Sunday Sauce - Food Blog with Italian Recipes

Update: Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Yonkers Opens!

Updated Wednesday November 4th 1:00pm:

Nikki and I wanted to update the blog because we have received A LOT of feedback in the past 36 hours regarding our review on the Frank Pepe's Yonkers opening. Let it be clear that Nikki and I stand by our positive review, as we feel that the clam pie was excellent and the original tomato pie was very good. However, we would not be able to maintain our credibility without acknowledging all of the negative reviews that are coming in, especially with regard to their tomato and mozz pie.  Below you will find a few snippets from comments we received via email. The first two quotes are negative ones, the third quote is a positive one we just received from Allie Vee, who is a patron of Pepe's in Fairfield and New Haven and visited the Yonkers branch this weekend. 

 Commenter Stephan F:

On the positive,  the tomato pie was tangy with a nice bite of what tastes like romano cheese. However there were too many negatives...the crust was too thick and chewy especially toward the point of the slice -there is no excuse for subpar crust imo given the coal oven. Overall both pies were way too greasy.

Commenter Gus L:

"I have been going to Pepe's for many years and after stopping in yesterday for a trial, the Yonkers pizza only made me disappointed and eager to get back to the original ovens on Wooster St. in New Haven. 
The pizza NY (with mozzarella) is way off... the quality in New Haven is 100% better than Yonkers... overall it was greasy,doughy, and the mozz tastes like it is from the A&P."

Commenter Allie Vee:

I went to Pepe's Yonkers over the weekend to check on the progress and saw they were opened on Sunday. When Fairfield opened a couple of years ago, the pizza was not up to par. It is today...Fairfield is excellent. My point is, the coal ovens must be seasoned with 100s of pies being made per day. The pizza was good, the staff is learning. OK - so what's my point - give it time...I would guarantee it will be the closest experience to New Haven.

In closing, remember that pizza preference is personal.  So try it for yourselves and let us know your thoughts.

Review: Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Yonkers: It's Open!

Pizza Review for Frank Pepe's Pizza in Yonkers by Sunday Sauce blog.

PIZZA NIRVANA IN YONKERS: Finally....thankfully...Frank Pepe's pizzeria has arrived in Westchester County. Nikki and I recently attended the Friends & Family opening of Frank Pepe's on Central Avenue in Yonkers and can happily report that the pizza was well worth the wait and anticipation.  Bottom line - it's excellent. 

We sampled two different pies (this is not a slice shop, folks), including their famous clam pie, while watching the pizza men pull a variety of other pies from their two gargantuan, coal-fired ovens.  Each pie looking the picture of pizza perfection.

Clam pie at Frank Pepe's Yonkers

THE LEGENDARY CLAM PIE: We were particularly anxious to try Pepe's clam pie.  I have had a love affair with clam pizzas since I first tasted one at Lombardi's back in 1999. Since Frank Pepe's version has attained legendary status, I had been hunkering for some time to try one, but never had the opportunity to travel to the original Frank Pepe's in New Haven, CT, for a bite (actually we did stop there a few years ago on the way home from Block Island, but it was closed : (

Close-up of Frank Pepe's clam pie.

Underside of clam pizza showing beautiful coal-fired char.

A SIT-DOWN WITH A REAL PEPE: Fortunately for us, Frank Pepe's grandson, Francis Roselli, was on hand to provide commentary on the colorful history of Pepe's pizza and specifically, the clam pie, as Nikki sampled and Idevoured the product. According to Mr. Roselli, the original Pepe's pizzeria in New Haven had offered clams on the half shell as an appetizer.  Sometime during the 1960's, Frank Pepe came up with the idea of offering the clams as a pizza topping.  Little did he know that this slight twist on the menu would make history, as the clam pie would eventually be considered Frank Pepe's masterpiece.

For the bird lovers...Frank Pepe's pizza with chicken.

FAT, MEATY CHUNKS OF CLAMS: A sight to behold, the clam pie was laden with healthy chunks of fresh clam goodness which was supported by a smoky, charred crust. This style of crispy crust was key as it perfectly counterbalanced the meatiness and moistness of the clams.  The copious amount of clams were highlighted by a perfect amount of garlic, oregano and olive oil. This delicious pie was head and shoulders above the alleged "best clam pie in the USA" offered at the Tarry Lodge in Westchester (for more on the shortcomings of the Tarry Lodge's clam pizza, click here).

Frank Pepe's Original Tomato Pie

"Strata" view of tomato pie. Thin and delicious.

