13455 Maxella Avenue, Marina del Rey CA 90292 (2nd floor of Marina Marketplace; map); 310-577-8182; anticapizzeria.net Pizza Style: Neapolitan, VPN-certified Oven Type: Wood-burning The Skinny: Delicious Neapolitan pizza from the president of the U.S. branch of the Verace Pizza Napoletana association Price: Margherita pie (serves 1), $12.50
As a transplanted a New Yorker living in Los Angeles, I have often suffered pangs of homesickness for the streets of my youth. All I have to do is close my eyes and allow imagination and sense memories to transport me back to the Bronx.
One of the most poignant and vivid memories is of eating pizza, usually at either Paradise Pizza (just a few doors down from the palatial Loew's Paradise Theater) or at Burnside Pizza. Both establishments were ordinary, local businesses that produced extraordinary slices. I can clearly visualize a hot, plain slice, perfectly crunchy and chewy, and with a perfect balance of cheese and sauce, all for a mere 25¢.
Longtime Antica Pizzeria pizzaiolo Jose Barrios, who trained under Peppe Miele many years ago and who makes the pizzas most nights.
Well, years have passed and, though the price of a slice has risen considerably, so has my degree of pizza sophistication. Having discovered in the '90s the wonders of coal-burning ovens and homemade mozzarella, my early love for this simple and satisfying food has evolved into an obsession. Imagine my excitement and relief when, more than ten years ago, I discovered that I lived just around the bend from Antica Pizzeria,Peppe Miele's Neapolitan outpost in Marina del Rey.
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.
Kesté Pizza & Vino
271 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (b/n Jones and Cornelia streets; map)
212-243-1500; kestepizzeria.com
The Boston Globe on recently opened Pembroke, Massachusetts, pizzeria Orta:
The crust is just thin enough—still bread not cracker, crisp but with chew. They're cooked in a wood-burning brick oven whose perfume you get a faint whiff of from the parking lot. On one occasion I wished my pie had stayed in the oven longer to get a bit more of a char, but I can't quibble with the bright flavor of the Margherita Napoletana's sauce, made from San Marzano tomatoes, or the array of vegetables on the Ortolana. Even topped with peppers, eggplant, and zucchini, the crust stayed crisp.
Though the owner, Jimmy Burke, studied in Naples and adheres to most of the standards of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the pizzas here are larger than standard-issue Neapolitan pizzas. Which is fine by me. [via MenuPages Boston]
Serious Eats contributor Daniel Zemans checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Monticchio
4882 N. Clark Street, Chicago IL 60640 (map); 773-275-7080; monticchiopizza.com/ Getting There: Red Line to Lawrence, walk half mile west and 2 blocks north; or #22 Clark Street bus to Ainslie Pizza Style: Neapolitan-style and thin crust Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: Comes up short on what they call Neapolitan pizza, but the thin crust is worth a visit Price: 11-inch Neapolitan pies, $9.75 to $14.50; 14-inch thin crust (2 toppings), $16.25
Like most major American cities, Chicago has seen an incredible amount of urban renewal over the past few decades. Nowhere has that been more evident than in north side neighborhoods along the lake stretching almost all the way from Old Town to Andersonville. For reasons that would take a team of political scientists, economists, historians, and sociologists to adequately explain, the periodic economic booms of the last 30 years have somehow consistently skipped much of Uptown, the large community between Lakeview and Andersonville. The most recent boom finally saw some economic growth in Uptown, but the forces that have kept the neighborhood struggling could not be defeated entirely.
Perhaps no one block better defines the slow transition of Uptown than Clark Street between Lawrence and Ainslie. At the southern end sits Rainbo Village, a beautiful new development that was built and financed by overly optimistic folks who thought hundreds of people would pay a premium for a view of St. Boniface Catholic Cemetery. The development is failing. Further to the north sits a remnant of Uptown’s past, Lincoln Towing Services, among the most hated of Chicago corporations. Immortalized in song by the brilliant Steve Goodman, LTS seems to have progressed beyond the days when it would routinely tow legally parked cars, but a mere mention of its name can send countless longtime Chicagoans into a rage. And next to LTS sits what may well be a part of Uptown's future: Monticchio (pronounced Mone-tee-kee-oh), a six-month-old pizzeria that serves both Neapolitan-style pizza and a more traditional Chicago-style thin crust. The good news is that Monticchio serves up one OK and one very good style of pizza. The bad news is that neither the Neapolitan pies nor the Chicago thin crust fit most definitions of their respective styles.
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.
Meet Roberto Caporuscio
Kesté Pizza & Vino
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.
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. —The Mgmt.
