#84 Roseland Apizza

May 18th, 2016

Derby, CT

Do you remember back in this post when I mentioned that Eric and I tried to hit the top 20 best pizza places in New Haven county a few years ago? And that we made it to 18/20 before we moved out of CT and into NJ? Well, Roseland Apizza was one of the two that we didn’t make it to. Not that we didn’t try. One Saturday we drove all the way out to Derby for lunch, only to realize that we hadn’t checked the opening hours. Of course, it didn’t open until 3 pm.

 We were really excited to see that Roseland made the Daily Meal’s list, because it gave us an excuse to go back there. We had the chance last May, when I was driving back from a work event in Boston. Eric took the train out to Milford, where I picked him up and we made it to Roseland for dinner.

The drive had been long, and we got to Derby on the later side, which was actually good because we only had a short wait for a table. We were amazed that it was so packed, even at 8 pm!

We ordered a regular New Haven-style tomato pie. It is hard to say that any tomato pie is as good as Pepe’s or Sally’s, but this one certainly comes close. The pizzas here are round, not oblong, like those at the two Wooster Street greats. The crust is crispy and holds up to the amazing amount of tomato sauce, and the pizza is sprinkled with the perfect amount of grated cheese. It really doesn’t get any better than this.

What made this pizza stop even more memorable was that this was the first place that we were recognized! Roseland pizza followed our Instagram from the very beginning, and they actually knew who we were when they sat us! They also knew we were from New Haven, and it was great to talk to them about how amazing New Haven pizza is. We were glad to be able to give them a raving review.

(By the way, we still rarely get recognized. You’d really think we’d be famous by now.)

We’d agree that this is the most underrated pizza in New Haven. It definitely ranks in our top 5 in CT, and above some of the “classics”, like Modern. We haven’t tried the clam pie to compare, but that just means we’ll have to go back.

To visit:

Roseland Apizza
350 Hawthorne Ave
Derby, CT 06418

#101 Ghigiarelli’s

May 14th, 2016

Old Forge, PA

Has anyone heard of Old Forge, PA? When we first read through this list, we had no idea where it was. Ghigiarelli’s is the only pizza place on the list that is not located in a major city in the US. As it turns out, Old Forge is not too far from Scranton (about 5 miles), which isn’t too far from us in NJ. So we decided to take a drive.

Old Forge likes to call itself the “Pizza Capital of the World”. Being the pizza fans that we are, we had still never heard of it. As we drove through the town, though, we realized why it goes by that phrase. It started as a coal mining town, but then in the 1960’s and 1970’s, when the big businesses closed, it turned to pizza. Ghigiarelli’s was the first pizza place to start serving “Old Forge style” pizzas. Now, the town has over a dozen pizzerias – all to serve the population of just under 9,000 and all within about 3 square miles of each other.

The pizzas are all essentially the same, with slight variations. The crust is rectangular and crispy, baked in a tray. You can order a “red” tray or a “white” tray (never a “pie”). And just to make it more confusing, it is called a “cut”, not a “slice”.

We got to Ghigiarelli’s shortly after their Facebook page said that they were open. They didn’t have a regular website, and when we showed up at the door it was closed. We were sure that we had the right place, but no one seemed to be around to let us in. So we called the number on the Facebook page, and luckily someone picked up! Turns out they were open but they had forgotten to open the doors. Phew.

The hostess then asked us if we wanted a “red or white tray”. A white tray is more like a calzone, with crust on bottom and top, folded over, with a bunch of garlicky cheese inside. While that sounded pretty good, it also sounded very filling. So we went with the red, which had a good topping of sauce and a blend of cheeses. The sauce had plenty of chunks of onions in it. It actually reminded us of frozen Ellio’s pizza, but with a crispy crust. Or maybe more like the pizza we used to have in the cafeteria in high school, although a bit more fresh (and not like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for hours).

There certainly isn’t anything like this style of pizza anywhere else. While Detroit-style pizza is now becoming trendy in NYC and elsewhere, Old Forge-style hasn’t quite made it out of Old Forge. We actually liked the crust as an alternative to Sicilian crust, the sauce was slightly peppery and sweet, and the cheese mixture seemed to work fine, although it wasn’t our favorite.

