Best New York Pizza

[ZippyTheChimp]

A note on Sicilian style pizza, not to be confused with sfincione.

There was a place in Brooklyn under the El at 86th St and 23rd Ave called the Reliable Bakery. It's been closed for decades. They would put out a tray of Sicilian at various times during the day. If you timed your visit, it was worth the trip. Sicilian to die for - not the doughy dense stuff you find today, but light, with a slightly singed bottom.

I've never found its equal.

I've heard that L&B Spumoni Gardens, further down 86th St near the Sea Beach subway line, makes good Sicilian. But I only have experience with their spumoni.

[lofter1]

"The Newman" pizza rocks ...

Two Boots has multiple Manhattan locations -- a few downtown plus GCT & Rock Center:

http://www.twoboots.com/frames/TwoBootsMain.html

[lofter1]

In Rome the serve an amazing pizza called "pizza rustica" with a thicker crust -- but not doughy. Baked on a rectangular tin and cut in squares / rectangles. Simple and delicious. Never found anything comparable in the USA.

[BPC]

"The Newman" pizza rocks ...

Two Boots has multiple Manhattan locations -- a few downtown plus GCT & Rock Center:

http://www.twoboots.com/frames/TwoBootsMain.html

The original (or at least what I believe to the original) Two boots in Park Slope made some of the best pizza I've had, but somehow the magic does not translate to the GCT location across the street from my office.

[Schadenfrau]

The original Two Boots was on Avenue A. The branch in Brooklyn opened a few years later.

[Ninjahedge]

TB in GC is OK. The varieties are creative, but overall it is not the best place.

The Pepperoni Square today was not bad, but the crust was a little tough and dough-y. Tasty sauce.

[hungryfrank]

if anyone is intrested you can email me a copy of your favorite pizzeria in new york city and i will post it in and wil;l add it to the map
http://pizzainny,com

[Ninjahedge]

if anyone is intrested you can email me a copy of your favorite pizzeria in new york city and i will post it in and wil;l add it to the map
http://pizzainny,com

Correct the typos and we may visit!

[Ninjahedge]

Me gets tired of waiting.

http://pizzainny.com/

replace "," with "."

[eddhead]

DeNino's in staten Island, (sp?), Road House in Staten Island, Lombardi's in Noho, Angelo's Midtown, Nick's Forest Hills

[pianoman11686]

Traffic-Stopper: Pizza for Less Than a Buck



By JOE BRESCIA
Published: October 17, 2006

IT was almost 1 a.m. on a recent Monday at the corner of 41st Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan where during the weekday rush a conga line of cars, buses and trucks usually snakes around the block inching its way to the Lincoln Tunnel.

At this hour there was also a line of cars, but it had nothing to do with a tunnel backup. It was about the pizza, specifically a small place at that intersection called 99¢ Fresh Pizza. Twenty-four hours a day, the huge white writing on the green awning above the closet-sized spot serves as a beacon for light spenders.

“I’ve never seen pizza so cheap and so good anywhere,” said Shkele Athar, 31, leaning against the bumper of his taxi outside the store, two slices on his plate and a queue of cars idling behind him.

Garbage trucks, police vans, limousines and minivans curled around the block while their occupants went to grab their 99-cent slices. A bus driver coming out of the Port Authority bus terminal was a pizza Pied Piper, leading four people to the store.

Munchers gave a saucy thumbs up to the slices: Firm. Crisp enough. No sloppy cheese.

Behind the counter, three men worked in white soda-jerk caps, dancing a pizza polka in the small space, hustling to keep up. They worked the dough, slipped pies in and out of the oven, balanced paper plates and boxes.

They spoke little English, offering few words but many smiles. And some free stand-up, too. One worker who was asked where he was from said, “Astoria.”

He flashed a grin, then added, “Bangladesh.”

A whirring fan to the left of the oven offered a strange kind of mood music, offsetting the street noise.

99¢ Fresh Pizza, across from a homeless center, provides one answer to the perpetual question asked by sidewalk philanthropists: “What will this needy person really buy with this money?”

A man walking nearby with one crutch asked, “Can I please have a dollar?”

The customers in line paused.

“I want to buy pizza,” the man added.

Three hands reached out, holding bills and change.

So, how can the pizza be such a deal?

Oli Miah, the night manager, smiled but would not talk about the bottom line. “All I can say is, we stress volume to make our money,” Mr. Miah said.

And he was a little concerned about what a newspaper article might bring. “Uh-oh,” he said. “We might have lines all the way around the block if too many people find out.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Fabrizio]

I sometimes like a good greasy, sloppy slice of pizza while in the US but I´ve never had GOOD pizza there. I don´t think it even exists.