FRANKIE'S FAVORITE: As Nikki and I scanned the menu to find another pie to taste, Mr. Rosselli cut our search short. "I have a special pie for you to taste." Ten minutes later we were treated to a tantalizing site of steaming, richly red tomatoes atop a charred pie crust.  This "original tomato pie" was Frank Pepe's favorite, consisting of garlic, tomatoes, oregano, olive oil and grated cheese -- simple, understated brilliance.  Amongst the flurry of nontraditional toppings offered at many of today's pizzerias, such as artichoke, butternut squash and gorgonzola, Pepe's original tomato pie sticks to tradition and lets the basic ingredients, the dough and the oven make its statement. Another plus was that the absence of a heavier, melted cheese, like mozzarella, gave the pizza a lighter, airier vibe.  

Frank Pepe sausage pie

Pie sliding out of the mammoth oven

THE FIRE OF THE GODS: A word on Frank Pepe's would not be complete without mention of their coal ovens.  Coal ovens, which are a rarity nowadays due to the environmental restrictions in NYC and the five boroughs, are permissible in Westchester County, so Pepe's was thankfully able to recreate, brick by brick, the original oven in New Haven that has been producing their pies for over 80 years. Pepe's coal ovens will be running 24/7 and use approximately 1.5 tons of coal per week. Before you envision a black plume forming over Central Ave, you can relax because they are burning a special type of low-emission coal. The ovens also require a deft operating touch, so the pizza men have been training  at Pepe's in Fairfield CT for the last 3 months.

One of the two 30,000 lb ovens at Frank Pepe Yonkers. 

Pepe's Inferno...the coal burns bright.

IN CLOSING: The anticipation for the opening of Frank Pepe's has swelled for over a year. Well it''s here, it's open and it's time to get your fanny's there. This is a breath of fresh air and worth the wait, especially when you consider the deplorable pizza scene in lower Westchester.  I'm sure Pepe's won't affect the few great local slice shops ala Joe's of  Fleetwood and Sal's in Mamaroneck who turn out great product, offer slices and are conveniently located, but I have a feeling that Pepe's is going to take a chunk of business from  Johnny's of Mount Vernon who is the de facto "destination" pizza shop in the lower rim of Westchester (still can't figure out why). 

Let the games begin...

FRANK PEPE PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA

1955 Central Avenue, Yonkers, NY 914-961-8284  (shameless plug, diagonal from Curto's Appliances)

YONKERS, NY

Sunday - Thursday … 11:30 AM - 11:00 PM

Friday & Saturday … 11:30 AM - MIDNIGHT

Review: The Tarry Lodge - The Best Clam Pizza?

After I read the GQ article that stated that the Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, NY had the best clam pie in the United States, I knew I had to try one out.  You see, I love clam pizzas.  Actually, that's an understatement.  I could possibly live on them.  The garlic, the olive oil and chunks of clams on a charred, bubbly crust... nirvana.

I was reared on Lombardi's clam pies, and even as that joint has morphed into a tourist trap with mediocre pizza, the clam pies are still damn good and still set the barometer for me.  So with the hype surrounding the Tarry Lodge's clam pie, it was time to see if a new standard had been set. 

 

The Clam Pizza at the Tarry Lodge

Nik and I ventured to the Tarry Lodge in early September and we ordered up a clam pie as well as their signature pizza which was topped by sunnyside egg, gunaciale (pig cheek) and black truffles.  This particular pie piqued my interest because the yolk of an egg on pizza sent me back to my days in Italy when I would enjoy the "Pizza Capriciossa" at Pizzeria Montecarlo in Rome, which deftly added egg to its pie.

Back to the Tarry Lodge... not to sound disrespectful to those who bow to the altar of all things Batali (he is a co-owner), but I wasn't impressed -- at least with the clam pizza.  First problem was that the clams came on the half shell.  I understand that including the shells guarantees that you're not getting the clams from a can and also avoids drying the clams out when cooking, but I found that picking the meat from the shells to be rather annoying.  When I have a clam pie sitting in front of me, it's meant to go down the chute without any preliminary steps as was the case here.  The other problem was that the clam pizza was incredibly overseasoned.  While I loved the garlic, the oregano was bordering on oppressive. 

 

Tarry Lodge's sunnyside egg, gunaciale and black truffles pizza

The pizza with egg, gunaciale and truffles was eclectic, rich and had the potential to be a knockout. However, we ran into another bump in the road: because the egg wasn't cooked thoroughly on the pizza, it was runny, and thus saturated the crust within a few minutes.  That left us with a soggy pie which was inedible.

I'm not going to make this an official thumbs down because it was only one night and when we return we're going to request that the pizziaola relax a bit with his oregano fetish.  We'll also reorder the egg/gunaciale/truffle pie and see if we run into the same problem again.

I will warn you that the place is expensive and by no means your typical pizza joint.  You actually feel like you're eating in a library.  Should pizza be eaten in such an ambiance?  Well, not for me, but judging by the inability to procure a reservation, the Tarry Lodge is doing something right, even it's just riding on Mr. Batali's name.

