I had low expectations in visiting Grimaldi's new location at 1 Front Street, just up the street from the original spot at 19 Old Fulton. The place has been in the news as of late more for tax and landlord drama than for its product. And, I gotta say, it's often served me some underdone, soggy pies. I figured that in moving to a new space, Grimaldi's would give me more of the same—minus the quirky, cramped Brooklyn charm of the original. More

Pickled Italian peppers and home-grown basil, oregano, and rosemary. An award-winning apple pie recipe from Ohio made from (somewhat) locally harvest fruit. Heat in the dining room supplied by a wood-burning stove. Nope, not a trendy "Ball jar joint" helmed by Midwestern transplants in Brooklyn. This is all going on at Sac's Place in Astoria, Queens, run by a couple brothers who grew up around the corner from this coal-fired pizzeria and restaurant on Broadway. More

Every city needs at least one older-than-old restaurant with a certain kind of cultivated rakishness — hard, straight-back wood booths that don't encourage lingering; graffiti-carved walls that conjure visions of 1950s hooliganism; grumpy signage. More

I'll tell you what gives: $1.75 A SLICE, that's what! That's kind of all you need to know. A buck seventy-five for a slice of the best pizza in the city. When most slices are running $2.50, $2.75. And it's for a coal-oven slice! But if you need more than that, read on after the jump. More

There's only one size pizza available on the menu. It's a respectable size — about 16 inches across. Not HUGE but not Neapolitan dainty. Still, even though it's on the bigger side, don't let the size fool you. As the menu says, it's "paper thin." (Yes, the menu says "paper thin.") Got a big appetite? You could easily house three-quarters of a plain pie on your own. Hell, I've eaten an entire Patsy's plain pizza by myself. That was in another lifetime, before Slice even existed. On a long lunch break. I almost fell asleep at my desk when I got back to work. But I digress... More

The Little Rendezvous is a 73-year-old pizzeria cooking Connecticut-style apizza in a 123-year-old monster of a coal-fired oven. More

I'll just say it: Lombardi's is kind of a big tourist thing. After having been hyped in countless national newspaper and magazine stories, guidebooks, and travel shows, this "first pizzeria in America" is pretty much packed any night of the week with people more likely to hail from Manhattan, Kansas, than Manhattan Manhattan. (OK, that's probably an exaggeration, but poetic license, you know?) More

Gerard Robertson says that he opened Coalhouse in Stamford, Connecticut because he "was sick of driving to New Haven and Brooklyn for good pizza." So will his pies save Stamfordites a trip out of town? More

From Slice'r Jeff R. comes this news: FYI, we saw that a new Grimaldi's [Coal Brick Oven Pizzeria] opened up in Highlands, New Jersey at 123 Bay Avenue. They built a huge coal-fired oven and had a soft opening last week. The official opening date is sometime this week. Grimaldi's (Highlands) 123 Bay Street, Highlands NJ 07732 (map)... More

If a pizza has great sauce but there's so little on the pie you can't taste it, does it matter? That problem, all too common at fancy coal and wood burning oven pizzerias, does not exist at Max's, where they are generous with a delicious sauce. With great sauce, cheese, and toppings, only an overly dense crust stands between Max's and greatness. More