I just got back from a trip to Di Fara to check out unsubstantiated rumors of a Di Fara closing. The pizzeria was indeed closed, but Dom DeMarco's daughter, Maggie, was there and reports that her father was at the doctor for "minor mouth surgery."
No word on when the place will reopen. Stay tuned.
Update: It has reopened.
The other night I started thinking about Sal and Carmine's. Adam reported on Sal's untimely death, but somehow I feel the only true way to pay one's respects to a pieman (and Sal was one of the all-time great piemen) is to have one of his pies.
So last Friday I left the Slice–Serious Eats office around 7 p.m. and took the 2 Train to 96th Street and Broadway. I know I could have taken the local one more stop and ended up a couple of blocks closer, but I wanted to start my homage to Sal by acknowledging the location of the original Sal's Pizzeria on 95th and Broadway, where my love affair with Sal Malanga's pizza began in 1973.
Sal and his brother Carmine opened the original Sal's in 1959, three blocks from my first New York apartment. I was making $111 a week working for the Department of Cultural Affairs in the New York City Parks Department, and though Sal's slices were 25¢ more than every other pizzeria's, it quickly became my go-to slice. How could it not? Sal's slightly bready crust was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Therein lies the magic about Sal and Carmine's crust: It never gets hard, no matter how long it's been out of the oven. The sauce was slightly seasoned (maybe it was canned pizza sauce—no matter), and the aged mozzarella they used had just the right touch of salt.
Once you had a Sal's slice you could accept no other. They were magical, more workmanlike and less idiosyncratic than Di Fara, but no less artful and satisfying. That's it, now that I think about it: Sal's slices were just so damn satisfying. And you didn't need a finely honed pizza aesthetic to know that. One bite was all it took. That was the way it was then, and you know what? That's the way it is now.
Albert Grande mentioned last week that his pizza tour was canceled because one of the stops—L&B Spumoni Gardens—was closed for a movie shoot.
Here's a photo from the shoot, courtesy of NBC Universal's Recent Postings blog.
Another opening for you. Grub Street reports that Zimari Pizza is open (as of last week) and serving $1 slices, $8 pies. Cheese only for now. Zimari Pizza: 31st Street b/n Park and Lexington avenues
Eater confirms earlier rumors that the space that used to house Five Roses Pizza is indeed going to become another pizzeria—Iggy's. Five Roses, the beloved East Village joint that often made best-of pizza lists, was pushed out of the storefront on First Avenue in late November 2008 due to a rent increase. Eater assumes "they have a killer business plan, as sources who have eyed the space over the last year tell us the landlord was asking for an exorbitant rent," but, who knows, maybe the crap market forced the owner to take a lower price.
Iggy's Pizzeria: 173 First Avenue, New York NY (10th/11th streets; map)
Grub Street reports that Kesté Pizza & Vino is selling something called a "pizza wallet."
As you know, traditional Neapolitan pizza is a sit-down, knife-and-fork affair. The "pizza wallet," or "portfolio" pie, is the Italians' version of the on-the-go slice. Kesté's $6 mini Margherita if folded in half twice, essentially making a conical "wallet" that you eat cornicione-end first.
271 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (b/n Jones and Cornelia streets; map)
212-243-1500; kestepizzeria.com
Sam's Restaurant and Pizzeria, which took me a while to come around to, is making some changes.
The blog Lost City reports that longtime pizza-maker Mario Migliaccio is heading back to Italy to retire after his wife died last month.
Mario's son, Louis, will continue to run the restaurant and promises that he won't change a thing. Let's hope not; the place is an absolute gem.
From ITLBS1 on SILive.com, referencing a pizza war going down on Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island:
Some people may like Goodfella's. As much as it sucks.
It's the same with BOSE Speakers. Everyone thinks they are great. They are overpriced, underperforming pieces of crap. But people think they are the best. My home theater system would set them on fire.
Same with I-Pods, they are crap. To each their own. It's a personal preferrence and some people like it, poor taste I guess?
When everyone wanted SONY (CRT) Trinitron's I preferred Hitachi. My 36" Hitachi from 1986 is still going. TV is not much to me. For when I do get new ones I will go for L.E.D. based sets.
For Pizza, it's Denino's, Joe & Pat's, Lees, Ciro's, Road House or Angelo's. All depends on where I happen to be and my time allocation. If it's a pleasure/date it's Denino's & Ralphs.
And some people prefer Betamax to VHS, but my Philips 1500 spanks them all.
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. ]
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:
Opening Monday, June 8, 2009, is Saraghina in Bed-Stuy. Looks like a rustic Ball-jar joint with a wood-burning EarthStone oven. Grub Street has a slideshow and says this: "It’s good news for those who like the Neapolitan-style pizza served at Luzzo’s in the East Village: Luzzo's owner gave the fledgling pizzaioli partners not only his blessing but his top-secret flour-mixture formula." Saraghina: 435 Halsey Street, Brooklyn NY 11233 (at Lewis Avenue, Bed-Stuy); no phone or website yet
Sad news. Sal of the Upper West Side's Sal and Carmine's has died. We received a report over the weekend from Josh G. that the neighborhood favorite was shuttered due to "an emergency." And now today comes word from Alex Belth of Bronx Banter as to the state of that emergency:
Sal died late last week. I’ve been eating their pizza since I was a kid. Sal and Carmine. Two short, taciturn men in their seventies, though they look older. I never knew who was Sal and who was Carmine, just that one was slightly less cranky than the other. These are the kind of men that don’t retire but are retired.
Coming on the heels of the Newsweek story I just linked to, this couldn't be a sadder and more timely illustration that the great, longtime pizzamen slinging everyday (yet exceptional) slices are treasures we're quickly losing.
Our condolences go out to Sal's family, friends, and fans—and to Carmine, the business partner Sal took on in the '90s. He will be missed.
According to Bronx Banter, Sal's funeral was yesterday, and the shop reopens today.
Newsweek has an interesting take on the latest golden age of pizza in New York City. There's a cloud in the silver lining of the fancy-pants pizzeria boom—namely that Neapolitan and upscale pizzeria openings are outpacing the debut of really good typical New York–slice joints. (Oh, and I'm not just highlighting the following because I happen to be quoted in it; emphasis added.)
During the past six months, however, New York has been experiencing what The New York Times's Frank Bruni calls "a definite pizza moment"—a moment that threatens, I fear, to permanently alter what we think of when we think of New York pizza. Motivated by the new fad among foodies for upscale comfort cuisine, a slew of restaurateurs have opened pizzerias (Co., Tonda) serving Neapolitan-inspired pies enlivened with farm-fresh ingredients. Meanwhile, the premier purveyors of authentic N.Y.C. pizza are showing signs of strain. In January, Di Fara closed for weeks after aging pizzaiolo Dom DeMarco broke a kneecap. Totonno's burned down two months later. And the last of the storied slice slingers—Sal and Carmine's, Joe's—are few and far between. The result could be a coming shift in the city's balance of pizza power. "The New York slice is in danger," warns Sliceny.com editor Adam Kuban. "These highfalutin places are great, but they're a different thing. Losing the killer slice joints means we'll lose a way of life—walk in with $3 and eat your pizza on the street."
1880 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island NY (Grant City; at Slater Blvd.; map); 718-979-7499; salvatoreofsoho.com
Pizza Style: New York–Neapolitan/coal-oven
Oven Type: Gas-coal hyrid oven
The Skinny: Longtime pizzaman Salvatore Ganci is turning great, thin, chewy-crisp pizzas that stand shoulder to shoulder with the best coal-oven places in the city
Price: Small Margherita, $9; large, $18
Just a couple blocks down from Pasticceria Bruno of Greenwich Village you'll find Salvatore of Soho. Geographically impossible, you say? Then you haven't been to Grant City, on the eastern shore of Staten Island, where this pizzeria has been cranking out coal-oven pies since late last year. That's Salvatore of Soho, mind you, not Salvatore's of Soho, located in The Bronx.