Tarry Lodge

18 Mill Street

Port Chester, NY 10573

914-939-3111

Review: Grimaldi's Pizzeria - Dallas, Texas

Just received this review from Maryanne Roman, our Sunday Sauce correspondent in Dallas (yes folks that's right, Sunday Sauce has national coverage of all things Italian that are digestible!).

Couple of things stood out to me:

1. A pie is only $13.50 down there!?!? Insane.

2. The cowboys and cowgirls in the Dallas area don't like basil on their pizza. We'll forgive them.

3. Grimaldi's (and their related restaurants like Brooklyn's Pizzeria in NJ) all use tasteless mozz in their antipasto. 

Read on....

Grimaldi's Dallas

Review of Grimaldi's Pizzeria, Dallas TX

DALLAS, TX - When we arrived we told our waiters that we frequented the original. They proceeded to tell us that all of the ingredients for the pizza are shipped in, which filled us with hope and promise.

Tomatoes – From Italy (had to be DOP San Marzano, but waiters didn’t know exactly).

Cheese – From PA! Boy, was I glad to hear this.

Flour – Also from PA. Wow, I’m impressed!

Water – Distilled by reverse-osmosis “to mimic the water in Brooklyn”. Bring it on!

Atmosphere
The atmosphere wasn’t bad, but not what we expected. Why? We were hoping to hear Sinatra, considering the shrine to Ole Blue Eyes at the original Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn. Not even close.

Antipasto

·         Roasted Red Bell Peppers – Plentiful and delicious.

·         Genoa Salami – Three slices. My husband loved it…I am not a salami fan.

·         Kalamata (pitted), and Green Olives – We liked the Kalamata better. But, that’s probably just our preference.

·         Basil – Delicious. It’s not what get here, for sure. (More textured, slightly-serrated edges; reminded me of mint. Any ideas?) It was perfect, but they only gave us one piece. We figured that was because most people don’t eat it, thinking it’s a garnish. We fought over it.

·         Mozzarella – Now…it was closer to what I remember Mozzarella should be, but I felt that it lacked flavor. Again, it was familiar, good texture, not wet, but not a lot of flavor.

·         Overall – Antipasto was delicious.

 Pizza

·         Dough – Thin, crispy and light. Slightly sweet. My husband, who ate at Grimaldi’s more often than I, said it was just like the original. Only bad thing about this thin dough is that it cools very quickly.

·         Sauce – Sweet. Had to be San Marzano tomatoes.

·         Cheese – Same as antipasto. We don’t think it was shredded, but placed in staccato style.

·         Toppings – We got some Roma tomatoes. They were good, too. We should have asked for basil. There were only three little pieces on there.

·         Overall – We liked it a lot and thought that it was very much like the original. The only thing missing was the basil. We asked the waitress about it afterward, and she said that she forgot to mention that we could have asked for basil, at no charge!!! Most people in Dallas don’t want it. Nuts. The basil was so tasty and fragrant, it lit up the pizza (when you could get a bite). Two thumbs up for the main dish!

 

Dessert

·         Cheesecake (with raspberry sauce garnish) – My husband got this because he loves cheesecake, and has even baked a few at home. To me, it was perfect. Top was lightly-browned. Not too heavy, not too light, not dry, not frozen…just right. My husband didn’t like the crust as it wasn’t graham-cracker crust, but more like regular pie crust. I prefer graham, but, I didn’t even notice the crust because the flavor and texture of the cake was so good.

·         Cannoli (with mini chocolate chips and powered sugar) – I love cannoli, so I ordered one. To me, it was larger than usual, and larger than necessary. Waiter said they were sweet, and he was right – a bit sweeter than usual. Covered in powdered sugar, extra chips on the plate, too. Not filled to the center. (Is this the standard practice these days?) No pistachio, though. Overall – it was good, but I’ve had better IN DALLAS.

Cost
$13 for 16-inch pie
$2 per extra topping
$7.95 for antipasto
$5.00 for Cheesecake
$4.50 for Cannoli

Overall Review: We’re going back! Next time don’t forget the basil!

 

Review: Napoli's Pizzeria, Hoboken NJ

It was a steamy Friday night in Hoboken and Nik and I were both shot from the work week. I tossed a few dinner ideas around - Cuban at Azucar or sushi at Komegashi Too, both in Jersey City, but Nikki wanted to stay local and eat Italian. Big surprise.

I kicked up the name "Napoli's", a semi-new pizzeria in Hoboken that boasts blood lineage to Lombardi's Pizzeria (I believe the owner is the nephew of John Brescia of Lombardi's).
It's been open for about a year and if you read blogs that deal with Hoboken dining, people love it. Nik and I have ordered takeout a few times and we thought the pizza was okay (we weren't fans of the hard crust), but we felt it held promise as the sauce and cheese were excellent.

