What Pop Burger did for burgers, the new Pizza Bar wants to do for pizza--provide a lounge-y, highly stylized environment in which late night dining and (more importantly?) drinking can occur. By choosing the terrifyingly trendy meatpacking district, the owners (one of whom also owns Pop Burger) have made their mission clear: prey on the young, hungry, and drunken masses. With a full liquor license and operating hours that extend until 4am, Pizza Bar's definitely not your typical by-the-slice pizzeria.
Serving up $5 beers and $14 signature cocktails alongside $10-$15 mini rectangular pizzas (bigger than a standard slice, but not by much), patrons are paying Pizza Bar for atmosphere and location as much as for ingredients. And while Gothamist liked the toppings of the mushroom mascarpone and white truffle oil pizza, we were less impressed with a rather salty tomato, basil and mozzarella pie. Sporting a super-thin crust in the vein of Otto's, these pizzas unfortunately don't have the charred spots on the bottom of the crust that Slice has taught us to look for. The appetizers we tried were also a mixed bag: we loved the "grown-up" mozzarella sticks that contained prosciutto and sage but weren't exactly wowed by the rather puffy, thickly battered fried calamari.
So is Pizza Bar worth the extra money? Not if you already love a late-night greasy slice from the likes of gentlemen named Ray or Ben.
But if you're looking to get your Carrie Bradshaw on, your mini-pizza is waiting.
Pizza Bar, 48-50 Ninth Ave. (bet. 14th and 15th Sts.), ph.: (212) 924-0941