Of course, we could see why the Daily Meal had to rank at least one Old Forge pizza on the list, since it is the “Pizza Capital of the World”. We would never have tried this style otherwise! It would be fun to go back and compare Ghigiarelli’s with a few of the other Old Forge pizzerias. Especially now that we just saw that Ghigiarelli’s is permanently closed. Apparently, the owner went missing! From what I can see, he still hasn’t been found and the pizzeria has been closed since his disappearance in January.

To visit (if it ever re-opens):

Ghigiarelli’s
511 S Main St
Old Forge, PA 18518

We Went on Scott’s Pizza Tours!

June 11th, 2017

New York, NY

Some of you may be familiar with Scott from Scott’s Pizza Tours. We’ve known about Scott for AGES. He personally knows EVERYONE making pizza in NYC, and his instagram is constantly reminding us about all of the pizza places that we have yet to try. He pretty much has our dream job: eating pizza, talking about pizza, and having people actually listen to him talk about pizza. He’s even starred in a documentary about pizza.

So even though we knew all about Scott, and he (sort of) knew about us because he followed our instagram, we had never personally met him or been on one of his famous tours. For Eric’s birthday gift this year, I got us tickets to one of the Sunday tours. Scott always leads the Sunday bus tours but he has other pizza-dork/tour guides to run some of the weekday walking tours.

So, a few weeks ago we found ourselves running from the World Trade Center PATH station up to the start of the tour at Lombardi’s. The PATH had been super delayed that morning, and we REALLY didn’t want to miss the beginning of the tour.

It is lucky that we are pretty quick runners (even in sandals) and we made it to Lombardi’s JUST at 10:30, as Scott was introducing the tour and telling us how much pizza we would be eating that day.

At each of the four stops, we’d get a slice of pizza. We were looking forward to trying the pizza at Lombardi’s again. We had stopped there earlier last year and hadn’t been too impressed.

We got to check out the super old coal oven that Lombardi’s uses to cook its pizzas as we walked back to our seats. It was looking like it had seen better days, but it still cooked the pizzas just perfectly!  We noticed some differences in the pizza since the last time we came. The sauce was slightly different and the size of the pizza was different too. But we weren’t too concerned with the smaller slices, since we knew we’d be eating plenty of pizza over the course of the day.

We hopped on the bus and headed uptown to Patsy’s. This was another place that we had been to before and we really liked. If you remember from our previous post, Patsy’s was ranked in the top 20 on the Daily Meal list. Unfortunately for us, it is located all the way up in Harlem and we never make the trip back. We were glad that the bus took us all the way there so that we could try it again!

Patsy’s was the same as we remembered. A little more sauce, a little more cheese, a more NY-style crust than Lombardi’s. Patsy’s also makes a coal oven pizza, and it was fun to be able to compare it with Lombardi’s with back-to-back tastings!

Our third stop on the bus tour was all the way up in the Bronx, another area of the city that we don’t travel back to often for pizza. Mario’s Restaurant on Arthur Ave is in the “Little Italy” area of the Bronx, and it doesn’t seem to be known for its pizza since they have an extensive regular Italian menu. We could see why Scott included it on his tour after trying it, though. It was Eric’s favorite style of pizza. Smaller slices, again, but with a good crunch on the crust and a really flavorful combination of cheeses.

We had a quick laugh because at Mario’s they cook the pizza AFTER they add the basil (unlike pizzerias like Di Fara, where it is added after it comes out of the oven). Scott had just told us that this is one of his pizza pet peeves. We didn’t think it altered the flavor too much, though, and the pizza still tasted really good. But we definitely tasted the crispy, almost-burnt basil.

Our last stop on the bus was also up in the Bronx. Eric and I remember taking the looooong subway ride out to Louie & Ernies over a year ago. We thought it was a good slice then, but we wouldn’t have ranked it in the top 10.