 

We ordered a caprese salad to start with (romaine, roasted pepper and real mozzarella, not the brick-like embarrassment served at that unamed pizzeria in Edgwater Commons mall in NJ) . For the pies we ordered a large regular and then I ordered a personal sized clam pie. I figured with the ties to Lombardi's this place has to be able to do a clam pie the right way, as that is Lombardi's signature offering.

TALE OF THE TAPE

Oven Type: Gas, brick lined walls

Pizza Dimensions: Thin as thin can be.

Crust: Not pliable. Very hard, almost like a cracker, similar to the style they employ in Rome. Underside is not charred at all.

Sauce: Very tangy. This stood out over all other variables. If you like your tomatoes, you will dig it. Just ask for extra sauce because there wasn't enough on the piece.

Cheese: Laid on staccato style, and quite tasty.

The normal pie was decent, but that's probably a prejudiced statement b/c I don't like pizza with a hard crust and that isn't charred, and that's just not going to happen with this style oven. 
However the clam pie, as I figured, was better than the normal pie. First of all, it seemed like he used the same clams as Lombardi's. They were chopped up and thick, and though they had been cooked in the oven they weren't tough or rubbery. There was a healthy dose of grated cheese and garlic on it as well as olive oil. This was one of the better clam pies I have eaten outside of Lombardi's so if you go to Napoli's definitely check it out.

One thing to note was that the table next to us ordered a bunch of personal pies that looked phenomenal. 

Maybe that's the way to go at Napoli's - with a smaller area to work with they can concentrate their abilities to a higher level and produce a better pie. Next time we go back we're going to order a few different personals and report on them. 

Napoli's Brick Oven Pizza
Address - 1118 Washington St, Hoboken, New Jersey ( NJ ) 07030 Google Map   Mapquest Map
Telephone - (201) 216-0900

Review: A Mano Pizzeria of Ridgewood NJ

First, a word from the editor....

Guys, please don't throw any more tomatoes at us. I know we've been "disgrazia" due to the lack of updates. All I can say is that Nikki was promoted and I've been extremely busy growing my Internet business, plus we were looking for homes, so the schedules have been tight. However, with the amount of emails that have come in asking where we were (from folks we didn't know but were reading the blog) we have re-committed ourselves to finding the time to do this. That's our promise.

JM

Now on to the food...

As Nik and I continue our house hunt, we decided to check out the town of Ridgewood NJ with the hopes of finding a nice quaint town that will make my commute to Yonkers even more helacious. The process of looking for homes has been anything but fun, so in order to add a little spice to the process,
I've decided to cap our visit to each town by visiting the best local pizzeria. As fortune may have it, Ridgewood boasts one of NJ's best pizzerias, "A Mano", which means "by hand". 

 

I was doubly pumped when we found out that they use an Italian-imported wood-fired oven to make the pizzas and that they also had imported an authentic pizza-maker from Naples to man the ovens. Would we find pizza that could rival the vaunted Da Michele of Napoli?
We would soon find out.

The restaurant was housed in a fairly cavernous space with very tall ceilings, two pizza ovens and a dessert counter with espresso machines, baked goods and a case for gelato - editors note - A Mano has a reputation for producing phenomenal gelato. Unfortunately the compressor had broken so they were awaiting one that they were importing from Italy. They offered a bunch of different pizzas but Nik stuck with a basic Margherita, the best platform to taste the fundamentals of crust, cheese and tomatoes. I chose an "Amano" pizza that had cherry tomatoes, tomato sauce, proscuitto di Parma and mozzarella.

The crust was sublime. Soft, textured. delicately blistered. Best crust I have tasted in the States. The bottom was gorgeously charred by the 800-degree wood-fired oven, a blessed inferno that delivered the pizzas in a few minutes flat. The crust also passed my flex-test, where we fold the slice in half and see whether it cracks. If it doesn't crack, then the crust is soft, pliable and gorgeously glutenous, just as the pizzas are in Napoli.

While the crust was super, we found the tomatoes that they used to be a bit lacking in taste, and the mozzarella was too watery which started to inundate the pointed part of the pizza slice with moisture. It tasted like they were using fiori do latte cheese as opposed to mozzarella di bufala, which would have had a more sharper, pronounced taste, and a hell of a lot more expensive for A Mano to use on all of their pies.