Antica Pizzeria
5663 N. Clark Street, Chicago IL 60660 (map); 773-944-1492 Getting There: #22 Clark Street bus to Hollywood Pizza Style: Neapolitan Oven Type: Wood The Skinny: Very good Neapolitan pies. High-quality ingredients. Good chew in the crust but not a lot of crisp Price: Pizzas are about 12” and range from $11-$18
There is no denying the rapid increase in high-quality thin-crust pizzerias in Chicago. While some seem to think that this is indicative of a decrease in the popularity of stuffed or deep-dish pies, the lack of any decline of such pizzerias suggests that is not the case. Instead, Chicago is simply expanding its pizza universe, and in my world, that's a very good thing.
A couple of months ago, I wrote a little about Andersonville in my review of Great Lake. This week, the neighborhood drew me back to try yet another new high-end place. Chef-partner Mario Rapisarda, a native Sicilian, is a Spiaggia veteran who opened Antica Pizzeria last October. He is committed to putting out fresh, high-quality, authentic Neapolitan pies, and I was pleased to discover that, for the most part, he succeeds.
Posted by Daniel Zemans, January 28, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Great Lake
1477 W. Balmoral Avenue, Chicago IL 60640 (map); 773-334-9270 Getting There: #22 Clark Street bus to Balmoral, walk a quarter block east, or take the Red Line to Berwyn, walk one block north and half a mile west Pizza Style: Biancoesque Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: Extraordinary in every way Price:All pizzas are 14" and range from $19 to $23
Since Great Lake opened last February in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood on the far north side, the small storefront pizzeria has gotten enough good press that it has been routinely packed. I was intrigued, but I had enough places that I knew to be good that I wanted to cover for Slice, so I had not made it a priority. Last weekend, I made it to Great Lake and was happy to find one of the best pizzerias in Chicago.
Nick Lessins and Lydia Esparza, the husband and wife team that owns Great Lake, are college sweethearts who are both Detroit natives (though she properly noted that, while she spent all of her youth in Detroit, Lessins spent much of his childhood in the suburbs). After graduating, they moved to Chicago and then, in the mid '90s, headed to Phoenix, where they came upon a small pizzeria in a strip mall operated by a New York transplant named Chris Bianco. Lessins and Esparza both grew up in families that did their food shopping at local markets, so it was no surprise that the pizza and ethos of Bianco lured them in as loyal customers. After a few years in Phoenix, Esparza and Lessins headed back to Chicago and continued working far away from the restaurant industry. Indeed, prior to opening Great Lake, their combined professional culinary experience consisted of a couple of stints by Lessins at fast food restaurants while in high school.
The pizzas themselves are 12 inches in diameter, available in some simple options, again in the style of Naples. We tried two, the house signature called "The Good Pie", and a puttanesca. The crust is remarkable. Quite thin, but not crispy, it has a little chew to it, but it’s cooked so quickly that the outer crust is still so tender, it’s like eating a freshly-baked roll. The heat blackens bits here and there, adding another layer of flavor. The Good Pie tops it with a simple tomato sauce, pieces of buffalo mozzarella, a few grape tomatoes and a few leaves of basil, some of which crisp up, too. Everything is in remarkable balance: The basil doesn’t (surprisingly) overwhelm, the mozzarella is soft and subtle, the sauce itself satisfying enough to keep the mind from wandering and the small tomatoes giving a quick burst of moisture and acidity.
They've framed the story in such a way that leads me to believe St. Louis is not super familiar with Neapolitan-style pizza, but The Good Pie sounds like it's a worthy ambassador for the genre.
The Good Pie
3137 Olive Street, St. Louis MO 63103 (map)
314-289-9391 thegoodpie.com
I recall a certain episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which the android Mr. Data is told that although his recital of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" is technically perfect, it lacks soul.
That's how I feel about most of the Neapolitan-style pizza I've tried. When it's done right, it's delicious but often lacks a nice crispness, and its daintiness is almost always just a little less than satisfying.
So when Girl Slice and I met up with some of her friends at Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco's Mission District over the holidays, I was prepared to be mehhed.
The photos I'd seen of Pizzeria Delfina's pies all said Neapolitan, and San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer described it as "thin crust, Neapolitan style with a nod to New York."
"Nod to New York," I thought. We'll see. It seems that when I travel outside New York, the pizza I eat falls into three categories:
Posted by Erin Zimmer, December 15, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Margherita pie at Motorino.
Williamsburg pizzeria Mortorino is jumping on the prix-fixe meal bandwagon (it seems to be the recenttrend 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.
Posted by Daniel Zemans, November 12, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Pizza D.O.C.
2251 W. Lawrence Avenue, Chicago IL 60625 (map); 773-784-8777; mypizzadoc.com Getting There: Brown Line to Damen (station reopening soon); walk 1 block north and two blocks west Pizza Style: Neapolitan Oven Type: Wood-fired The Skinny: One of the first places in Chicago to offer Neapolitan pizza. Undercooked crusts is all that is preventing a return to former glory Price: $12.50 - $14.95 per pizza. Visa/MC/AmEx, cash
Founded in 1999, Pizza D.O.C. is the granddaddy of the Neapolitan pizza scene in Chicago. Offering 20 different pizzas in addition to periodic specialty pies, all of which are cooked in a wood-burning oven that was imported from Tuscany.
