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New York Times Reviews NYC's Nouveau Pizzerias

Frank Bruni takes his acerbic pen to the City's new wave of pizzerias. It's a great read. Enjoy!

His top list:

1. MOTORINO 319 Graham Avenue (Devoe Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 599-8899.

Bottom line: When I went, every pizza was terrific, at prices ($9 to $16 for individual-size pies) that didn’t rise nearly as high as Lucali’s or Una Pizza Napoletana’s, in an attractive setting with a back patio.

2. VELOCE PIZZERIA 103 First Avenue (East Seventh Street), East Village; (212) 777-6677.

Bottom line: These square pies ($15 to $19) are bigger and more filling than similarly priced round ones, and Veloce doesn’t have the attitude and preciousness of many new-generation pizza places.

3. UNA PIZZA NAPOLETANA 349 East 12th Street (First Avenue), East Village; (212) 477-9950.

Bottom line Excellent but aloof and, at $21 per individual-size pie, expensive.

4. ANSELMO’S 354 Van Brunt Street (Sullivan Street), Red Hook, Brooklyn; (718) 313-0169.

Bottom line: Good food plus a waiter in a dirty white V-neck and “Godfather” music. Irresistible.

5. FRANNY’S 295 Flatbush Avenue (Prospect Place), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; (718) 230-0221.

Bottom line: It’s a multifacted pizza restaurant, but requires more commitment than others.

Rest in Peace Richie

I just received the news that a friend of ours from Hoboken just passed away from cancer.

Richie Turnbull was the owner of Uptown Pizza, which was located right outside our building on 14th Street. A native Brooklynite, Richie always greeted his customers with a smile that could light up a room.
He had an incredible amount of positive energy that you couldn't help but be positively affected by.

I had a Saturday ritual whereby after I returned from karate class, I would visit Uptown Pizza and spend an hour BS'ing with Richie and the other workers. I'd usually grab a slice with mushrooms and a few onion pinwheels (a specialty that Richie introduced me to - they were phenomenal).

Richie made really good pizza, and we were always thankful that he finally provided an alternative to the mostly-lousy pizza found in Hoboken.

After he was diagnosed with cancer, he had stopped putting in the around-the-clock hours at the pizza shop, instead opting to open it in the mornings then leave by lunch time. When his schedule changed I really didn't see much of him any more, except when I would bump into him in the Shipyard  apartment complex. He lost a ton of weight and looked tired, but he never stopped being upbeat. It was just his nature. And I'm sure that's what helped him battle this insidious disease for several years.

I didn't get to say goodbye to him before we left Hoboken in late January, so I had planned to stop by the pizza shop on one of our trips back to town and say hi. It's too late for that now, so Rich, we just want to say thank you for the great food, but more importantly, thank you for being such a warm, friendly human and for showing us how to be positive and appreciate life even when the chips are down.

Rest in peace.

Jonny

How Much Water Does Pasta Need? - From the NY Times 2/24/09

It's been a LONG time between posts folks...much going on with Nikki and I as we will soon tell you.
In the meantime check out this article from today's NYT where the author intertwines energy consumption and savings with the production of cooking pasta in your kitchen . Do you know that Americans cook over a billion pounds of pasta per year? I think Nikki is probably responsible for a 1/4 of that total.

The Italian Cheese Bailout

Leave it to the Italians...

Salumi Holiday Photo Gallery

Sticking to the Salumi theme, here is a brief photo gallery from SFgate.com with some of our favorite cured meats dressed up for the Holidays.

And you'll enjoy the accompanying article by Georgeann Brennan, where she waxes about creating her own salumi during the Holiday (errr...Christmas!) season.

Savoring Italian Beer

There's more to Italian beer than Moretti and Peroni, the brands that Americans would typically associate with (if they are even aware that they drink more in Italy than red wine in straw-bottomed bottles!).
The New York Times Travel section takes us on a journey throughout Italy describing the new phenomenon of locally-crafted beers. As the author Evan Rail writes:

"Around Italy, a craft beer scene has sprung up, bringing well-made specialty brews into haute cuisine dining rooms and elevating the fare served in brew pubs, creating an attractive destination for beer lovers who also love great food."

 

You can find a great photo gallery capturing not only the suds but some of the dishes that the restaurants mentioned serve.

The Mobile Pizza Brick Oven

Only in America would we see such ingenuity. From today's New York Times, a homemade brick and concrete oven, used to perfect  pizzas influenced by the works of art produced in Naples. We might have to get one of these for our new house!

Dave Scarlow and his homemade pizza oven. Photo
courtesy of the New York Times.

Grandma Pie Defined

We were going to do a post about the pizza variety called "Grandma pies", but we just noticed that an article on the topic from back in 2003 was just resurrected on ExploreLI.com.
Jonny Mangia's great-grandmother, Nanny Gaggy, a native of Mondello, Sicily, made this type of pie, and now his mother, Mom G, carries on the tradition. Check out the above article for now, and then we are going to do a video segment on Mom G's pizzas, and we'll include the Grandma-style one in it.

"Co." a new pizzeria coming to NYC

Backed by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and coming to 9th Ave. and 24th Street, "Co." will be the latest entrant into the NY Pizza Wars. Descriptions of the pies looks great and he's looking to add gelato to boot. We'll be there!

Tuscan Cooking : Keep It Simple

Great article in today's New York Times re: Tuscan cooking. The chef in the article is a native of  Lucca, the beautiful, bucolic Tuscan town where Nikki and I stayed with my family 4 years ago. Did I mention that Lucca produces the best olive oil I have ever tasted in Italy? Yes, that includes the Sicilian varieties as well.
The idea that chef Laura Sbrana emphasizes in the article is that of simplicity...use only fresh ingredients, (preferably taken from your garden) and emphasize what is in season. Ms. Sbrana hosts a cooking school at her farmhouse in Lucca and this passage from the article encapsulates her mantra:

"In her week-long classes, Ms. Sbrana, like many Tuscan cooks before her, emphasizes the importance of knowing the ingredients. She sends her students into the garden also takes them to the central market in Florence so that they can revel in the profusion of seasonal produce and learn how to decide what is worth buying and why."

"From a Tuscan Kitchen, Lessons in Simplicity", by Florence Fabricant, New York Times, August 13, 2008