Tag: 101 best pizza places

Phoenix, take 2

April 28th – May 1st, 2017

Phoenix, AZ

This past weekend I took a trip to visit a friend out in Phoenix, without Eric. Since there was only one pizza place that made the Daily Meal’s 101 list (Pizzeria Bianco), and I was planning on being in town for 4 days, we had to do a bit of searching for some new pizzas to try.

We started out back at Pizzeria Bianco, though, because it is so close to the airport and I was hungry for pizza after a long day of travel. It was so nice out and we were able to sit outside and enjoy our pizzas. We almost ordered the same thing that we got the first time (the Margherita and the Biancoverde) but switched it up at the last minute to try the Wiseguy, which was also a white pizza, but has roasted onions, and fennel sausage.  It was a good choice. Our one complaint would be that the sausage was a sliced a little too big.

   

Pizzeria Bianco was the very first restaurant off of the list that we hit on our pizza adventure back in 2015. We didn’t have any of the other pizzas to compare it to back then. Now, after having been to 101+ pizzerias (many that are similar Neapolitan-style), I can see why Bianco gets rated pretty highly. It is definitely on par with many of the NYC Neapolitan greats, although the toppings tend to be more adventurous in NYC. The crust was probably the best of the AZ pizzas that we tried, but doesn’t quite live up to the best that we’ve had. But overall it was a solid start to the weekend.

After taking a break from pizza on Saturday, we ended up wanting more pizza on Sunday night. We decided to consult the trusty Where To Eat Pizza book that was kindly gifted to us. If you haven’t seen it, this book is awesome. It features over 1700 pizzerias from around the world that have been recommended by local chefs and pizzaiolis, with addresses, hours, and short blurbs about each one. It is divided by continent and country, and US city, state, or region . We’ve been making our way through several of the NYC recommendations and have mostly been happy with the pizzas highlighted.

The book listed about 6 pizza places in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area (including Bianco), so we decided to make it easy for ourselves and went to the closest one. This happened to be LAMP Pizzeria.

Again, we took advantage of the sunny-but-not-too-hot weather and sat outside. We started with the eggplant parmesan appetizer, which is a perfect bite-size to share between two people who are saving room for pizza. We had a harder time choosing pizzas here than at Bianco because there is more of a selection, but we ended up getting another white pie with roasted mushrooms, sausage, ricotta, and sliced red onion, and another Margherita, which was topped with arugula and freshly sliced parmesan cheese.

 

The crusts on these were thinner than Bianco’s, but held up to the toppings and had a nice crunch. The sliced parmesan on top of the Margherita really made the pizza. Again, we weren’t thrilled with the sausage on the white pie. It was clumped sausage this time, but the flavor wasn’t our favorite. A good, solid, pizza, but at the same time they probably “won’t be causing Chris Bianco any sleepless nights”.

Side note: In case you were wondering why the pizzeria is called LAMP (I was, because it is a really strange name for a pizzeria), it is an abbreviation for “Lindsay and Matt Pilato”, who are the owners and chef.

   

My flight back to NJ was on Monday, and since I was taking the red eye we had time to cram in one last pizza stop. For this last stop, we stepped away from the lists and tried another local place that my friend had heard of, Humble Pie. Again, we sat outside, so that I could soak up as much AZ sunshine as possible before my flight back East. We started with a couple of sangrias (because, happy hour!) and an order of the cheesy bread, which was essentially pizza dough with just cheese.

 

Since the cheesy bread made me a bit full of cheese, I went with the Organic Local Vegetable pizza (without cheese), and my friend ordered (you guessed it!) sausage. Humble Pie actually has three different sausage pies on the menu, and this was the signature sausage. We have to say that it was the best sausage of the three that we tried this weekend. I liked the vegetable pie, but picked off the olives, of course.

Eric is once again sad that he missed the Arizona pizza, but we’ll be back!

To visit:

Pizzeria Bianco
623 E. Adams Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004

LAMP Wood Oven Pizzeria
8900 E Pinnacle Peak Rd
Scottsdale, AZ

Humble Pie
6501 E Greenway Pkwy
Scottsdale, AZ 85254

BarbaraLeave a comment

#87 New Park Pizza

March 30th, 2016

Howard Beach, Queens, NY

By now, you probably know what a good NY slice of pizza looks like. This week, we are going to show you a couple more. New Park Pizza is over in Queens, right near JFK. We note this because it would make the BEST stop going to or from the airport. We chose to take the subway out from Manhattan, which took about an hour.

We just ordered a couple of slices here, nothing too special or fancy. A couple of cheese slices, and a Sicilian slice. For all the time we spent on the subway to get here, the slices were gone in about 10 minutes and we were back on the subway going back to NJ. These are definitely not the best NY slices that we’ve had, but they are solid. We’ve also read that you should order the slices “well done”, which we didn’t try, but have noted for next time.

The crust here is also salty, but not overwhelmingly so. We read that this is because they throw salt into the oven as the pies bake. We’ve only had salted Neapolitan crusts, so this was a little different.

