Scott's Pizza Journal

Special Pizza Box Report from the Netherlands

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:00:05 -0500

I’ve been checking out Dutch pizzerias for the past week and while I can’t say there’s anything magical happening on the plate, those opting for take-away are definitely in for something special. I’m pretty into pizza boxes these days so my eyes are always peeled for new specimens for my collection, which takes up its own shelf in my apartment. I have a huge pile of new submissions from amazing people all over the planet and I can’t wait to get back and catalogue them, but last night I stumbled across some of my favorite boxes yet.

I scored this first box at MangiAncora, a pizzeria located in the De Pijp section of Amsterdam. I’ll write a full report sometime next week, but suffice it to say this is the best pizza I’ve had in NL thus far. But back to the more important container. I’m in awe of these boxes that are printed in full color all the way out to the edge. How can they do this? Isn’t it expensive? This is way beyond what we have back in the US. And who is this artist? His name (Ciancio) is in the lower right-hand corner. Please, if anybody knows Ciancio please tell him/her I’m a big fan.

This next one is equally amazing, with its to-the-edge printing and full color. But get a load of this scene; it shows famous Neapolitan comic actor Toto sharing pizza with a guy who looks like a cross between Adrian Grenier and Jake Gyllanhaal. Who is that guy and why does he have such a weird pinky finger? All we know is that they’re on a boat in the Bay of Naples and only one of them seems to be having a good time. A quick online search produced the original image upon which Toto’s apprehensive expression is based. I grabbed this box at de Portare Via, also located in Amsterdam. The pizza makers saw a stack of boxes already under my arm so I mentioned my collection, providing the perfect segway to ask about all the different boxes I saw piled around the room. They pointed to a stack od “old boxes we don’t use for pizza, just for show” and revealed the stunning top image. I squealed. This isn’t the only box top image that features Toto, I think I have another one in my collection. They seemed pretty happy to get rid of it and I was more than happy to take it.

But nothing could compare to the next box they pulled from a dusty stack. I’ve seen images of similar boxes but never came across one in the wild, so this was a pretty big moment for me. I made a sound never before uttered in the Netherlands. It was a sound of such pure joy and elation, it could only mean one thing…

That’s right, the fabled Simpsons pizza box! There are similar boxes floating around out there and, like this one, they appear to be completely unlicensed. The “Homer” character’s head is covered with more than three hairs and the “Bart” character covers his pointy hairline with this cap. No paper trail. It’s brilliant. Again, the color printing goes all the way to the edge of the box. Amazing. Truly a landmark box in my collection. If you ever see another “Simpsons” box, please grab it for me and you will be rewarded with a similar squeal to the one I produced upon seeing this box last night.

As beautiful as they are, none of these boxes are technically revolutionary. Their minimal ventilation would be blocked with stacking, not to mention how it would interfere with the beautiful artwork. Besides the pretty pictures, the boxes themselves are downright boring. They aren’t even from the Netherlands, they’re all Italian. I also picked up some logo boxes from several Dutch pizzerias but their artwork is less exciting. Why are Italian stock boxes so beautiful while custom boxes are so dull? I’ll work on finding answers to questions like this as the hunt continues…

More Ways To Follow My Pizza Adventures

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:37:27 -0500

Just a quick contact sheet for all y’all pizza lovers out there…

Track my every pizza-related action on Twitter!
Creepily stalk my pizza-related vacations on Facebook!
Watch my TV appearances, pizza experiments and box reviews on YouTube!
Check out my classy tours of significant pizzerias in New York City (this is my actual job)!

Trenton Tomato Pie Lives On After Delorenzo's Closes

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:01:47 -0500

A week before the closing of Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies, with Men Who Dine and Pizza Rules.

Last weekend marked the end of an era for Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies on Hudson Street in Trenton, NJ. It was one of the country’s greatest pizzerias, not only because of its food but also as an iconic space that was enjoyed by so many over the course of its 60+ years in existence. But although Trenton’s pizza (err…. tomato pie) scene has taken a hit, there’s still refuge for those who dig an honest place for an honest pie that hasn’t been corrupted or modified since day 1. After my final visit to Delorenzo’s on Hudson St with Men Who Dine and Nick from Pizza Rules, we hit two additional spots to round out the trip. It’s obvious that the Trenton tomato pie lives on even without its most famous landmark.

Delorenzo’s Pizza on Hamilton Ave
First of all, notice the difference in the name: Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies on Hudson Street is the one that just closed (on Sunday) and Delorenzo’s Pizza on Hamilton Ave remains open. The two were started by brothers but the pizza is completely different. DTP (Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies) lays the sauce on top of the cheese while DP (Delorenzo’s Pizza) cheeses above the sauce. The crust is also different but I don’t want to go down this road or we’ll be comparing doorknob and toilet seat choices before long. Suffice it to say this is a place you can grab some good food and be comfortable while doing it.

I know, it’s empty. That’s because Nick and I got there as they were about to close. The line at DTP was long so we had only 30 min to stop by the remaining two pizzerias on our hit list (both are closed by 8:45pm). Just look at those beautiful red booths and classy wood paneling. Just in case you can’t taste it from a photo of the interior, here’s a shot of the pie…

All my Trenton photos look funny, but the crust really was this yellow. Is it semolina? Corn? I have no idea but maybe it’s a secret from the ancient pizza making rituals. Didn’t you know that Delorenzo’s Pizza is related to the origin of pizza itself? According to their menu, the pizza maker at DP was trained by a direct descendant of Domenico Testa, the pizza maker who allegedly served pizza to King Ferdinand II in the 1830s. Is it true? And if so, does it actually mean anything? (wow, I’ve been watching too much Ancient Aliens lately)

Papa’s Tomato Pies
This one’s my personal favorite Trenton spot. It has the same homey vibe as both Delos’ but even more charm in terms of its story. Joe Papa opened this place in 1912 after working at another tomato pie joint. His family has run it ever since, which makes it the oldest continuous pizzeria business in the USA. Don’t confuse this claim with Lombardi’s in New York City, which was the first dedicated pizzeria in the USA. Both these claims are different from Totonno’s, which has been run by the same family in the same location since 1924 (Papa’s moved), making it the longest running pizzeria location in the country.

