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#21 Paulie Gee’s

December 4th, 2015

Brooklyn, NY

We see Paulie Gee’s on the list of best pizzas in NYC all the time, so it was near the top of our list to go to. It is tucked away in Greenpoint, although they also have locations all over the country now. I think Paulie Gee has opened at least two new restaurants (Chicago, Miami) since we started this quest. Apparently, he is also going to be opening a slice joint, which will be serving only traditional NY slices. We will have to add that to our list too!

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The restaurant was packed when we showed up with my sister and her boyfriend.  Be prepared for a wait if you come on a Friday evening!

The restaurant itself,  being tucked away in a corner of Brooklyn, is really cozy. You have to walk through a set of big wooden farm doors to enter the restaurant, and then you are seated at wooden farmhouse tables. It’s all very rustic Brooklyn and trendy.

We were able to get four pizzas between the four of us, including this white pizza with garlic and spinach, and the “Arugula Schmoogula”. We also got to try some of meat pizzas, and we’d recommend any of the pies with pepperoni. They probably have one of the best selections of pizzas and flavor combinations that we’ve seen (including vegan pies).

We’d like to go back to Paulie Gee’s, now that we’ve finished the list. We think there are many more good pizzas to try here, and we’d really like to compare them more to some of the others that we’ve been to since last year.

To visit:

Paulie Gee’s
60 Greenpoint Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222

 

Barbara1 Comment

#54 The Cheeseboard and #29 Una Pizza Napoletana

September 16th, 2016

Berkeley and San Francisco, CA

This past weekend we headed out to San Francisco, mainly to eat pizza, but also to celebrate our anniversary (2 years!) and also to visit some friends. We had an early 6:30 am flight on Friday, so we landed in SFO around 9:30 am, with a strict pizza-eating itinerary to follow

Our first stop was The Cheeseboard in Berkeley. This place only makes one pizza a day, and its all vegetarian. The pie of the day had cremini mushrooms, caramelized onion, mozzarella, and fresh goat cheese. All of the pizza options for the week looked really yummy.

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We ordered two pies, since our friend Jamie was joining us, but we ended up having some leftovers. It made a good snack on Saturday! We liked the little extra slices that came on top, and the goat cheese really made it pop.

We wished we could have come back here and tried another pie on this vacation, but we had too many other pizza stops to hit.

 

 

 

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After walking around Berkeley for a while, we met up with our friend Dan, who was kindly letting us stay at his place nearby. We headed downtown to San Francisco to our second pizza stop of the day, Una Pizza Napoletana. Our old friend Dave joined us too, which meant that we got to try even more pizzas!

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This was our first Neapolitan pizza of the weekend, but it wouldn’t be the last. San Francisco apparently makes some really good Neapolitan pies. We tried three different pies here – the Margherita, the Bianca (essentially, a Margherita without sauce), and the Filetti (a Margherita with fresh tomatoes instead of sauce).

We really liked the simplicity of this place – it just made true, Neapolitan pizza, with a limited menu. We hadn’t realized that it started out in our home state of NJ, and had a restaurant in NYC before moving to San Francisco, which is now Motorino.

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Overall, we couldn’t stop talking about the crust on these pies. It was so amazingly fluffy, and it was probably our favorite Neapolitan crust of the entire weekend. What a great start to the weekend! Stay tuned for Parts II and III.

To visit:

The Cheeseboard
1512 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA

Una Pizza Napoletana
210 11th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

BarbaraLeave a comment

101 Best Pizza Places List 2016

As many of you who follow us on Instagram know, we have been working off of the Daily Meal’s 2015 list of the best pizza places in the country. We are very excited to see that the Daily Meal has just come out with it’s new list for 2016!

As of today, we have managed to get to 88 of the pizza places on the 2015 list, and we will finish by November, 2016 (1 year from our start date!). We are excited to add some of these new pizza places on the 2016 list to our upcoming trips!