Oh, so now you're saying a coal-oven pizzeria on Staten Island is impossible? Well, you might be half right. Salvatore's of Soho uses a unique coal-gas hybrid oven with a rotating stone disk that turns out some great pizzas. A small, glowing coal chamber assists in heating the spinning surface above it and also imparts that smoky coal-oven flavor you've come to know and love at the legendary coalers in Coney Island (Totonno's), East Harlem (Patsy's), and, yes, Soho (Lomardi's).
In celebration of its 50th anniversary Rizzo's has been doing 50 days of various 50¢ deals. The celebration comes to an end tomorrow with the best of the bunch—50¢ square slices.
The special applies to two slices per customer, in-store only.
30-13 Steinway Street, Astoria NY 11103 (Queens, b/n 30th/31st avenues; map)
718-721-9862
rizzosfinepizza.com
Urban Daddy reports that the wine bar Solex is now Veloce Pizzeria. Grub Street has a slide show. 103 First Avenue, New York NY 10003 (at 7th Street; map), 212-777-6677. [via I Dream of Pizza]
You know, I thought I had linked to this Village Voice blog post the day it came out in one of the daily(ish) Leftovers I do, but it looks like I didn't. Oh, well, I was going to give it its own post anyway, since it's totally worth it.
The heart of the matter: Robert Sietsema has discovered a new pizza style in Manhattan at Birdbath Bakery:
[Birdbath] has come up with a pizza based, not on the usual yeast- or sourdough-risen crust, but with a flaky puff pastry crust. The crust renders brittle and oily, and tastes fantastic.
Sietsema says that they're using a good-quality mozzarella and that a spinach and goat cheese version is also available.
223 First Avenue, New York NY 10003 (b/n 13th and 14th; map)
646-722-6565
birdbathbakery.com
145 Seventh Avenue, New York NY 10011 (at 19th Street; map)
646-722-6570
birdbathbakery.com
In an interview in Blackbook, former director and current restaurateur Bob Giraldi issues a strong statement:
In Italy a pizzeria is a casual restaurant where you can have other foods, but they take their pizza very seriously in Italy. We eat a lot of pizza in New York, but it’s made all over by a lot of different people, and it’s not made properly—in my own and in an Italian’s opinion. We brought in a chef from Naples, and his approach is world-class Neapolitan, which is where pizza is generally regarded as the best in the world. We’re going to try and give people in the East Village a really superior product. Let’s face it—you can go anywhere on a street corner and order pizza in New York City, but it’s usually made by many cultures, and it’s not made the way you make it in Italy.
OK. Being generous, I'll assume that Giraldi means the average New York slice, which, let's face it, is nothing special. But, please, the East Village already has some great and amazing pizza, so it's not like Tonda is "giving the people in the East Village" something they don't already have. Please see: Una Pizza Napoletana, Luzzo's, and Vinny Vincenz for starters.
Totonno's, as it used to look. Photograph from timkang on Flickr
Lost City reports that the Coney Island Totonno's reopening has been moved back to mid July from the earlier June projection date. Can't say I didn't see this coming. Building/rebuilding is a long, laborious process.
1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11224 (map)
718-372-8606
totonnos.com
A trusted tipster tells us that a friend was approached last week for a position at a new branch of Jim Lahey's fanatically adored Chelsea pizza place Co.. She tells us it's "somewhere downtown" but can't provide further intel.
Related
Co. Company Pizza Soft Opening Photo Gallery
First Taste: A Preview of Jim Lahey's Co. Company Pizza
Edwardkimuk asks: "I'm staying in the East Village in two weeks and was wanting opinions on where to get a great slice of pizza in the East Village." Answer here »
Joe's will be taking part in a Snapple free-lunch promotion next week.
I just received a press release you all might be interested in. Snapple is doing some sort of marketing gimmick next week in which it's giving away free pizza lunches to the first 500 folks to show up at the following pizzerias (listed after the jump). All of the week's promotions start at 10:30 a.m. and last until the 500th person is served.
From left: St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza, 542 Ninth Ave, New York NY 10018 (at West 40th Street; map). 99¢ Fresh Pizza, 569 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10036 (at 41st Street; map). Click all photos for larger versions. These and all subsequent photos feature 2 Bros. on left and 99¢ on right.
Fig. 1: A side-by-side comparison of St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza and 99¢ Fresh Pizza slices.
Yesterday afternoon, Zach Brooks of Midtown Lunch issued a challenge via blog and tweet. He claims he doesn't know much about pizza and wanted my opinion on the hot new pizza rivalry occurring within the realm of his blog's coverage.
But first, some history: Just west of the Port Authority Bus Terminal on the northwest corner of 41st Street and Ninth Avenue is 99¢ Fresh Pizza. This bargain pizzeria has been king of the cheap slices for about three years—eventually opening up a branch on 43rd Street and Third Avenue, which in turn inspired other pizzeria-delis in the area to drop slice prices to a dollar. While 99¢ Fresh Pizza has only two locations, it has claimed the majority of dollar-slice mindshare in this town, thanks to its first-mover status and the fact that its cheapassity is built into its name.
But last summer, upstart buckslice joint St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza opened in the East Village and by mid September had already branched out to Chelsea. And yesterday, 2 Bros. pretty much brought the noise straight to the castle walls, opening a location on the southeast corner of 40th Street and Ninth Avenue.
Whose cheap-ass dollar slice would reign supreme? I took up Zach's challenge late yesterday afternoon in order to find out. The results, after the jump.
Totonno's, as it used to look. Photograph from timkang on Flickr
I've had a lot of you emailing me or asking me in person: When is Totonno's in Coney reopening?
As you should know, there was a fire at the legendary coal-oven pizzeria on March 14. When last we talked to Totonno's owner Lawrence Ciminieri, he said he thought the place would reopen in a month's time—which would be around, oh, now.
I just got off the phone with Ciminieri, and he tells me that the target reopen date is now early June.
"It took four weeks just to get the permit to start work," he said. "We'll start May 1, and hopefully it'll take four weeks to rebuild. So early June."
Slice will keep an eye on the Totonno's rebuild for you and bring your word of the reopening. If for some sick reason you don't check the site daily, though, Ciminieri says you should just call Totonno's before making a trip out there: 718-372-8606.
Two threads have been started in the last 30 hours on Chowhound dissing Co. Company.
Co. Pizza—Too Tarte: "These pizzas are more like gallettes or, at the risk of further pissing off Lahey, pissaladieres."
Co. Not So Hot (Longish): "The pizza was strictly ordinary.... The previous week I had a way better pizza, handmade with the freshest ingredients, with exquisite personal service by the owner and his family in, of all places, Germany."
Thursday night I had the pleasure of attending the pizza-themed Cheryl dance party mentioned early last week on Slice.
The Royale in Park Slope was decked out in pizza-parlor regalia with red-and-white checked tablecloths, construction-paper pizza slices, and paper plates on the wall. There was no shortage of fantastic homemade pizza-themed costumes. Attendees came dressed as various toppings: pepperoni, olives, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli. There was even someone dressed as salmon. And one guest came dressed as Kristy Lynn Hammonds, one of the recently fired Domino's miscreants of YouTube fame.
The evening's most popular snack accessories were edible pizza necklaces, thoughtfully provided by Cheryls. Also spotted were cheese graters and pizza wheel necklaces. When it came time for the Cheryls to perform their signature choreographed dance, The Cheryl, they emerged from behind a wall of empty pizza boxes, dressed as cheese, sauce, and crust.
Pizza Cheryl was definitely the most delicious dance party I've been to in a while. Hopefully there will be more food-themed Cheryls in the future. Cheryl burger anyone?
