Quarantine pizza

Hello! We are back! It has been a while (almost a year, if you can believe it) since we’ve posted. We had plenty of pizza-related plans for the spring months, which unfortunately had to be cancelled with all of the dangers of travel. We stopped commuting to the city, so our pizza lunches stopped as well. When I had Keste on March 12th, I didn’t know that it was going to be my last NYC pizza for several months.

After a full 3 months or so of completely quarantining and making and eating our own pizza, we finally have started to venture out for take out pizza around New Jersey. This summer we were able to visit some more local pizzerias that we’ve heard of, which has been fun. I figured I’d highlight some below, in case anyone else lives in NJ and is looking for a fun road trip.

Florham Park Pizza

Florham Park, NJ

This restaurant is right down the street from us, but we had never been there! We ordered a Grandma Sicilian pie, which was better than expected, but on the sweet side. It wasn’t overly cheesy, either.

Arturo’s

Maplewood, NJ

For Father’s Day, we got take out from Arturo’s and ate it in a local park (wearing masks, of course!). We got a spicy sausage with chili oil, and a margherita. This is probably our favorite Neapolitan-style pizza that we’ve had locally.

Nunzio’s Kitchen

Sayresville, NJ

We hit some shore traffic driving down here, but the pies were ready for our pickup when we got here. We had a small plain and two medium (one white, one pesto). The small size was perfect for James, although he ate plenty of the ricotta off of our white pie.

Kinchley’s Tavern

Ramsey, NJ

This is super thin crust bar pie, but it’s probably one of our favorite bar pies that we’ve had. Almost as good as Star Tavern. We just got an original and sliced meatball. James has been asking for meatball on his pizza ever since he had the meatball here, it was that good. We loved the thin slices.

Ava’s Kitchen

Kennilworth, NJ

We had plans to try this pizza one weekend in August, but that didn’t work out quite as planned, since I ended up having a baby that weekend instead. 🙂 We made it about 10 days later, and ordered a margherita, one with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and basil, and a white mushroom. We were hungry, although we didn’t realize that they were going to be quite so big. The crust on these was really good – perfectly puffed and crispy.

Ralph’s Pizzeria

Nutley, NJ

Another thin crust pie, which we ordered plain. We all split one pizza here, and it was perfect size for the three of us. It was definitely heavier on the cheese than other thin crusts that we’ve had.

Pizza Den

Princeton, NJ

This pizza ended up on the new 101 Best Pizza Places list (post coming soon). I won’t spoil it here, and will write a full review, but we tried an arugula with ricotta and a “brooklyn style”.

Vic’s Italian Restaurant

Bradley Beach, NJ

We went to Vic’s because we wanted to take the boys to the beach after the season was over. Vic’s has been around for years and is also famous for its thin crust pizza, so that’s what we got. Another cheese and one with meatball (James’s request). It was maybe a little cheesier than the thin crust at Kinchley’s, and not quite as good, but still was a solid pie. James picked off all of the meatballs to eat himself.

Carmine’s

Netcong, NJ

We rarely go out this way in NJ, but we were going apple picking and so we stopped for lunch on the way. Carmine’s is best known for their stuffed pizza. Those slices are like a giant calzone, cut into square slices, and they are full of cheese and either veggies or meat (we tried one of each). I could only have a few bites of my veggie slice, but James happily picked out most of the spinach and broccoli and Eric ate the rest. The dipping sauce is really good, don’t forget it!

Bricco Coal Fired Pizza

Westmont, NJ

We took these coal fired pizzas to a park to enjoy. We tried the Ava Bella, with oven dried tomatoes, bread crumbs, and burrata, and the Sailor, which was a white pie with spinach. The crust on these was more charred, and the pizzeria had a number of pizzas that sounded good, and plenty of toppings for you to make your own.

We’re hoping to start up some more pizza trips soon – hopefully to some more on the list that are within driving distance. So we’ll be back to posting and reviewing. And of course, we hope to be back in NYC soon eating at our favorite pizzerias.

