Entries tagged with 'DUMBO'
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 3, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Admittedly, the previous item I blogged about was a week old*, and in that time Alan Richman has moved on to writing about some old standbys. He posted his thoughts yesterday on Grimaldi's (DUMBO), Patsy's (East Harlem), and Di Fara (Midwood). Again, let's take them in order.
On Grimaldi's:
The oven is just right, but the crusts are merely okay—they have a fresh, bready smell, but to me they’re a little too thick and slightly too soft, somewhat undercooked. The tomato sauce is vibrant and essential, which means the white pizzas are best skipped. These basically consist of soft, melted mozzarella atop soft, bland crusts. I tried a half-dozen pies and by far the best was topped with grated cheese, fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce, and excellent, spicy, thick-cut slices of pepperoni.
Agree or disagree with Richman's Top 25 Pizzas List, but I think he's spot on about Grimaldi's here. [Richman's take on Patsy's and Di Fara, after the jump. ]
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 3, 2009 at 7:00 AM
Hot off his GQ Top 25 Pizza List, Alan Richman (right) takes on a few recently opened NYC pizzerias—Tonda (East Village), Ignazio's (DUMBO), and Emporio (Nolita). Let's take them in order.
On Tonda:
The toppings here are overly ambitious yet flavorsome, but the crusts are flabby, tasteless, barely charred, and lacking the puffy outside ring that is reminiscent of a true Naples pie. My favorite menu item by far was the arancini, listed under “Neapolitan Street Food” but as far as I know found just about everywhere in Italy. These little rice balls were wonderfully crunchy, the only item we tried that came to the table crisp.
Ouch. But when it comes to Ignazio's, it gets worse. To say Richman doesn't like the joint is an understatement. On Ignazio's:
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 2, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Nubloom
Ignazio's finally, officially opened yesterday. The very first reports are mixed. From blogger Nubloom:
The pizza was absolutely awesome. Thicker crust than Grimaldi’s but just slightly, giving a great crunch that I look for in pizza. The slices are not sloppy or overly loaded with sauce or cheese. The staff looks like they are from a Grateful Dead concert, but it doesn’t matter because they are so friendly you are put immediately at ease.
But Yelp, so far, isn't being quite as kind.
Ignazio's Pizza
4 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (under the Brooklyn Bridge; map)
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 23, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Finally. After more than a year, Ignazio's will be opening on Monday or Tuesday of next week, the Brooklyn Heights Blog reports. Though it's steps away from Grimaldi's, Ignazio's owner Louis Termini says he's not a rival—he wants to pick up the locals in the area who might otherwise avoid the long lines of tourists at the legendary pizzeria around the corner.
In the last few months, Termini has been hard at work — he installed a specialty pizza oven that is gas-operated, but heats the pizza as if it were a wood-burning oven. There will be the classic pizzas with fresh, locally made mozzarella, as well as more adventurous toppings like swiss chard, smoked eel, seaweed and seafood.
According to Brooklyn Heights Blog, Grimaldi's manager John Boyle says, "We have no competition—there’s room for everybody."
Aw, it's a regular lovefest down there under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Ignazio's Pizza
4 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (under the Brooklyn Bridge; map)
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 9, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Are there any good slice joints in DUMBO?
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 5, 2009 at 7:10 PM
"The window paper is finally down (after what seems like years) at Ignazio's under the Brooklyn Bridge: http://twitpic.com/zw25." So sayeth Savory Cities' Chris McBride in a tweet sent to the Eater blog.
Not years per se. But the place was first reported on by the Brooklyn Eagle August 2007.
I had thought it just ran into money troubles and halted its opening. But it does look like there are tables set up in there. We'll see.
Ignazio's Pizza
4 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (under the Brooklyn Bridge; map)
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 23, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Newsday reports that Grimaldi's was shut down earlier today by state officials over unpaid taxes. $150,000 in tax warrants, the paper says.
But the joint was back in business later in the afternoon, after owners paid up.