Cesar D’Ortenzi was already a well-established Italian restaurateur in Chicago, thanks to La Bocca della Verita, when he opened Pizza D.O.C. The D.O.C. in the name comes from "Denominazione di Origine Controllata," the designation given to some Italian wines, guaranteeing their authenticity. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with pizza.
When Pizza D.O.C. opened, it was an immediate hit and remained popular for years. It was the place where I first had Neapolitan-style pizza. I hadn’t been there in a couple of years before my most recent visit, and I was disappointed. The pizza is still good—but not as good as I remember. And from talking to other people, I know that I’m not the only one with that impression.
Celeste is that rare bird: a true neighborhood restaurant. The atmosphere is convivial. The staff is pleasant and efficient. And the food is sublime. Start with a pizza, ideally the bracing and authentic Napoletana, which builds upon its crust with layers of flavor: sweet tomato, acidic caper, salty anchovy. 502 Amsterdam Avenue, New York NY 10024 (at 85th Street; map); 212-874-4559 [New York Times]
Keith Wagstaff of the Feedbag blog has an interview with Mathieu Palombino, the Belgian-born chef-owner of Motorino in Williamsburg. We wrote about the pizza at Motorino on Tuesday, and the Feedbag's piece is a nice complement to the tasting intel. Snip:
What does it take to make good pizza? Pizza is always good, even when it’s bad. Its never something you will spit out of your mouth, even if it’s not done properly. What makes a pizza good is the quality of the ingredients. It’s a very simple thing. It’s just a piece of dough with just a few ingredients, so you have to choose your ingredients very carefully. It’s a simple thing, but it can become very complicated to make your pizza better than the guy next door.
Palombino also reveals that he makes the mozzarella for his pies himself each day and that he thinks Fornino is one of the city's best pizzerias—but declines to give the names of places he thinks are overrated.
I'm going to have to pull out the Truth Hammer, though, and give this Keith Wagstaff a knock on the noggin:
[Matthieu offers me some pizza; I tell him thanks but I have to get back to the office.] Do you offer pizza to go?
Clockwise from top left: Motorino has a nice airy space on Graham Avenue and Devoe Street. The C.R.U.S.T.™ scan reveals the char quotient. A Margherita pie, boxed for take-out.
Motorino
319 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211 (at Devoe Street; map); 718-599-8899; motorinopizza.com Getting There: L train to Graham Avenue; walk 1 block south from train Pizza Style: Neapolitan; 10-inch pies, enough for one person Oven Type: Wood-burning The Skinny: Based on what I've had so far, the only Neapolitan-style pizza in New York better than this one right now is Una Pizza Napoletana. Excellent bready crust with great hole structure. Typical Naples-style pies along with some more inventive pizzas. Affordable, too! Price: Most pizzas here are in the $10 to $13 range, with cheapest being Marinara ($9) and priciest being Pugliese ($15). Visa/MC/AmEx, cash
OK, sit down, homeslices, because I've got news for you.
I got this email from my coworker Raphael Saturday night: "It's good. Possibly very good. What I had last night was Franny's-caliber. I've got some not-so-great pics (I'll write up a quick review if you like), but you should get out there and do a review ASAP."
Well, I was heading to the Yura Yura Teikoku show in Williamsburg Sunday night, so I figured I'd leave a little early and hit up Motorino beforehand. And then, I had to go back yesterday for lunch for a second take on what I thought I had tasted and felt the night before: Right now, at this moment, Motorino is spittin' some of the best new pizza in New York from of its wood-burning oven.
And it's totally affordable. Pizzas run from $9 (Marinara) to $15 (Pugliese, with sausage), with the majority between $11 and $13. No $21 pizzas here.
That this pizza is amazing seems unlikely. The guy behind it, Belgian Mathieu Palombino, comes from stints at the fancy-pants Manhattan restaurants BLT Fish, Bouley, Cafe Charbon, and Cello. That hardly says pizza pedigree. But he knows what he's doing. His Neapolitan-style pies have brilliant hole structure; great bready, salty flavor; and a crisp-chewy factor that's close to being off the charts.
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza, along with his friends, on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
The Chicago Reader, the Windy City's preeminent free weekly, recently named Coalfire the best pizza in Chicago. I disagree, but Coalfire does make a very good pie.
Neapolitan-style pizza has been making headway in Chicago for a few years, but Coalfire, which opened 14 months ago, is the only coal-oven pizzeria in Chicago. The creative force behind Coalfire is J. Spillane, who brought his pizza love to the Midwest from Worcester, Massachusetts. After ten years as a bartender, he perfected his pizza-making craft at home and opened Coalfire.
