What follows is a mish-mash of some of our favorite posts, our top-choice pizzerias, books we like and think you should read, and other fun slice-and-pie miscellanea. Buon appetito!
This is an annual thing with me now (see 8PTHMD 2009 and 8PTHMD 2010). I ate a lot of pizza over the course of the year, but these eight pies, mostly from around the NYC area, are the ones that haunt my dreams even as we close in on 2012. Like years past, I'm not declaring these "the best," per se, just eight pizzas that stand out in my memory and that I want more of. Are they in any kind of order? Not this year, so don't read anything into it. Just peep the slideshow and salivate.
About the author: Adam Kuban is the founder of Slice, where he has been blogging about pizza for more than 8 years. You can follow him as @akuban on Twitter.
3601 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, CO 80303 (map); 303-997-8775; pizzeriabasta.com Pizza Style: Neapolitanish, but with a sturdier crust Oven Type: Wood-burning The Skinny: The pizzas here are extremely well thought out and well executed Price: Range from $10 (Marinara) to $16 (Daily Special)
Since opening its doors less than two years ago on December 31, 2009, Boulder's Pizzeria Basta has been the subject of glowing reports from local and national press, and has gotten special attention from pizza and bread guru Peter Reinhart, whose Pizza Quest has prominently featured Basta. Based on my visit, it's clear that all of the praise is deserved.
Chef/co-owner Kelly Whitaker spent a year in Naples developing his pizza-making skills and even brought home a fifty-year-old starter; the soul of each pizza that comes out of his wood-burning oven. But Whitaker's skills don't stop at pizza. Basta is the rare pizzeria where the rest of the menu is far more than an afterthought. Even with the variety, the menu is actually quite small. Basta means enough, and as Whitaker explains in this video, that principle, a small menu done well, is what his restaurant is all about.
33 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn NY 11211 (North 7th/North 8th streets; map); 718-599-2210; best.piz.za.com Getting there: Closest train station is Bedford Avenue L train Pizza style: New York–style in form, though with an added layer of smokiness from a wood-fired oven Oven type: Wood-fired oven cooks the pizza, with reheats done in a small gas-fired oven The skinny: Excellent New York–style with a wood-fired twist, great garlic knots, and three of the best sandwiches in town Price: Regular slice, $3; white slice, $3.50; grandma slice, $4
Opened just over a year ago, Best Pizza has fast become one of our favorite pizzerias in New York, and yeah, it's mostly because they serve some of the tastiest by-the-slice stuff around. Baked in a wood-fired brick oven, you wouldn't exactly call this classic New York in execution, but it certainly is in spirit. Though Adam categorized it as a cross between a New York and a Neapolitan-American pie in his initial review of the space last year, I think it sways pretty strongly towards the New York end of the spectrum.
It certainly eats like one, with a thin, crisp crust with a hint of chew and plenty of pliancy, a light sprinkle of grated aged mozzarella and pecorino Romano, and a bright, fresh tomato sauce binding it all together. But then you're hit by that subtle but characteristic veil of smokiness that a wood-fired oven imparts on a Neapolitan slice.
Finding myself near Orange, NJ last weekend with nothing to do (we'd come out to pick apples only to discover that Irene had already done picked all of 'em before we got there), I decided to take the only logical course of action: go to Star Tavern for pizza.
Ok, I'm not going to kid around: the thing to get at Star Tavern if you've never been is anything with pepperoni on it. Their pepperoni is fantastic. Small, thick-sliced disks that as they cook curl up into little crispy chalices of grease*. Now put that on top of thin, ultra-crisp crust with nicely charred edges, great sauce, and a good amount of cheese, and you've got a bar pie at its very best (read Adam's take on it here).
Posted by Will Gordon, October 11, 2011 at 12:30 PM
[Photographs: Will Gordon]
Lynwood Café
320 Center Street, Randolph Mass 02368 (map); 781-963-3100 Pizza style:bar-style Oven type: Gas Price: $7.90 for 10-inch cheese. Toppings start at an extra 30 cents for pepper or onion and go up gently from there.
I think we can all agree that the word "desperado" is one of the finest collections of letters ever assembled in the English language. And I trust anyone tasteful enough to read this nice site knows that the Eagles song "Desperado" is even more atrocious than all the other Eagles songs. Language is tricky! This is why it took me far too long to warm up to the pizza genre known as the bar pie.
I like bars and everybody likes pies, but I wasn't drawn to the words as a compound food noun for a couple of reasons. First and less rationally, I was turned off because "bar pie" clangs off my ears in a manner that suggests derogatory slang for an ex-girlfriend. Here in Massachusetts, bar pie is most prominent in the heavily accented working class suburbs of the North and South Shores, and I can too easily imagine some Sully or another bellowing, "Traci? Who KNOWS what she does with the child support? Sure as shit ain't goin' to the kids. Can't trust that bar pie any farther than you can throw her."