Related
Cheryl on Facebook
Cheryl blog
Clicking in to the Slice inbox this morning, we've got a dispatch from the front lines of the mechpizza wars. It comes to use from Dustin M., who has written for us about the Flatbread Company in Maine and Aperitivo in Midtown Manhattan. —The Mgmt.
Photograph from Eric Neely's Chuck E.'s photo series
Hey Adam,
Here is my true pizza confession from this past weekend...
So this past Saturday afternoon I found myself deep in Queens having to take care of a few issues with the ex-lady's car (long story). And on top of that, I also had to pick her up at LGA a little bit later on (yeah, I know, I know ... I'm a sucker). And being that I was relatively close to LGA already, I decided it was time to explore Northern Boulevard for some grub to pass the time.
So I'm driving along the Bully (usually reserved for Queens Boulevard, but whatever), when I notice a sign that I knew quite well growing up. It was a Chuck E. Cheese's. Boom. Bamn. Thank you Ma'am.
I remember their pizza very fondly and always had a thing for their sweet sauce. I was genuinely excited about my little adventure, completely ignoring the fact that I was about to walk into a Chuck E. Cheese's as a single 29-year-old man with no children with him whatsoever. I have no doubts that security was watching me from the moment I stepped in there.
From tipster Mark R.: "Had a slice there yesterday, place seems to be having a special. Slices are $1.50 instead of $2.50, and Sicilian slices are $2 instead of $3. The special will last for a couple of weeks. Regular slice much better than Sicilian. The latter is too bready, while the former has a fine, crisp slightly burned crust, tangy and sweet tomato sauce, and good size blobs of melted mozzarella on them." Little Luzzo's: 119 East 96th Street, New York NY 10029 (b/n Park and Lex; map)
Co. Company's Jim Lahey (above) is not happy about his one-star review in the New York Times. He tells the New York Observer:
"We've been open only 90 days," he said. "We have not had a chance to even breathe in 90 days. What the fuck are we being reviewed by the New York Times for, you know, 90 days into being open? It makes no sense.
"If I knew we were going to be under the microscope, I would have possibly treated the opening of the restaurant a lot differently," he continued. "I didn't open this restaurant to get reviewed by the Times. Otherwise, I would have made the food a lot differently. I would have bought really nice plates and beautiful stemware. And we would have done slightly less informal service, know what I mean?"
Lahey was responding to Frank Bruni's criticism that the toppings weren't quite there yet.
Hey, it's like the old saying, "I may be fat, but you're stupid—and I can go on a diet!"
In this case, toppings are easy to tweak. It's the crust that hard to get right. And Lahey pretty much has that part down. Of course, I guess Lahey would argue that he doesn't need to tweak the toppings.
On a side note, Lahey also calls his much-lauded pizza bianca "dogshit." Apparently, it's not up to his own standards.
The paper's restaurant critic gives one star to Jim Lahey's Co. Company pizzeria. He mostly likes it but has some criticism that's fairly accurate:
But he could indeed improve upon his pizzas somewhat. Although the best of them are outstanding and all pack the pleasures of a serious crust with serious blisters—Mr. Lahey uses an oven that generates heat in excess of 900 degrees—he hasn’t yet nailed the toppings. It’s as if he’s too focused on, and maybe too confident about, what lies beneath. A pizzaiolo-come-lately, he needs to sweat the cheese and the rest of it a little more.
If you know what to order, you'll have a good pizza there. I'd recommend staying away from the béchamel pies. Mr. Bruni also says:
And those blisters sometimes multiply and spread into jarringly ashy, sooty territory. What’s a desirable sear and what’s no better than cinders? A few of the many pizzas I had at Co. left me wondering.
230 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10001 (at West 24th Street; map)
212-243-1105
co-pane.com
Urban Daddy: "Run by a young Sicilian pizza wunderkind named Francisco, you'll want to pop in to Golosi (glutton in Italian) when you're looking for a manageable treat—three inches should do—of a crispy (the flour is imported from Italy, and the dough is made with olive oil) skateboard-shaped pie." Golosi: 125 Park Avenue, New York NY 10017 (b/n 41st and 42nd; map); 212-922-1169
Wandering around Carroll Gardens with a posse of serious eaters we came across what could only be described as a pizza kiosk attached to the longstanding watering hole P. J. Hanley's. It turned out to be the slice annex of the adjoining South Brooklyn Pizza Company. Good-looking Di Fara–esque pies and slices were being made in a conventional pizza oven by a Mexican pizzaiolo, who would then hand the pizza to the P. J. Hanley's barkeep. The south-of-the-border pie man was putting three kinds of cheese—mozzarella, grana padano, and fontina—on his plain pies, along with fresh basil leaves, followed by a quick pour of olive oil.
While everyone else is talking about the four new pizzerias that opened in the last ten days, the New Yorker looks at Co. Company in this week's issue. For the most part I share writer Lila Byock's take on the pizza there. She loves the Boscaiola pie (mushroom, onion, sausage, chile peppers) and eschews the Santo pie ("what's with all the béchamel?") that many other (wrong-headed) critics and food bloggers have praised.
But she sets up a bit of a straw man, creating some sort of schism between two supposed sects of pizza-lovers:
There are the ascetics, who demand pies as thin and brittle as Communion wafers, versus the libertines, who prefer something they can sink their teeth into. If anyone can persuade the quarrellers to break bread, it’s surely Jim Lahey, of Co.
Where are these people demanding crusts as thin and brittle as Communion wafers? I think what most pizza purists agree on is perfecting a Margherita that's properly balanced and has a great crust. If a pizzaiolo can do that, we're willing to grant him or her some leeway when it comes to more inventive toppings.
Just not béchamel.
230 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10001 (at West 24th Street; map)
212-243-1105
co-pane.com
Of this Roman-inspired trattoria New York magazine says, "... there’s pizza from a wood-burning brick oven, with toppings like guanciale, Tuscan kale, and pecorino cream." Emporio: 231 Mott Street, New York NY 10012 (b/n Prince and Spring streets; map); 212-966-1234
It looks like Jimmy Fallon went to pizzeria Posto with his family last night and was asked to leave. The drama unfolded on Twitter.
I've tried to piece together the saga by reading Fallon's tweets and the conversation between him and his Twitter followers.
A few notes before you start reading:
Another more important note: Twitter obviously gives a murky window on to what actually happened. Fallon at one point urges a boycott but then takes it back. I like Posto and its sister pizzerias and would urge you not to boycott as well.
jimmyfallon: actually asked to leave a pizza place today
jimmyfallon: Posto on 2nd (they also own Gruppo and Vezzo)
jimmyfallon: carb face carol rude to my 2 year old niece and an 11 month old (sleeping) because they heard i didnt like the pizza there.
jimmyfallon: crazy.
Looks like Pure and Simple, that short documentary on Una Pizza Napoletana that we blogged about last summer when it appeared in the NYC Food Film Festival, is finally available in its entirety online, thanks to New York magazine's Vulture Picture Palace.
It follows obsessive pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri through one day in the life of his renown Naples-style pizzeria. At nine minutes, it's a bit longer than most web video we bring you, but it's the weekend. It ain't gonna kill you to watch. And, who knows, you might learn something.
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got ...
Adam,
Went to Kesté last night and had a very, very satisfying meal. The place was packed, but we were able to get a table for four after less than 30 minutes. It seemed like every Italian-speaking New Yorker was eating there. Anyway, after having gone to Co. twice, most recently on Saturday, I think I can say Kesté is far better—in terms of value, authenticity (though I realize that's not quite what Jim Lahey is after), and taste. Despite being a bona fide pizza fiend, I could not finish my Margherita at Kesté, which is priced at a very reasonable $12 (albeit, this is after also getting to taste a slice of the PHENOMENAL "pizza del re"). I hope they do well, and I think it deserves a spot in the upper echelon of Neapolitan pizzerias.
Faithful reader,
Justin
Related
Kesté Pizza & Vino: What You Can Expect
First Taste: A Gallery of Co. Company Pizza
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.