The menu also consisted of salads, panninis and calzones, the latter two all cooked in the wood-fired oven. When we were there, the ovens were stoked by a kid named Luigi who was from Naples, but wasn't the original pizzialo who had come over with such hype. As I read some blog posts about A Mano when doing some prelim research for this post, it seems like there was a falling out with the original pizzialo and he was fired/resigned earlier in the year (it's been open for 18 months) and has now opened his own pizzeria. It seems like sales were lagging at first, so the owner's thought he was making
too much of a Neapolitan-styled pie and he needed to adapt to the American pizza palate, which meant leaving pies in the oven longer so they wouldn't be as soft when they came out.
You can read more about the politics of A Mano here.

If you are a pizza nut (like our Uncle James) I would recommend taking a drive out to Ridgewood as this is definitely a destination pizzeria. In summary, A Mano churned out one of the closest proxies to a Neapolitan pie that we've had on these shores.

A Mano : Chestnut Street at Franklin : Ridgewood, NJ : 201.493.2000

Cacio e Vino: Our Favorite New Italian Restaurant in NYC

So let it be written . . . we have found the best Italian restaurant in NYC that you may never have heard of. . .

Photo: The Trinacria symbol of Sicily hangs over the wood-burning oven.

Cacio e Vino ("cheese and wine") is a small trattoria nestled on 2nd Ave in the lower East Side that features the cuisine of Sicily. We ate there 2 weeks ago and were absolutely blown away by the place; so much so that we have anointed it one of the best Italian restaurants in NYC.
And we make that statement with the utmost confidence as we've recently eaten at a number of higly-rated Italian restaurants in NYC including Fiamma, Del Posto, Peasant, Roberto's and Lupa to name a few. To our palates, the understated, humble, Cacio e Vino rises above them all.

Photo: Our Pizza Bianco al Crudo - look at the beautifully blistered bubble on the bottom...gorgeous!

Don't expect white-table cloths and tuxedo-clad waiters doting on your every whim. Cacio e Vino is a trattoria which is a more casual-style restaurant in Italy. The room boasts dark, warm woods, tables huddled close together, shelves stocked with wine and a beautiful wood-burning oven standing vigil in one corner, toasting the entire room while the ceramic "Trinacria" -- the symbol of Sicily -- hangs from its center.
Though we love the cooking of Emilia-Romagna (regarded as the culinary capital of Italy and popularized by Mario Batali), we've always felt that Siclilian cuisine is the most diverse in all of Italy and woefully underrepresented in the NYC restaurant scene. Thanks in part to Sicily's role as either the doormat/strategic outpost (depending on how you view it) of the Mediterranean and the fact that so many different cultures - Greek, Roman, North African, Arabic, Norse, French, Spanish - conquered it at one point or another and left their respective culinary footprints, a very diverse cuisine was born. Cacio e Vino and its Chef Allessandro Ancona do an incredible job of capturing that diversity.

Photo: The Sicilian classic Caponata, served with goat cheese wrapped in panelle (chickpea fritter).

The Menu is broken up into pizzas/flatbreads (all cooked in the wood-burning oven), antipasti, entrees and dolci (deserts!).
The menu had so many potential winners that we took a great deal of time selecting our dishes. Here's what we rolled with:

- Pizza Bianca al Crudo (fresh mozzarella, arugula, proscuitto, shaved parmigiano)

- Sarde a Beccafico con Cipollata (baked Mediterranean sardine stuffed with bread crumbs, pine nuts, raisins, orange zest, sweet/sour onion)

- Caponata con Panelle al Caprino (sweet and sour eggplant, celery, olives, onions with chick pea fritter and goat cheese)

- Bucatini con le Sarde (bucatini pasta with fresh sardines, pine nuts, raisins, saffron, wild fennel and bread crumbs)

- Busiate con Pesto Trapanese (Busiate pasta, fresh tomato, basil, garlic and almond pesto)

Photo: Stuffed sardines. We didn't know if we'd like it, we ended up loving it.

As for desert we feasted on one of the best cannolis we've ever tasted, an apple tart that was delicious, glasses of Vin Santo and a cappuccino to top it all off.

Photo: Nikki's Trapenese pasta. The pesto almond sauce was brilliant.

The pizza was sublime. The crust was charred by the wood-burning oven, yet wasn't so brittle to become cracker-esque. The sauce was tangy, arugula was fresh and crisp and the mozzarella imparted a creamy sweetness that lingered merrily on our palates. The caponata had the ideal amount of sweet/sourness going on, whereas some caponata dishes that we've tasted have taken the sourness over the edge. The stuffed sardine was delectable and the stuffing medley of breadcrumbs, pine nuts and raisins was delicious and would be repeated with a few other additions in the Bucatini con le Sarde that JonnyMangia ordered as an entree.

Photo: It wouldn't be a Sicilian feast without Pasta con Sarde (though we still prefer Mom G's!).