Posted by Erin Meister, September 8, 2011 at 3:30 PM
Classic thin-crust bar pie meets Neapolitan-American at Emma's.[Photograph: Meister]
Emma's Brick Oven Pizza & Cafe
101 North Union Ave, Cranford, NJ
(map); 908-497-1211; emmasbrickoven.com Pizza Style:bar pie Oven Type: Coal-burning brick The Skinny: Very! Cracker-thin crust with good top char Price: $13–$20 per pie, toppings $1–3 each
You're probably not going to just stumble upon the quaint and quiet center of the suburban-Jersey commuter town of Cranford—but hey, if you ever do, rest assured that at the very least, there's decent pizza around.
Emma's Brick Oven Pizza & Cafe has been firing up solid-quality pies and a pretty vast menu of other Italian (often pronounced "EYE-talian," in these parts) fare since 2004, steps away from a NJ Transit station and a breezy 40-minute jaunt from Manhattan. Part bar pie, Emma's tops a fine crust (and we mean fine—practically paper thin, at times!) with an even hand.
Look, I'm not going to do a better job with a Patsy's review than Nick Solares did with this one from early 2010. Seriously, go read it. It's a thoughtful piece of food writing that captures the essence of this historic coal-oven pizzeria in East Harlem.
After re-reading that post, I was almost going to skip my pizzeria review this week and go hang my head in shame knowing I'll never match it. But, you know, Patsy's Pizza — the original Patsy's Pizza, which this is — has come up quite a bit lately 'round these parts (here and here), and I wanted to revisit myself. It is, after all, a New York City pizza institution.
69 West 55th Street, New York NY 10019 (near Sixth Avenue; map); 212-247-3936; pizzarteny.com/ Pizza style: Neapolitan-style pizza Oven type: Wood-fired The skinny: Only a couple weeks old as of this post, PizzArte is already making some amazingly great Neapolitan pizza. The crust stands out as flavorful, crisp, smoky, and supple Price: Margherita, $15; namesake PizzArte (squash blossoms, burrata, speck), $21
"Hey, Adam, I'm at [insert Midtown intersection here]. Is there any great pizza near me?"
I don't know how many friends, coworkers, and Slice'rs have asked me that question.
Used to be my answer was: When pigs fly, snowballs freeze in hell, and bears start using toilets instead of the woods. But just as a rising tide lifts all boats, even the historically pizza-poor landscape of corporate-HQ NYC has benefited from the ongoing trend toward pizza awesomeification in the last decade.
485 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn NY 11211 (Powers/Grandmap); 718-388-8820; forcellaeatery.com Getting there: G/L to Metropolitan-Lorimer Pizza style: Neapolitan Oven type: Wood-burning Acunto brand oven The skinny: OK. Forget for a minute that Forcella is doing some solidly legit traditional pizzas. That's all well and good and totally worth your while. But just know that the place is the only pizzeria I know of in NYC that's doing a deep-fried "montagnara" pizza Price: Marinara, $9; Margherita, $11; Pizza alla Carbonara $12
The montanara pizza at Forcella is reason enough alone to put this new Williamsburg Neapolitan joint on your shit-I've-gotta-hit-it list. It's a small 8-inch pizza whose crust is first stretched, then deep-fried until almost cooked through, and finally tossed in a pan, topped, and finished in the wood-burning oven (an Acunto imported from Italy, if such things excite you).
As one of my dining companions last night said, "The oil gives the flavor a whole other dimension." Indeed, the crust has that extra bit of savoriness from its oil bath, but its texture is just as special. Imagine a very good Margherita pizza, with a bright, zingy sauce and some incredible house-made mozzarella but with a foundation reminiscent of one of those fried-dough wonders you only see at the state fair—at once crisp, chewy, moist, and puffy in only that way fried breads get.
3220 SE Milwaukie Avenue, Portland OR 97202 (map); 503-234-0330; tastebudfarm.com Oven Type: Wood-fired Price: $15 for all-you-can-eat every Sunday
Mention Tastebud to a Portlander, and they'll likely think of Tastebud's Saturday Farmers' Market stand, where they sell schmeared bagel sandwiches, pitas stuffed with lamb, and reheated, parbaked slices of pizza. Very few people know that Tastebud's pizza is available fresh from an actual bricks-and-mortar establishment, and even fewer know that you can eat as much as your belly will allow every Sunday night for fifteen dollars. My experiences with Tastebud's pizza at the farmer's market gave me hope and a desire to eat their wares direct from the wood-fired oven.
