Entries tagged with 'TheUnaPizzaNapoletana'
Starting November 24: Thursday and Friday, 5 p.m. until sold out of dough; Saturday and Sunday, noon until sold out of dough.
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 3, 2007 at 1:00 PM
"It hurts me, because they act as if I'm trying to get something over on them. I wish I had the nerve to charge $50, because that's what it's worth." —Anthony Mangieri
Michael Bauer, the food critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, has apparently gone pizza mad after eating at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.
The pies there inspired him to talk to some of the acknowledged masters of pizza: Anthony Mangieri (Una Pizza Napoletana, New York), Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix), and Nancy Silverton (Mozza).
Not only that, but readers hungry for San Francisco pies will be pleased to note that Mr. Bauer is launching "Pizza Friday" on his blog; it promises to be a "multimedia feature" that will document his quest to find the Bay Area's best pizzas.
Some choice excerpts from the pizza feature, after the jump.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 1, 2007 at 5:00 PM
In Allure magazine, of all places, there's Anthony Mangierei of Una Pizza Napoletana, telling readers how to find the perfect pizza. An excerpt:
Check out the facilities. When you walk into the restaurant, look for a wood-fire oven—a large brick kiln with a burning fire. The heat it generates cooks the crust perfectly; it will be crispy, yet still chewy and soft, and the ingredients will be cooked just enough for the flavors to combine, but not so much that they lose their form or taste. The place should smell slightly smoky (that's from the oven) and like a really good bakery (that's the dough cooking). But you don't want to smell grease. I know a lot of people associate that aroma with a slice, but trust me, it's not the sign of an amazing pizza.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 3, 2007 at 3:45 PM
New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov takes his two sons to Una Pizza Napoletana in NYC and pronounces both the wine and the pizza A-OK.
Of their kind (traditional Neapolitan–style) Anthony Mangieri's pies are as good as you can get in New York City. People carp about the price (more than $20 for an individual pie), but the fact is that Mr. Mangieri is slavishly devoted to each and every pie that comes out of his oven, and his devotion results in an ethereally light and tangy individual pie. His last-minute Sicilian sea salt shake is a stroke of pizza genius. Mr. Mangieri's individual pizzas are the definition of an affordable indulgence. It's silly to compare it to a slice at Di Fara or a coal-fired pie from Totonno's in Brooklyn. His pizza is simply a completely different animal and should be acknowledged as such.
Una Pizza Napoletana
Address: 349 East 12th Street (just off First Avenue), New York NY 10003
Phone: 212-477-9950
Related: All Slice entries on Una Pizza Napoletana
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 13, 2006 at 2:37 PM
"I don’t particularly care to walk in to a place and watch a guy past his prime “whip” up pizza and (what seemed like the case the last time I was there) who looks bored and careless as to what he was doing. As I mentioned earlier, consistency is something I look for, and the only thing I find consistent about his pizza is that he doesn’t make them all the same. ;) " —Nicky M., on Di Fara
How’s it going, Slice?
I will give you a little history on myself, and offer up my recommendation. My grandfather had two Italian restaurant/coal-oven pizza places in the city and appeared on the radio making pizza to music, or Musical Pizza. I myself, have been making pizza for seven years, most notably working at Villa Bay, which Arthur Schwartz praised for having great food and pizza. Due to having a poor location and terrible parking, my friend Jack had to close the place down.
One thing I found interesting, and really is the way that I came across your website, was your article of Famous Famiglia at Yankee Stadium. I actually worked for Famiglia for two years, and want to note two things.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 30, 2006 at 3:05 PM
The previous post about Ed Levine's top pizza picks drew some emailed and IMed responses that the choices were mostly all coastal and that there were no Chicago joints on it whatsoever. Well, here's a list that ran earlier this month in USA Today. In it, Jeff Ruby, coauthor of Everybody Loves Pizza (along with Penny Pollack), gives the paper his and Ms. Pollack's top spots:
Metro Pizza [four locations, Las Vegas NV; metropizza.com]
"The pizza menu at this gourmet oasis in the desert reads like a map of regional flavors. With grilled shrimp on the New Orleans, barbecued chicken atop the Memphis and pineapple on the Honolulu, there's something for everybody...."
The Cheese Board Pizza Collective [1512 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94709; map]
" 'The Cheese Board is a collective, owned by its members, that brings sustainable agriculture to the pizza table,' Ruby says. Each day the menu, featuring a single sourdough vegetarian pizza, is decided collectively by the group...."
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 30, 2006 at 11:48 AM
Pity poor Ed Levine. When his workday doesn't involve ordering one of each doughnut at a well-regarded New York City doughnuttery, he gets to eat pizza from some of the country's best pizzerias and write about it for Details magazine. His findings cover some familiar ground to readers of Slice and of Mr. Levine's 2005 book PIzza: A Slice of Heaven, but there are some new entries to be savored.
Pizzeria Bianco [623 East Adams Street, Phoenix AZ 85004; map]
"The sauce tastes like a distillation of the ripest tomatoes."
Di Fara[1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY 11230; map]
"... a Di Fara slice has a one-of-a-kind flavor."
Totonno's [1524 Neptune Ave., Brooklyn NY 11224; map]
"Order the white pie, made with ricotta, mozzarella, and enough fresh garlic to ward off a roomful of vampires."