We were hard-pressed to find one problem with this Sicilian feast. The only issue was that there were so many items on the menu that sounded amazing that we were put in a state of paralysis trying to figure out what we wanted. The menu boasts a whopping 15 styles of pizza, 8 pastas, 8 types of flatbreads, 5 stuffed calzones and 8 main courses that ran the gamut from skirt steak with sauteed escarole, roasted potatoes and wine reduction, braised lamb shank in almond flavor over soft polenta (!), pan-roasted chicken breasts with Sicilian peppers and pan roasted sea bass filet with spinach, pine nuts, raisins, garlic mashed potatoes cake over celery root sauce. And that's just a sampling of this diverse menu.

Photo: We ended things with this cannoli, an apple tart, Vin Santo (no grappa!) and a cappuccino.

Cacio e Vino is truly an experience. Between the stellar cuisine and the warmth and coziness of the room, it truly is a haven amidst the chaos found on the streets of the lower East side. Jonny commented that with each bite he took, he found himself transported back to Palermo, envisioning the sights and sounds of that colorful city. The Euro is nearly double the US dollar right now, so save your money and take a trip to Sicilia through the masterful cooking at Cacio e Vino. Bravissimo!

Photo: Torneremo!!! (We will return!).

Cacio e Vino
80 2nd Ave (btw 4th and 5th streets)
NYC 10003
212-228-3269
www.cacioevino.com
Open 7 days per week
Mon-Thur
Noon - Midnight
Fri-Sun
Noon - 2am

Review: Brooklyn's Pizzeria (Edgewater, NJ)

Ok, before we start hitting you with all of the fish from Christmas Eve, we figured we'd sneak this one in on you...

Photo: The steaming pie (half extra-sauce/half black olives) at Brooklyn's Pizzeria hits the table, and we're ready to hit it HARD

We've been regular customers of Brooklyn's Brick Oven Pizzeria in Edgewater, NJ for as long as we have known each other. Actually our second date was dinner at "Brooklyn's" and a movie ("Old School") at the National Amusements theater next door. Being the discerning pizza eaters we are, you'd have to think that Brooklyn's makes a good pie in order for us to keep coming back. They do. The best way to describe their pies would be to compare them to Grimaldi's of Brooklyn, and with good reason. The guys who own this place are related to the Grimaldi's clan. They also use a coal-fired oven, and their sauce has the same nice-balanced acidity and tang that makes it stand out. The funny thing is that there is a Grimaldi's in our hometown of Hoboken, (now unafilliated with the Brooklyn branch) and Brooklyn's Pizzeria in Edgewater is so much better than it that we opt to jump in the car and drive 20 minutes out of the way to go there.

NOTE: There are several other Brooklyn's Pizzeria's in NJ (Hackensack and Ridgewood) but we've never visited them so we can't vouch for the quality.

Photo: Jonny's preferred slice...black olives.

Photo: Nikki's preferred slice...extra sauce.

We typically order a large pie, half extra-sauce (Nikki), half black olives (Jonny). I've also played around with other toppings:

mushrooms - don't get them as they make the pie to watery

sausage - excellent

green peppers - tasty

ricotta - avoid, not much taste and it weighs the pie down)

We usually start with an antipasto or tossed salad with marinated mushrooms, roasted peppers, olives and tomatoes. The antipasto is good, but avoid the mozzarella cheese which look like bricks and have about as much taste as cement.

Photo: The antipasto is good, but avoid the mozzarella "bricks". They are tasteless and we're convinced that if you picked one up and threw it at the waiter you'd knock them out cold.

Brooklyn's Brick Oven Pizzeria
443 River Road
Edgewater, NJ 07020
201-945-9096

NO SLICES

CASH ONLY

Da Michele: My Trip to the World's Greatest Pizzeria

Posted by Jonny Mangia

Seven years ago this month, I went on a trip that would change my life forever.

The Holy Site - Pizzeria Da Michele in December 2000.

It was December 2000 and I was about to embark on my first trip to Italy. I was accompanied by my brother Mario and my cousin Jimmy and though we would spend the majority of time in Rome, I made sure to carve out a day trip - a pilgrimmage to Napoli to taste the city's famous pizza.

Before we left I needed to find the best pizzeria to visit, as our time in Napoli was limited. I owned a book called "Pizza any Way You Slice It" by Brooklynites Charles and Michele Scicicolne and I knew that Charles, aside from being a pizza expert, owned an Italian wine shop in NYC. So I visited him one night and posed the question - which pizzeria do we hit in Napoli? The answer was simple.

"Da Michele".

There were many pizzerias to choose from, but Da Michele was unique. The founding Condurro family started making pizzas in 1870 and Michele Condurro opened his first pizzeria in 1906. By 1930 they moved to the current spot on Via Cesare Sersale and have been producing pizzas ever since. Since then, 5 generations have been making pizzas and adhering to Michele's instructions - only 2 types of pies  (Margherita and Marinara) and no "junk" can be used that could alter it's authenticity or taste. Words to live by.