344 Watertown Street, Newton, MA (map); 617-527-2181 Pizza style: Neapolitan-American/Thin-Crust Oven type: Gas Notes: Wine and beer Price: 16" pizzas, $9.75-$16.00
Maria di Napoli Ristorante in Newton, MA, is an unassuming spot in the sleepy Italian-American neighborhood of Nonantum, a few miles outside of Boston. It's a friendly, family-run business, with Naples-born Maria Cerqua in the kitchen and her husband Ruggiero and son Roger manning the front of the house.
The pizza at Maria di Napoli Ristorante isn't (strictly speaking) Neapolitan, but it clearly bears the imprint of Cerqua's Neapolitan heritage. The restaurant lacks the ultra-hot wood-fired ovens that are typical of a true Neapolitan pizzeria; instead, the pies are cooked in a standard gas-fired deck oven. And the pies at Maria di Napoli Ristorante are both larger in width and thinner-crusted than a true Neapolitan.
But the brightly-flavored, uncooked crushed plum tomato based sauce, simple, sparingly-applied toppings, and a crust with ultra-tender crumb (especially at the nicely-puffed cornicione) all shout Neapolitan just the same. While these pies might not be 100% Neapolitan, they are closer in spirit to Naples than most of the pizzas that we now consider Neapolitan-American.
Check out this amazing piece of pizza history. It's a pizza roundup from a 1970 issue of New York magazine, the goal of which was to find the best pizza in New York City. It's written by Jerome Snyder and Milton Glaser, the originators of the magazine's "Underground Gourmet" column now written by Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite. It just might be the city's first "Best Pizza in NYC" article ever! Quoth Glaser and Snyder:
It wasn't very long ago — 20 years, maybe — when that current gustatorial staple known as the pizza was regarded as an arcane specialty in the nature of the yak steak. It thrived, if at all, only in the depths of the more inbred of the city's Italian neighborhoods. Even in Italy itself, the dish was pizza incognita in all regions except the deep south, from Calabria, say, down through Sicily....
Nevertheless, the pizza in America has become a way of life, a worthy competitor, both in popularity and ubiquity, to the hot dog and the hamburger. Naples may challenge the claim, but New York is now the pizza capital of the world.
Midwestern pizza. NO, NO, WAIT! Don't scroll away just yet! I know that merely the combination of "Midwest" and "pizza" are enough to make some pizza geeks look away, but there is a case to be made here, and I'm going to make it.
Owner-operated pizzeria? Check. Been doing it for 50-plus years? Check. Pizza served with a slice of attitude? Check. Carefully sought-out ingredients and the thoughtful eye of a craftsman? Yeah, they've got that too.
Columbus, Ohio, has a long tradition of independently owned pizza joints serving up a thin crust, Midwestern-style pies featuring lots of toppings and crisp, curly pepperoni from the Ezzo Sausage company. Pizzerias with names like Tommy's, Massey's, Flyer's, and Capuano's — every resident in the 'burbs and surrounding C-bus neighborhoods has their favorite. Some of you may also be familiar with Donato's, the chain that was founded in 1963 and briefly owned by McDonald's. While Donato's now dominates the Columbus-style pizza market with more than 170 locations, neighborhood joints like Rubino's Pizza in Bexley have held the hearts of Columbans since 1954.
246 Washington Avenue Nutley, NJ 07110 (map); 973-662-0007; queenmargherita.com Pizza style: Neapolitan Oven type: Wood-Burning Oven The skinny: Exceptional margherita and special pies. Notes: BYOB. Reservations strongly recommended. Price: Pizzas $9.50 to $12.50
When Dozzino's Marc Magliozzi first told me about one of his favorite pizzerias, I had to see what the fuss was about. I have a confession to make—with exception of a select few establishments, I've grown a bit weary of formulaic Margherita pizzas. Although the Neapolitan-style trend has done much to elevate the general public taste for pizza, the cynical side of me grows when I hear any mention of Stefano Ferraro ovens, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, Caputo flour, and so on. These days, a Neapolitan-style pizza has to be uniquely excellent for me to take notice.
Ladies and gentlemen, the current staff at Queen Margherita in Nutley, New Jersey have produced a pie that took my breath away.
The last thing I wanted for brunch yesterday was more pizza. I spent all day Saturday prepping for, cooking, and cleaning up a nine-pie pizza bridal shower.* But ... but ...
The Monte Christo pizza ($15) at Paulie Gee's new brunch service is outrageously good. Just when I thought I didn't want to eat another bite of the crusty, saucey, cheesy stuff for at least another week, this amazing combination of salty-sweet, crisp-chewy pizza awesomeness pulled me right back in. Made with mild gouda, ham, and a drizzle of maple syrup, it really is reminiscent of the sandwich it's named for.