We really liked the outdoor seating here, which we hadn’t gotten to sit at before! For all of the pizzas so far, Scott had ordered a regular classic cheese pizza, but Scott also ordered a sausage pie here. If you remember from my previous post, Louie & Ernie’s is known for their sausage pizza. Eric chipped in a couple of dollars for a slice, but I was happily full with my one slice of plain.

These slices were better than we remembered.  We finished and then headed back on the bus for the ride back to Manhattan. Scott entertained us with some more pizza stories and his pizza music playlist and answered everyone’s questions about pizza on the drive back.

You’d think that we were full at this point, but with all of the bus rides between the different pizzerias we were probably only averaging one slice per hour. So we stopped and got Mr. Softee ice cream from the truck on the way back to the PATH.

 

I think Eric enjoyed his birthday trip! We are definitely considering going on another pizza tour, especially if we can stop at some places that we haven’t been to yet. Even though we knew most of the random pizza facts that Scott told the group, we definitely learned a few things (like not to put basil on pizza pre-baking!). We would also recommend to everyone to try out one of the tours if you have a free day in NYC.

    

#78 Amore Pizza

May 13th, 2016

Queens, NY

We all know that every good strip mall has a good pizza joint in it. Good, but not 101 Best Pizza Places-good (usually). Our favorite growing up was Nick’s Pizza and we’d always stop there for a quick slice on a lunch break at work or for a quick Friday night dinner date. Until we went to Amore Pizza in Queens, we didn’t know that there were any “strip mall pizzerias” on the list.

We went to Amore Pizza on a Friday evening. I was coming back from a conference out in Cold Spring Harbor, and Eric took the subway all the way out to Queens to meet me. I ended up getting there early (or actually, I think Eric’s subway was delayed) and I had serious doubts that I was in the right place. The pizzeria is located in a strip mall next to a Stop & Shop, near a McDonalds, a Carvel, and a couple of Chinese restaurants.

Once we walked in, though, we knew we had it right. These slices just looked too good. We both ended up ordered a couple of plain slices. These had a thinner crust than other NY slices, and were loaded with piping hot cheese and sauce. Oozing would be a good word.

These were good slices, especially if you are a fan of a cheesy, oily, drippy slice. There are no frills here, and we didn’t even think about getting anything but the cheese slice. We’d certainly come back if we were driving through and needed a bite to eat because it is right off the exit from the highway.

Would we sit on the subway for 1.5 hours to get out to Flushing from Manhattan for these, though? Probably not. I’m pretty sure that Eric was glad that I had my car and we could avoid a subway ride back into Manhattan. I did make him drive us home because the traffic was pretty bad by the time we were ready to leave, and Eric is a much more patient traffic-driver than I am.  But at least our stomachs were happy.

To visit:

Amore Pizza
3027 Stratton Street
Flushing, NY 11354

#98 L&B Spumoni Gardens

June 22, 2017

Brooklyn, NY

Last week we hit the last stop in NYC from the 2016 Daily Meal list, L&B Spumoni Gardens. We had been putting a visit here off because 1.) it was the last place on the list in New York and 2.) it is ALL the way out into Brooklyn and not the easiest or shortest subway ride.

The pizza here is different than other slices of pizza in NYC. Sure, they have regular “round” slices, and we tried a couple of those. But that isn’t why you come here. You come for the “square”. And maybe also for the ice cream.

For these squares, the sauce goes on top of the cheese. The crust is thick like a Sicilian should be, and has a nice crunch to the edges and the bottom. We got lucky and they were just taking a new tray of slices out of the oven when we walked up, so ours were piping hot and delicious.

The regular slices were also good. We wouldn’t rave about them, but if a Sicilian slice isn’t your thing, you won’t go wrong by ordering a regular cheese slice here. The “round” slices were a bit smaller than a slice from a generic NY slice shop and they were on the thinner side, but had a good sauce:cheese ratio.

You probably know by now that we love a good, saucy pizza slice, and that is exactly what L&B gave us. We would rank this one higher than #98, but we are glad that it made it on to the 2016 list because it is known as a NYC classic. You really should hike all the way out on the N to Bensonhurst to try it. Although, if you are heading all the way out in that direction, you may as well go one stop further to hit Totonno’s in Coney Island. But then you should stop back here for ice cream on your way home, because the creamsicle soft serve is awesome!