Papa’s Tomato Pies is adorable. Nick Azzaro and his family take great care of you and there’s even a booklet with articles, reviews and history on each table. Again, it’s only empty in the photo because we got there late, but this is absolutely what a pizzeria is supposed to look like. Get a load of those light fixtures! And the pie ain’t bad either…

Classic NJ pizza at its best. Sorry it’s in a box, I’m really not into that, but they were closing and we had to hit the road. I should also point out that this is closest Trenton’s old tomato pie scene has to a New York pizza because the crust is a bit softer than both Delos and Papa’s cuts each pie into 8 slices whereas Delo’s cuts their into 10. Don’t ask me why.

It’s sad that Delorenzo’s Tomato Pies closed but there’s still plenty of action at these other Trenton landmarks. Just be sure to check their schedules before you go, I’ve taken drives down only to meet a CLOSED sign on more than one occasion.

Winter Reading List

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:33:00 -0500

It may not feel like Winter in New York, but there is no avoiding the deep chill that is sure to come. And when that day arrives, you’ll want nothing more than a cozy fire and a good book about pizza. Fear not, dear slice-o-phile, for there are several fantastic reads at your local book shoppery that promise to keep you warm while nature does her thing. Here’s a roundup of some books I’ve been spending time with lately…

1. Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoe Francois (St Martin’s Press)

Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day is exactly what it sounds like. This is the latest in a series about hassle-free bread baking and it’s totally awesome. Baking pizza is an extremely practical way to feed yourself AND heat yourself. The book makes you feel like a jerk for wasting so much of your life not making pizza at home with its ridiculously simple dough recipes. No complicated steps or fancy words, just simple ingredients that combine to make dough that sits in your refrigerator until you’re ready to bake.

The authors’ approach to flatbread and pizza making is more focused on getting delicious results than trends or “authenticity.” They address common problems people have with homemade pizza, focusing largely on the component that scares most humans into submission to and abuse from the big delivery chains. Even though I’ve bakes many a pizza at home, the book isn’t too oversimplified or basic. Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day is perfect for anyone who is even mildly interested in expanding their home cooking skill-set, even if the sum of your prior pizza experience is Ellios or Digiorno.

2. Extra Virginity by Tom Mueller (Norton)

First of all, great title. Extra Virginity stuck out immediately when I was scanning the shelves at my go-to indie bookstore, McNally-Jackson in Soho. I’ve been craving a book about olive oil ever since I had my first real taste of the good stuff on a trip to Israel four years ago. We visited an olive mill and not only was I the only person out of 40 to stay awake during a presentation about how oil is pressed, and I’m probably also the only one of the group who currently uses the information on a daily basis. I’ll never forget that first taste of a substance that surprisingly tasted like olive. If this is what olive oil is supposed to taste like, what have I been ingesting all these years? Tom Mueller has the answers and some of them may shock you.

Even though the olive industry is predominantly fueled by the Mediterranean region, the good old USA is getting into olive oil in a pretty big way right now. There are dedicated shops and gourmet stores literally shoving all things “Extra Virgin” down our throats. All the more reason to do a little reading on the subject! Throughout the book, Mueller introduces us to a dozen key players in one of the oldest and most deceptive industries on the planet. He covers enough history, science, technology and politics to give you all the ammo you’ll need for your next trip to the supermarket’s oil aisle. You’ll also gain a greater appreciation for the taste and health benefits of this ancient nectar; I was craving a glass of straight-up olive oil by the end of the first chapter!

3. Serious Eats by Ed Levine and the Editors of SeriousEats.com (Crown)

It’s about time the good folks at Serious Eats put out a book and it was definitely worth the wait. Ed Levine and his crew of hungry editors lead you through every meal of the day (plus snacks!) as they dish out recommendations for where, how and when to eat everything tasty within the United States of America. The book is divided into chapters based on food genre (Breakfast, Burgers, Pizza, Sandwiched/Hot Dogs BBQ, Street food, Fried food, Sweets and Home-Grown). If you keep a pizza-only diet, this book will expand your horizons. If you’d rather stick to foods that are (usually) round and (usually) cut into triangle wedges of cheese, sauce and crust, there’s always Levine’s classic Pizza: A Slice of Heaven to settle your cravings.

As the parent website to Slice: America’s Favorite Pizza Weblog, SeriousEats.com spends a great deal of time with pizza and the book reflects just that in its wonderful pizza chapter. The lists, photos, essays and recipes for pizza of all shapes, sizes and cities of origin are spot-on. It’s the perfect gift for any food adventurer, whether or not they’re a pizza addict. Just flip to any page in this book and tell me you don’t want to run out for a snack of whatever Ed and Co. have described. Go ahead, I dare you.

4. America’s Little Italys by Sheryll Bellman (Sellers)

America’s Little Italys is like a time machine that lets you visit a dozen of the country’s strongest Southern Italian immigrant neighborhoods when they were at their peak. There are enough incredible photos to make your head spin, providing a clear window into the past. There’s a great spread of shots from Franks Pepe’s in New Haven, CT as well as a huge section about the various Little Italys in the five boroughs of NYC. But it goes even deeper into other regions whose pizze pedigrees have been lost in the shuffle. Part of pizza’s mystery is its extreme degree of variation from city to city; New York has different indigenous pizza species than Chicago, St Louis, New Haven, San Francisco, Old Forge, etc. The fact of the matter is that diversity is the result of the diverging histories and economies. This book gives some context with which to better understand various pizza styles.

