#74 Bocce Club Pizza

February 17th, 2018

Buffalo, NY

We saved the highest ranked Buffalo pizza place for last. After we checked out of our hotel, we drove down to Bocce Club Pizza and got there right at noon when it opened.

Bocce Club Pizza was opened even before La Nova, in 1946, when the owner bought a pizza oven after WWII. It originally was a bocce ball club, with courts in the yard and sandwiches and drinks inside. In the 1980’s, it became the first restaurant to offer take-out pizza in Buffalo. It still seems to have most of its business as a take-out pizzeria because the only seating area is a few stools at a high counter along the far wall.

Here, you can order a full or a half pizza, which is nice. We ordered a half size, topped with half meatballs (honestly, we were getting a bit tired of pepperoni).  We were not surprised to see that they also serve wings but unfortunately we didn’t get to try them. We have only so much stomach space.

This ended up being our favorite pizza place in Buffalo. It was just as heavy on the cheese as the first two, but the sauce was a bit sweeter and the crust was fluffy without being overwhelming. We thought it was really similar to the slab pizzas that we had in Maine.

We didn’t quite finish this pizza either and had to take some leftover slices to go in the car. These Buffalo pizzas are heavy! (And the baby bump in the photo on the left means that I don’t have as much space for pizza anymore to begin with). But Eric enjoyed them the next night for dinner and said they held up pretty well.

After lunch, we hit the road to head down to Cleveland. The last two places on this mini-road-trip coming up next week!

To visit:

Bocce Club Pizza
4174 Bailey Ave
Amherst, NY 14226

 

#90 La Nova

February 16th, 2018

Buffalo, NY

After our first pizza stop, we headed up to Niagara Falls. There really isn’t too much to do around Buffalo, aside from visiting the Falls. Especially in the middle of February. The good part of timing the trip like this, though, was that there were very few people at the park and we had great views of the snowy falls! We didn’t stay there too long, because it was cold and windy, and more importantly, we had more pizza to eat!

Our second pizza stop in Buffalo was at La Nova. La Nova has been around since 1957, which is pretty impressive. It claims to be the largest independent pizzeria in the US (although I don’t think they’ve updated their website because the last time we checked, it was only ranked at #20). It probably looked exactly the same back then as it did when we stopped in for dinner. The whole restaurant has a very 50’s-vibe, with red tables and walls and old pictures everywhere. Not surprisingly, it also claims to have some of the best wings in Buffalo. It was clear when we were there that La Nova has a huge local following, even with all of the other pizza places around Buffalo. For a Friday night, the place had a huge delivery wait line, and plenty of people who stopped in for slices.

We decided to sit down and eat, since we didn’t feel like just bringing a couple of slices back to our hotel, and we wanted to see some more of the local scene (which included a homeless woman on drugs coming into the pizza place every 15 minutes to harass the customers and staff). We ordered a small cheese and pepperoni, and Eric also ordered a side of the wings.

The verdict: not as good as our first pizza stop of the day, Deniro’s. The crust here was a little thinner but it was topped with the same amount of cheese, which oozed off of the pizza like crazy. This also could have been because we couldn’t wait for it to cool down to dig in. The pizza at La Nova was a little more greasy, maybe partly due to the good number of pepperoni they threw on. You can see that yellow grease in the picture above.

Eric said the wings were good, but they weren’t the “best he’s ever had”. But then again, we definitely aren’t wing connoisseurs, so we should leave that up to others to debate.

Overall, we thought this would be the perfect pizza place to order food from after a late night of drinking or while watching a football game. It wouldn’t be our first pick to eat on a regular Friday night, mainly just because the cheese made it SO HEAVY. We couldn’t even finish it (although we may have been able to if we also didn’t have to try the wings).