Nicola Bertolotti, who was brought in to school the other pie-makers at Toby's, will be opening his own place in Williamsburg in mid August.
The new pizzeria will be called Fornaccio, which Bertolotti told us means "old oven." The name derives from the fact that Bertolotti happened up an old house with a hundred-year-old oven that he's been restoring, along with the rest of the place.
Michael Bauer, food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, continues his Pizza Friday series on his blog Between Meals with a trip to Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant in San Francisco. Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant makes a Neapolitan-style pizza:
I figured I'd compile a list of all the styles I've eaten or heard or read about. Sorry it took so long, HeartofGlass. It's a long list, and it appears after the jump.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 18, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Michael Bauer, food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, continues his Pizza Friday series on his blog Between Meals with a trip to Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur, California. Pizzeria Picco makes a Neapolitan-style pie in a wood-burning oven:
Bauer says:
Thin with crisp, blistered edges. The Margherita, drizzled with De Padova extra virgin olive oil sets the standards for this ubiquitous combination. The Marin features roasted garlic, young potatoes that crisp at the edges, mozzarella, Parmesan and a slight drizzle of rosemary oil. The Cannondale is my favorite: house-made sausage, roasted peppers, onions, basil, and mozzarella.
Pizzeria Picco
Address: 320 Magnolia Avenue, Larkspur CA 94939 (at King Street; map) Phone: 415-945-8900 Website:pizzeriapicco.com
Roberto’s has been a destination restaurant for years. Now Zero Otto Nove has become one. It is already, after only a few months in business, drawing customers from the hinterlands, and for several good reasons. Top among them, I am sure, is the Neapolitan-style pizza that may be the best you’ve ever had in the U.S., and better than many in Naples, as I just described. I know I am going out on a limb with that remark, but I know what I am doing. Well, I hope I am not setting anyone up for a disappointment.
Zero Otto Nove’s pizzaiolo, its pizza maker, Ricardo, who indeed has enough charisma to be called by only one name, like Garbo or Cher, is originally from Naples. But he last worked in downtown Salerno. He was making such good pizza in Salerno that my Salernitani friends suggested that the place he worked at, Pizza Margherita, would be a good substitute for Pizzeria Vicolo della Neve, my usual haunt, but which, in the summer, is way too hot and airless to be enjoyable.
As Schwarz explains, the joint's name is Italian for zero eight nine, Salerno's area code.
Zero Otto Nove
Address: 2357 Arthur Avenue, Bronx NY 10458 (Belmont; map) Phone: 718-220-1027
Posted by Ed Levine, September 15, 2007 at 12:00 PM
The first time I tried to have a pizza at Forno Italia, the place had been reduced to rubble by a complete renovation. I worried that the wood-burning pizza oven I had heard so much about would not be part of the new restaurant. I needn't have worried. What makes Forno ltalia's pizza so good is the gorgeous oven, a skilled pizzaiolo, and the house-made mozzarella, which is so good that the proprietors wholesale it to other Italian restaurants and pizzerias in the know. The pies are individual Neapolitan-style beauties, with a chewy, puffy crust that is pretty swell. I usually have the Margherita here, but I've always been tempted to order the Southern pizza, topped with spicy sausage and American and Swiss cheeses. It ain't exactly authentic, but I bet it's tasty.
Forno Italia
Address: 43-19 Ditmars Boulevard, Astoria NY 11105 (b/n 43rd and 45th Streets; map) Phone: 718-267-1068
At his friend Maurizio DeRosa's urging, Celeste chef Giancarlo Quadalti set out to make authentic Neapolitan pizza in the gorgeous wood-burning oven installed in the corner of his restaurant. A year later, DeRosa concluded that New Yorkers didn't want the real thing. "It was too wet for people. People would take napkins and blot the pizza to absorb moisture. We were devastated. We would look and suffer in silence."
But after an appropriate mourning period, Quadalti made the necessary adjustments. Now Quadalti drains the tomatoes just the way many American pizzaioli do. As a result, Celeste's pizza is probably not authentically Neapolitan, but it is quite delicious and Italian in conception. That means they use double-zero Italian flour, imported canned tomatoes (drained), and excellent cow's-milk mozzarella, imported from Maspeth, Queens. The crust is a little crisper than any I found in Naples, but trust me, Giancarlo, that's the way we like it. I usually have either the Margherita or a marinara (made with tomato sauce and anchovies here), but sometimes I get crazy and order the one with prosciutto and arugula. It doesn't matter what pizza you eat at Celeste. They're all delicious. After devouring your pie, it is imperative that you have gelato for dessert at Celeste. They're all made by the mad-genius gelato maker, Gino Cammarata, from the tragically shuttered restaurant Bussola. If you're with a group, have the "porcini mushroom" ice cream, made with hazelnut ice cream and chocolate sauce in the shape of, yes, a porcini mushroom.