101 Best Pizza Places (2016) : places in bold are new to the list in 2016!

#101 –Artichoke Basille, NYC, NY
#100 –Area Four, Boston, MA
#99 –Reservoir Tavern, Boonton, NJ
#98 –L&B Spumoni Gardens, Brooklyn, NY
#97 –EVO, Charleston, SC
#96 –O4W Pizza, Duluth, GA
#95 –Loui’s Pizza, Hazel Park, MI
#94 –Lovely’s Fifty Fifty, Portland, OR
#93 –Harry’s Pizzeria, Miami, FL
#92 –Pizzeria Locale, Denver, CO
#91 –Monza Pizza, Charleston, SC
#90 –Providence Coal Fired Pizza, Providence, RI
#89 –Fat Lorenzo’s, Minneapolis, MN
#88 –Hog & Hominy, Memphis, TN
#87 –Pizzetteria Brunetti, Westhampton Beach, NY
#86 –Micucci Grocery, Portland, ME
#85 –Emmy Squared, Brooklyn, NY
#84 –Pizza Brain, Philadelphia, PA
#83 –King Umberto Restaurante and Pizzeria, Elmont, NY
#82 –Gino’s of Long Beach, NY
#81 –J&V Pizzeria, Brooklyn, NY
#80 –Papa’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville, NJ
#79 –Galleria Umberto, Boston, MA
#78 –The Cheese Board, Berkeley, CA
#77 –Pizzaiolo, Oakland, CA
#76 –Capo’s, San Francisco, CA
#75 –Nostrana, Portland, OR
#74 –Via 313, Austin, TX
#73 –The Backspace, Austin, TX
#72 –Pizza Delicious, New Orleans, LA
#71 –Scuola Vecchia Pizza E Vino, Delray Beach, FL
#70 –Pizzeria Paradiso, Washington, DC
#69 – Caserta Pizzeria, Providence, RI
#68 –Pizza Domenica, New Orleans, LA
#67 –Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, Chicago, IL
#66 –Osteria, Philadelphia, PA
#65 –Santucci’s Square Pizza, Philadelphia, PA
#64 –Umberto’s Restaurant and Pizzeria, New Hyde Park, NY
#63 –Williamsburg Pizza, Brooklyn, NY
#62 –Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville, NJ
#61 –Zuppardi’s, West Haven, CT
#60 –Bru Room at BAR, New Haven, CT
#59 –Pizza Rock, Las Vegas, NV
#58 –Gjelena, Los Angeles, CA
#57 –Ken’s Artistan Pizza, Portland, OR
#56 –Zaffiro’s Pizza, Milwaukee, WI
#55 –Vito & Nick’s, Chicago, IL
#54 –Pizano’s, Chicago, IL
#53 –2Amy’s, Washington, DC
#52 –Amore Pizza, Flushing, NY
#51 –Star Tavern Pizzeria, Orange, NJ
#50 –Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizza, Elizabeth, NJ
#49 – Roseland Apizza, Derby, CT
#48 –Mike’s Apizza and Restaurant, West Haven, CT
#47 –Ernie’s Pizzeria, New Haven, CT
#46 –Metro Pizza, Las Vegas, NV
#45 –Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco, CA
#44 –Pizzeria Delfina, San Francisco, CA
#43 –Giordano’s Pizza, Chicago, IL
#42 –Antico Pizza Napoletana, Atlanta, GA
#41 –Nick’s Pizza, Forest Hills, NY
#40 –Emily, Brooklyn, NY
#39 –Colony Pizza, Stamford, CT
#38 –Regina Pizzeria, Boston, MA
#37 –Una Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco, CA
#36 –Flour + Water, San Francisco, CA
#35 –Sotto, Los Angeles, CA
#34 –Piece, Chicago, IL
#33 –Gino’s East, Chicago, IL
#32 –Lombardi’s, NYC, NY
#31 –Al Forno, Providence, RI
#30 –Denino’s, Staten Island, NY
#29 –Speedy Romeo, Brooklyn, NY
#28 –Coalfire Pizza, Chicago, IL
#27 –Varasano’s Pizzeria, Atlanta, GA
#26 –New Park Pizza, Howard Beach, NY
#25 –Santarpio’s, Boston, MA
#24 –Pequod’s, Chicago, IL
#23 –Prince Street Pizza, NYC, NY
#22 –Patsy’s, NYC, NY
#21 –Paulie Gee’s, Brooklyn, NY
#20 –Apizza Scholl’s, Portland, OR
#19 –Buddy’s Pizza, Detroit, MI
#18 –Keste, NYC, NY
#17 –Grimaldi’s, Brooklyn, NY
#16 –Pizzeria Vetri, Philadelphia, PA
#15 –Modern Apizza, New Haven, CT
#14 –Joe’s Pizza, NYC, NY
#13 –Pizzeria Mozza, Los Angeles, CA
#12 –Pizzeria Beddia, Philadelphia, PA
#11 –Louie and Ernie’s, Bronx, NY
#10 –Rubirosa, NYC, NC
#9 –Lucali, Brooklyn, NY
#8 –Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix, AZ
#7 –Sally’s Apizza, New Haven, CT
#6 –Motorino, NYC, NY
#5 –Totonno’s, Brooklyn, NY
#4 –Roberta’s, Brooklyn, NY
#3 –Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, New Haven, CT
#2 –John’s of Bleecker Street, NYC, NY
#1 –Di Fara, Brooklyn, NY

We are generally happy with this list, and for the most part, we think it improves on last year’s list, although we had some favorites that didn’t make it this year. Pepe’s (our personal favorite) is no longer #1, but we think that this is fair after having now been to Di Fara. As you may have seen in our previous post, we also are big fans of John’s of Bleecker.

