Tag: bronx

5 Boro Pizza Challenge

September 22nd, 2018

New York City

Last weekend we had the opportunity to participate in the 5 Boro Pizza Challenge. This was the third year of the challenge, but the first year that we were actually free on the weekend to take part! The premise of the challenge is simple: 5 slices of pizza, one in each of the 5 boroughs, as quickly as you can, using only public transportation or your own manpower.

Last year, the winners completed the challenge in about 4 1/2 hours. We were not looking to beat them this year, as we were carrying along little baby James. Instead, we decided to just try and hit as many pizza places as we could, while avoiding any 4-month-old baby meltdowns.

The challenge started at 11 am, and we all met downtown Manhattan. There, we were given a paper with the 5 slices and addresses and sent on our way!

First stop: Best Italian Pizza, Bronx

Since we were carrying a baby in the Ergo, we were limited to walking/scootering and the subway. We hopped on the 2 and decided to head all the way up to the Bronx for our first stop.

The rule of the challenge is that you have to get one slice per stop, photograph it, and tag it on social media. You also have to photograph yourself at the pizzeria.

We decided to go with one veggie slice and one plain cheese slice here. These were BIG slices. We ate them pretty quickly because we were really hungry for lunch at this point, but then we worried that we wouldn’t be able to eat too many more slices!

These slices weren’t our favorites, although they were decent. It’s hard to find good pizza up in the Bronx.

Second stop: Sal & Carmines, Manhattan

We hopped on the subway again to our second planned stop, Sal & Carmine’s. This place has been on our list to try for ages  so we were really glad to see that it was a stop in the challenge! We got two plain slices here.

These were great NY slices. The sauce was on the sweet side, and they were a bit greasy, as a NY slice should be. Also, very large. I admit that I did not finish the whole slice (we still had 3 boroughs to go!)

In case you were wondering, James did great on the subway making friends. He was full of smiles for everyone. He also really liked checking out the pizza. We dressed him in a pizza-themed onesie for the occasion, too.

While we took the subway around to each of the different pizzerias, we also borrowed our 9-year-old neighbor’s scooter, so that we didn’t have to walk so much. James really liked facing forward in the Ergo while we were scootering.

Third stop: Sunnyside Pizza, Queens

Sunnyside Pizza ended up being our third (and last) stop of the challenge. We ended up getting two fancier slices here – one with mushroom and spinach, and one with eggplant and ricotta. They were both excellent. Again, the slices were very big and the toppings were generous.

We also really liked that Sunnyside Pizza had a sesame seed crust. It added just a little something different to the traditional slice. These slices weren’t as greasy as the others. We also got a chance to really sit and enjoy them, because James decided that he needed lunch at this point too.

We thought about going down to Brooklyn to go to Luigi’s Pizza, but decided against it. We were full and James was tired, and we actually were attending a wedding that evening and still needed to get back to Manhattan to get all dressed up. Also, we had been to Luigi’s before, so it wasn’t as exciting for us to go again.

The last stop in Staten Island was at Pier 76. We haven’t ever been there, but we’ll have to add it to the list for another day.

Overall, we had a blast doing this challenge and can’t wait for next year. We got to spend a little bit of time at the after party talking with the group of friends who started the challenge, which was really fun. We missed seeing the winner come in, but I think he won using a combination of biking and subway. We left with full bellies, awesome t-shirts, and a cool medal (even though we didn’t really finish).

We’re already looking forward to next year!

Barbara1 Comment

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.

    

BarbaraLeave a comment

#7 Louie and Ernie’s

April 3rd, 2016

Bronx, NY

After our trip to Queens, we decided to hit another NY borough and we headed up into the Bronx to try another NYC classic pie. Louie and Ernie’s ranked high on the Daily Meal list, in the top 10, so we had some major expectations. When we were researching why it was ranked so high, we kept reading about the sausage, so of course, we had to get half of the pie with sausage to see what the fuss was all about.

The closest you can get to Louie and Ernie’s on the subway is by the 6, but then it is about a 15 minute walk from there. So in total, it took us about an hour to get there from work. The restaurant has a really local vibe, and they only serve pizza.

The sausage was the clumpy-style, instead of the sliced-style (are there technical terms for this?), which we decided that we prefer. The sausage is also made locally, right up the street. We loved the crust on this one, and the ratio of sauce:cheese.

We aren’t quite sure why this is ranked so high, though. Sure, it was a good NYC slice, but to rank it higher than John’s of Bleecker, Patsy’s, or Totonno’s is strange. We liked all of those better. We ranked it on our lists at #40 (Barb) and #69 (Eric), so decently far from the top 10. If we find ourselves back in the Bronx, though, it will be the first place on our list.

To visit:

Louie and Ernie’s
1300 Crosby Ave
Bronx, NY 10461

Barbara1 Comment