I really love pizza. If I had to choose my last meal on earth, it would most probably be an Italian style woodfired marguerita pizza with fresh fior di latte. So finding a great New York-style pizza was a top priority. This style of pizza is well known for its huge slices that have a thin crust, foldable (as it's so large) with lashings of tomato sauce and mozzarella. Our first tasting of New York style pizza was at Lombardi's in Little Italy, a real institution if ever there was one. Gennaro Lombardi was an Italian immigrant who moved to the US in 1897 to open a small grocery store. An employee of his started making pizza for the store to sell and had to adapt the traditional Italian style to America (the wood-fired ovens and mozzarella di bufala were substituted with coal powered ovens and fior di latte) - it became so popular they opened Lombardi's, the first US pizzeria, in 1905. Talk about a place steeped in history! Incredibly, Lombardi's is still as popular as it was 100 years ago, with the restaurant now expanded to the building next door, extra seating installed, the place was buzzing and had queues out the door. The pizza arrived served on a silver platter (see picture above), with a thin crust, light tomato sauce and slices of fresh mozzarella. What a classic! The crust was very thin and actually had black spots underneath due to the coal fired brick oven. Delicious.
Our next New York pizza experience took us completely by surprise. We had just made the move from hectic downtown Manhattan to a new hostel in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I think we all were glad to get out of the craziness of Chinatown and on our first night we decided to stay low key and go to the local pizza place, Roberta's, one of only a handful of places to go to in this mostly industrial neighbourhood. It was freezing cold, grey and miserable and everywhere looked deserted as we walked up to the exterior of the restaurant, an ugly, grey building with a metal door which looked extremely dingy and uninviting (see above pic!). However, stepping inside was another world. The place was packed to the rafters with a friendly, hip, young crowd, families sitting around wooden communal tables, a bright red wood fire oven roaring away, and a cosy bar at the back. A friendly waiter came up to us straight away and said it would be a 15 minute wait, did we want to hang out for a bit? We were very happy to, and soon discovered they had an outside seating area, complete with outdoor bar and backyard tent to keep the cold out. The whole vibe was very warm, cosy, inviting, and the decor was DIY (check out the cute fairy lights!) fleamarket cool - we felt at home at once! Although they offerred a marguerita style pizza, we felt drawn to the Millenium Falco - tomato, parmigiano, pork sausage, garlic, onions, bread crumbs, and basil - and we were well rewarded. This was really one of the best pizzas ever, perfectly balanced array of toppings with a delightful, chewy crust. A simple salad of greens, gorgonzola and roasted walnuts with a bright vinaigrette was the perfect side, as was a bottle of their Italian house red.
Our last New York pizza experience was the very last stop on Famous Fat Dave's epic 4-hour eating tour. The way it works on the tour is that Dave will order a serve at each place, but if we really like it, he is happy to get us seconds, thirds and even fourths if we wanted. As we really had to pace ourselves to make sure we made the most of each tasting, this was never necessary - until we visited L&B Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst, South Brooklyn that is. This place opened in 1939 and specialises in Sicilian-style pizza, thick crust, cut into squares, and topped with mozzarella cheese UNDER the sauce and then sprinkled with grated parmesan. We ordered another slice quick smart. It was that tasty. And then of course we had to try the spumoni. So what the hell's spumoni? It is basically an ice cream that is a cominbation of vanilla, chocolate and pistachio that is both creamy and icy, all served in a tiny little paper cup. Another classic combo.
As you can tell by the scores, I couldn't help but love them all...
Lombardi's, Little Italy 8/10
Spumoni's, Bensonhurst 10/10
Roberta's, East Brooklyn 9/10
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