We are really excited to see that the top list of restaurants has stayed the same and there are no new additions to the list in the top 20, and only 6 in the top 50 that weren’t on the 2015 list! We are also excited to see some new places to check out in NYC, Brooklyn, Philly, and NJ!

Major movers: Pizzeria Beddia (went from #83 in 2015 to #12 in 2016, a move that we fully support), Pizzeria Vetri (from #88 in 2015 to #16 in 2016, a move we aren’t too sure about), Roseland Apizza in New Haven (from #84 to # 49, also a good move, in our opinion), Rubirosa (from #41 to #10, but we don’t think that this should be top 10)

Places that dropped: Flour + Water (from #6 to #36, we haven’t been here yet), and Lou Malnati’s (#25 to #67). Also Pequods, which was our favorite deep dish in Chicago, is now out of the top 20 (went from #15 to #24), although Chicago has a few new additions to the list that probably should have also been on last year’s.

Places that didn’t make 2016’s list that we miss: Pizza Moto (was ranked #77 in 2015, and should have been ranked again in 2016), both Tony’s Place and Tacconelli’s  in Philadelphia (were ranked #97 and #63), Co. (was ranked #18), and Ernesto’s in Boston (was ranked #74). These were all places that made it very high on our personal lists, and didn’t make it in 2016.

As always, let us know if you have some new places for us to try, whether they are on this list or not! We are always looking for new places to go to!

BarbaraLeave a comment

Our quest to find the best pizza in america

This past year, we started the ambitious quest of hitting the 101 Best Pizza Places in America, as named by the Daily Meal. While we have kept an Instagram account of our adventures (@101bestpizzaplaces), many of our stories have not been shared. So, we have started a blog to chronicle our quest to eat the best pizza around the country.

Some background on us, and our love of pizza:

Like most kids, we grew up on pizza delivery. Barb’s family always ordered Domino’s, and Eric has always loved Pizza Hut. And while we no longer eat from chain pizza restaurants, this is not because we don’t like their pizza! In fact, we both agree that one of the best meals we have ever eaten was at a Pizza Hut in Maui, Hawaii, after we both realized that we had gone 12 hours without eating (due to cross-country flights).

Our love of pizza grew into an obsession when Barb moved to New Haven, CT for graduate school. Pepe’s immediately became our favorite spot for a Sunday lunch or Friday night take out, although we quickly learned that it is hard to find bad pizza anywhere in New Haven. In the five years Barb lived there, we tried as many different pizza places as we could, and it became a hobby for us.

Today, we live in New Jersey, and both work in Manhattan. We make it a weekly goal to try a new pizza place in NYC, and it seems that we will never run out of options here!

Finding the best pizza in the US

So this leads us to our current quest. Last year we came across this list of the best pizza places in America, and Barb brought up the idea to visit them all to Eric, not really thinking that we would end up taking it seriously. But since last November, we have found ourselves constantly traveling to accomplish our goal. It has been fun and exhausting, but we are still not sick of pizza! How did we know that this list was legitimate and trustworthy? Well, #1 on the list was our personal favorite, Pepe’s Pizza in New Haven.

If you are interested, we have attached the entire list below. And feel free to leave us comments on your favorite pizza places across the country!