4 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (under the Brooklyn Bridge; map)
John's Pizza in Parkchester got busted for dealing cocaine. Says ABC news:
Six people were arrested during a raid Tuesday night at a popular Bronx pizza parlor where authorities say cocaine was concealed in pizza boxes and customers could get the drug by delivery or takeout.
1788 Westchester Avenue, The Bronx NY 10472
718-822-0201
Project Runway's Heidi Klum went undercover as a pizza clerk as part of a CBS show that airs tonight called I Get That a Lot.
The show puts celebrities in everyday, ordinary jobs and films how they react to customers who recognize them—or don't.
As Klum tells Entertainment Tonight: "I got to be the pizza girl. I got to be someone I am normally not. I was quite rude to people. I would bite their pizza and give it to them. I would drop the dough on the floor, pick it up and use it." [Video, after the jump.
Blogger EV Grieve reports that a new brick-oven pizzeria is coming to Avenue C in the form of Mr. C's Italian Trattoria. No further intel. 102 Avenue C, New York NY 10009 (b/n 6th and 7th streets; map) [via Eater]
Midtown-based slice fiends, an option for lunch today, from Papa Perrone's Pizza Truck. Easter pie: "It’s a meat pie made with sweet and hot sausage, proscuitto, pepperoni, mixed with ricotta, mozzarella, and provolone, baked in a dough. Also called pizza rustica." East 55th Street, b/n Madison and Park avenues.
354 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (at Sullivan Street, Red Hook; map); 718-775-5386; anselmosbakery.com
Getting There: The B61 and B77 buses are your closest public transit options
Pizza Style: New York–Neapolitan
Oven Type: Coal-fired
The Skinny: Too soon to really say
Price: TK
Another day, another sneak peek at a soon-to-open pizzeria. This time, Anselmo's Coal Oven Pizzeria.
We've been following the progress of this place since June of last year, when it announced a July 4 open date. These things don't always go according to schedule (see Co./Company, Ignazio's, etc.), but it looks like coal-fired pies will finally be a reality in Red Hook. The official target date was to have been today, March 28, but partner Jack Stella said it would be more like Monday or Tuesday now.
The folks behind Anselmo's were having an oven test-fire last night that was open to friends, family, the neighborhood, and whomever was walking by and his uncle. I stopped in on the way home from work and managed to get some shots and talk briefly with the partners. [More photos and intel after the jump.]
If everything goes according to plan, say the partners at Kesté Pizza & Vino, the pizzeria will open Sunday, March 29. Slice got a sneak peak. Sure, you've seen the oven (here and here), but we've got photos of the pizza you might expect there, after the jump.
271 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (b/n Jones and Cornelia streets; map); 212-243-1500; kestepizzeria.com
Getting There: 1 train to Christopher Street-Sheridan Square; A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th Street
Pizza Style: Neapolitan-style pizza made by renown pizzaiolo Roberto Caporuscio
Oven Type: Custom-built wood-fired oven
Price: $9 to $19 for pizza
Notes: Kesté does not take reservations
One of the partners at Kesté is Roberto Caporuscio (above). If you're not a pizza geek, his name may not be familiar. Let's get to know him.
Caporuscio, a former farmer and onetime mozzarella-maker, trained in Naples at the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana pizza school and under Antonio Starita at Starita a Materdei, which came to fame among locals there after it appeared in the 1954 Sophia Loren film L'Oro di Napoli. Caporuscio is the U.S. delegate for the Associazone Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, an organization that seeks to preserve Neapolitan pizza-making traditions and pass them down to a new generation.
Prior to Kesté, Caporuscio was the founding pizzaiolo of A Mano in Ridgewood, New Jersey, which he came to in 2007 after opening and running two restaurants in Pittsburgh—Regina Margherita and Roberto's.
Caporuscio has also consulted on a number of Neapolitan-style pizzerias in the U.S., including places in Colorado, St. Louis, and New Jersey.
From the New York Post's Page Six:
Steve Grillo has transformed himself from Howard Stern's onetime sidekick to pizza poo bah, opening Hell's Kitchen Pizza at 47th Street and Tenth Avenue with partner Russ Brunelli. Their "Hellfire" pie features sausage, cherry peppers, and pepperoni. Grillo said he'd invite Stern, "but he doesn't eat pizza."
Howard Stern doesn't eat pizza? Asshat.
Two Fridays ago. Ed here is like, "Adam, have you heard of this place Pizzeria Del Corso? I saw it mentioned in a story in the Daily News last week about pizza-tossing. The pizza-tossing didn't catch my eye, but the pizzeria did."
I guess I had seen that story but had only focused on the Dom DeMarco angle. (Yeah, you know me, right?)
And who can blame me? The rest of it was about pizza-tossing. Whatevs.
Don't get me wrong. The folks who toss pizza competitively are good people. But once you've seen video after video of it, it's easy to lose interest.
And, you know, I don't really care how you've formed the dough into a round. As long as the end product is awesome, you could use a toss, a stretch, a rolling pin, or a bowling ball. (I will concede that those last two techniques are not ideal.)
Also blocking the Del Corso uptake on my part was the fact that the two guys who opened it—Nino Coniglio and Ryan LaRose—are part of the U.S. Pizza Team.
You see, the pizza-tossing thing and the serious-pizza-making thing have never seemed to go hand in hand.
I mean, sure, Colt Seavers could drive the hell out of that truck, but do you think he was actually the one fixing busted axles after jumping an open drawbridge?*
My pizza heroes have always been the unassuming types with their heads (and hands) down, concentrating on making great pizza rather than putting on showy stunts for an action-craving audience.
But Ed was being a nudge about Del Corso, so we made plans to visit and ended up out there last Thursday. Turns out that being a dough-thrower doesn't necessarily make you a tosser. This pizza was good.
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.
4 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (under the Brooklyn Bridge; map)
Photograph courtesy of Tonda
Opening tomorrow: Tonda in the space that used to house The E.U.
According to the Urban Daddy:
The glorious centerpiece of the whole operation is their $30,000 slow-rotating 1,000-degree wood-burning pizza oven, sitting in full view of your table. And naturally, the Naples native (say hi to Michele when you drop by) they shipped in to tame the flames.
According to New York magazine:
“The pies will only need to rotate once to be perfectly cooked,” says oven builder Nobile Attie, who’s also done work for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Peasant’s Frank DeCarlo.
According to the press release I received this morning:
"Maestro Pizzaiolo" Michele Sceral of Naples has been flown in to debut an authentic menu as well as to supervise the personalized pies to be made by a team at Tonda in the tradition and high standard he garnered at the Napolitan Pizzaiolo Association.
The last item here is telling. Depending on how well Sceral trains the team, it's not going to matter if that oven burns at 1,000 degrees, rotates in a circle, shines my shoes, or calls me a cab in the morning. The proof is in the eating. And we'll see how that goes both while Sceral is at the helm and when he's not.
235 East 4th Street, New York NY 10009 (at Avenue B; map)
212-254-2900
I think this has been reported on the blogs or on Chowhounds before, but with the new Di Fara hours (instituted after Dom DeMarco's knee surgery), they essentially lock you in at or shortly after 8:30 p.m. Johnny- and Janey-come-lately are, in turn, locked out while Dom serves the remaining crowd inside.
It's a bit sad to see didn't-make-its pull at the door handle and get shooed away by the gloating crowd inside, but what can you do. I also noted a fair amount of schadenfreude at the expense of the slowpokes.