Historic Moment: Two hours after I arrive in Rome I had my first bite of pizza in Italy. Notice the that I am completely oblivious that I am about to be run down by a Roman guy
driving his vespa on the sidewalk.

Arrival in Rome
Four days into the trip and we were having a rough go of it. The food in Rome was overrated (try to avoid dining near the Piazza Navona), Jimmy had disappeared for two days as he was abducted by his distant cousins and had been force fed brocolli rabe, sausage and prickly pears for 7 hours straight,  and Mario was rapidly slipping into a state of delusion due to sleep deprivation. By the 4th day, Mario looked like a gypsy hobo who had just arrived on a slow barge from Albania looking for day labor work.

But on the 5th Day, God said..."Let There Be Pizza in Napoli"...and all was good.

The Menu at Da Michele. Very simple - two pies and drinks, all marked in lira!

Napoli - Una Citta di Caos (A Chaotic City)
The first thing that struck me as we left the Napoli Central Station and entered the city was that I had never in my life seen a place move so fast. The cabs, the pedestrians, the scooters, the thieves, the way the people talked. It made New York City seem like some podunk town in Idaho. We hailed a cab and asked to be taken to Da Michele. It was only a 5 minute ride and we nearly got into 5 accidents along the way. The cab driver finally took us down a one way street that was sized for a donkey cart as opposed to a car, slammed on the brakes in front of a crowd of people and pointed out the window. "Michele" he growled. We had arrived.

The pizza arrives at Da Michele and I am about to go into cardiac arrest.

There were about 20 people milling about outside, one who remarkably looked like Jesus Christ. I figured this pizza had to be really good if the Second Coming was going to take place here.
We took our positions in line and waited, starving, exhausted and looking around anxiously as sirens blared and explosions sounded in the distance. Jimmy had waited all trip to visit the Vatican. Mario had waited all trip to visit a medieval torture museum. Now, I had my moment I had waited for.  I was about to finally taste authentic Neapolitan pizza.

I couldn't take the picture quick enough without a slice disappearing.

The inside of Da Michele was very spartan and there were only two types of pies - Margherita and Marinara. I went with a Margherita, which came out with chunks of sweet and tangy local San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte cheese (NOT WATER BUFFALO MOZZARELLA!!!) spread staccato-style over the pie, and the most beautiful, elegantly blistered, soft crust, cooked to perfection in their wood-buring oven,  I had ever encountered. I had two. Two whole pies that is. By myself. Washed it down with a few Italian beers as well.

Da Michele's oven - birthplace of the world's greatest pizza.

It was an experience I will never forget. Every time I go back to Italy, I make it a point to return to Da Michele, or their rival pizzeria "Trianon" which is just up the street. Back in 2002 I spent about a week living in Napoli and ate either lunch or dinner at one of the two pizzerias ever day.  To this day I have never, EVER tasted a pizza that can come within sniffing distance of the art that these two places create on a daily basis.

Why does it taste so good and why can't it be replicated elsewhere? People say it's the tomatoes, the cheese, the yeast, the water, the skill of the pizza man, the oven, the wood, the longitiude/latitiude of the restaurant or some other factor. I just think making great pizza has simply become embedded in their DNA over the years via repetition and the use of quality ingredients.

If you have the opportunity to visit Napoli, or you are just stopping through on your weigh to Amalfi, Capri or another destination, make it a point to stop at one of these pizzerias. It will change your idea of what is great pizza forevermore!

PS - I took Nikki to Da Michele, along with my mother and sister in 2004 and Nikki told me she liked L&B Spumoni Gardens of Brooklyn better. Blasphemy!!!!

L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele
Napoli           - Via Cesare Sersale, 1/3
(angolo Via P. Colletta)
Tel. 0815539204
http://www.damichele.net/

Review: Zero Otto Nove

- Posted by JonnyMangia - 11/25/2007

##EDITOR'S NOTE - For a more current take on Zero Otto Nove, please check out this post.

The Cousins Gavone Strike a Pose After Inhaling 5 Pies and a Calzone.

The call came in at about 7:30 pm, Tuesday night.

"Mangia"?

It was my cousin Stephan.

"Yeah, what's up man?

"We're at Roberto's new place on Arthur Ave. It's the best pizza I have ever tasted."

I rolled my eyes.

"Best you've ever tasted?"

"Without a doubt".

Strong words, and this kid's been to Italy a few times so he's no pizza dummy. Plus, he had my Uncle James, aka "Don Pizza" with him, who was echoing the sentiments that the pies were excellent.

"You're serious. It's the best pie you've tasted?"

"In the States, no doubt about it."