Sheryll Bellman has done a beautiful job collecting images and stories from all over the country, but there’s also a fantastic timeline from 6000 BC to 2010 AD in the front and a glossary of Italian food words in the back. This is the most easily digestible reference guide to Southern Italian culture in America that I have ever seen.

5. Goldberg’s Pizza Book by Larry Goldberg (Random House)

I know what you’re thinking: something about Goldberg’s Pizza Book by Larry Goldberg doesn’t seem right. Not enough vowels a the end of his name? Don’t worry, that’s covered in the first two sections of this amazing little time capsule of a book. Section 1 is called “An Open Letter from Maria Busto Angello, Italian Mother,” followed immediately by “An Open Letter from Sara Goldberg, Jewish Mother, in Response to the Open Letter from Maria Busto Angello, Italian Mother.” That should give you an idea of what this book is all about.

Goldberg’s Pizza was one of the great New York slice shops of the 1970’s (based on banter at Chowhound and other forums, since I was not yet on this Earth) but it wasn’t run by the stereotypical large Italian man throwing dough up into the air all night long. This skinny (although formerly overweight, covered in the chapter “How I Stay So Svelt”) Jewish guy held his own on the pizza scene and even managed to publish this book in 1971, before anybody was ruminating about pizza.

This one might be tough to find since it has been out of print for at least 30 years, but it’s worthy of a place in your pizza library as a snapshot of pizza when a New York slice was easy to define and still cost the same as a subway token.

Fried Pizza - The Perfect Food?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:33:00 -0500

Montanara at Forcella in NYC.

Yes, you read that correctly. Fried pizza is real and it’s comin’ to getcha. Imagine a sweet, innocent pizza walking home one night only to be cornered in a dark alley by a dangerous deep fryer. Sounds terrifying, but the confrontation actually results in a flavor mashup the likes of which few tongues have ever tasted. It combines the danger of oil with the familiarity of typical pizza toppings. New York pizza is currently experiencing its first real dose of the deep fryer, but what exactly is it and where does it come from?

I became a big proponent of fryers when I bought one in college. We had parties on Friday nights in which friends would bring over anything they wanted to fry. Yes, we did call it FriedDay. People brought anything from chicken and fish to cookies and Hostess cupcakes. We formulated different batters for sweet and savory items and eventually bought a second fryer to accommodate both genre. Come to think of it, I don’t remember cooking anything else when I was in college - those fryers were pretty much it!

Suffice it to say, I was into frying almost as much as I was into pizza. So when my friend Jeff called me in 2003 to tell me there was a place doing deep-fried pizza in Brooklyn, I jumped on a train from New Jersey and met him at Chip Shop in Park Slope. What we got was a lackluster slice from the pizzeria across the street battered abused by the deep fryer. We could still taste the briny residue from the day’s orders of fish and chips. It was totally gross.

New York Post article about Forcell’s Montanara. The media loves it.

Luckily, the fried pizza hitting NYC today is a completely different animal. I remember hearing about it from Keste’s Roberto Caporuscio, but Giulio Adriani was the first to pull it off at his Williamsburg pizzeria Forcella. The process begins with a stretched piece of dough, opened in the same way a dough would be stretched for pizza. The one major difference is that the dough is punctured at several spots inside the outer rim. This “docking” process eliminates gas pockets that would normally expand when met with extreme heat. The dough is then placed into the deep fryer, where it puffs up and forms a bread bowl that is both light and crispy. After pulling the dough out and drying it for a few seconds, toppings are applied and the whole thing slides into the oven in a small metal dish so the oily dough doesn’t make contact with the brick hearth and send smoke throughout the space. After a quick dip into the oven, the cheese is melted and the sauce is cooked. The result is a complete departure from pizza baked solely inside an oven.

But this isn’t the first time anybody has ever dipped dough into a fryer. Southern Italian cuisine is littered with fried items, which is obvious when you walk down via Tribunali in Naples. Most pizzerias have a wood-fired brick oven and a deep-fryer just a few feet apart. You can order fried rice balls (arancini), potato croquets (croquettas) and fried macaroni and cheese balls (frittatina) at pretty much every pizzeria. Most signage even indicates Pizzeria (place that serves pizza) e Frigittoria (place that serves fried foods). The good folks at Molino Caputo in Naples even mentioned that their most popular product is called pizzeria flour and not pizza flour because it is formulated to work in both pizza and the various fried items everybody has on their menu.

Pizza fritta at Pizzeria di Matteo in Naples, stuffed with sausage and broccoli rabe.

Perhaps my brain was not yet tuned into the fried pizza frequency, but I don’t remember seeing anything like Forcella’s Montanara on either of my trips to Naples. I do remember pizza fritta, a massive deep fried calzone I tried at Pizzeria di Matteo. There are a couple places in the greater New York metro area that have them (House of Pizza and Calzone in Brooklyn and Delfino’s in Hoboken) but nothing matches the insanity of what I tasted at Di Matteo in 2009.

The fried pizza served at NYC’s Forcella, PizzArte, and soon to be available at Don Antonio (a forthcoming partnership between Keste’s Roberto Caporuscio and his mentor Antonio Starita) is more closely related to a simple snack made at home. We’re fortunate enough to live in a world in which every couple of newlyweds has a pizza stone collecting dust in the corner, but there was a time not long ago when making pizza at home was out of the question. For a quick and easy heat conductor, just throw some oil into a frying pan and crank that sucker up to high! This is the method most Southern Italian families used for homemade pizza, as indicated by this recipe I found at the Ithaca Historical Society last year.

Pizza recipe found at the Ithaca Historical Society.

This sounds delicious and easy, so why am I wasting so much time and gas heating up the oven for pizza night? Armed with this 1960’s recipe, my mission was clear. I whipped up some bread dough, saved it for an extra day and tried to make my own stove-top pizza. There aren’t many details in Carmella’s recipe, but I filled in the blanks and this is what happened.

Here’s the Play-by-Play…

STEP 1: Stretch Dough Into 6” Diameter. Puncture the center if you want. I forgot.