CELESTE Location: 502 Amsterdam Ave. (84th/85th), New York NY Phone: 212-874-4559 Ed's Rating: 3 pies (out of a possible 4)
Ed Levine is a regular contributor to the New York Times Dining section and is author of New York Eats and New York Eats More. He also maintains a blog: Ed Levine Eats. This entry is an excerpt from his book Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, published on Slice through special arrangement.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 12, 2005 at 10:54 AM
With reports of homemade-mozzarella-topped pies and a pizza pedigree that comes in part from working with the Nick's empire, it's not surprising that Anthony's is turning out a great Neapolitan pie.
I went yesterday for a late lunch and opted for a margherita, a benchmark I use when trying a new place. With the exception of some tip sag, the pie was excellent. The remarkably light and airy crust exhibited a decent amount of charring and a very nice amount of oven spring, especially evident in the cornichone, the rim of the pizza (above left). It had some chewiness to it, but was softer and more forgiving on the jaw than many other Neapolitan pies I've had lately.
The sauce was noticeably fresh and mildly zesty and the mozzarella was creamy and pleasantly stringy. The overall cheese-sauce ratio was good, but there was some bunching of cheese on one of the slices (which sogged the crust and prevented a nice char on the underside) and only a couple bites' worth on another. But that's not a dealbreaker on the first visit.
Providing a nice finish to each slice was the cornichone, or "end crust," which had a dusting of Parmesan cheese baked into it. Not in a gimmicky way, though. Anthony's might take offense to this, but it tasted like a really good version of Pizza Pretz, a Japanese pizza-flavored snack.
A recent New York magazine blurb on Anthony's opening explains the origin of the name: "[Owner Sal Buglione built the kind of pizzeria he] always imagined surprising his dad with. “We’d pull up, I’d say, ‘Hey, look, Anthony’s, let’s get a pizza,’ then I’d say, ‘This is for you.’ ” ...
We think Anthony Buglione would have been proud of what his sons built.
ANTHONY'S Location: 426A Seventh Ave. (Park Slope; b/n 14th and 15th), Brooklyn NY 11215 Phone: 718-369-8315 Cost: Plain margherita, $11; marinara, $10; white pie, $11 Payment: Paper and plastic The Skinny: Light, airy crust with homemade mozzarella and a fresh, zesty sauce. The 10-inch Neapolitan-style pies taste like small versions of New York's coal-oven heavyweights.
One of Slice's favorite local food writers, Josh Ozersky, checks in with a story on Anthony Mangieri of über-traditional pizzeria Una Pizza Napoletana. Ozersky likens Mr. Mangieri to a young Dom DeMarco, oh he of Di Fara fame.
In his way, this young guy with tattoos covering both arms is a soul brother to the city's greatest and most single-minded pizza maker, Dominic DeMarco of Di Fara pizza in Brooklyn. Neither man seems to have any interest in the world beyond the loving, lingering task of making perfect pizzas one at a time.
Mr. Ozersky describes a UPN pie: "Pliable and elastic, the crust supports tomatoes that pop like a garden salad, and a thin layer of buffalo mozzarella which, thanks to Mangieri's practice of not over-refrigerating the stuff, keeps its extraordinary milky sharpness. Extra-virgin olive oil and oregano round out this concerto of rarefied tastes."
Delicious. It's only 9:30 a.m., and I'm hungry already.
Una Pizza Napoleana Location: 349 East 12th Street, Manhattan NY Cost: $16.95 per pie
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 23, 2005 at 2:00 PM
Dr. Pepper: Peperoncino ("little pepper") recently opened in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Saint Marks Place (above). Owner Nino Gagliardi (top right) makes Neapolitan-style pies in his beehive-shaped wood-fired oven (above left).
PEPERONCINO Location: 72 Fifth Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn, 11217 Getting There: 2/3/4/5/B/D/M/N/Q/R to Atlantic Ave.-Pacific Street complex; walk east to Fifth Ave., then south to Saint Marks Place Phone: 718-638-4760 Hours: Dinner, daily, from 5 p.m.; brunch, weekends, 12-3 p.m. Payment: Cash only
The Village Voice on Peperoncino: "From the oven proceed some of the best Neapolitan-revival pizzas in town, giving Franny's on nearby Flatbush Avenue a run for its money.... If you're in a festive mood, get the signature L'Oro di Napoli ($16), named after a 1954 Vittorio de Sica film in which Sophia Loren plays a two-timing pizza maker. This garlic-strewn and tomato-free pie features two buttery cheeses, with fragments of gold leaf arrayed across the top, which glint in the firelight. The foil is flavorless and chemically inert, so it goes through your digestive system untarnished—look for it the next day before you flush."
