AA's "Fat Flier" Got Whole Row
Ashley Dupre On Tiger Woods' Babes: "At Least I Kept My Mouth Shut"
Same-Sex Marriage Blame Game Aims at Paterson, Addabbo
Wife Tries To Abort And Poison Husband's Lovechild
Rihanna's Random Airport Search
A lot has already been written about Lucali’s, the fledgling pizzeria in Carroll Gardens. Most of the reviews are glowing. I don’t have much to add.
I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is undeniably tasty pizza. It is reminiscent of DiFara’s right down to the unmelted grana padano sprinkled on top (are people into that?) and the long wait. I loved it that the owner stands there making pies out in the open next to his brick oven with all his ingredients laid out for everyone to see.
What concerns me is what this whole thing says about the state of New York pizza. A brand new place opens and within hours, there is a long wait just to get through the door. And every food writer in the city jumps on the story.
This shouldn’t be a story. Lucali’s is good -- very good -- but I wish it had gotten a little lost in a crowd of great pizza places. However, there just isn’t much of a crowd of great pizza places.
So many of the great institutions are not what they used to be. John’s of Bleeker Street seems to have stopped trying. Joe’s of Carmine Street is mediocre at best now. And after exactly one century of making pizzas ringed with deliciously charred, chewy crusts, Lombardi’s decided to start putting their dough through a machine, leaving the edges flat. Like no one was going to notice?
Lucali’s has the advantage of not being old enough for people to start claiming it’s gone downhill. But the last new pizzeria that garnered a buzz like Lucali’s, Una Pizza Napolitana, is now prohibitively expensive. Hopefully, Lucali's doesn't go that route.
Of course, there is still great pizza all over New York. But isn’t “New York pizza” the food New York is most known for (or is it “New York pickles”)? Go to Grenada and every falafel you find will be absolutely amazing. Go to Chicago and every hot dog you eat will make your heart skip a beat (or stop beating entirely). Go to Napoli and every pizza will be perfect. I constantly talk with confused, disappointed tourists who’ve had multiple bad pizza experiences before they meet me, and they can’t understand why. Telling them that most pizza in New York isn’t even good, much less great, feels like telling a Christian child that Santa doesn’t exist.
Lucali’s does gives me hope though. But New York needs about 100 more pizzerias as good or better. This groundswell of interest in and support for a tiny, new pizzeria at the edge of Brooklyn makes me think that this town is hungry, almost starving, for great pizza. I know I am.
Lucali's, 575 Henry Street, Brooklyn 718-858-4086
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
why are we forced to see homeboy eating a slice?
Brooklyn style pizza, boss!
I am folding it like a man.
One great pizza place that doesn't get the hype it probably deserves is Sal & Carmine's on Broadway between 101st and 102nd. They sure make a wonderful slice. Anyone agree? or disagree?
The greedy pizza store owners have resorted to hiring Mexicans to make the pies. That's why "NYC" pizza quality has declined.
The last bastion of great NY pizza is in the outer boroughs and Long Island, where real Paisans still hone their craft.
where can I get a good pizza slice to go for 2.00 that doesn't have a long line in manhattan? It's like all the good pizza places require you to eat a pie at a table with people and shit.
any neighborhood (ie not midtown touristy rays type) pizza joint is significantly better than your average slice outside NYC. we are just spoiled by having the world's best at our doorstep.
pizza tour of brooklyn rocks!
http://velvet-sea.blogspot.com/2006/12/brooklyn-pizza-tour.html
Take me to Two Boots anyday! Nothing like grabbing a couple slices and a beer at GCT and hopping the train for the ride home. They make a good pie, they have a good selection, and they're quick.
I have noticed that Mexicans-making-the-pizza trend. I chalk it up to the fact that Asians seem to have the market cornered on Mexican food now.
Italians need to start making Chinese food to complete the circle.
Sal & Carmine's on upper Broadway does indeed rock in a huge way. Unfortnately, I don't get up there often enough anymore. Great pies of my youth that I recall: the joint on the northeast corner of Spring and about Thompson, and the joint on the NW corner of St. Mark's and 1st. And the place that used to be on the west side of 1st, between 9th and 10th, around the corner from the schvitz. But, I digress.
I grew up on Gloria's in Flushing. Turnover is one of the main ingredients that most places lack. Its also a function of the public not demanding better. They keep buying the same slop day in and day out. The crap hole at 6th Ave and 17th St is a perfect example. Busy all day long in a perfect location, serving garbage in an ungly run down place. Yet the loyal proles continue to prop up the miserable dictator, probably some lexus driving a-hole that lives across a river.
"any neighborhood (ie not midtown touristy rays type) pizza joint is significantly better than your average slice outside NYC"
...unless that place is New Haven, CT.
Sal and Carmine's is great,. I go to Columbia but live farther downtown so it isn't uncommon for me to get off the 1 two stops early for Sal and Carmine's. When I want pizza for lunch I'll even lightfoot it down past Koronet. That's good mile and a half for a slice, so I guess I proved Cabbie's point even though I don't fully agree with it (ever try finding pizza in, say, Baltimore?).
Also, has anyone been to the place right outside the Howard Beach A train/AirTrain to JFK station? Anyone know the name?
I went once on my way out to the airport; pizza served by a paisan, actually his little 12 year old kid. Some French friends of mine were visiting nyc and wanted to get good pizza as soon as they got here. I told them to stop there on their way in. That'll warm a tourist up to new york pizza.
i can't help but soldier on at Rosario's on stanton and orchard, although he's got his crew (i.e. the spanish dudes) trained to make a pretty darn good pie. never enough sauce though, and now i usually add a generous load of garlic and oregano.
Italian NYC neighborhoods, New Jersey, and Connecticut (yes, there are tons of Italians there) are where you have to go to get good pizza. If it's not an old school Italian, it'll probably the generic stuff or some weird ethnic fusion.
the wife and i are going to check this joint out tonight.
again i wonder.. why are we forced to see homeboy grinning food in his mouth every time he posts?
do we get a picture of jen chung ignoring the little red spell check lines? no.
do we get a picture of jake dobkin counting his money? no.
What - not one comment about Domino's new "Brooklyn style" pizza? :) I wouldn't feed that crap to my dog (wait - I don't have one). Also, while out in Chicago on business, I thought I'd try out their infamous pizza's. Ech! I'd rather have Dominos. Gimme a New York pie anyday! I'm spoiled.
It is definitely way too hard to find *great* pizza in New York city. On the other hand, it is very easy to find pretty good pizza, which is more than I can say for most of the rest of the country.
I used to feel disappointed in the overall quality of New York pizza, but after revisiting the pizza places in California that I had considered really superior when I lived there, I realized that the "pretty good" pizza I was eating here was leagues ahead of the California's best pizza offerings.