"We seized them" said [New York State Department of Taxation and Finance representative Tom] Bergin, refering to the legal process where state officials close the business to get the liens satisfied.
Begin said that a total of seven outstanding tax warrants had been filed against Patabbe Inc., which was doing business as Grimaldi's, since January 2006. Those warrants total about $84,000 in sales and withholding taxes, he said.
Repeat: They're back up and running again. Like nothing ever happened, kids. Like nothing ever happened ...
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 18, 2008 at 9:55 AM
Went to the NYC Food Film Festival last night and had a pretty good time. Festival co-organizer George Motz screened his short film Brooklyn Pizza, and the short documentary Pure and Simple, a day in the life of Una Pizza Napoletana, was also shown. Photos and such, after the jump.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 17, 2008 at 5:05 PM
You're going, right?
Click for map »
NYC Food Film Festival pizza component, al fresco in the parking lot next to Grimaldi's, 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map).
Anthony Mangieri of Una Pizza Napoletana fame will be there.
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Cost: Free
Here's the complete line-up:
- Brooklyn Pizza: Motz's short, six-minute film is basically pizza porn, following the pie-making process from start to finish at the Coney Island Totonno's, Di Fara, and Grimaldi's
- Pure and Simple: A short documentary on Anthony Mangieri and his venerated Neapolitan-pie shop Una Pizza Napoletana. Directed by Fabrizia Galvagano and Julie Haslett, 6 minutes
- In Pignata: Calabrian Fireside Cooking: "Follows a Southern Italian farmer in her eighties through a typical morning on her farm as she ponders the loss of local food traditions." So this one's not exactly pizza, but it is Italian, so deal with it, sliceheads. Directed by Jessica Theroux, 24 minutes
Chairs will be set up in the parking lot for your comfort, and there will be a Grimaldi's tasting. More info at nycfoodfilmfestival.com.
See you there, homeslices.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 23, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Click for map »
Just got word from George Motz, one of the masterminds behind the NYC Food Film Festival, that the pizza component of this year's summer screenings will be held al fresco in the parking lot next to Grimaldi's, 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map).
What better place than under the Brooklyn Bridge for a line-up of three films that starts with Motz's own short film Brooklyn Pizza?
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Cost: Free
Here's the complete line-up:
- Brooklyn Pizza: Motz's short, six-minute film is basically pizza porn, following the pie-making process from start to finish at the Coney Island Totonno's, Di Fara, and Grimaldi's
- Pure and Simple: A short documentary on Anthony Mangieri and his venerated Neapolitan-pie shop Una Pizza Napoletana. Directed by Fabrizia Galvagano and Julie Haslett, 6 minutes
- In Pignata: Calabrian Fireside Cooking: "Follows a Southern Italian farmer in her eighties through a typical morning on her farm as she ponders the loss of local food traditions." So this one's not exactly pizza, but it is Italian, so deal with it, sliceheads. Directed by Jessica Theroux, 24 minutes
Chairs will be set up in the parking lot for your comfort, and there will be a Grimaldi's tasting. More info at nycfoodfilmfestival.com.
Full disclosure: I'm friends with George and will be serving as a film judge for this year's NYC Food Film Festival.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 3, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Brooklyn real estate blog Brownstoner gets a snap of soon-to-open Ignazio's Pizza (above) at 4 Water Street in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn. The blogs are already billing this as a "pizza war," given that Grimaldi's is within spitting distance, but we'll leave speculation on the shelf in favor of good old fashioned taste-testing once the new joint opens.
The owner is Louis Timero, born and raised in Bensonhurst but who moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to open the Luna Pizza mini chain in and around that city. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran a nice little profile on him in August of last year.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 12, 2007 at 5:00 PM
A letter from a reader ...
Dear Adam,
I keep up with Slice via bloglines and it dawned on me that you should know my wedding story because it ended with fabulous Grimaldis!
Scott and I were married on Friday, July 13th in the city-owned part of Brooklyn Bridge Park. We invited a dozen guests and the Reverend Billy and his wife.