This is very close to being our favorite square slice, but we think that Miccuci’s Grocery in Portland, ME still is in the lead for that one.

PS: Does everyone else know what a “spumoni” is? We didn’t, so we googled it. They also serve spumoni here (in case you couldn’t tell by the name). We’ll have to check that out next time.

To visit:

L&B Spumoni Gardens
2725 86th St
Brooklyn, NY 11223

#53 Gino’s of Long Beach

May 7th, 2016

Long Beach, NY

One rainy day last May, we took another drive for pizza. This time, we went out to Long Beach, which is just south of Long Island, for a stop at Gino’s of Long Beach. We had been putting this one off because even though it was rated decently high on the list, it is not easy to get to Long Beach from NYC, and it is almost a 2 hour drive from home in New Jersey.

While we usually don’t mind driving for pizza, we do try to make a day out of our longer drives. We didn’t really find anything else to do besides eat pizza down in Long Beach, since actually going to the beach was out of the question in the rain. So we drove there, ate some pizza, and drove home. We apparently had nothing better to do on our Saturday.

We got there for a late lunch, and decided to just order a variety of slices. We tried a mozzarella and tomato slice, a buffalo chicken slice, a regular Grandma slice and an eggplant Sicilian slice. As usual, we were split on our favorites here between the Grandma and the eggplant.

Some people are really against eggplant on pizza, but we love it. We definitely prefer when the eggplant isn’t breaded and fried on pizza, though, which is traditionally done at places like Modern. We prefer it sliced thin and fresh, like it was on this Sicilian slice.  The cheese on these slices was a little bland, but the crust was nice and crispy and the sauce was fresh, so we’d say the slices were solid.

Gino’s was ranked as high as #32 in 2014, but has dropped a bit to #53 in 2015, and is #82 now in 2016. We don’t doubt that these are likely the best slices in Long Beach (although we’ve also heard good things about West End Pizza), and we all know that pizza tastes the best after a few hours sitting by the ocean. We don’t think that they are as good as some of the slices we’ve had in the boroughs of New York, though.

To visit:

Gino’s of Long Beach
16 W Park Ave
Long Beach, NY 11561

#69 Double Mountain Brewery & #64 Ken’s Artisan Pizza

April 26th, 2016

Hood River & Portland, Oregon

We stayed overnight in Portland, and woke up early the next morning to drive out to Hood River, which took us a little over an hour. We were excited to get in a day (or, half day) of hiking! We ended up hiking the Angel’s Rest-Devil’s Rest Loop, which was on the way out to Hood River. After our morning of hiking, we were looking forward to some pizza and beer at Double Mountain Brewery.

We walked in to the tap room and it was pretty empty, so we grabbed a nice seat right by the open window. The weather was amazing. We quickly ordered our beer (for Eric) and cider (for Barb).

I’m not sure how this brewery got known for its pizza, but they had a great selection of pies on their menu. We had a hard time decided which to go for, and ultimately chose the special of the day, which was a white pie with asparagus, roasted red peppers, and plenty of cheese. It was a really good choice, especially with a side of the chips and salsa.

 

The pizzas here are also “New Haven-style”, in that they are cooked around 700 degrees to a nice char. The style is also similar to Apizza Scholls, and I think the main reason that both of these places don’t get full “New Haven” marks is because they aren’t quite as charred and aren’t quite as thin. At least as compared to Pepe’s, Sally’s, Modern, and BAR. I guess that they are more similar to other “New Haven” pizzas, like those at Zuppardi’s.

  

We really enjoyed these beers and pies, and the hiking! We had one more stop on the list that we saved for our last dinner before we drove back up to Seattle. This was Ken’s Artisan Pizza, and we met up with our friend Travis a bit on the early side for dinner, on our way out of town. This ended up being perfect timing, though. Apparently Ken’s Artisan can have quite a line, even on a weeknight.