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Posted by DJ Bubbles, October 19, 2006 at 10:05 AM
An interesting item hit the Slice inbox yesterday.
OK guys, put this in your pie and smoke it!
A couple of caveats: The list isn't quite as definitive as it claims to be, as it is missing any critical analysis of Staten Island, Queens, and Bronx joints. When you guys post this on the site (front page, please), perhaps you may want to refer to it as "The Definitive Manhattan and Brooklyn Top 10 List." We've all been to these places enough times to know what's going on and who's coming with their A game and who isn't.
Seltzerboy, as a fellow SU alum, I tried to get in touch with you when I first moved to New York, and I also furnished you with a copy of the Syracuse Pizza Manifesto, another masterwork I coauthored. But to no avail, I never really heard back from you other than a weak Orangeman shout out. We'll take you choads in a pie-off any day of the week! Now, without further ado....
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 27, 2005 at 3:00 PM
With a cover reminiscent of a retro pizza box and contents almost as tasty as the real thing, Everybody Loves Pizza, by Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby, has earned a place on the Slice Bookshelf.
Full disclosure: I know one of the authors. Mr. Ruby and I were in the same journalism program at university. Still, that didn't stop me from turning a critical eye on this book. In fact, my initial reaction when hearing about it was, "Oy! Another pizza book!? What more can be said?"
Fortunately, Penny and Jeff find plenty new to say, particularly with some interesting history and facts that, surprisingly, I haven't read elsewhere. Concerning one of Slice's favorite pizzaioli, Dom DeMarco, for example, the authors tell us that he ends each pizza-filled day by drinking a "$100 bottle of Amarone Valpolicella—he buys 1 bottle a day and 2 on Saturday because the liquor store is closed on Sunday." Who knew!? (More important, how does Dom get himself into work by 7 a.m. after drinking a bottle of fine wine post midnight?)
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 7, 2005 at 9:30 AM
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
photograph by Willie Davis for Newsday
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 10, 2005 at 6:00 PM
This is another week-old one that we neglected to post about during our renovation. The Daily News did a roundup of New York City's best pizzerias last week. As we told Eater, the new foodblog from the folks who brought you Curbed:
A nice roundup, I think. A lot of it is old hat to me, but there were some nice surprises in there, particularly a couple Brooklyn places (Graziella's, Laura's) that have been lurking one or two neighborhoods over from Slice HQ.
Irene Sax knows her stuff, and I agree with most of her assessments, although I don't know why she rated a chain Patsy's on the Upper West Side instead of the original in East Harlem. What's nice here is that they've really done a comprehensive roundup of the best places in each borough instead of picking, say, a top-five or top-ten list. It's a nice piece that's actually useful to anyone in any of the five boroughs.
You really should click through to the article and have a look at Ms. Sax's quick rundowns. For as long as we've been publishing Slice (and probably long before), Sax has been the News's pizza expert.
Here, we'll list Sax's picks and link to our reviews, when possible. When not possible, I, uh, well, I just offer up comments and such willy-nilly. Read on after the jump....
Upper Crust [New York Daily News]
The Boroughs' Best Pizza [Eater]
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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
Slice on Una Pizza Napoletana
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.
Photograph from the New York Times
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 17, 2004 at 11:36 AM
The Village Voice's Robert Sietsma visits newcomers Una Pizza Napoletana and Fornino.
On Fornino:
Fornino takes a historical approach to pizza, dividing pies into three categories melodramatically entitled Naples, the First Generation; Italy, the Second Generation; and Fornino, the Third Generation. I won't bore you with the absurdity of this breakdown, which fancifully assigns pizzas to places. Section one features a nicely charred version of the margherita, the pie that, in 1889, dumped cheese on Naples pizza for the first time. Section-two pies showcase signature ingredients of regional Italian cuisines, with good results in the case of the Siciliana (eggplant, onions, and capers), and with dicier results in the rustica, topped with mushrooms and guanciale (cured hog jowl) that's been sliced and fried like bacon. Bad idea! Dice it and put it on raw, fellas. Section-three pies—ostensibly invented by Fornino—are worthwhile without being wild, though I don't imagine many of you will be sampling the $35 black-truffle pie anytime soon. The modest list of antipasti includes small clams heaped with lemon slices, garlic, and capers ($8), and a weird but wonderful salad of frisée, prosciutto, and dried fruit.
About Napoletana:
While Fornino jovially pursues its own pizza mythology, Una Pizza Napoletana is more fiercely iconoclastic, chasing the true pie of Naples with religious zealotry. In fact, saints' images form an important part of the decor, which also includes wonderful black-and-white photos of old Naples. The menu offers only four pies, each approximately 11 inches in diameter ($16.96), based on Neapolitan models and made with unimpeachable ingredients: organic flour, Sicilian sea salt, imported mozzarella, and San Marziano tomatoes. A generous dose of green olive oil is poured on apres-oven. No salads, no sides, no desserts.
And, about both, in his concluding paragraph:
If good intentions guaranteed perfect pizza, these parlors would be among the city's best. Unfortunately, both suffer from uneven crust quality, and among the 11 pies that I've tasted, too many have been doughy and damp. Both places need more experience with their dough and ovens. Only then can they turn out an approximation of the true pizza.
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.
Photos by Bob Bielk, Asbury Park Press.