So I guess our take-home message here is, don’t go out of your way for these slices because you’ll find slices that taste the same, if not better, in Manhattan (although, you may pay a bit more for them). However, if you are anything like me and find yourself tired and hangry after any flight into JFK, you may want to consider stopping here on your way home. (Eric is making a mental note of this right now.)

To visit:

New Park Pizza
156-71 Cross Bay Blvd
Howard Beach, NY 11414

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#16 Patsy’s

 March 23, 2016

Manhattan, NY

Patsy’s pizza is ranked pretty high on the list, and we do love a good NY slice, so we headed up to Harlem one day after work, and ordered this plain cheese pie.

We ALMOST went to the wrong restaurant, and finding the “original” Patsy’s took a little bit of digging. The problem is that there is a sort-of-related chain of Patsy’s Pizzerias around NYC, and several are in locations closer to our office. The original Patsy’s opened in Harlem in 1933. The original Patsy learned the ropes making pizza downtown at Lombardi’s (another example of how all the great NYC pizzerias are connected). When he died (in the 90’s), the restaurant was sold to a franchiser and a new chain of Patsy’s was started. We haven’t been to any of those, so we can’t say how they compare to the original.

 

After some online searching and reading too much about the feud over the name “Patsy’s”, we figured out that we had to head up to Harlem to the original location, which was exciting because we had never had an excuse to go to that area of the city before. We got a table and ordered our pizza, which came out hot and bubbling. The crust was thin and crispy and held up to the sauce and cheese perfectly, just as it should. We know that we usually try interesting topping combinations on our pizzas, but sometimes you just need to go with a traditional cheese slice.

Patsy’s is one of the few remaining coal oven pizzerias still operating in Manhattan (I talked a bit about this here), so for that reason alone, it is worth the trip uptown. The slices reminded us a bit of Joe’s, which makes sense since they are ranked near each other on the list. We probably liked these slices a bit better, but they are both as true to New York slices as you can get.

Fun fact: Patsy’s claims to have originated the idea of “selling by the slice”. Although in all our online searching, we weren’t able to verify that this is actually true.

To visit:

Patsy’s Pizza
2287 First Avenue
New York NY

 

 

BarbaraLeave a comment

#63 Williamsburg Pizza

September 14th, 2016 and April 3rd, 2017

New York City

This is a new addition to the 2016 list, and we’ve already been here twice. Williamsburg Pizza has three locations, two in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan, and we’ve been to two of them.

      

The first time we went out to Brooklyn. We figured we should try the original location, since it is called Williamsburg Pizza. Once again, we walked there from Manhattan, and once again, we got caught in a downpour. I think I mentioned that this happens to us fairly regularly on our pizza treks. By the time we got to the pizzeria, we were drenched. And hungry.

We ordered a wide variety of slices because the selection here is amazing. We tried a regular slice of the Brooklyn and one called a Sophia Loren, which had fresh mozzarella and sliced tomatoes and basil. We also had a few Grandma slices, including one with kale and sausage (the Kale Tallegio), one with sausage, mushrooms, roasted red peppers (Paesano), and one with wild mushrooms (Tartufo).

   

This past Monday, we went to the Lower East Side location, which was a much shorter walk from our office. Both locations have the same feel to them, and both had the same great variety of slices. Here, we got another slice of the Brooklyn. We also had a margherita slice, and again tried the Tartufo and Paesano Grandma slices. We forgot to check what we got last time and ended up with almost the same exact order.

The Tartufo slice here is really good. We think it’s our second favorite mushroom slice, right after the pizza we had at Antico in Atlanta, and right before the one we had at Pizza Moto in Brooklyn. I think the Sophia Loren slice would be our next favorite, but they didn’t have that one at the LES location this time around.

We’ve found our new favorite slices place in NYC. (Sorry, Bleecker Street Pizza.) At only a 20 minute walk, it is a perfect lunch date location. The slices are everything you’d expect from a New York slice, with fresh cheese, interesting toppings, and sort-of-sweet tomato sauce, with a crispy crust. We have yet to try a slice here that we don’t like.

To visit:

Williamsburg Pizza
265 Union Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

OR

277 Broome St
New York, NY 10002

 

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#2 Di Fara

March 2nd, 2016

Brooklyn, NYC

I don’t even know where to start talking about the pizza at Di Fara. I guess I’ll start by saying that this pizza deserves its #2 ranking. There is a reason why the lines can be 2 hours long to get a couple of slices.

We went out to Brooklyn early to get there right when they opened for dinner. We had heard some horror stories about how long the lines could get. We were pleasantly surprised, though, because there was no one there, which was probably a combination of a) it was a weeknight, b) it was raining, and c) it was early March. We walked in when they opened, ordered our pizza, and then sat at one of the tables in the back to wait for it. About 15 minutes later, we had this amazing pie sitting in front of us. We ate the whole thing.

 

 

 

Di Fara was opened back in 1964, and is still run by the original owners. Each pizza is still made by Domencio DeMarco, who is now quite old, and many of his family members work at the pizzeria as well. When he isn’t available, they close the pizzeria. The place only has seating for about 15 people (which contributes to the long lines). It has consistently been ranked on the best NYC pizza lists for years.