Ed Levine visits Pizza Mezzaluna in Greenwich Village for his review this week on Serious Eats New York, where the thing to get are the small, $5 individual pies:
The 12-inch pies ($14 to $17) that come out of the oven are minimally puffy, light-crusted beauties with fine hole structure. (In my perfect pizza world the cornicione would be another inch higher, however.) In style, these pies fall smack dab in the middle of the wood-oven New York Neapolitan-style pizza tradition of Pizza Fresca, Luzzo's, and yes, Mezzaluna. If you do the crust-tearing thing here, you will find that the crust is cooked all the way through, from the outer lip to the center of the pie. Said crust also gets a properly blistered char, though bubble freaks might be disappointed at the lack of huge bubbles. Even the impossibly cute pizzette ($5) has a fine crust. All the crust needs to achieve crust greatness is some sea salt.
146 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10012 (b/n MacDougal and Sullivan; map)
212-533-1242
261 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (at Garfield Place; map); 718-499-9888; lavillaparkslope.com
The Skinny: The focaccia di nonna has a crisp-chewy crust with fresh mozzarella layered under garlicky, crushed San Marzano tomatoes
Pizza Style: New York-Neapolitan
Oven Type: Wood Stone gas-assist wood-fired oven
Price: Small round (reviewed), $14. Large thin-crust Sicilian, $24; large round, $24; small deep-dish, $14
There's an old saying about defecation in the area in which one dines. It's not to be done.
That's what's kept me from really going into detail about La Villa in Park Slope. It's about half a block from my home, and I eat there frequently.
The nonpizza food there has always been good—and the portions are insane. You can pretty much feed two people from one dish or take the rest home for a second meal.
But the pizza, as good as it's been, has never really done it for me. I figured out why this weekend.
Lawrence Ciminieri, in front of the Totonno's oven we hope to be eating pizzas from again soon.
I called Totonno's owner Lawrence Ciminieri to find out more about the fire damage horrified Slice reader Rob S. discovered when he went to the original Coney Island location yesterday.
Ciminieri says, "Everything is going to be fine. The fire broke out in the coal storage area when we were closed. It must have been ignited by something backed up in the oven. The back two rooms are gone. The dining room is fine. The oven will have to be re-bricked, but that is something we do every few years anyway. I think we'll be back open in a month. Tell everybody thanks for me, Ed. Everyone's been so supportive."
Everyone who loves good pizza knows how important the original Totonno's is. It is our church of pizza. We need it restored to its former glory, and, from what Ciminieri says, it sounds like we are going to get what we need. [After the jump, a slide show of Totonno's as it was.]
Totonno's, as it used to look. Photograph from timkang on Flickr
This is horrible news. I just got this from Slice reader Rob S.:
I just wanted to let you and loyal Slice readers know that I went to Totonno's in Coney Island this morning, and the place has burned down. Apparently this morning at around 8 a.m. the place caught on fire. When I visited around 1 p.m. all the windows were broken and there was serious fire damage.
Hopefully they will open again soon!
With shot glass, for scale.
Serious Eats New York contributor Barbara Hanson visited the Lower East Side's San Marzano, which has been getting some buzz lately, and found the slices there small but tasty. At $3.50 a pop for three-ounce, five-inch-long slices, the place has to be serving some of the most expensive pizza per surface area in the city.
What there is of them, however, is pretty good. The Margherita was not to my taste, sweet and a bit oily, but I tend to find Margherita slices a bit light on flavor. I tossed on some Parm, which perked it up a good deal. The quattro formaggi was better, riddled with creamy puffs of ricotta; the only off note was the gorgonzola, which shouted down the other cheeses each time I bit into it.
71 Clinton Street, New York NY 10002 (b/n Stanton and Rivington; map)
212-228-5060
Only the truly dedicated put up with the long, long wait for the awesome pizza at Di Fara.
But how long have you waited?
Longtime Slice reader Norman has a great idea: "You should do a post to find out who's waited the longest for a pie from Dom. I'll go first: 2 hours 15 minutes."
Norman, I think I've waited almost that long but unfortunately did not take official time readings, so I'll cede the crown to you so far. Can anyone else top Norman?
New York magazine reports on the opening of Farinella, in Tribeca. The pizzaiolo there is a Roman hip-hop artist who uses a "Tagliavini triple-decker electric oven" to turn out long Roman-style pizzas sold by the slice.
90 Worth Street, New York NY 10013 (near Broadway; map)
212-608-3222
Today in the New York Daily News, Danyelle "Restaurant Girl" Freeman reviews Co.
I know some of you are getting sick of reading about Co., so had this been another stellar review, I would have skipped the reblog on it. But for all you Co. haters, you have a champion in Freeman:
Like all the crusts at Company, it's always perfect.
But it's the only thing that's always perfect at Company.
Unfortunately, pizza isn't just crust. And it isn't just sauce. And it isn't just toppings. It's the quality of these things and their ratio that make a great pizza. From day one, Company has been mobbed. Crowds hover near the door. They jam the tiny bar, waiting for a seat at one of the tables. They huddle around the hostess like Sullivan St. zombies. Which would make sense if the pizza were consistently terrific, but it's not.
People care about toppings, too. Where's the sauce? And where's the flavor, especially in the Margherita pizza—the true measure of any good pizza place? The Popeye pizza sounds like a good idea, but it's really just baby spinach leaves on excellent toast.
Of course, Freeman then says that two of Lahey's pizzas are spot on—the Flambé (which I found too heavy, actually) and the Boscaiola (the "woodsman" pizza, with sausage, mushroom, onion, and peperoncini). The rest of the menu, she says, is skippable.
Related
First Taste: A Pizza Preview of Jim Lahey's Upcoming Pizzeria, Co.
Co. Pizzeria Soft Opening Photo Gallery
If you don't follow the comings and goings of coal-oven pizzerias around the country—and, really, if you're halfway normal, why would you?—then you may not know there are other Grimaldi's outside the New York City area.
Sure, you might know about the Hoboken Grimaldi's, but, wait ... there's one in Texas? Say wha?
Yes, there are a handful in Texas and the Southwest, all (or most) rocking coal ovens, from what I can tell. Also, from what I can piece together, they are loosely affiliated with the original only in that a different set of owners licensed the name (sort of like the East Harlem Patsy's and the mini-chain Patsy's).
Sounds good, right? Pioneers extending the manifest destiny of coal-oven supremacy throughout the mild West.
But Houston Press food writer Robb Walsh hits upon a busted wheel in this wagon train of pizza deliciousness—the folks in Houston don't like "burnt" pizza.
A coal-fired pizza oven operates at extremely high temperatures. It cooks the pizza very quickly and gives it a slightly smoky flavor. If you make a pizza crust of an average thickness, the hot floor of the brick oven will char the bottom of the crust by the time the pizza is completely cooked. Coal oven pizza aficionados love the char--they savor the crunchy blackened crust the same way Texas barbecue lovers treasure the crispy burnt ends of a brisket.
Unfortunately, Texans weren't raised on coal oven pizza and they see do not see the allure of a "burnt" pizza. And so the whole coal-fired brick oven pizza phenomenon is kind of a joke in Houston.
Apparently, all the Grimaldi's in Arizona and the ones in Texas have learned the hard way that customers send back the "burnt" pizzas and have been cooking their crusts to a dull blond ever since.
I get called out for my narrowmindedness on the blog Off the Wall Dining:
Bloggers like Kuban have been way too critical of this pizza as though the owners committed a sin. After all, how strange can it really be when people eat anchovies on pizza? I mean, fish on pizza seems much more unusual than hot dogs and french fries on a pizza. Well, I tried it and loved it.
"... fish on pizza seems much more unusual than hot dogs and french fries on a pizza."
Um, no. No, it doesn't.
193 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11201 (b/n Court and Clinton streets; map)
718-522-2880
Looks like there's been some progress at Anselmo's Pizzeria on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. The dining room looks just about finished, and the oven has been fired up.
The last time I peeked in the windows (mid November), it looked nowhere near ready. But Anselmo himself says that they'll be doing a day of oven testing soon, and then opening to the public after that.
354 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (at Sullivan Street, Red Hook; map)
718-775-5386
anselmospizza.com
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got an awesome piece of intel on Staten Island pizza.