To visit:

La Nova Pizzeria
371 W Ferry St
Buffalo, NY 14213

#14 Totonno’s

July 3rd, 2016

Coney Island, NY

Last year, we were on our way back from Connecticut and we were craving some pizza. We decided to stop at Totonno’s, in Coney Island, since it was on our way home (and honestly, it is such a pain toget to Coney Island from Manhattan via the subway). Looking back on it, it was probably a mistake to try and drive to Coney Island on 4th of July weekend. We spent about an hour trying to find a parking space! We were already committed, though, so we had to follow through. Eric ended up dropping me off at the front of Totonno’s (where there was a bit of a line) and he eventually did find a space about a mile away.

Luckily, the line moved quickly and I was able to snag a table before Eric made it back from parking the car. I was getting a little anxious saving his seat given the long line forming out front, but I ordered a large cheese pie for us and he showed up right as it was served.

Totonno’s is another one of the NYC classics. It was opened almost 90 years ago (1924) near Coney Island. The pizzas are still made in the same way that they were then. The founder of Totonno’s came from Naples, and started making pizzas for Lombardi’s on Spring Street when it became the first licensed pizzeria in America. Totonno’s is still family-operated, which makes it the oldest continually-run, family-owned pizzeria in the US (at least, according to their website – I did not fact check this).

The pizzeria has seen plenty of hardships in the past 90 years. It’s had two fires that closed it down, the most recent in 2009, and then Hurricane Sandy, which closed the restaurant for 5 months.

The pizza here is coal-fired using one of the original ovens (see more info about coal fired ovens in NYC in our previous post here). This gives it a crispy, thinner crust that is made from fresh dough every day. The sauce tastes good and the homemade mozzarella is also a plus. This is one of those restaurants where a good cheese pie is all you need, and you really shouldn’t bother ordering anything else. Also, they don’t serve slices, so you’ll have to come hungry.

We actually were going to try and go back to Totonno’s tonight after work, until we realized that it is only open from Thurs-Sunday. We’ll have to pick another night to take the hour long subway ride out to Coney Island. Hopefully still in the middle of winter, when hopefully no one will be there to make us wait in line.

To visit:

Totonno’s
1524 Neptune Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11224

#28 Lucali

June 23rd, 2016

Brooklyn, NYC

After getting back from our pizza weekend, we had to take a short (one week) hiatus from eating pizza. When we were sufficiently recovered, we visited another of the top-ranking Brooklyn pizzerias on the list, Lucali.

Lucali may be the most romantic pizza place that we went to on the list, and there is a good reason why it is ranked so high. Tucked away in Carroll Gardens, the restaurant only seats a few tables at time, and it has a quiet ambiance, and makes amazing pizza.

The pizza here is kind of like if you were to smush all of the other NY greats together. The fresh basil on top from Di Fara,  minimal available toppings, like the classic slice joints (Joe’s), and a soft, Neapolitan-like crust.

Recommendations if you want to try the pizza here (and you really should!):

  1. Do NOT come here with a group of people – bring your husband, date, or best friend, but keep it small. Or you may never get a table.
  2. The restaurant officially opens at 6, but they start taking names for tables at 5:30. We didn’t realize this and showed up right before 6, and had over an hour wait to get a table. If you are on a time crunch, make sure to get your name in for the first seating. Like many of the other Brooklyn greats (see Emily or Paulie Gee’s), the line can be long. Otherwise, be prepared to wait AT LEAST an hour. We went on a Wednesday night. I’ve read about people who show up at 5:30 on a Friday and don’t get a table until 8 pm (just warning you!).
  3. BYOB! Do I have to say more? You probably have plenty of time after you put your name in to go find a bottle of wine.

When you have to wait for your pizza, your anticipation really grows. The longer the wait, the more you feel like the pizza has to live up to the wait. Well, you really don’t have to worry about that here. This pizza really lived up to the wait. We both rated this on our personal lists much higher in the top 20.

We ended up ordering half plain, half pepperoni. The pizza is expensive, and so we didn’t want to order two. We also were happy to not have too many topping selections – simple is sometimes best. We left happily full, but not stuffed.

After writing this, I think we need to go back here as soon as possible. We’d wait over an hour again for this pizza if we had to.

To visit:

Lucali
575 Henry Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231