Ken’s Artisan pizza started out as a Monday pizza night at Ken’s Artisan Bakery, which became so popular that Ken started his own pizzeria. You can’t get a reservation, but they do have take-out a couple of nights a week. The pizzas here are Neapolitan-like, but a little less doughy and a little more charred. Definitely artisan, with the wide variety of specialized toppings.

The pizzas here are wood-fired, and we ordered a Margherita and one with Soppressata. Both were really good, with a sweeter sauce and not too much cheese. The crust held up nicely to the toppings.

We recognized Ken from his book, and if you are interested in trying to make his pizza at home, the recipe is here. We will have to give it a go and will let you know how it turns out (although we doubt that it will be as good as the original!).

We’re off the next couple of weeks to a trip around Norway and Sweden! We will certainly be eating pizza there, and will pop back in with a couple of posts when we return to the US.

To visit:

Double Mountain Brewery
8 4th St
Hood River, OR 97031

Ken’s Artisan Pizza
304 SE 28th Avenue
Portland, OR 97214

#27 Apizza Scholls

April 25th, 2016

Portland, OR

While we were staying in Seattle, we took a quick side trip up to Portland. Our friend Dave kindly leant us his car, and we drove up to see our friends Arron and Amanda, who had recently moved to a house there from New Haven. We got there around mid-afternoon and we were easily able to convince our friends to go for dinner at Apizza Scholls.

 

With all four of us having spent time in New Haven, we are pretty harsh pizza critics. We decided to order one of the New York Red pizzas, and another one with sausage and peppers. The New York Red was probably our favorite, although the sausage pie was also solid.

Apizza Scholls is said to be the best pizza in Portland, although they do have some limitations on how many toppings you can get on a single pie (3 ingredients, no more than 2 meats). We didn’t have a problem with this. To us, simpler is often better.

 

The style of this pizza is very similar to what you would find in New York or New Jersey.We’ve seen a few reviews referring to this pizza as “New Haven-style”. Well, sorry everyone, but this is not New Haven style pizza.

The story is that the owner, who was traditionally a bread maker, couldn’t find any pizza that he liked in Portland, so he started Apizza Scholls (originally named Scholls Public House) in 2004. The style of pizza was modeled after the NY greats: Totonno’s, Grimaldi’s, and Patsy’s. All of these NY pizzerias serve coal-fired pizzas, but Apizza Scholls actually bakes their pies in an electric oven. Hey, whatever works! We honestly couldn’t tell the difference.

The sauce on the New York Red was really good, and the crust was amazing. Probably better than the crust at Grimaldi’s or Patsy’s (but maybe not quite as good as Totonno’s). Somehow, they managed to get that awesome char on the crust with an electric oven.

We thought that this was a great first stop in Portland, and we would 100% come back here again. After looking at these photos again, I think we need to plan another trip back to Portland ASAP.

 

To visit:

Apizza Scholls
4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, Oregon 97215

#50 Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizza

May 12th, 2017

Elizabeth, NJ

We were excited to see another New Jersey pizza place break on to the 2016 101 Best Pizzas list, in part because it meant that we wouldn’t have to drive across the country to try it! Santillo’s is located in Elizabeth, NJ, not far from Newark airport, and it took us about half an hour to drive there last Friday after work from our house. I made Eric drive, because I always manage to get myself lost driving around Newark airport.

Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizza has probably the most unique menu we’ve seen. Instead of specialty pizzas and toppings, they list the style of pizza by date, giving you a pizza timeline. There is the 1948 style tomato pie, with no mozzarella and just grated cheese. You have the 1964 classic style, which gets a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of parmesean that was popular back then. The 1990’s style has a thin, soft crust.

You can also specify how well done you like your crust, from “6 minutes – soft” to “10 minutes – brown/black”. You can order any pie as a round pie or Sicilian. And you can add whatever toppings you’d like, at $4 a pop.

We went with a 1960’s style pizza, which has “less cheese, more sauce”. The crust was thin and crispy, and the sauce was so good. We got half with spinach, because Eric doesn’t like to keep anything plain. We almost went with the lasagna pie because it looks so good in pictures, but we were more intrigued by the different years and styles.