Hey Adam,
As a Staten Island resident for all of my life, I thought I could give you some insight on the places i've been to, as well as a new place that seems undiscovered, but in my opinion, has better pizza than Joe & Pats and definitely Nunzio's.
First, you have to understand my reasons for e-mailing you. I am a college student in my first year at Loyola College in Maryland, and cannot go without pizza. If you could, foward me some suggestions to pizza down here in Baltimore that is similar to NYC pizza because my roommate (who is from Queens) and I are HURTING. While I may have told my parents I wanted to see my brother's play, I made a trip last weekend back just because I needed some EDIBLE pizza in my system. Most of the stuff my roommate and I have tried down here is just thick crust, tons of bad cheese garbage. So once again, if you know of anywhere down in Baltimore that would have similar pizza to NYC pizza, please point me in that irection.
Now for some opinions on the current state of pizza in Staten Island: [After the jump.]
Co. is now open for lunch. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It's true. I'm there now. [via Danny]
If you're still looking for something to give your pizza-loving Valentine, Pizza a Casa's Mark Bello is holding a pizza-making workshop tomorrow:
Your day begins in Little Italy, where Mark will guide you as you shop for the finest ingredients for the pizza making to follow. Then it's off to your instructor's kitchen for proof positive that pizza making perfection is absolutely possible with a standard home oven. You'll start by making your own dough, then go step by step through the process of crafting the perfect pie.
I'm tired of reading about "aphrodisiac" food each year, so I can only hope that Mr. Bello avoids topping those pies with oysters. Though, at one point, artichokes and tomatoes were considered lust-inducing items, and I wouldn't mind an artichoke pie.
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Class meets at Alleva Dairy, 180 Grand Street, New York NY (b/n Mulberry and Baxter; map)
Tickets: $125, available at brownpapertickets.com
Quite some time ago I received the following email about Gotham Pizza from Deb Perelman of the popular food blog Smitten Kitchen:
This email is entirely about pizza, and this dinky slice place (Gotham Pizza) that just opened a couple blocks from my apartment that I'm kind of in love with. It's not brick-oven, they don't import mozzarella from anywhere, there are no fancy toppings and its MO could be aptly summed up as, "Hey, at least we're not Ray's."
But seriously, as much am I waiting with baited breath for Co. to freaking open [I told you this was quite some time ago. —The Mgmt.], I have a big place in my heart for a decent NYC-style slice, and Gotham totally has it, in a neighborhood that was sorely lacking one before.
Crisp underneath and not overloaded with gloopy cheese, they also use something curious and breadcrumblike underneath (instead of cornmeal) that maybe you can help me decipher. I've never seen it before.
Oh, and two slices and a can of soda for $5 at lunchtime. How old-school New York is that?
Not more than a week after Deb's email came another one, from Slice reader "Big B":
After Isabella's Oven announced that it would close (but possibly reopen in another location), Curbed brought word that someone there had taken a sledgehammer to the joint following a dispute with the landlord. Now, Eater has pix of the aftermath—and it's not pretty. The space is now utterly unusable as-is—though it looks like at least the foundation of pizza oven is still intact (you can see it in the photo above in the upper right-hand corner).
There's probably not much hope in using the location as a pizzeria again, as there was virtually no room for seating inside. Isabella's relied on its backyard patio for dining when the weather was nice, but in inclement weather or the dead of winter, what are you gonna do?
And forget moving that brick oven elsewhere, so that's probably a loss, too.
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got some quick tips from Mark H. (aka famdoc).
In the past week, I've had the opportunity to enjoy two fine variations on the concept of pizza.
At Nizza, in the Theater District, I enjoyed a fine version of socca, a snack found commonly around the city of Nice in the South of France (also known as farinata in the region around Genoa in Italy), made with chickpea flour. Nizza: 630 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10036 (b/n 44th and 45th; map); 212-956-1800
At Moustache in Lambertville, New Jersey, we had what might be the finest zatter bread served in the U.S. A blend of herbs, sesame seeds, and olive oil spread over a pizza crust, it was a perfect starter to a fine Middle Eastern meal. Moustache: 77 South Union Street, Lambertville NJ 08530 (map); 609-397-7777
Thought I'd pass these recs on to fellow slice fans.
—Mark
The Margherita at Co.
GQ's Alan Richman offers an entertaining take on two recently opened pizzerias, Co. and Motorino. (He says Mayor Bloomberg should stimulate the city's economy by opening more pizzerias.)
On Co., Richman says:
The pizza at Co. is produced by Jim Lahey of the revered Sullivan St Bakery and answers this question: If pizza is essentially crust, and if crust is essentially bread, and if Lahey is possibly the finest bread-maker in New York, shouldn’t the pizza at Co. be superb? This is not a trick question. The pizza is, for the most part, exactly that. The only flaw is an occasional wrongheaded harmonizing of toppings, annoying but far from fatal.
Richman's take on Motorino, after the jump.
193 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11201 (b/n Court and Clinton streets; map); 718-522-2880
The Skinny: Strangely enough, hot dogs and french fry pizzas are commonly found in Italy. But just because it's Italian doesn't mean it's good. I mean, hello, Fabio for example?
Price: Small, $16.50; large $18.90; slice, $2.90
I was working from home this morning when I saw the hot dog and french fry pizza on Eater. The photo of it there was taken by "Daniel Krieger (who for the record, did not try a slice)."
"Did not try a slice?!?" I said to myself. Pussy.
Well, it turns out that Mr. Krieger is a wiser man than I. On my way in to the office, I took a minor detour through Brooklyn Heights to try this thing. Needless to say, I feel funny right now after getting about halfway through just one slice.
The hot dog and french fry pizza is called the Reginella Special. Giving the house name to such a pie is a pretty bold move, so I asked what the story was behind this pizza. Was it just a gimmick to get people talking?
Though it's hard to see in this photo (or in the one at Eater, where it comes from), this pizza has hot dogs and french fries on it.
You should have no problem, however, discerning how ridiculous and offensive to pizzakind this is.
It's available at Pizzeria Reginella, a recently opened joint in on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights. (Small, $16.50; large $18.90; slice, $2.90.)
193 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11201 (b/n Court and Clinton streets; map)
718-522-2880
Isabella's Oven, which started out amazing but then went to merely good with the loss of its original pizzaiolo, is "closed until further notice" while the owners search for a new location. The sign posted in the window there projects a spring 2009 reopening date. Eater has some more details.
Related
Isabella's Oven: One Great Pizza on a Saturday Night
Isabella's Oven: Going Downhill?
Isabella's Oven: The DJ Bubbles Drive-By
Martha Stewart, who is, unsurprisingly, a fan of pizza, visited Jim Lahey's Co., where "one can eat delicious breads, cheeses, sausages, and pizzas." Ms. Stewart has a 20-picture photo gallery embedded in her blog post, and true to form, spends almost as much time discussing the design of the dining room (three photos of its handsomely designed lamps) as she does the food. Looks like she's even collaborating with Mr. Lahey on décor:
The shelves: We discussed, with the owner, what should be atop these shelves. No decision was made.
The wooden tables, glass carafes, and plain dishes and glassware, make the feeling "everyman" perfect, for now.
Ms. Stewart recommends getting the lardons on the escarole salad dressed with anchovies and herbs, but we're more interested in her take on the pizza:
The first pizza to emerge from the oven—cheese, mushroom, and sausage. It had thin crust—a great combination of wet and crispy—Jim talked to us about his philosophy about pizza and its texture. And look—the menus are printed on the place mats!
Martha signed a place mat for Lahey's wife (above right), with a message meant to placate her, I'm sure: "All chefs work too hard, too long, and if they are great, it's worth it." [via NYMinknit]
Co. Pizzeria Soft Opening Photo Gallery
First Taste: A Pizza Preview of Jim Lahey's Upcoming Pizzeria, Co.