A slice of good pizza, made as it should, would probably cost more than anyone would be willing to pay.

You need unclorinated water for the dough, "00" flour which doesn´t even exist in the US ( it´s a slightly harder less absorbant white flour). You need sea salt. The dough has to rise naturally. You need fresh mozzarella. Mozzarella can´t sit around for more than 2 days. And it has to sit in water. It must be sliced, not grated. The dough has to be thrown (spun) to make the pizza. That streches and pulls the dough, rather than squashing it with a rolling pin. Good extra-vergine olive oil. And the tomato. You want tomato canned from San Marzano.

http://www.barifoods.com/information...%20Marzano.htm*

And there are only 2 real pizzas: the "margherita" and the "marinara". A few other combinations can pass but the catch-all toppings I see in the US make those pizzas as authentic as chocolate bagles.

*be sure to scroll down: hot Italian field worker with cigarette.

[eddhead]

I sometimes like a good greasy, sloppy slice of pizza while in the US but I´ve never had GOOD pizza there. I don´t think it even exists.

A slice of good pizza, made as it should, would probably cost more than anyone would be willing to pay.

You need unclorinated water for the dough, "00" flour which doesn´t even exist in the US ( it´s a slightly harder less absorbant white flour). You need sea salt. The dough has to rise naturally. You need fresh mozzarella. Mozzarella can´t sit around for more than 2 days. And it has to sit in water. It must be sliced, not grated. The dough has to be thrown (spun) to make the pizza. That streches and pulls the dough, rather than squashing it with a rolling pin. Good extra-vergine olive oil. And the tomato. You want tomato canned from San Marzano.

http://www.barifoods.com/information...%20Marzano.htm*

And there are only 2 real pizzas: the "margherita" and the "marinara". A few other combinations can pass but the catch-all toppings I see in the US make those pizzas as authentic as chocolate bagles.

*be sure to scroll down: hot Italian field worker with cigarette.

I certainly agree that there is a big difference between the pizza you get in the US vs. what you would get in Rome or Florence, but I would not necessarily suggest the Pizza in the US is not good... it is just different. There is also more variety. The pizza i grew up knowing and loving was pruchased at a "pizza parlor"... it was non-brick/coal oven pizza with semi-thin crust, made with packaged mozzerella and.... quite good actually. Not gourmet, nothing fancy, very greasy, and quite tasty. Among the best I have tasted are Denino's in SI, and Lentos in Brooklyn. Over time we have seen the evolution of other varieties.. thin crust, brick oven, with fresh (yes sliced) mozzerella and optional toppings. Try Lombardi's on Spring Street, I think it is the best Pizza in NYC, and you do not have to get the toppings if you do not want them, the margherita version is outstanding. The big differnce between what you get here vs in Italy is in fact the crust or the dough.. that is true.. but I think it is a pretty fair representation and quite good. Or, you could try Chicago style deep dish pizza, a different but tasty animal altogther, but that is probably best saved for another day.

[Ninjahedge]

I have also had better in certain areas. You go down the shore and the sea salt gets into teh dough somehow (you taste it in almost everything, but moreso in the dough).

Now this is not the chlorinated taste you get in the ice for the over-syruped sodas there, but it is distinctive none the less.

I guess it all depends on what you are in the mood for. Everyone says "oh that is not REAL pizza" but we all have our own definitions of that.

I think the only thing we can all agree on is that there are no real chains that have gotten it right. Pizza Hut was founded by two guys that had 10 minutes of training each. Dominoes is crap, Uno's is over buttered for what you get, and there are at least a dozen other chains that do nothing for the name of "True" pizza.

Now, being raised in NJ, we have our own varieties, and I have to say I liek them as well as the ones available in NYC. Unfortunately, I see some really crappy alternatives coming out. Not saying that hispanic workers canot make a decent pizza, but I would rather have a German Sausage, French Crepe, Mexican Burrito, Spanish Pollenta or Italian pizza made by someone who GREW UP on them. Or at least was trained to be more than a counter guy at a restaurant that was not his lifes asperation...

The good thing? Pizza may be getting $$ and harder to find a decent slice, but other foods (Indian, Thai, Spanish, Mexican) are getting easier to find.

I just hope that some places stick around so I can get my pepperoni fix every now and again...

[Fabrizio]

I go out here for Chinese. Tastes great, but it has little to do with actual Chinese cooking. And that´s really my point. "Real" pizza is quite different from what you might think.

BTW: there´s lots of terrible pizza here too... and you should try an "American style" hambuger here: a lot gets lost in the translation.