   

They make their pizzas to go, so there isn’t any seating inside. We were worried that the pizza wouldn’t be as hot if we took it all the way home, so we found a parking lot on the back of the building and sat and ate our pizza there.

The pizzas reminded us a bit of the pies at Star Tavern, and it is hard to say which pies we liked better. Next time we come, we’ll have to remember to bring our own beach chairs so we don’t have to sit on the ground. This will become a regular in our pizza rotation, I think, although I’m not sure that we will ever have the restraint to wait until we get home to eat it.

 

To visit:

Santillo’s Brick Oven Pizzeria
639 S Broad Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07202

 

#100 800 Degrees & #40 Gjelina

April 17th, 2016

Los Angeles, CA

After all of the biking on LA Day 1, we (Eric) were very excited to be able to walk to the next location on the 101 List. 800 Degrees  has a location right in downtown Santa Monica, about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying.

  

800 Degrees is as close as you can get to fast-food pizza. You pick a crust, a sauce (red, pesto, or no sauce), then customize with your choice of vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Or, you can pick one of the chef’s classic pizza combinations. They have a decent variety of appetizers and sides that you can try. Also, if you follow their instagram, they post a daily “Pizza of the Day”, which is half off the price of a normal pizza (so, about $4). We weren’t fans of whatever the PoTD was when we went, so we decided to try a regular Margherita (are you surprised?), and then ordered a second pie with a pesto base.

The pies were done so quickly, which was probably the best thing about this place. If you are in a rush, and want a fast, but decently good, Neapolitan pizza, this is a great place to stop. Does it compare to the other Neapolitan pies that we’ve eaten around LA (and the rest of the US)? No. Not at all. But it wasn’t bad, either.

   

We’ve been to other fast-casual pizzerias and this one is probably our favorite of the bunch, but it could never take the place of a real Neapolitan pie. The cheese was a little undercooked, and the crust was just nothing special, and apparently can be hit or miss.  It does have some things going for it, though, compared to other fast casual joints like MOD  Pizza and Blaze, including more toppings (43 vs 23 and 24) and a more Neapolitan-style crust. The toppings are all fresh, and there are some unique ones, like truffle cheese.

We aren’t surprised by the trend that fast casual pizzas are gaining in popularity. In 2015, 3 of the top 5 fastest growing brands in the top 500 chain restaurants were pizzerias (although, 800 Degrees wasn’t one of them). Our friend in LA swears by Blaze, but we didn’t have the chance to try that out this time around.                                             

Our final pizza stop in LA was at Gjelina, and we had made a dinner reservation beforehand. Since Eric had an early evening flight, we had to get in right as Gjelina opened for dinner in order to have enough time to eat and drive him to the airport. We were cutting it a bit close.

Since there were three of us, we were able to try a couple of different pies. We got a Pomodoro with burrata, and this shaved asparagus pie with leek, shallot, garlic, fontina, and an egg on top. It was awesome. It just felt like spring. I think we may have also had a salad (I seem to remember getting something with kale), but these pizzas must have overshadowed anything else that we tried, because I can’t remember eating anything else.

It was great to end our LA weekend with these pizzas, which gave Mozza a run for our favorite pies of the trip. A couple of tips if you decide to make the trip to Gjelina:

1) Make a reservation. Weeks in advance, if you are making a special trip. Unless you happen to enjoy queuing for a few hours.

2) Give yourself a lot of time to find parking around Abbot Kinney. You’ll be driving in circles.

3) Eat outside if you can, because the inside is pretty loud.

4) Bring a lot of money, because you will want to try ALL of the appetizers and pizzas. This is Los Angeles, so nothing is inexpensive.

5) As full as you are after eating here, you should make a stop for the amazing ice cream at Salt & Straw. Don’t worry – you will have time to digest your pizza because there will certainly be a line there too.

  

Oh, and they have a cookbook. And maybe a New York restaurant coming soon? Adding this to our list right now…

To visit:

800 Degrees
120 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(or other locations)

Gjelina
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291