Martha Stewart Tries Cheesesteak for First Time, Prefers Geno's to Pat's
From the answering machine at the legendary Brooklyn pizzeria Di Fara: "Due to a medical emergency we are temporarily closed. We are hoping to reopen on or before February 1. Thank you for all your concern, and have a great day."
We hope that everyone's OK at Di Fara and that this only is a minor medical emergency. We've tried to contact Di Fara and will bring you any news as we can get it. [via Chowhound; thanks, David J.]
I just heard from Maggie, Dom DeMarco's daughter. She and Mr. DeMarco were in a car accident on Monday evening—black ice on the road. Maggie's OK, but Dom broke his knee cap, she said.
"He is scheduled to have surgery," Maggie wrote in an email. "Post-surgery requires about 4 to 6 weeks rehabilitation, which my dad already informed he will rehabilitate at work instead."
Cool: Motorino in Williamsburg is on Twitter (@motorino.
Not cool: They're bitin' my phrase, "Hasta la pizza." Step off, n00bs. I've been using that phrase for years.
An email from a friend asks: "Did you watch the new Brooklyn-based Real World? They went to L&B Spumoni Gardens."
My answer is no. The last thing I need in my life is to waste an hour of it watching a group of fame-obsessed, sexually confused post-adolescents work out their cringe-worthy issues on TV.
But when one of Brooklyn's favorite pizzerias is involved I can hold my nose and tune in. Unfortunately, the bit at Spumoni Gardens lasts all of 5 seconds, consisting of the cast ordering and eating the square slices the Bensonhurst joint is known for. I've embedded video here, after the jump.
Thanks to everyone out there who showed up to hear about "The Year in Pizza" at Adult Ed last night. My talk kind of got off to a rocky start (I'm not much of a public speaker), but thanks to your early laughs (either sincere or politely feigned), I soon found my bearings and delivered a not-horrible speech.
Thanks, too, to Carrie McLaren and Stay Free! for presenting the series; Charles Star for emceeing; Jim Hanas for asking me to speak; and fellow speakers Patrick Di Justo, Joe Garden, and Marian Salzman; and, of course, Union Hall for providing the venue.
It was fun. I hope you got your five bucks' worth.
"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.
4 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (under the Brooklyn Bridge; map)
The Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, the Italian "pizza police" (they certify pizzerias as being authentically Neapolitan), is opening a restaurant and pizza school. It will be called Kesté Pizza e Vino and hopes to be open by the end of February, according to the New York Times.
And then, according to an email I just got from Roberto Caporusico at the Associazione itself, "Down the road we also expect to have classes for nonprofessional 'pizza lovers.'"
That would mean you and me, folks.
What up with the name? Caporusico explains: "Kesté (spelled 'cheste é') means 'This is it!' in the Neapolitan dialect."
271 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (between Jones and Cornelia streets; map)
Photograph from Blondie & Brownie
I am outraged that all you pizza tourists are crowding my neighborhood spot. Go back home and eat the abominable pizza in your own neighborhoods.
Look at that line! (It comes from a Motorino-Co. head-to-head post by Blondie & Brownie.)
Granted, Co. is my work neighborhood, but still. You are going to make it impossible for me to enjoy a nice quitting-time pie.
Now, shoo!
I'll be speaking as part of a fun year-end wrap-up at Union Hall in Park Slope. My topic? Pizza, what else?
Also speaking will be Patrick Di Justo with "Things We Lost" (the bygones of 2008) Joe Garden with "Welcome to the Night" (the year in vampires), and Marian Salzman with "The Year of Payback" (why the buzzword for 2009 will be "reboot").
The retrospective will be 2009's first installment of Adult Education, self-described as "a useless lecture series" and also as "a monthly event series where various speakers present brief, multimedia lectures on a shared theme."
Attendees are advised to eat a slice of garlic pizza beforehand to ward off any vampires who show up to hear Mr. Garden's presentation.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 8 p.m. (doors at 7:30)
Union Hall, 702 Union Street, Brooklyn NY 11215 (near Fifth Avenue; map)
$5 cover
Raphael here in the office just asked, "I want to know, officially, is it 'Co.' or 'Company'?"
So I just called.
Co.: "Hello, Co."
Me: "Adam Kuban here, from Slice, America's Favorite Pizza Weblog."
Co.: "Um, yes?"
Me: "So there's been some confusion about your name. Are you 'Co.' or 'Company'?"
Co.: We're 'Co.' as in 'company.'"
Does that sort out any confusion, Raphael? It's still sort of a nonanswer answer. But we'll just make the call and say that we'll refer to it on Slice officially as "Co." and pronounce it as co.
"It hasn’t yet offered me a perfect meal. But it improved enough between two visits to inspire hope that Motorino will eventually launch itself into the upper strata of the city’s pizzerias." [New York Times]
Clockwise from top left: Co. opened with a soft launch this evening; there were actual people from the general public in the dining room. As FOS Kathryn Yu said, from the outside, it looks less like a pizzeria than a fancy Asian restaurant. One of the stars of the evening, the Ham and Cheese pie. (You can click all images bigger.)
When I checked in late afternoon to find out if Co. really was opening on Friday, the gentleman in the dining room told me, "Yes—and tonight, too." It was a sort of soft opening. With the place just a couple block from Slice–Serious Eats HQ, my workmate Alaina and I went to check it out. We were joined by her husband and a couple friends.
I've already given you more Co. Pizzeria than you need, so I'll keep this one mostly to pictures. Ahead, photos of what we had—and the big menu reveal!
After other food blogs reported that Co. would open on Friday, January 2, Slice walked its lazy ass over to the joint to confirm. Turns out it's actually OPEN TONIGHT for a soft-launch dinner service. Closed tomorrow and Thursday, and then officially open Friday.
We're there now and will have pictures in the morning. Why don't you head down and see if you can find us there.
230 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10001 (at West 24th Street; map)
Inveterate pizza seeker Paulie Gee just tipped me to the Christmas Eve menu at Roberta's in Bushwick:
Details: $45 a person, complimentary glass of Lambrusco. Two seatings, 7 and 9 p.m. Reservations: 718-417-1118
Last night, Serious Eaters booked it to Williamsburg to celebrate the holidays at The Gutter. While the alley doesn't serve hot dogs, chicken fingers, or other standard bowling fare—though I did spot beef jerky—they luckily have a BYOF policy. What would our "Food" be?
Delivery pizza from Fornino. We weren't the only ones with this idea, either. Fornino is just a half-mile away, so they'll bring it right to the alley. Our four pies included: sausage, artichoke and tomato, mushrooms with truffle oil, and a basic Margherita. Sausage was first to go, and by far the crowd favorite. Truffles inspired a small female following. Artichoke was the clear loser. Ed was a big fan of the Fornino crust: "the light crust that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Plus, the crust had great hole structure—it was cooked all the way through."
Maybe that's what inspired him to bowl three strikes?! When they turned off the lanes an hour and a half later, Ed was begging to stay longer. "I was just getting started!" He also claims to have 1960s-era trophies at home. After the jump, get a glimpse of him in action.
Photograph from JordanaZ, from the Serious Eats Photo Pool on Flickr
So sayeth Slice: Artichoke's idea of expanding would be making the line twice as long.
328 East 14th Street, New York NY 10003 (East Village; map)
212-228-2004
I know some of you are fans of this place, so for you, a message from South Brooklyn Pizza's PR flak:
As a Holiday surprise In response to ongoing customer requests, South Brooklyn Pizza is slated to soft-open their new adjoining takeout/delivery annex today (Tuesday, December 16), located next to the restaurant's main entrance and sharing the same address and phone number.
Two kinds of pizzas will be sold (cash only): Sicilian Margherita and Cheese Melange (mozzarella, fontina, asagio, ricotta, and pecorino, all imported from Italy) in 18-inch size—$20 each; by the slice—$3 per. Both takeout and delivery (within a 10-block radius) will be offered, and hours and days of operation to begin with will be limited, and then expanded to 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, in time for the official grand opening on Thursday, January 8.
