind of cool too—but sadly the only thing Indian about it is the name. So when a friend asked me along to check out a place serving Punjabi pizza, I jumped at the chance. Tower Pizzeria & Indian Food is located in a heavily Sikh section of Richmond Hill, Queens. As my dining companion and I waited for our pizza to be served it was hard not to notice that all of the customers were eating Indian food rather than pizza.
"I don't think a drunk college student cares about whether there's San Marzano tomatoes on their slice," Jason Feirman, 25, who writes a pizza blog called I Dream of Pizza, said of the $1 pizza trend. "It's a good business model. They're not catering to food blogs. The idea is to turn out these pizzas as fast as they can."
They talked to me, too, but I sound like a Grade A moron. My own fault. Mr. Fernandez simply quoted me talking about the "hole structure" of 99¢ pizza.
Yeah, I know, right? Tool Academy, are you accepting applications for the spring semester?
Don't worry, Nate Appleman here isn't angry at Slice. He was just pullin' a face for the camera. [Photographs: Adam Kuban]
Another week, another high-profile pizza happening, man. Today, Pulino's Bar & Pizzeria, the long-awaited pizza joint helmed by San Francisco arriviste Nate Appleman (late of A16 in the City by the Bay).
Though to call it a "pizza joint" would be a bit of an understatement. The latest in Keith McNally's restaurant group (oh, he of Balthazar, Pastis, Schiller's, etc.), it's totally McNalley'd out—a large, airy space that's overall French brasserie in feel with a bit of New Haven throw in for good measure in the oven area. (Peep the gallery and see if you don't think the dual oven action and white tile doesn't remind you of Frank Pepe's.)
While it's too early to report objectively on the pizza, I know you want your pizza porn, so I headed down there today for snaps of this week's model. While a full-on raging critique will have to wait, I will say that I liked what I had. Mr. Appleman's "Bowery-style" pizza is a nice mixture of New Haven– and bar-style pizza. Once he and the crew get their sea legs, we'll be back.
Pulino's Bar & Pizzeria
282 Bowery, New York NY 10012 (at Houston; map)
212-226-1966; pulinosny.com
Ah, Twitter. Sometimes a colossal waste of time; sometimes a boon to eaters. Last week, @itryilike tweeted to @Slice shortly before her lunch break: "I need a good, not-too-greasy slice in Midtown East. I'm huungry any suggestions?"
But before I could tweet back to itryilike (I rec'd Little Italy on 43rd and Fifth), our friend Zach Brooks at Midtown Lunchtwitted outhis pick: Previti Pizza on 41st Street near Lexington.
Oh, yeah. Previti is the place Zach wrote about back in December 2009. Place looked good, I remembered. I had filed it in my notes to try but hadn't gotten there yet. And thus this whole Twitter exchange had me hopping on the train to the Grand Central area.
Long story short: Previti makes a great slice—for Midtown or anywhere. This is one place I don't need to say, "It's good ... for Midtown." Zach was dead on with his rec here.
Among pizza-eaters there seem to be various crust-eater types*: those who leave the crust as "pizza bones," folks who relish the crust and eat every bit, and those who like to dip it in something to give it a little extra oomph. This week's Slice pizza poll asks which one you are (with a subset of answers on dipping preferences for the dippers among us).
* Yes, we've covered similar ground before—"Types of Crust Eaters"—but not in a poll, all pseudo-scientific-style.
That was therapeutic, wasn't it? I think this week's little group session on "charring" vs. "burned" helped us all work through the issue and come to a better understanding of carbonized crust, of ourselves, and of each other. Though folks in the gimme-char (72%) and the char-it-not (29%)* camps may never see eye to eye, I think the discussion helped us all see the others' arguments, thanks to lots of great insight in the comments.
* Yes, I'm aware that adds up to 101%. I think the polling software rounds up with a hand that's a little too heavy.
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