#101 – Ghigiarelli’s, Old Forge, PA
#100 – 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria, LA, CA
#99 – Piece, Chicago, IL
#98 – Artichoke Basille, NYC, NY
#97 – Tony’s Place, Philadelphia, PA
#96 – Micucci’s Grocery, Portland, ME
#95 – Pizzeria Locale, Boulder, CO
#94 – Pizza Delicious, New Orleans, LA
#93 – The Backspace, Austin, TX
#92 – Cane Rosso, Dallas, TX
#91 – Zaffiro’s Pizza, Milwaukee, WI
#90 – Pizza Man, Milwaukee, WI
#89 – Tarry Lodge, Port Chester, NY
#88 – Pizzeria Vetri, Philadelphia, PA
#87 – New Park Pizza, Queens, NY
#86 – Margot’s, Brooklyn, NY
#85 – Sal’s Pizza, Mamaroneck, NY
#84 – Roseland Apizza, Derby, CT
#83 – Pizzeria Beddia, Philadelphia, PA
#82 – Star Tavern Pizza, Orange, NJ
#81 – Pi, St. Louis, MO
#80 – Otto Pizza, Portland, ME
#79 – Punch Neapolitan Pizza, St. Paul, MN
#78 – Amore Pizza, Queens, NY
#77 – Pizza Moto, Brooklyn, NY
#76 – Area 4, Cambridge, MA
#75 – Ernie’s Pizzeria, New Haven, CT
#74 – Ernesto’s, Boston, MA
#73 – Pizza Rock, Las Vegas, NV
#72 – Brooklyn’s Pizza, Hackensack, NJ
#71 – Metro Pizza, Las Vegas, NV
#70 – Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant, LA, CA
#69 – Double Mountain Brewery, Hood River, OR
#68 – Pizzeria Uno, Chicago, IL
#67 – Domenick and Pia’s, Waterbury, CT
#66 – Osteria, Philadelphia, PA
#65 – Home Slice Pizza, Austin, TX
#64 – Ken’s Artisan Pizza, Portland, OR
#63 – The Original Tacconelli’s Pizzeria, Philadelphia, PA
#62 – Pizzaiolo, Oakland, CA
#61 – Bru Room at BAR, New Haven, CT
#60 – Pizzeria Lola, Minneapolis, MN
#59 – Hog & Hominy, Memphis, TN
#58 – Matchbox, Washington, D.C.
#57 – Zuppardi’s, West Haven, CT
#56 – Lee’s Tavern, Staten Island, NY
#55 – Coppa, Boston, MA
#54 – The Cheese Board, Berkeley, CA
#53 – Gino’s of Long Beach, Long Beach, NY
#52 – Regina Pizzeria, Boston, MA
#51 – Colony Pizza, Stamford, CT
#50 – Pizzeria Paradiso, Washington D. C.
#49 – Harry’s Pizzeria, Miami, FL
#48 – Galleria Umberto, Boston, MA
#47 – Providence Coal Fired Pizza, Providence, RI
#46 – Serious Pie, Seattle, WA
#45 – Varasano’s, Atlanta, GA
#44 – Pizza Domenica, New Orleans, LA
#43 – Sotto, LA, CA
#42 – Emily, Brooklyn, NY
#41 – Rubirosa, NYC, NY
#40 – Gjelina, LA, CA
#39 – Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville, NJ
#38 – Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza, Washington D. C.
#37 – Umberto’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, New Hyde Park, NY
#36 – Santpario’s, Boston, MA
#35 – Denino’s, Staten Island, NY
#34 – Pizzeria Delfina, San Francisco, CA
#33 – 2Amy’s, Washington D.C.
#32 – Al Forno, Providence, RI
#31 – Lorenzo’s and Sons, Philadelphia, PA
#30 – Lombardi’s, NYC, NY
#29 – Una Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco, CA
#28 – Lucali, Brooklyn, NY
#27 – Apizza Scholls, Portland, OR
#26 – Antico Pizza Napoletana, Atlanta, GA
#25 – Lou Malnati’s, Chicago, IL
#24 – Keste, NYC, NY
#23 – Grimaldi’s, Brooklyn, NY
#22 – John’s of Bleeker Street, NYC, NY
#21 – Paulie Gee’s, Brooklyn, NY
#20 – Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco, CA
#19 – Motorino, NYC, NY
#18 – Co., NYC, NY
#17 – Gino’s East, Chicago, IL
#16 – Patsy’s, NYC, NY
#15 – Pequods, Chicago, IL
#14 – Totonno’s, Brooklyn, NY
#13 – Modern Apizza, New Haven, CT
#12 – Papa’s Tomato Pies, Robbinsville, NJ
#11 – Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix, AZ
#10 – Joe’s, NYC, NY
#9 – Coalfire Pizza, Chicago, IL
#8 – Buddy’s Pizza, Detroit, MI
#7 – Louie and Ernie’s, Bronx, NY
#6 – Flour + Water, San Francisco, CA
#5 – Sally’s Apizza, New Haven, CT
#4 – Pizzeria Mozza, LA,CA
#3 – Roberta’s, Brooklyn, NY
#2 – Di Fara, Brooklyn, NY
#1 – Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, New Haven, CT

BarbaraLeave a comment