451 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (at 4th Place; map)
718-852-6018
Margherita pie at Motorino.
Williamsburg pizzeria Mortorino is jumping on the prix-fixe meal bandwagon (it seems to be the recent trend with recession-fearing diners hungry for deals). Between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., this two-course lunch menu for $10 features: soup (rotating every other day-ish; today's is brussels sprouts) or salad (the tri-color salad with radicchio, endive, and arugula). And, of course, pizza, with five options available: margherita, soppressata piccante, marinara, anchovy, and speck with brussels sprouts. [via kludt on Twitter]
UPDATE: This deal only applies to weekdays. On Saturday and Sunday, Motorino offers a brunch menu from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. which includes one entree (egg pizza, baked egg, or a "panetti" sandwich) with a drink for $10.
Read the initial report on Slice.
319 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211 (at Devoe Street; map)
718-599-8899
motorinopizza.com
Grub Street's "New York Diet" series features Law & Order SVU's Tamara Tunie today. Tunie plays Dr. Melinda Warner, a medical examiner, on the show.
I'm originally from Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing at four o'clock so we had to order a pizza, some Buffalo wings, and ginger ale. We watched football for the rest of the afternoon and evening. There's a fantastic place called Giovanni's on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and they deliver to Harlem and they have the best pizza. I'm not going to say the best pizza in New York, but it's really up there.
2343 Arthur Avenue, The Bronx NY 10458 (near 186th Street; map)
718-933-4141
Say wha, Time Out New York? It's hammer time!
It's that time of year. The annual year-end round-ups are coming fast and furious. (Don't worry, homeslices, I'm workin' on them myself.) Today, Time Out New York drops its lists. For the most part, they're pretty solid. But I just had to reach in to the ol' Slice Bag o' Tricks and pull out the rusty but trusty Truth Hammer.
See that nonsense above? The weekly magazine is naming Artichoke Basille's signature artichoke slice a "new classic."
Please. We love the Artichoke regular and square slices, even if they are at times inconsistent. But that sloppy, gloppy party-dip-on-crust signature slice has no business achieving legendary status. Drop the cl from classic, and you'd be about right.
Apparently the folks at TONY do not read Slice, or they might have recalled our man Ed Levine's words:
The spinach and artichoke slice was a little odd and tasted more than a little like a dip you'd be served at a college party, but in the end I decided it was reasonably tasty. It did have way too much topping.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
So, TONY, please stand still ... and ... WACK!
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got some intel on Aperitivo in Midtown from Dustin, who checked in in early October with some dirt on Flatbread Co. in Maine. Enjoy. —The Mgmt.
Ahoy Adam!
Hope all has been well with you these days. Big downer about Co., right? Well at least for those of us who have yet to try it anyway :)
780 Third Avenue, New York NY 10017 (b/n 48th and 49th street; map); 212-758-9402
Anyhoo, since I first read about Aperitivo (the new brick-oven spot in Midtown) on Eater about 2 weeks ago, I have been eagerly awaiting somebody (nudge nudge) to review it, so that I knew whether it was worth dropping slightly over $20 for a pie.
My main reason being is that I work so close to it and Midtown East kind of struggles with good pizza joints (sans Naples 45). So after much googling and continually coming up empty, I said screw it and just went myself (along with the wonderful ladyfriend who I have not ordered to do anything since that day at Flatbread Company up in Maine). And, boy, am I glad we didn't wait any longer!
Target date was December 2. Lahey and company said December 5 or 9 were other possible opening dates. Stay tuned. Update: Time Out New York says it's been delayed till 2009. Possibly January 2. More on Co. here on Slice »
According to Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, the landlord is raising the rent on the little pizzeria on First Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets.
Saturday is the last day, and after that, the owner may try to move the location farther east.
230 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10001 (at West 24th Street; map)
The Skinny: Actual round pizza from Jim Lahey, the bread man behind Sullivan Street Bakery (as opposed to his Roman-style flatbread pizzas found at the bakery). And, oh, it is awesome
Pizza Style: A sort of Neapolitan–New York-style hybrid
Oven Type: Earthstone gas oven; Lahey may burn a couple logs of wood or add wood chips to aromatize the crust
Opening: Target open date is Tuesday, December 2, but Lahey says, "realistically the 5th or the 9th"
Related: Update on Jim Lahey's Co., Co. Is 'Pizza Hut Meets Blue Hill'
Wednesday, about 5 p.m., Ed Levine here in the Slice–Serious Eats office was like, "So, who's going to Co. with me to shoot the tasting?"
"Um, what tasting," I asked.
"I told everybody about it. In the group chat on IM."
"Uh, no you didn't."
Long story short, I volunteered myself to trail Ed to some sort of preopening oven test and tasting at Jim Lahey's upcoming pizzeria on Ninth Avenue and 24th Street. (Lahey and company have a target opening date of December 2, but, Lahey says, "Realistically, it's more like December 5 or 9.")
We arrived, and it turned out Ed had scored some sort of super invite, because it appeared to be a tasting primarily for Lahey's investor, Phil Suarez. I felt like I had crashed an intimate gathering, but the company was welcoming, and pretty soon everyone was concentrating on the food coming from the kitchen, anyway.
Below are some photos, along with some thoughts. But before I get into it, I have to say that as I was writing this post, I called Lahey to get some follow-up details, and he told me to just come over and fire away as he was experimenting with some new pies. So the set below mixes Wednesday and Friday evening. Just go with my flow, peeps. Mega pizza porn, after the jump.
The Two Boots location in Rockefeller Center (in the weird mall-like area belowground) is closing. But when a door closes, a (pizza) window opens. The mini chain will open a branch at Ninth Avenue and 45th Street. So sayeth Midtown Lunch.
The Strong Buzz reports reports that there's breakfast pizza on the menu at Motorino.
The joint is now serving brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All dishes are $10, with coffee or juice.
Says Strong, "Mathieu Palombino is turning pizza into the breakfast food of champions with pies topped with creamy fior di latte, fluffy farm eggs, smoky pancetta, and handfuls of basil and Parmiggiano."
If you're too much of a purist to go for a breakfast pizza, the "panetti" sandwiches there sound pretty good: "made from Motorino’s pizza dough stuffed with the likes of mortadella, taleggio, radicchio, and aceto." [via Kathryn Yu]
319 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211 (at Devoe Street; map)
718-599-8899
motorinopizza.com
Seen in Times Square. Photograph by Nick "Beef Aficionado" Solares
1140 Bay Street, Staten Island NY 10305 (map)
718-816-6516
OK. At first, all the stuff I've seen and heard about this Pizza Moto mobile pizza trailer at the Brookyln Flea? It all made me think "amateur hour." I mean, you look at the photo of that oven, and it looks more like a low-slung little heap of bricks than a serious wood-fired pizza oven.
But this nice profile in the New York Times today reveals that the owner, Dave Sclarow, has some serious pizza cred behind him: "Mr. Sclarow, 34, learned his pizza craft at Franny’s, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and by backpacking through Italy."
I still haven't made my way over to the Brooklyn Flea to try this pizza, though readers of Slice who have tried it have complained that it's expensive for what you get. That won't stop me for now, but I am sort of afraid of showing up with camera in tow: "Mr. Sclarow is wary of pizza fetishists. 'Pizza's one of those things that everybody knows, so everybody has an opinion,' he said."
Lafayette Avenue, between Clermont and Vanderbilt avenues (Fort Greene; map)
Slice is part of the Foodblog Ad Network. To advertise on this site or across a network of food-related weblogs, click here.
Slice is also part of the New York City Blogad Network, which allows advertisers to target an audience of smart and savvy Gothamites. To place an ad on Slice or on the NYC Blogad Network, click here.
