Tag: north end

#48 Galleria Umberto

September 3rd, 2016

Boston, MA

Back in July, when we were visiting Boston and had these great slices for lunch, we also first stopped at Galleria Umberto. The plan was to grab slices at both places because they are both conveniently located right in the North End of Boston. We planned this strategically because Galleria Umberto is only open for lunch, Monday through Saturday, and is closed on Sundays and after 2:30 pm (or whenever they run out of pizza). We planned to get there first thing when they opened to make sure that we got slices.

This was the first time where our plans didn’t quite work out. Galleria Umberto was closed for construction, just for that weekend. We were bummed, since we didn’t have any more plans to come up to Boston together in the near future.

Luckily, Eric planned a guys weekend for the fantasy football draft in September in Boston. He talked one of his friends into grabbing slices at Galleria Umberto early on Saturday morning.

The line often starts before the pizzeria opens around 10:30 am, and it doesn’t let up throughout lunch. Luckily, the pizzas just keep coming out every few minutes so it moves very quickly. Galleria Umberto keeps it simple and only offers one type of pizza – Sicilian.

Their Sicilian slices are really all about the cheese. The pies are baked in large square baking sheets and cut into smaller square slices. The slices may look small, but they are certainly filling. The cheese actually overflows from the pans when the pizzas are taken out of the oven. You will definitely get a slice where the cheese is still hot and oozing down the side of the crust. The cheese also gets those nice burnt bubbles on it – not too dark, though. The crust is a bit lighter than your usual Sicilian slice and isn’t as thick. Honestly, we forget what the sauce was like because the cheese is so overwhelming.

After hearing Eric’s thoughts on the pizza, I knew that I had to go myself and see what it was like. I ended up making a stop there for lunch one weekday when I was in Boston for work. The pizza actually reminded me a bit of the pizza that we had in Buffalo, but maybe just because those pizzas were also heavy on the cheese.

We’d recommend not taking these slices to go. They are the type of slice that would not be as good reheated, so plan to eat in. The restaurant has plenty of space to sit. Make sure to bring cash, since Galleria Umberto is cash-only. And also check to make sure that the restaurant isn’t closed for construction, or the owners aren’t away on vacation (I see right now that the restaurant is closed the month of July this year).

To visit:

Galleria Umberto
289 Hanover Street
Boston, MA 02113 USA

BarbaraLeave a comment

#74 Ernesto’s

July 30th, 2016

Boston, MA

Our second stop in Boston for the weekend of pizza was Ernesto’s. We decided to switch gears from our dinner and drinks at Coppa and venture over to the North End for some slices for lunch. After trying so many slices in NYC, we’re a bit picky about our slice joints. We’re happy to report that Ernesto’s ranks up there with our favorite slices around the entire US!

We’ve been to the North End of Boston many, many times. It’s one of our favorite places to go to eat and drink and also to just wander. Back in our days of undergrad when I was living in Boston, we’d go for fancy date night dinners at cute Italian restaurants in the North End and usually would follow up our pasta with cannoli or pastry from Mike’s. We never ran out of Italian restaurants to try because every restaurant there is better than the last. We also always seemed to forget which Italian restaurants we had been to before, since they all look very similar and serve similar food. We can only say that we never had a bad Italian meal. In all those trips to the North End, though, we never thought to seek out pizza, and we never thought about just going for slices.

Well, we were certainly missing out. Ernesto’s has been operating in the North End since 1984. The slices are very large, but priced well, and there is no shortage of toppings to choose from. They say that one of their most popular slices is the chicken ranch. We didn’t try that one, but a lot of people seem to like it. You can take out or eat in. We’d recommend taking it outside and walking around by the water, although that’s hard to do if you are ordering more than one slice. If you’re dining in, you can also get beer or wine in plastic cups. It’s very high end.

We tried a good variety of slices, of course. A couple of the tomato and basil, which were some of our favorites. We each had one of the white spinach, which was the perfect amount of heavy. Eric liked the slices so much, actually, that he had to go up and order a third slice. He couldn’t stop talking about how good the crust was. We’d argue that the slices here are just as good as a NY slice, and probably cheaper than most of the slices in NYC. Ernesto’s hasn’t made the Daily Meal list since 2015, and we’re quite sad about that. It should be on that list, and you should go if you’re in Boston.

They also serve salads. You should just skip those.

To visit:

Ernesto’s Pizza
69 Salem St
Boston, MA 02113

BarbaraLeave a comment