 
The pizza is incredibly fresh and had the perfect ratio of sauce:cheese. The cheese is a blend of mozzarella and cow’s milk cheeses, all imported from Italy. It is such a great combination of cheeses, probably bettered only by Pizzeria Beddia in Philly. They grow the basil in house, and DeMarco personally cuts it with scissors over the entire pie.

The pizzas are not cheap. Di Fara raised it’s prices for a slice to $5.00/slice in 2009, which made it the most expensive slice in NYC. This one large, plain, pie cost us $30.

Would we head all the way out to Avenue J for this pizza again? Yes. Would we pay $30 for one pizza again? Only if it’s Di Fara’s. And if anyone wanted to join us, don’t count on us sharing our pizza. WIth any luck, the next time we go it will also be early March and slightly rainy, so we can skip the lines again.

 

To visit:

Di Fara Pizza
1424 Avenue J
Brooklyn, NY 11230

 

BarbaraLeave a comment

#3 Roberta’s

February 10th, 2016

Brooklyn, NYC

If you ask anyone around NYC for their favorite pizza, Roberta’s always makes the list. That’s why we weren’t surprised to see it at #3 on the list by the Daily Meal. We had a gift card, so we were really excited to go and not have to spend more money on pizza, since it was our second pizza stop of the week. We were really pleased by how affordable this pizza is, considering the prices of other similar pizzerias in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

 

Roberta’s is very “Brooklyn”, in food and atmosphere. The restaurant is located in Bushwick, in the middle of a bunch of old warehouses. It is a decently long walk from the subway, and at first we were sure that we were heading in the wrong direction. Although it started out as a small restaurant with a small outdoor seating area, it has expanded drastically in recent years and now encompasses almost an entire block. It has a rooftop garden, an event space, an outdoor seating area complete with a tiki bar, and a bakery. It plays rock music and you sit at wooden tables or at the bar. There are no tablecloths and the seats are not comfortable. Also in true Brooklyn fashion, it tries to do everything in house (like growing their own ingredients for their menu items) and it has a total hipster vibe.

The pizza is great. Apparently, the other food on the menu is equally as good, and whatever is on special usually gets rave reviews. But we just ordered pizza because that is what we do, and we weren’t disappointed.

The crust is chewy and the cheese is fresh, but it is the flavor combinations that really put Roberta’s on the map. One of the most famous around NYC is the Bee Sting, which has soppressata and honey (spicy and sweet), which ranked near the top of the best pizza combinations in NYC. We didn’t get that one, though, and instead went with a traditional Margherita and one called the Li’l Stinker, which was topped with various cheeses, lots of garlic, onion, and pepperoncini peppers.

In case you don’t feel like waiting for a couple of hours for a seat here (especially if you come on a weekend night), you can get Roberta’s pizzas frozen from various stores around NYC. These frozen pies are baked in the wood-fired oven, and then blast-chilled. We can’t vouch for how good these are, or how similar they are to the fresh pies, but according to others, it tastes like you brought a pizza home from Roberta’s and heated it up in the oven the following day. So that’s pretty much what we’d expect.

We both ranked Roberta’s at #11 on our personal lists. We didn’t think it was quite good enough for top 10. Although, we have it currently marked as a place we’d like to go back to, preferably over the summer when we can sit outside and enjoy the Tiki bar with our pizza.

To visit:

Roberta’s
261 Moore Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

Barbara1 Comment

#58 Matchbox

February 6th, 2016

Washington, D.C.

We drove down to Washington, D.C. for a baby shower one Saturday last year, and figured we’d might as well knock off one of the D.C. pizza places from the list. Washington D.C. isn’t really known for any particular style of pizza, so we were interested to see what kinds of pizzas made the list here.

This first trip to D.C., we decided to go to Matchbox, for the primary reason that it was the closest to the location of the baby shower, and we didn’t have to drive any further around the city. We went to the Chinatown location, but they have two other locations around the city.

The Chinatown location is the original restaurant that was started back in 2002. It looks small from the outside because it is really a narrow brick townhouse (that looks like a tall, skinny matchbox) that has been refashioned into a restaurant. There was plenty of seating inside, though, and we were seated up on the second story balcony.

 

Matchbox may be known for their brick oven pizzas, but their menu is pretty extensive, with good-looking salads and sandwiches, and specialty cocktails. They also serve brunch, which looked like it would be AMAZING.

We ended up splitting a pizza, since they let you pick half-and-half from their menu, and we really wanted to try more than one combination. We ended up going with half of the Fire+Smoke (roasted red peppers, onion, garlic, smoked gouda, and chipotle pepper) and half of the special veggie white pesto pizza.

We both preferred the Fire+Smoke, although they weren’t kidding when they warned us about the spice!

Apparently, Matchbox is trying to break out into the national chain market, so there may be one popping up near you. They currently also have restaurants in Virginia, Texas, and Maryland.

It would certainly be worth going back here for some of that Brunch pizza.

To visit:

Matchbox
713 H St NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BarbaraLeave a comment