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ADAM K. .::. A recent Sunday found your author on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Saint Marks Place, waiting on some friends for "brunch" at Peperoncino, the latest wood-oven pizzeria to open in Park Slope. Through a series of unfortunate events, said friends were late. No worries: It gave me time to grab a cup of coffee and the Post to peruse all the Gates news that was fit to print.
Shortly before 2 p.m. we entered the tasteful wood-clad dining room and easily grabbed a table for five. One bottle of San Pellegrino later, we had decided upon our menu for the afternoon. To start, two salads: the gran fiore rucola (arugola dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and peppered with goat-cheese-enclosed grapes rolled in chopped pistachios) and the insalata dello chef (fennel, corn, celery, tomatoes, and hearts of palm in a lemon dressing). In general, I like to cut to the chase, eschewing salads, soups, and starters in favor of pizza, but I can see one of these salads working its way onto my tab on all subsequent visits to Peperoncino—the gran fiore. Its sweet-and-savory cheese-and-pistachio-covered grapes were absolutely addictive.
For pizza, we decided the five of us could handle six pies. Chef-owner Nino Gagliardi, a native of Naples, produces, no surprise, Neapolitan-style pies. That means small, thin, 10-inch pizzas, which in turn means six of them were by no means in excess. Our pies (below, clockwise from upper left): the Napoletana (tomato sauce, capers, and anchovies), the Margherita (tomato sauce, fior di latte, and basil), the diavola (tomato sauce, fior di latte, and spicy sausage), la bella Italia (a sauceless pie topped with cherry tomatoes, fior di latte, and pesto), the a'ciorta (again, sauceless, topped with smoked fior di latte, eggplant, roasted red peppers, and onions), and the salsiccia e friarielli (fior di latte, sausage, and broccoli rabe).
The five of us were impressed with the crust. While a bit thicker than nearby Franny's, it's still thin by most standards, and our pies all exhibited a perfect crispness while remaining pliable. There were nicely charred bits here and there along the bottom, with little puffy bubbles here and there on top. It's clear that proprietor Nino Gagliardi, who trained in his family's restaurant back in Naples, knows his stuff. Consensus was that la bella Italia was our favorite, with its zippy pesto topping. The Napoletana, the cheeseless anchovy-and-caper pie was the least favorite, judging by the fact that, at meal's end, the only thing left on the table was one lonely slice of this pizza.
This trip was the second of three I've made to Peperoncino in the last two weeks, the latest being this past Friday. The diavola was my favorite on my first visit but was later eclipsed by la bella Italia, the quattro formaggi (four cheese: fior di latte, fontina, Gorgonzola, and Parmigiano), and the pizza do' mare (tomato sauce, calamari, mussels, clams, and shrimp) of subsequent visits. This was primarily because I found the diavola's spicy sausage a little too tame—nowhere near my idea of spicy. The quattro formaggi, on the other hand, uses high-grade cheeses, and the pungent Gorgonzola was creamy and savory. The pizza do' mare (from my Friday visit) was packed with seafood and flavor, with a nice brininess that made up for the mildness of the sauce.
Yes: the sauce was on the mild side. It's fresh, no doubt, but could stand some more seasoning, which might explain our love of the pesto-topped pie. The cheese, though, left me with nothing to complain about. Excellent fior di latte ("flower of the milk") starred on most of our pies, with a few exceptions.
While I thought there could be a few improvements made, Peperoncino's pizzas represent some of the best Neapolitan–style pies I've had lately.
After the meal, S.B., an Italian-speaking member of our lunch crew, stopped by the oven to let Mr. Gagliardi know how much we had liked the meal. During their conversation, S.B. learned the origin of Peperoncino's name. There's an old Neapolitan good luck charm shaped like a horn, Mr. Gagliardi said, while moving pies in and out of the oven or rotating them for even cooking. The horn is a talisman against malocchio, the evil eye, and it just so happens to look like the short, red peppers for which the restaurant is named. So, at once, Peperoncino references cooking and good luck, both of which Mr. Gagliardi hoped he'd have plenty of in his new Park Slope venture.
With the excellent crust and the interesting variety of pies he's serving, his good-luck charm must be working.
Dinage And Signage:The dining room (above left) at Peperoncino is woody and warm, almost like an old ship's captain's quarters or a mountain cabin. One member of our party, an art director by profession, pointed out that she liked the typeface chosen for the restaurant's signs, particularly the curves on the Z's. Oh, those art directors!
