grandma slice | Barb and Eric's Pizza Adventures

October 24th, 2018

Duluth, GA

A recent work trip took me down to Atlanta. I really didn’t have too much time to explore in my schedule, but I got to my hotel around 7:30 on Wednesday evening, which left me enough time to head out for pizza. My first thought was to go to Antico, which would have been a 25 minute car ride. But instead, I decided to go for a 35 minute car ride North to Duluth, to O4W.

I am so glad that I did. I didn’t end up getting there until a little after 8:30 pm, which meant that I was almost the only one in the restaurant. I pretty much had my pick of table. It was a little chilly out (for Atlanta, anyways), or else I maybe would have considered sitting outside. While O4W also serves slices, they only serve full pies for dinner. So, a full pie it was. I didn’t take long to decide what to order – the Grandma pie came highly recommended.

It felt like it took forever for the pie to come out, but it really was probably only 15 minutes. I hadn’t had dinner on the plane, so I was definitely hungry.

O4W makes “New Jersey” style pizza. I’m not sure what qualifies it as “New Jersey” style, because the only style that I know that is typical of NJ is Trenton-style tomato pie. Their Grandma pie was more like what I would consider a NY-style Grandma pie. I guess that they call it “New Jersey” style because the founder was trained in NJ.

Whatever style it is, the Grandma pizza is delicious. It was absolutely worth the long car ride, skipping dinner on the plane, and eating by myself in the restaurant right before closing. It’s topped with a good amount of homemade sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, and plenty of fresh basil, all on a thin, not-too-crispy square crust. I loved that it wasn’t covered in too much cheese.

I didn’t eat the whole pizza (although, I probably could have). I brought some back to my hotel and then even managed to save a few slices to take home to Eric on the plane two days later. While O4W made the list in 2016 and 2017, it was left off the list last year. We’ll be voting for it again next year.

To visit:

O4W Pizza
3117 Main St
Duluth, GA 30096

February 20th, 2016 and February 10th, 2017

New Hyde Park, NY

Our first trip to Umberto’s last February was on a Saturday evening, and we drove there with Marg and Scott. As usual, Eric got us off the wrong exit in Long Island, but luckily it wasn’t too long of a detour this time. It is a little tricky to get to from the city because the subways don’t quite get out far enough, so we were glad to have driven there.

On this first trip, we ordered two pies to split between the four of us. The first was the traditional Grandma pie, which Umberto’s is famous for. It has been featured on the Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate”. Honestly, I don’t remember what the second pie we got was, because this one was just too good. We’ve had a couple of grandma slices around NYC, but we are in agreement that this is the best that we’ve had. The sauce definitely makes these slices stand out.

You may be wondering what the difference is between a Sicilian pie and a Grandma pie. We certainly didn’t know the difference before we started our pizza quest. A Grandma pie is similar to a Sicilian pie only because they are both stretched to fit into a square (or rectangular) pan. The crust is the main difference between the two, with a Grandma pie crust being much thinner and crispier. This is because the crust barely proofs or rises. It is hard to find a traditional Grandma slice outside of NYC. While we would generally go for a Sicilian slice if we had a choice (more bread, of course!), we’d make an exception for Umberto’s Grandma slice.

After our dinner last year, Margaret decided that this is the best pizza she’s ever had. She can’t believe that we ranked it at #34 (Barb) and #29 (Eric). To be fair, though, she still hasn’t been to most of the places in our top 20. In any case, she has been talking about this pizza all year and so we decided to go back this past weekend for a group birthday celebration. This time, we (Marg, Scott, Claire, Eric, and I) took the LIRR out to New Hyde Park from Penn Station.

We went with the Grandma pie again (of course) and also got a Veggie pie and one with sausage, peppers, mushrooms, and onions. These traditional pies were good, even with the crust being a little burnt on the sausage. We liked how the crust held up to all the toppings without sagging, although the veggie pie could have used some more sauce. Unusually for us, we had leftovers.

I think Marg will probably talk us into going out to Umberto’s again in the future, even though it is a hike to get there. Until then, maybe we will try our hand at making our own Grandma pie.

Marg, thank you for taking us out to Long Island for this pizza and reminding us how good it is. We will be happy to go again anytime, but we think you need to try some of the other pizzas on the list too 🙂

Claire, thanks for joining us and for providing us with some great photos. I didn’t post the one of the spinach in your teeth, but I’m happy to send it to you to include on a dating profile because it is a real winner.

To visit:

Umberto’s
633 Jericho Turnpike
New Hyde Park, NY 11040

Tag: grandma slice

#96 O4W

#37 Umberto’s