I stroked my chin, furrowed the brow, and decided there was only one thing to do...

"I'll see you there tomorrow for lunch".

Margherita Pizza- The crust was insanely brilliant. Flecked with blisters from the burning wood, hot, yet soft and doughy, but the tomatoes and cheese were lacking in flavor.

The Buzz
There has been alot of buzz-building about Zero Otto Nove, Roberto's Paciullo's new trattoria on Arthur Ave. The word on the street was that once Roberto opened this place, he was going to do pizza the RIGHT WAY...meaning, the way the masters do it in Napoli.

He started by installing a wood-burning oven, imported a Neapolitan pizziaolo to tend the hearth, and promised to only use the native ingredients of Neapolitan pizza-making such as San Marzano tomatoes and imported mozzarella, just to insure sure things were done in the fashion of the old-world masters.

Pizza Nutella - ordered to satiate Stevie Gavone's sweet tooth, I was able to sample one slice of it and it was tasty. If you like your chocolate, run with it.

So the next day, I met up with the Stephan, his brother Jimmy (who was with me on my virgin experience at Da Michele in Napoli back in December of 2000) and Don Pizza. The menu was full of meat dishes, salads and other dishes, but we were here for one thing - pizza. There was a decent selection of pies to choose from including ones on the more eclectic side that offered toppings such as butternut squash, broccoli di rape and others. We decided to stick to the fundamental pies and in typical gavone fashion, we ordered 5 of them and one calzone.

• (2) Margherita  - basil, San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala

• Napolitano - San Marzano tomatoes, basil, oregano

• Capriciossa - mozzarella di bufala, cappicola, olives, porcini mushroom, San Marzano tomatoes

• Nutella  - Nutella chocolate and sugar powder smeared over the hot pizza crust. Stephen insisted on this one to cap off the meal.

I wanted to tell you that Roberto hit the home run, that I had finally found a reasonable facsimile of a Neapolitan pie in the heart of the Bronx. Alas, I have mixed feelings about my experience here and that is undoubtedly due to the pedigree that Roberto has created for himself with his other restaurant, "Robertos", which is regarded as one of the best Italian restaurants in NYC.

Slice of Pizza Napolitano - we ordered this to get the unblemished taste of the tomatoes. It provided further evidence that the tomatoes need to be changed.

I came in expecting that if anyone could nail the pizza-making artistry of the Neapolitans on these shores, it would be Roberto. And to be quite honest, he almost got there, because his crust his otherworldly (more on this below). However, there were several problems that emanated from the toppings that adversely affected the pizza:

- The San Marzano tomatoes were a disappointment as they completely lacked flavor

- The mozzarrella do bufala was flaccid, lacking any of the creaminess and
tartness that it is known for

- The basil was put in too early and was allowed to burn on some of the pies

The other toppings, such as the myriad of ingredients on the capriciossa pie were quite tasty, but they aren't going to make up for the  lack of flavor from the tomatoes and cheese which are going to be far more important in driving the fundamentals of a pie.

The Crust: Bravo Roberto!

If Roberto got anything right, he nailed what I deem to be the most difficult aspect of Neapolitan pizza-making to replicate- the crust.  As more and more gourmet pizza shops open up, touting that their pies are made in the Neapolitan style, there always seems to be a marketing hook about what they imported from Naples to replicate the quality. Listen, you can import all of the water, yeast, tomatoes, salt, dough, plumbing fixtures, wood, ovens or 100
Neapolitan pizza men with pencil-thin mustaches from old Napoli , I have yet to taste a pizza on these shores that can touch the crust, be it taste-wise, or texture-wise, created at the holy duet of Neapolitan pizzerias - Da Michele and Trianon.

However, Roberto has come closest.

Jimmy's Vegetable Calzone - The dough was light as a feather.

The crust, as you can tell in some of the pictures is a beautiful dichotomy of a hot, blackened, blistered dough that is at the same time, soft and pliable. I call this style  "morbido", which means "soft" in Italian. My test, is that when you can fold the crust and it doesn't crack you have achieved the state  "morbido" , which is an intrinsic characteristic of Neapolitan pizza-making. If you can attain this,  you are a pizza-making Jedi as this has only been attained by a select few (at least that my taste buds recognize).

Bottom Line: Zero Otto Nove has great potential. If he just changes up his selection of tomatoes and cheese and pushes them in line with the standard he has set for the
crust, Roberto will be heralded as one of the few to sniff the rarefied air of the Neapolitan masters.

 

 

Pizza Capriciossa - The crust was as delicious as the margherita but started to have trouble supporting the myriad of toppings.

Zero Otto Nove

2357 Arthur Ave.

Bronx NY 10458

718-220-9597

TUES-SUN

Credit cards accepted