STEP 2: Heat Oil. I used a cheap olive oil I’m trying to get rid of.

STEP 3: Fry Dough in 1/2” of Hot Oil. Be gentle. Don’t get splashed!

STEP 4: Dry that Oily Cloud from Heaven. I used a pizza screen.

STEP 5: Top With “Whatever Tastes Good.” I had no sauce. Still great!

Here’s the cross-section. Sorry about the focus issue, I was too excited.

I know, it looks like a donut. But think about it… donut + pizza = awesome. That’s math, folks. It’s soft with a thin crisp on the outside, deceivingly light and airy, and unbelievably addictive. Good thing my roommates weren’t home or I might have been forced to share. So next time your friends show up and you haven’t even preheated the pizza stone, think about giving this homespun pizza variation a try. It’s super fast, fun and delicious. Or check out how it tastes when done by the pros at Forcella (Bowery, Williamsburg), PizzArte (Midtown) and the forthcoming Don Antonio (Hell’s Kitchen). Rumor has it there may even be a spot opening in the Lower East Side that will be serving only fried pizzas! More to come on that front as news develops.

These amazing SPT holiday cards went out to pizzerias, folks who...

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:00:06 -0500

These amazing SPT holiday cards went out to pizzerias, folks who took private tours and other pizza buddies.

(image by Kristina Sacci)

I was on 101.9 FM News today talking about coal-burning ovens....

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:18:44 -0500

I was on 101.9 FM News today talking about coal-burning ovens. FUN!

Obituary: DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:12:00 -0500

All pies go to heaven.

(Trenton, NJ) - DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies on Hudson Street in Trenton, NJ has announced its imminent closing on Jan 15, 2012. This is a sad moment for New Jersey pizza lovers who take pride in the small handful of “tomato pie” spots in the Trenton enclave of Chambersburg.

The DeLorenzo family opened a tomato pie* restaurant in 1936, when NJ was experiencing somewhat of a pizza boom (lots of “tavern” pizzerias like Reservoir Tavern, Star Tavern, Kinchley’s Tavern). Chick DeLorenzo struck out on his own in 1947 when he opened his restaurant on Hudson St. This move marked a switch from coal- to natural gas fired oven, as was the style at the time. The restaurant’s heyday spanned the decades following WWII, when famous baseball players, film stars, opera singers, etc made stops at DeLorenzo’s for some comfort food. But the neighborhood began to change as Italians moved to greener pastures and families in need of newly vacated housing moved in. Things even got so rough that DeLo’s had to hire a bouncer to keep the peace outside. Yet DeLorenzo’s continued to serve its simple, honest, no-nonsense pizza to whoever could find it in the backstreets of Trenton.

Owners Gary and Eileen Amico (Eileen is Chick’s daughter) simply decided it’s time to call it a day, and as upsetting as it may be, you really have to respect them for being able to make what was most certainly a difficult decision. At the end of the day, DeLorenzo’s never went downhill because of changed management, cut corners or any of the usual assassins of great fooderies, its closing simply marks yet another victim of time.

DeLorenzo’s in Robbinsville is every bit as good as the Hudson St location.

A few years ago, Gary and Eileen’s son Sam opened his own location in a newly constructed space in nearby Robbinsville. The space is completely different than the original, almost a shrine to it (old photos on the wall, bakers’ peels, identical ovens) with two major exceptions: it has a bathroom (Hudson St does not) and it’s a lot bigger (Hudson St is so small there is always a line outside).

Papa’s Tomato Pies, which opened in 1912, also struggles with the decision to stay open. They serve excellent tomato pie / pizza but also feel the squeeze of an altered neighborhood. Trenton’s other DeLorenzo’s, on Hamilton Ave, remains open. It’s run by the other half of the Delorenzo family (Eileen’s brothers, I believe) and puts their cheese on after the tomato, which is reflected in their name, DeLorenzo’s Pizza.

Here’s a link to a full article from NJ.com as well as the website for DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies.

*Tomato pie is essentially the same thing as pizza, although some say the inversion of sauce over cheese elicits a name change. Many New York pizza institutions also do sauce over cheese, including John’s Pizzeria, Sam’s Restaurant, Arturo’s and Grimaldi’s.
Central New York and some parts of South Jersey/Philly use “tomato pie” to describe thick, square room temp bakery pizza.

ABC 7 did a story about the pizza tour for all New York metro...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:06 -0500

ABC 7 did a story about the pizza tour for all New York metro area viewers but YOU get to see it here, thanks to the magic of the Internet!

Get your tickets, gift certificates and assorted holiday gifts at www.scottspizzatours.com.

The Life of a Pizza Box

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:41:00 -0500

Pagliacci’s box top describes the life cycle of a pizza box.

Don’t you just love pizza boxes? They are the unsung hero of busy/lazy food eaters everywhere and we need to take a moment out of our busy schedules to pay respect. At their most basic, pizza boxes transport food from oven to hungry person, but some boxes go the extra mile. There’s a whole world of engineering and design that happen behind the scenes and this box from Pagliacci Pizza in Seattle, WA is a testament to that process.

The box itself is a pretty standard corrugated unbleached Michigan-style unit. That means it’s your basic cardboard box. Bleached paper is white and looks nice with printing, but this box keeps it simple with its natural finish. Michigan-style (aka Walker Lock) just means the front flap folks over itself to hold in the side flaps, which creates a sturdy structural element that can stand up to the weight of multiple pizzas in a stack. [I’m pretty sure it’s called Michigan Style because it was first used for a Michigan-based pizza company called Domino’s.]

But the story of this box is more about what’s on top. The graphic describes the entire process from tree to paper mill to pizza box to compost heap. Here’s a quick rundown of the text:

1. Leftovers from sawmills and the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest are collected for use.

2. Port Townsend Paper (maxes a cocktail of 50% sawmill leftovers and 50% post-consumer materials (stuff you throw into your paper recycling bin).