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 17, 2004 at 12:31 PM
UNA PIZZA NAPOLETANA Location: 349 E. 12th St. (b/n 1st/2nd aves.) Phone: 212-477-9950 Getting There: Closest train is L at First Ave. Cost: $16.95 a pie, whole pies only. Four types of pies only Payment: Cash only Hours: Thurs. and Fri., 5 p.m. until out of dough; Sat. and Sun., Noon 'til out of dough
Your favorite pizza weblog had its work cut out for it today—or should we say "work sliced out"? When it rains, it pours, dear readers, for there is yet another pizza story in the city's major media today. Following on the heels of Robert Sietsma's Village Voice review of Una Pizza Napoletana is the New York Times's take on the place. In the $25 and Under column, Peter Meehan writes:
The pizzas are made one at a time by Anthony Mangieri, a name you might not immediately attach to the tattoo-covered 33-year-old pizzaiolo working the oven. His two clenched fists are immortalized in a photo on the wall that focuses on the words "Hope" and "Fede," Italian for faith, tattooed across his knuckles. Those are two of the three theological virtues of Catholicism; if the third, cited sometimes as charity or sometimes as love, is written on Mr. Mangieri's body, it is not on display when he is making pizza.
But other signs of his faith are: a cross set into the tile floor of the small dining room and, nearer the entrance, Jesus looking onto a stretch of East 12th Street lighted blue by the neon sign in a window next door....
The main attraction at Una Pizza is the dough, the crust. The 12-inch pizzas, served whole, are made from a dough unsullied by commercial yeast; a piece of leftover dough, salt, flour, water and 36 hours of rising time are all that go into it....
Mr. Mangieri pounds out balls of dough, flattening them into circles with repeated open-palm slaps. The pizzas are dressed lightly and slid into a wood-fired brick oven.
He constantly fuels the fire with split logs, kindling and an occasional pizza peel full of wood shavings that bump the oven up to nearly 900 degrees, the temperature required to cook a pizza in what he says is the proper amount of time: two minutes.
The pizza is on your marble-topped table a second later, too hot to eat. When you do dig in with the fork and flimsy serrated knife provided, you may notice that the pizza's charred bottom leaves a dusting of soot on the plate. The crust is crisp in spots, tender in others, with an appealing elasticity and a reassuring saltiness. The long fermentation imparts the dough with a subtle sourness that gives the pie a well-rounded, complex flavor.
Una Pizza serves four pizzas, period. They are variations on a theme: crushed San Marzano tomatoes color the marinara; real buffalo mozzarella adorns the bianca, and the classic margherita boasts both of those as well as basil. My hands-down favorite is the filetti, essentially a margherita made with a pinch of garlic and fresh cherry tomatoes standing in for the canned. There is nothing else on the menu except bottled water, Italian sodas and a picture of St. Anthony.
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 15, 2004 at 11:08 AM
UNA PIZZA NAPOLETANA
Location:349 12th Street (East Village, b/n 1st/2nd aves.) Nearest train: L Train to First Ave. Phone: 212-477-9950 Hours: Thurs. & Fri., 5 p.m. until sold out of dough; Sat. & Sun., Noon until sold out of dough Payment: Cash only The Skinny: Get there early; proprietor Anthony Mangieri stops making pizza when the day's allotment of dough runs out. For now, it's BYO on the ALCO. No take-out, no delivery.
It took some convincing to get me out to Una Pizza Napoletana last night. I'd already eaten enough pizza for the week: an entire plain pie at Patsy's on Tuesday, then six slices at Patsy's again on Wednesday night. But when co-worker Honey P. reminded me of my plans to visit the new Neapolitan pizza shop that had just moved from Point Pleasant, New Jersey to the East Village—and offered her pleasant company for the excursion—I knew I couldn't shirk my pizza-eating duties.
And, ladies and gents, I'm glad I didn't. Una Pizza Napoletana was amazing. We arrived shortly before 7 p.m., worried there'd be a line. This wasn't the case, but as we stepped into the small, warmly lit space, we didn't see an open seat in the joint. Lucky for us, though, a couple had just gotten up from a four-topper table, and the friendly waiter told us he could seat us immediately if we didn't mind sharing a table with a gentleman who was on line just ahead of us. Hey, we're friendly folks at Slice, so of course we didn't mind.
It turned out that this gentleman had been a longtime regular at Una Pizza Napoletana's former New Jersey location. He and several other regulars had made the pilgrimage into the city to get their hands on some of Anthony Mangieri's (left) pies. That they were aching for Mr. Mangieri's pizza after having been deprived of it during the relocation, well, we took that as a very encouraging sign. Our de facto dining companion told us about Mr. Mangieri's exacting standards, about his passion for producing authentic Neapolitan pizza, about his history as a bread baker before turning his attention to pies, and about how Mr. Mangieri often closed up shop for weeks at a time while he traveled to Naples to hone his technique. "His grandfather owned a popular gelato shop in Newark," he informed us. "So the food business is in his blood."