#13 Una Pizza Napoletana (new location)

May 31st, 2019

Manhattan, NYC

We first went to Una Pizza Napoletana in September 2016, back when we were doing the original pizza trek around the US. We liked it then, and it was the first of several good neapolitan pizzas that we tried out in San Fransisco. Originally, Una started out in New Jersey, then moved to New York, and then out to San Fran, and now it’s back in NYC.

The New York location is in the Lower East Side, and apparently is bigger than the original Manhattan location, although we can’t personally attest to that. We showed up there around when it opened on a weeknight, James in tow. We got a table near the back where they were making the pizzas.

We tried two pizzas here. We had to try the original margherita pizza that we loved so much in San Fran, and we also tried the seasonal specialty pie that had sun-dried tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. Both were great, but the main standout on these pizzas is the crust. We remembered liking the crust when we went previously, but this time it blew us away. It was incredibly light and fluffy, with a touch of salt (just enough). There was some charring and bubbles on the crust, but not a lot. The pizzas were a bit soupy as Neapolitan pies tend to be, but they weren’t the worst that we’ve tried.

James liked the crust on these too. He didn’t like waiting for the pizzas so much, and we had to bring him outside to play with sticks on the sidewalk while we were waiting for the pizzas to come. He is definitely getting to the age where sit down dinners are hard!

There’s been a bit of a controversy around Una Pizza lately. When it originally came back to NY, it got only one star from NYT critic Pete Wells. Then, just under a year later, Pete Wells reviewed it AGAIN and gave it two. Apparently, he heard a rumor that Anthony Mangieri would uproot Una yet again.

Whatever the critics think about this pizza (and the reviews have been mixed), it’s quickly become our new favorite Neapolitan pizza in NYC. We’re looking for another excuse to leave our baby with a babysitter and come here again for dinner. The Daily Meal has ranked it higher than ever this year.

To visit:

Una Pizza Napoletana
175 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002

#81 Del Popolo

March 17th, 2019

San Francisco, CA

After a full day of walking around San Francisco with friends, we were ready for some dinner. Next on the list was a new addition to the 2017 list, Del Popolo. Just like Pizza Hacker, Del Popolo began as a mobile pizzeria. In fact, it started out in a shipping container! In 2015, they opened their shop serving wood-fired pizzas in Nob Hill, although they keep their mobile pizza business going as well.

We decided that we needed to split three pies here between the three of us. We ordered a margherita, a Bianca with mozzarella, ricotta, basil, and garlic, and the potato pie (we’re from New Haven, after all!). It’s hard to get a potato pizza right, but the guys at Del Popolo did it. There was just enough rosemary and the prosciutto was a nice change from the bacon that we’re use to getting at BAR.

We really liked the crust on these. They had a nice char from the oven and were soft and doughy. The sauce on the margherita was also slightly tangy, and the pizzas weren’t soggy in the middle like some Neapolitan style pies that you can get.

We also tried some orange wine. No, that isn’t wine made from oranges! It’s actually a white wine that has some of the skins left on, giving it an orange color. The wine didn’t taste much like a white wine, though, which according to this website, is normal. Our waitress did mention this to us and made sure that we knew what we were ordering, which was very helpful. Could orange wine be the next rosé? We’d order it again.

These were probably my favorite pizzas from this trip to San Francisco. It’s hard to say if they are better than the ones that we previously got at Flour+Water because they seemed very similar and equally as good. We’d have to go again and test them back-to-back to say for sure. Either place is worth a stop for dinner.

To visit:

Del Popolo
855 Bush St
San Francisco, CA 94108

#75 Pizza Hacker

March 16, 2019

San Fransisco, CA

I love it when I can tie a work trip into a pizza adventure. Since we last visited San Fransisco in September 2016, there have been three new additions to the lists. I was finally making it back out to the west coast for a work visit at UCSF, which seemed like the perfect opportunity to make all of my friends in San Fran eat more pizza with me.

I landed on Saturday around noon, met up with some good friends from grad school who were kindly letting me stay at their apartment for a few days, and then dragged them out to dinner at Pizza Hacker.

Like several other well-known pizza places, Pizza Hacker started out as a mobile enterprise before settling down into a permanent location in Bernal Heights in 2014. We liked the picnic-table vibe with colorful metal chairs and plenty of seating.