3. Crown Packaging takes the recycled paper cocktail from Port Townsend Paper to make pizza boxes. They are printed with water-based inks, which break down in compost.

4. Boxes travel about 220 km to Pagliacci Pizza in Seattle, WA. This is the farthest trip of any part of the process. That’s pretty dang local!

This box even tells you WHERE to compost your box!

Step #5 is especially neat-o because it reminds pizza lovers that the garbage can isn’t the optimal final resting place for a pizza box. Composting is the BEST way to rid yourself of pesky boxes because it manages food particles and grease stuck to the cardboard. Recycling with your other boxes and paper can be problematic because of those lumps of caked-on cheese. Check with your municipality to find out what they recommend you do with your pizza box.

Pagliacci’s box also has this FSC park on the bottom. That means this carton has been certified by a non-governmental, non-profit, independent organization that aims to promote the responsible use of our planet’s forests. Pretty cool!

If you would like to report the sighting of an amazing pizza box, please contact me through my New York Pizza Tour website.

The Happiest Pizzeria On Earth

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:30:00 -0500

Hopes were not high as Jeff and I approached the pizzeria. Jeff is a food lover, food blogger, food hunter and recently converted tour guide (check him out at his awesome food website). He created the Real Pizza of New York mobile app, which helps users find the standout pizzerias on NYC. It’s legit. As we are cut from the same cloth, Jeff and I sometimes check out pizzerias together. Last month, Jeff and I met on Arthur Ave in the Bronx to check out a recently-converted coal-fired bakery to see how the pizza-o-meter registered. After our main course, Jeff mentioned another place in the neighborhood that might be worth a visit. The name Pugsley’s didn’t ring a bell, but somebody had apparently told me about it because it was right there on my hit list. It was right there at the bottom — lowest priority possible.

When we turned onto 191st Street there was not a single business in site. I started to doubt Jeff’s sense of direction (even though it’s thousands of times better than mine) when we stumbled upon a sign from the heavens. Well, it was technically on the ground but it most certainly was a sign. The image of a slice within a circle was carved into the sidewalk cement. Either this was the place or someone was dealing illegal slices nearby.

The building is set back several meters and looks nothing like any pizzeria in the city; it felt like the Fratelli’s restaurant from the Goonies. We crept up the stairs, afraid of an imagined alarm system set to warn Bronxonians when a couple of pizza junkies were snooping about. But no alarm went off by the time we opened the front door. Instead, we were welcomed by the most beautiful site I’ve ever seen in a pizzeria.

The interior was like nothing I had ever seen. There weren’t any checkered tablecloths. No statuettes of mustachioed Italian men. No typical signage or menus. I don’t even remember seeing an oven in there. It’s more like an interactive piece of folk art than an eatery, but several indicators revealed that there was indeed some food to be had. Handmade signage adorns all walls, surfaces, empty spaces, crowded spaces, etc. But instead of offering combos and food deals, the signage merely uses food as a subplot to the main concern of this pizzeria: happiness.

The root of it all is the joint’s proprietor, Sal. As he tells it, Sal left Italy to play the Woodstock festival with his band in 1969 and never went back. If you hang around long enough, you just may catch an impromptu saxophone performance. Sal runs the pizzeria with his family and they are all incorporated into the fiber of the place. We started talking and before we knew, it Sal was taking us on a full tour of the building. There’s an air duct painted in honor of the Challenger accident. Sal used wooden beams from the basement to construct a mini chapel-like space for seating. Musical notes that adorn the benches and walls all spell words or melodies that have personal meaning to Sal. Floor tiles spell out names of family members. You can spend a month in there and still not find all the Easter eggs. It’s absolutely wonderful!

You’ll notice I’m not even showing you a picture of the pizza. It isn’t bad, but Pugsley’s is much than just a place to eat. As I mentioned earlier, the signage posted all around the joint isn’t so much intended to move product as it is to deliver a message. There’s an unwavering feeling of support in this place that puts students and other customers (although I imagine 98% of customers are students) above anything else.

Just as pizza is the ultimate comfort food, Pugsley’s is the ultimate comfort pizzeria. If I had a pizzeria like this in college, I don’t think I would have ever gone home.

But to think of Pugsley’s as merely a college town pizzeria would not be doing it justice. You really have to go there to feel the incredible sense of family, but I’ll leave you with this picture of Sal and the clan, whose smiles are the real secret of Pugsley’s success.

Romans Invade New York

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:10:00 -0500

Pizza al metro in Rome. [Photo by Kenny Dunn of Eating Italy Food Tours in Rome]

There is no such thing as Italian pizza. Contrary to what the VPN, APN, DOP and other acronyms might have led you to believe, there’s more to Italy than Naples alone. No other style has a history quite as long, but the soft round discs with puffy edges do not speak to the needs of an entire peninsula. A piece of land with such diverse history and terrain has just as eclectic a menu, leaving no single Italian pizza. We’re seeing a LOT of Neapolitan representation these days, but if New York is any indication, I’d say it’s time to brush up on your Julius Caesar and prepare for a visit from the Roman pizza army.

What Is It?
Roman pizza comes by many names, but the ones you’ll see most often are pizza al metro (pizza by the meter) and pizza al taglio (pizza by the cut). They both mean pretty much the same thing: long rectangular pizzas. As the name pizza al metro indicates, the length of a pie is usually around 1 meter (three feet). The pizzas can be thin and crunchy or slightly thicker (1–2 cm) and chewy.

A folded slice from Forno at Campo de Fiori in Rome.