Indeed, Mr. Mangieri is hardcore. From his menu:
Pizza—a word known all over the world, from New York City to Los Angeles, from Paris to Tokyo. It is a word used to describe many products; deep-dish, cracker thin, stuffed crust, etc. However, the meaning of the word "pizza" has been misunderstood and misrepresented over the years. Pizza only means one thing. It is Neapolitan—the word, the definition, the product. The word is a slang Neapolitan pronunciation of the word "pita." The history of pizza possibly can be traced back to the very beginnings of man and fire. Certainly, the pizza eaten today in the backstreets of Napoli is linked directly to the flat bread baked in Pompeii 2,000 years ago. This said, all the square, round, thick, stuffed and over-topped pieces of dough may be to your liking, but don't call it pizza.
Honey P., our dining companion, and I all agreed that this single-minded focus on doing things right and not cutting corners was to be admired and was exactly what's needed in the New York City pizza world, whether you're a pizzaiolo striving for authentic Neapolitan style or for the more common New York–Neopolitan style.
After about about 20 minutes of conversation, I ducked out to grab some beer at a bodega a couple doors down (Una Pizza Napoletana is BYOB for now, pending a license for wine and beer), and shortly after coming back to the table, our pies arrived. We had ordered the Margherita (San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh basil, and sea salt) and the Filetti (fresh cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh basil, and sea salt). A quick pre-consumption examination of the crust revealed areas of careful charring—just the right amount—distributed across an otherwise crisp golden-brown background. The Margherita itself looked perfect, with dots of creamy melted mozzarella floating atop a bright-red layer of sauce. Fresh basil leaves that appeared to be just-wilted from the wood-fired oven's intense heat were scattered across. The Filetti appeared much the same, except for a smattering of halved cherry tomatoes that promised a burst of sweetness upon bite.
As delightful to the eye as the pies were, we were hungry, so, picking up knives and forks, Honey P. and I dug in. Yes, knives and forks: True to the Neapolitan way, Mr. Mangieri serves his 12-inch pies whole, and it's up to the customer to cut them at table.
The pizzas were stupendous. The crust was crisp and chewy with a pronounced but not overpowering woody flavor that complemented the satisfyingly salty dough. Every bite yielded easily discernable flavors: sweet fresh tomatoes, mild creamy buffalo mozz, and an oil of such an unbelievably high quality that it tasted like liquefied olives.
Remember all the Franny's frenzy of a few months ago? We at Slice predict that Una Pizza Napoletana will garner such praise in the weeks and months to come. As Cindy Adams says, "You heard it here first, kids."
Now let's talk about prices. These pies don't come cheap. At $16.95 per pie, Honey P. and I got out of there after dropping $50 (that's with tax and tip and two orange-flavored sodas, not counting our BYOB bottles of Stella Artois). But, as Mr. Mangieri's menu says (click on the images at top for a larger view), "We have no quarrel with the man who sells a cheaper pizza ... he knows how much his is worth!" Whether Una Pizza's pies are worth the price is up to you to decide. We think they are; we just don't think we could afford them as often as we'd like.
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FURTHER READING
For more on Mr. Mangieri and Una Pizza Napoletana, read this story from the Asbury Park Press. Our de facto dining companion tipped us to it and told us that the reviewer is notoriously hard on local restaurants but raves about Una Pizza.
And, if you haven't done so, click on the menu images above to enlarge them. They contain a history of pizza and explain Mr. Mangieri's pizza philosophy.
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I recall 
The Chicago Reader, the Windy City's preeminent free weekly, recently named 
.
, published on Slice through special arrangement.
One of Slice's favorite local food writers, Josh Ozersky, checks in with a story on Anthony Mangieri of über-traditional pizzeria Una Pizza Napoletana. Ozersky likens Mr. Mangieri to a young Dom DeMarco, oh he of Di Fara fame. 
The main attraction at Una Pizza is the dough, the crust. The 12-inch pizzas, served whole, are made from a dough unsullied by commercial yeast; a piece of leftover dough, salt, flour, water and 36 hours of rising time are all that go into it....
It turned out that this gentleman had been a longtime regular at Una Pizza Napoletana's former New Jersey location. He and several other regulars had made the pilgrimage into the city to get their hands on some of Anthony Mangieri's (left) pies. That they were aching for Mr. Mangieri's pizza after having been deprived of it during the relocation, well, we took that as a very encouraging sign. Our de facto dining companion told us about Mr. Mangieri's exacting standards, about his passion for producing authentic Neapolitan pizza, about his history as a bread baker before turning his attention to pies, and about how Mr. Mangieri often closed up shop for weeks at a time while he traveled to Naples to hone his technique. "His grandfather owned a popular gelato shop in Newark," he informed us. "So the food business is in his blood."
As delightful to the eye as the pies were, we were hungry, so, picking up knives and forks, Honey P. and I dug in. Yes, knives and forks: True to the Neapolitan way, Mr. Mangieri serves his 12-inch pies whole, and it's up to the customer to cut them at table.
