The New York Times has a nice interview with Jim Lahey, of Co., the pizzeria he just might open later this month. It's "Pizza Hut," in that it will be reasonably priced and welcoming, he says, and "Blue Hill," in that it'll be ingredient-driven. So the menu is still a draft. "We'll have six to eight annual pizzas — no, let's say five pizzas we'll do annually, then three seasonal pizzas," Mr. Lahey said, sounding like a student caught off-guard by a pop quiz. "But I'm sure that one of the seasonal pizzas will be topped with freshly shaved... More

Clicking in to the Slice inbox we got this bit of intel from Slice reader and frequent commenter Brian Preston-Campbell. Not sure if anyone else has given you any intel on this, but I was driving back into the city last night and came down Worth Street to turn left onto the Bowery. While I was waiting for my light to change, I noticed that there's a sign in the restaurant window at the corner of Worth and Bowery (in the very heart of Chinatown, mind you) that says, "Coming soon, brick oven pizzeria." I don't have any further details... More

Photograph by *sim* on Flickr You've heard of wood-oven and coal-oven pizza, but now there's lava-rock-oven pizza. In Princeton, New Jersey, next to the Sam's Club there, is a pizzeria using an oven filled with lava rock, in an attempt to achieve superhot, even cooking temps. New Jersey Monthly has the deets on Magma Pizza: Order a slice, and you’ll get a strange oval shaped thin crusted pizza. Try it, and you’ll realize [owner Gabe Mahayni] may just have found the secret. The pizza is light from the grill, no grease or drip, just great flavor so each bite... More

Lahey abandoned the idea of using this pass-through window. It's going to be more of a sit-down restaurant instead, he said. After reading Gael Greene's post about Jean-Georges Vongerichten's involvement in Sullivan Street Bakery founder Jim Lahey's pizzeria, I called Lahey for a clarification. He said that Vongerichten and his partner, Phil Suarez, were investors in his pizzeria but they will have no involvement in either the management or the food being made there. The pizzeria will be called Company, spelled "Co." in the logo. Lahey also told me that the equipment for the pizzeria hadn't arrived yet, and... More

Photograph by Robyn Lee The Westchester County Business Journal has it that Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana is opening a branch in Yonkers, New York. "This will be our first venture outside our home base of Connecticut," said Kenneth Berry, chief operating officer of Frank Pepe's Development Company. He said the company hopes to build three or four more restaurants in Westchester over the next four to five years. William Fonte, of Trifont Realty, said the business partners are looking at sites in New Rochelle, Rye, North White Plains and Port Chester. OK. But are they going to use a... More

While I was in Red Hook on Saturday for the opening day of the Red Hook Vendors, I figured I'd head on over to the supposed site of New York City's next coal-oven pizzeria. Slice posted about this mid June, and at the time the projected opening date for Anselmo's Pizzeria was July 4, according to its website. Looks like it's still got some ways to go, and calls to the number have gone unreturned. I'm guessing the chimney is for the coal-oven. And it looks like Anselmo's website has been updated since I last looked at it. The... More

When I did my Park Slope pizza walk three weeks ago, I noticed a place on Fourth Avenue just past 11th Street that had a new sign and some of those car dealership–type flags. The number listed on the sign was disconnected. Hmm. Was this a just-failed or just-about-to-open pizzeria? Well, I went by the other day, and I'm happy to report that it's an opening. Pizza Grill replaces whatever pizzeria was there before. I can't remember its name. The space is large and clean. Slices cost $2.25. And judging by the slice I had on Thursday, the place... More

When we visited Toby's Public House last week, not only did we pick up on some great pizza, we also picked up a tip to pass on to you. 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.... More