The three of us split two pizzas here, the Margherita and the Yo Vinny, which was topped with marinated onions, hot Italian sausage, pickled peppers, and mozzarella. We probably could have had another pizza but we thought that we should probably pace ourselves for the weekend.

It must be really hard to start a new pizzeria in San Fransisco. As I’d confirm later in the weekend, San Fransisco arguably has the best crusted pizzas anywhere in the country (and I’m not just talking about the sourdough). In a city known for its breadmaking, making a pizza stand out is even more difficult. Pizza Hacker makes a good pizza, but there are definitely better pies in the area.

That being said, the crust on these was good. Both pies were nicely charred, but still airy, and the sauce was incredible. It was really the perfect pizza after a long flight and it was a great way to kick off the week in San Fran.

To visit:

Pizza Hacker
3299 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110

#75 Nostrana

February 1st, 2019
Portland, Oregon

It’s been a while since we posted, but earlier this month we took a birthday trip out to the Pacific Northeast to visit some friends, and to hit a few remaining pizza places from the lists. We started out at Nostrana, which made the list in 2016, although hasn’t done so again since.

We almost didn’t make it here. Our flight from Newark was delayed, and Nostrana is only open until 2 pm for lunch. We had dinner plans with friends, so we were on a very tight schedule. We ran off the plane, grabbed our luggage and the rental car, and made it in the door of the restaurant at 1:55 pm.

While they recommend making reservations for dinner, we had no problem getting seats for lunch with James. We ordered a margherita pie, and one with mushrooms and arugula topped with freshly sliced pecorino. James ate a few mushrooms and some bread.

This was only the second restaurant that we’ve been to that give you scissors to cut your pie. The first being Franny’s, in Brooklyn, which is sadly no longer in operation. We really enjoyed these pizzas. The crust was good and chewy and the margherita was the right ratio of sauce:cheese.

So you may be wondering, is cutting your pizza with scissors really more authentic? Well, we read that in Italy, street pizzerias that made long, Roman-style pies would cut the slices with scissors (or “food shears”) for their customers. They could then customize how big to cut the slices and would charge by how much the slice weighed. Should scissors be used for cutting Neapolitan-style pies, though? We aren’t sure. In some ways, scissors are much better for cutting than a traditional pizza cutter (and definitely better than a knife and fork!). However, the pizza needs to be thin enough and you don’t want too much cheese or topping to cut through. It worked for these.

We’d love to come back here sometime for dinner, although as I said before, reservations are recommended. They are also only open Monday through Friday for lunch.

To visit: 
Nostrana
1401 SE Morrison St Ste. 101
Portland, OR 97214

#11 Pizzeria Bianco

October 29th, 2015

Phoenix, AZ

I had plans to head out to Arizona for the weekend, so we decided that we would start our quest by visiting Pizzeria Bianco, which is located in downtown Phoenix. After a long flight into town, I was grateful that we had pizza on the agenda for dinner. Somehow, pizza just hits the spot after a long day of travel.

I persuaded Tess to join me here, although she didn’t need too much convincing. We decided on the Biancoverde (ricotta, arugula, mozzerella, parmesean) and a traditional margherita. The restaurant started out in a little grocery store in 1988, but has now expanded and has three locations around Arizona. It has been named the best pizza in the US in years past – in the NYT and Food & Wine. I had high expectations, as it was also highly ranked on the Daily Meal list.

Being the first pizza place to be officially taste-tested from the list, I didn’t have anything to (officially) compare this to. The crust was nice and chewy, and the flavors of the Biancoverde were just perfect. I can’t say that the crust held up well in the center, though, and it sagged a bit under the cheese and toppings.

The atmosphere at Pizzeria Bianco was really cozy. We got there pretty late into the evening, but it was still packed. Apparently, the usual wait time to be seated is 2-3 hours, but we luckily got in and had a table right away. It looked to have a beautiful outdoor seating area, but it had just rained when we got there, so it was unfortunately closed.

Eric is still sad that he missed this one! I would have tried to bring him home a piece, but I don’t think pizza flies very well. Besides, we didn’t have any leftovers!

To visit:

Pizzeria Bianco
623 E. Adams Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004