In Rome, the pizza is sold by weight. You just tell the server how big a slice you want, they cut it from the full pie, and then they toss it onto the scale. Large slabs of the thin Roman variety often get folded up like a sandwich and wrapped with bakers’ paper. The thicker version is left open-face and eaten like a common slice. This apparently works in Rome but not in New York. Monica Von Thun Calderon of Grandaisy Bakery has been making this style of pizza in NYC since 1994 when she was a founding partner of Sullivan Street Bakery. She commented that her customers aren’t interested in customized portion sizes; they’d rather grab a pre-cut slice and split. The Roman pizzerias I’ve seen either have their slices pre-cut or make their cuts fresh per order. It’s pretty cool to watch because they often secure the slice with tongs and snip away the slice with a pair of scissors. They then reheat the slice in a small tabletop oven and serve it slightly warm.

Cutting a slice at Pizza Roma in NYC.

What’s the History?
Although Rome is only 226 km from Naples, it somehow managed to avoid adopting the Neapolitan pizza style until midway through the last century. That most likely has to do with the extremely provincial nature of Italy, paired with the negative connotation Naples carries. Pizza never really caught on in Rome until hungry American soldiers came looking for it during WWII. Thanks to American high protein flour that was being sent to Italy as wartime relief, Roman bakers were able to create an incredibly thin, crispy version of what was happening 226 km to the southeast.

But just as they did in the United States, large brick ovens were ditched in favor of the smaller footprint and tighter economics of stone-lined deck ovens. Natural gas is way too expensive in Rome (probably because you need to call an archaeologist before you install underground gas lines), so bakers opted for electric instead. The evenly heated rectangular oven interiors fit long pizzas much more efficiently than small round ones, and so the Roman style was born around the 1960’s.

Why Does It Work?
Rome and New York are both big cities with heavy pedestrian traffic—the perfect Petri dish for pizza-by-the-slice vendors. With a ripe market like this, hand held pizza fits right in. It’s a great deal for the customer, who can grab what they want and go, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity for the baker to sell their product to clientele who don’t need formal seating and table service. Less space is required, smaller staff is sufficient, and turnover is faster. That means overhead is lower and profit is maximized!

Merilu Pizza al Metro in NYC.

But there’s more to Roman pizza than mere economics, the pizza also tastes great! Think of Roman pizza as the by-the-slice-compliment to Neapolitan pizza. Both utilize sparse and balanced toppings of fresh ingredients atop a carefully made base. The price of a slice is usually between $3.50 and $5, but I’ve seen it go even higher for seasonal specialties. Most folks are OK with this somewhat high price tag when a product is obviously of a higher quality (just ask any Difara fan).

The particulars of the bake are also pretty impressive. One great pizza al taglio spot on Bleecker Street called Pizza Roma uses type ‘00’ flour from Lazio because it holds up to an incredibly long 96 hour fermentation time. This long fermentation breaks down carbohydrates, making the finished product lighter and more digestible. Pizza Roma also uses a high hydration dough formula (around 80%) to compensate for additional moisture loss during the reheating phase. That’s a lot of water, so the resulting crust is moist and airy.

Seems pretty well thought out, right? I think the great benefit of this style is its scarceness. Just a few Roman pizza purveyors are setting the definition for others to follow in the future. It just so happens that this is an extremely competitive time for pizzerias, especially with an unproven concept. Unlike the contemporary slice shop, I feel that Roman pizzerias tend to be more hit than miss. It’ll take time before we know Roman pizza is here to stay or just a visitor in the American pizza universe. It may not be what we’re used to, but it sure is Italian.

Vegan Pizza Tour - Saturday, December 10

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:12:05 -0500

That’s right kiddies, I’m doing another vegan pizza tour on December 10 starting at 11:45am on the Bowery in NYC. We’ll be hitting three pizzerias around the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village, each of which features a different animal-free pizza style. We’ll make our way to each stop on foot and everybody gets a slice per stop PLUS a sweet vegan-friendly goody bag, all included with your $35 ticket.

Tickets must be purchased in advance through our online ticketing agent, so please sign up if you’d like to join us. I’m keeping the group pretty small, so grab your ticket fast!

Fast Details:
Saturday, December 10
11:45am - approximately 2:30pm
$35 ticket fee (includes pizza and Pizza Tour Survival Kit)

NYC Vegan Pizza Tour - Buy Your Ticket Here

This is totally awesome, but that kid’s going to get so...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:01:23 -0500

This is totally awesome, but that kid’s going to get so beat up at school.

In Search of "Politically Explosive" Pizza Box

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:02:05 -0500

I received this amazing email last night and it’s my duty as an American to make it public. Sorry about the censorship, but I have to protect my source.

Notice the misplaced keystrokes and incorrect punctuation. This person was obviously in a hurry to share the truth. Who could possibly be on a Godfathers pizza box circa 2002??? If anybody has a 2002 Godfathers pizza box, please share it with the world. We may not yet be ready for the “explosive” political nature of this pizza box, but it is our right to know.

The truth is out there.

Experimental Emergency Dough Excitement

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:44:53 -0500

Ready for the drama? I made a batch of dough last week and gave it the usual 3-day rise, but just a few hours before the baking session began I realized too many people were coming over and I needed (kneaded?) more dough. Not a huge deal, I learned a great recipe for 1-hour dough from Mark Bello at Pizza a Casa, but I wanted to kick up the flavor a bit to better match the depth I was planning on getting from my 3-day batch. Sounds like a potential tragedy, but it was actually the perfect opportunity for me to attempt something crazy.

Regular batch, using Bob’s Red Mill flour and a 3 day rise.

Allow me to explain. A dough develops more flavor with longer fermentation because of bacterial replication. Therefore, dough baked after only a short fermentation will not have as much flavor because of lower bacterial content… unless you add some yourself! I figured I could take a shortcut and add something that derives its flavor from a bacterial culture: yogurt.

Here’s the formula I used:
600g Bob’s Red Mill flour
384g water (100 degrees F)
15g instant dry yeast
25g salt
26g Chobani plain Greek yogurt

Mixed all dry, added wet, mixed and autolyse (just lettin’ it chillax) for 30 minutes. Kneaded for 5 minutes, rested for 5 minutes, kneaded until tight enough to bounce back from a poke. Then split and balled, packed in lightly oiled plastic pint containers for quick room temp rise.