Dinner was fantastic and I wouldn't have had it any other way (I was a little nervous since it was my first time at Grimaldi's place).
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 11, 2006 at 5:24 PM
Slice reader M.B. writes in:
Has anyone else noted the change of sausage at Grimaldi's, from slides of delicious sweet sausage with fennel seeds to crumbled bits of what tasted like the breakfast sausage I sent back last time I tried it at a diner? When I called to complain about it (last month—on a take-out pie), the person answering the call said, "So don't order sausage." I'm very disappointed.
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 6, 2006 at 12:26 PM
This just reached our desk at Slice HQ:
Breaking! We are ordering pizza for lunch at our office today — no pepperoni! This email was just circulated to our office.
------ Forwarded Message
Conversation: No Pepperoni
Subject: No Pepperoni
Grimaldis is out of pepperoni! Salami will be taking its place today, hope that's OK with everyone.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 4, 2006 at 2:57 PM
If you've ever gone out to eat with someone who blogs about food or uses a photo-sharing website like Flickr—or, worse, both—then you're all too familiar with this refrain: "Wait, wait, lemme getta shot first!"
One camera-equipped person is bad enough, but what happens when a group of Flickr-ers has a weekend meetup at Grimaldi's? A picture (right) is worth a thousand words.
See the digital contact sheets from their day of slice stalking: Baobee, cknlomein, eggrollboy, Plaid Ninja, Roboppy
Photograph from Baobee on Flickr
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 17, 2006 at 6:33 PM
By the way, I got on a jury last week.
My fears of sequesterization ("If the jury's sequestered, this site will fester") did not come to pass. That's not how the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York rolls.
At lunch today I ate at Fascati Pizza. It's good, but it left me hankerin' for some of that hot coal-oven action just blocks away at Grimaldi's.
Objection! Relevance?
Sustained.
Allow me to redirect.
I will prove to you, ladies and gentlemen, beyond a reasonable doubt, two things:
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 4, 2005 at 12:00 PM
An email from a reader ...
To the editors:
I really enjoy your site. Thought I'd give back a bit and send in a report from the field.
The other day I went to Totonno's and Grimaldi's. I'd wanted to try both places for a long time, and since I had the time, I couldn't resist going for it with both. I had one large, half-cheese and half–roasted pepper at both places.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 26, 2004 at 1:47 PM
Oh, it's such a perfect day ...
What do you get when you mix a beautiful Saturday afternoon, a visiting food-loving Aussie (by way of London), and a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge? With the proper catalyst (in this case, a Slice editor), your result is lunch at Grimaldi's Pizzeria.
Located at 19 Old Fulton Street, almost directly under the historic bridge, Grimaldi's is the place to stop for a post-journey meal (provided you walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn). And so it was with our weekend excursion to this coal-oven shop in the, uh, Brooklyn Heights? DUMBO? Vinegar Hill? section of the BK.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 9, 2003 at 8:00 AM
One of last night's reruns of Law & Order on TNT contained a Grimaldi's reference. In the episode "Tabula Rasa," detectives Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) and Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) are investigating a suspect who claims he's never been to New York before. After obtaining his credit-card receipts, they find he has visited Grimaldi's—alone, no less.
Lieutenant Van Buren: [reading list of card charges] United Airlines, TKTS, Museum of Modern Art Bookstore, Barneys, Grimaldi's Italian Restaurant.
Briscoe: Grimaldi's in Brooklyn?
Van Buren: You know another one? Charge was for twelve bucks and some change.
Briscoe: [with the wisecrack] You can't feed a family of four mice on that.
Van Buren: So he was by himself.
Curtis: Guy's never been to New York before and he manages to find the best pizza in the five boroughs?
Van Buren: Right. Check it out.
The scene then cuts to Grimaldi's, where Briscoe and Curtis grill someone at the pizzeria. (It's not Patsy, that's for sure. He might be the guy who bought the place from Mr. Grimaldi, but I don't know what he looks like.)
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