Here’s the result….

Thinly sliced raw potato and red onion with fresh mozzarella.

Caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms atop a bed of mozzarella and scamorza.

Crust flavor wasn’t as tangy and bright as I had hoped for, maybe I need to add more yogurt. But the pies I made with the short dough did bake up nicely. They were more dense and crunchy than those made with the 3-day rise, but certainly tasty enough to eat. One friend suggested I add a small squeeze of citrus to the yogurt for some extra zing. I’ll try that next time I’m in a bind and need more dough last minute.

My standard formula worked out well, I’m pretty happy with it as a go-to recipe when I know I have the luxury of a 3-day rise.

Fresh mozzarella, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes with grated piave cheese.

Here’s the skinny:
600g All Purpose flour
379g warm water
100g Ischia starter
20g salt
1.5g instant dry yeast

Mixed all dry, added wet, mixed and autolyse for 45 minutes. Kneaded for 5, rested for 5, kneaded until tight enough to bounce back from a poke. Then split and balled, packed in lightly oiled plastic pint containers for 3-day cold rise.

Now back to the drama. Some of my pals had to leave early so I ended up with leftover dough after all. No problem, we baked some bread the next morning! All we did was pull it out of the fridge, let it rise on a well-floured peel (covered with a dish towel) and viola!

Gift Ideas for Your Favorite Pizza Lover

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:05 -0400

Last week was my birthday, and as we learned from last year’s posts my friends and family have no trouble shopping for gifts. You would think that each passing year presents a greater challenge, but my nearest and dearest are apparently the most creative and Internet-savvy folks on the planet. Check out this year’s crop of amazing pizza-related birthday presents.

PIZZA SERVING PLATES

Okay, these things are no joke. They are the kind of plate your pizza arrives on at a classy Neapolitan pizzeria. Just think of how exciting it will be for my pizza party guests to reveal the fun artwork with every slice they remove from their dish. But who’s that creepy guy on there? That’s Pulcinella, the comedic figure often associated with Naples. You’ll see him all over the walls of Neapolitan pizzerias. Punch in Minneapolis is named after him!

But wait, there’s more. This incredible gift, given to me by The Godfather and UR, was wrapped in the most incredible handmade paper imaginable. If I had any class I would frame it and mount it on the wall. I love the sparse application of cheese on these lovely sponged pizzas.

ROCKIN’ CHEESE GRATER

I enjoy making pizza but there’s always something missing from the process — until now! Not only is this a sweet Flying V shape, but it also has three grating sizes and a slicing section. Brilliant! My pal Robyn really knows what I’m into. Not to mention, you can really shred on this thing!

PIZZA EQUATION T-SHIRT

I was about to put the kabash on new pizza t-shirts until this beauty entered my life. My pal and fellow NYC tour guide Andrea (Lower East Side History Project) scored this one from Think Geek, the source for all things amazing. It reminds you how to find the volume of a pizza, so please buy this for your favorite math teacher. Best part is the shirt is red so pizza sauce stains really blend in.

HAND-PRINTED TINY PIZZERIA MODEL KIT

This is a hand-printed limited-edition uniquely-numbered mini pizzeria laser-cut into a single sheet of glorious birch. The piece was designed by artist Jesse LeDoux and printed by Head Light Hotel. According to the sign on the side of the “building,” Famous Lou’s opened in 1925, making it one of the oldest pizzerias in the United States! It’s also one of the cutest. Find out how to purchase your own franchise of my little pizzeria via Tiny Showcase.

PIZZA THEMED CELL PHONE COVER

I don’t know why, but I feel slightly ashamed of this one. Obviously I have never tried to hide how deeply this pizza obsession has penetrated my existence, but the phone cover seems a bit too far. Still, it’s a pretty awesome case and I like the fact that you can’t see the pizza when I’m holding the phone. It makes for a fun reveal. It’s also pretty cool that I never have to look very hard when I can’t locate my phone!

AMAZING PIZZA CARDS

How can you open any present without checking out the card? The one on the left is especially funny because it’s a hologram. Holograms usually show some kind of movement or changes as you move the card, but this one does absolutely nothing. Isn’t that amazing!

Thanks so everyone who gave me these wonderful birthday presents. The bar has been upped once again.

Pizza Pumpkin Carving

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:00:05 -0400

Happy Halloween pizza buddies! I thought I’d take the opportunity to share this pumpkin I carved at my buddy’s place over the weekend. DANG - I should have saved the seeds for use as a pizza topping. Oh well. Here are some photos of the best pumpkin I have ever carved.

All lit up!

Lined up with other pumpkins.

Lights out!

Decided to give it to one of my favorite wood-fired pizzerias, whose name I carved in with a key.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Ray's: The Most (in)Famous and (un)Original Name in Pizza

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 08:49:07 -0400

Most of my Ray’s menu collection.

At the end of the day today, a pizzeria will close in New York City. This kind of thing happens all the time, but today’s closing is a bit more significant than most others. It isn’t one of the ancient brick oven joints or a stand-on-line-for-six-hours kind of place, but a slice shop with a very familiar name. To anyone who has lived in New York or expressed any curiosity in the pizza landscape of this fine city, today’s closing will elicit both sadness and confusion. For today marks the closing of New York’s oldest Ray’s Pizzeria.

I knew I would get questions about Ray’s from day one of running tours of significant New York pizzerias, so I made it my mission to learn as much as possible about the history of Ray. Plenty has already been written about the confusing ownership of the various Ray’s locations, so I’m going to give as quick a summary as possible by tracing the lineage through a collection of business licenses and phone books I have collected over the years.

First Ray’s in 1960 Manhattan phone book.

Ralph Cuomo and his partners opened Ray’s Pizzeria on Prince Street in 1959. Not only does the restaurant’s awning say so, but so do the phone book and original business license. At this time, there was no other pizzeria in Manhattan with the name Ray. When asked why not call his restaurant Ralph’s, he is said to have replied that the name Ralph was too feminine. (Yeah, I don’t exactly get it either.) Considering a future where Ray would appear on pizzeria awnings all over the city, it’s truly ironic that Cuomo may have avoided using his own name because there was already a place in Manhattan called Ralph’s Pizzeria Restaurant (862 9th Ave). And so, the restaurant at 27 Prince Street was simply called Ray’s.

After just five years, Ralph Cuomo and his partners opened a second Ray’s Pizza location at 1073 First Ave, which they quickly sold to Frances Giaimo. Cuomo continued to run the Prince Street location, cutting any connection to the First Ave store, which Giaimo sold to Rosolino Mangano in 1968. With the entrance of Rosolino Mangano, Ray’s jumps into the forefront with an explosion of pizzerias across town. He gave ambitious family members and immigrants the opportunity to run his stores, resulting in the creation of a mini-chain.

Ralph Cuomo’s original business license for Ray’s Pizza at 27 Prince Street, dated June 24, 1959.

Name recognition grew for Ray’s, which some former employees used to their advantage. Mario and Lamberto Di Rienzo formed a partnership in 1973 to open a pizzeria called The Famous Ray’s Pizza at the corner of 6th Ave and 11th Street. In response, Mangano changed the name on his restaurants to Original Ray’s Pizza in 1976 (this may have happened sooner, but the earliest “Original” business license I have is from 1976). Meanwhile, the pizzeria at 27 Prince Street was still just called Ray’s.

Tensions escalated as more pizzerias started calling themselves Ray’s. It’s a common name, easy to fit on signage, and cheap to write in neon. In fact, Ralph Cuomo was getting so miffed by the hullabaloo over his name that he added a comment on a 1982 business certificate that states, “Ray is my nickname.” By this point, every Ray’s pizzeria was either “famous,” “original,” “real” or “world famous,” so Rosolino Mangano upped the ante when he combined the most popular adjectives and renamed his location at 204 Ninth Ave “Famous Original Ray’s”. He registered for a trademarked two years later and started bringing on the lawsuits. To this day, more unaffiliated Ray’s pizzerias open every year in New York, Arizona, California, London, Australia and beyond. The grand sum of these pizzerias does not constitute a single chain or franchise. It’s a real mess for pizza lovers and lawyers alike.

It’s very likely that other pizzerias used the name Ray before Ralph Cuomo (I found evidence of at least two), but none lasted long enough to be affiliated with the current situation. The pizzeria at 27 Prince Street truly is Patient Zero for the Ray’s epidemic. After Cuomo passed away in 2008, the business fell into disarray. The family’s internal battle over the building’s ownership led to last week’s announcement to either close or relocate the pizzeria.

My friends and family know how interested I am in the whole Ray’s story, so I got quite a few calls and emails when the news hit last week. It seemed like everybody had heard about it, even if they didn’t know what it meant. But one person hadn’t heard the news until I told him a few days ago. Frank Spatola made pizza at Ray’s on Prince Street for 32 years before exiting three months ago. Perhaps he just needed a change of scenery, or maybe he saw the writing on the wall. But fear not, Spatola hasn’t retired. You can find him slinging pies above the West 4th Street subway station at Cafe Amore’s Pizza (6th Ave and West 3rd Street). The pizza may not be identical to that of Ray’s on Prince Street, but at least you know there’s a qualified pair of hands behind the counter.

Frank Spatola at his new digs.

Like Ray’s, Amore’s is a slice shop. In fact, Amore’s was once a Ray’s! Slice shops entered the scene as a way for young entrepreneurs to enter the food business without spending much on rent, equipment or personnel. In the late 1950’s, one could purchase all the necessary equipment for a few thousand dollars. A small place like Ray’s could serve just as many take-out customers as any dine-in restaurant with a fraction of the space. Few slice shops of that age remain, leaving just a handful to carry the torch.

It will be a real shame if the legacy of Ray’s on Prince Street is in name alone. The Ray’s name is so garbled at this point that most people will likely think of the controversy before considering the food. I had a pretty killer square there last month and I hope folks get a chance to stop by before the final slice is served. This pizzeria floats alone in a sea of confusion, as it isn’t part of a chain or franchise. It stood before all the others and will remain independent until the final day. The awning doesn’t need to make bold claims; this place has true fame and originality in a way few eateries will ever attain.

***RAY’S UPDATE***

Just after the 27 Prince St announcement came, The Famous Ray’s Pizza on the corner of Sixth Ave and 11th Street mysteriously shuttered. The windows are covered up, a FOR RENT sign hangs on the door and every instance of the letters R, A and Y are missing from the store’s signage. I personally didn’t like their pizza very much over the past few years, but this Ray’s is said to have been the shining beacon among NYC pizzerias. It was sort of a landmark, even if it clearly wasn’t the first of the bunch.

** A version of this piece originally appeared on the pizza blog Slice.

Pizza History Class Starts TONIGHT!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:20:48 -0400

My three-part class on the history of pizza starts tonight at the Brooklyn Brainery and I couldn’t possibly be more excited. The course will cover the evolution of pizza from pre-origin to futuristic pizza machines via a cultural, economic, scientific, historical and gastronomic perspective. I’m splitting the course into three parts, beginning with tonight’s What is Pizza? class. There are just a couple spots left so grab them while they’re hot.

I should also mention that we’ll have FREE pizza at each session donated by local pizzerias whose products are historically appropriate for the evening’s class. Tonight’s featured pizzeria is Sottocasa, Atlantic Ave’s newest Neapolitan pizza purveyor.

Brooklyn Brainery
515 Court Street
$50 (pizza included)
Three Wednesdays, October 12, 19 + 26
6:30-8:30pm