Scott's Pizza Tour Pizza News

You’re lost. You’re hungry. You need pizza. You have a wi-fi equipped mobile device. You are saved! Everybody knows about general food-locating apps like Yelp, Foursquare and Foodspotting but there are several apps dedicated solely to helping you find nearby pizzerias. Here’s a quick rundown of four of them.

NAME: Pizza Finder
PRICE: FREE (you just have to deal with the ad at the bottom)
TERRITORY: Entire USA
DEVICES: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

Pizza Finder opens with a list of pizzerias in close proximity. You get exact distance, address and phone number right there on the main page. Clicking through to any pizzeria gives you its Yelp page for more details and reviews. You can even enter any location in the US and get a list of pizzerias if you want to plan ahead rather than wait until you’re standing sliceless at an unfamiliar intersection. It’s pretty much just a “pizza” search in the Yellow Pages.

Not a bad app if you’re in a new apartment and want to order a couple pies for all the friends you roped into helping you move, but keep in mind you’re depending on Yelp reviews to light the way to the right spot. Choose the wrong pizzeria and you’ll have to find new friends for the next move.

Get Pizza Finder at the App Store

NAME: Cheazza
PRICE: $0.99
TERRITORY: NYC
DEVICES: Compatible with iPad, iTouch and iPhone

As its name (sort of) indicates, Cheazza is all about helping you find cheap pizza. It lists chains, dollar slice shops and pizza deals by neighborhood or via a geo-location feature. In the screenshot above, you’ll see Papa John’s (#3 chain in the US), 2 Bros. Pizza (dollar slice chain around NYC), Crocodile Lounge (one of several NYC bars that offer a free personal pizza with every drink) and a couple other dollar slice joints. Come to think of it, Cheazza is technically an app that lists pizzerias you’ll want to avoid! It amazes me that anyone New York would go out of their way to find a bad slice, but I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. Use at your own risk!

Get Cheazza at the App Store

NAME: Jeff Orlick’s Real Pizza of New York
PRICE: $2.99
TERRITORY: New York Metro Area
DEVICES: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

Who is Jeff Orlick? He’s a guy who lives in Queens and really likes good food. He’s constantly searching for authenticity, honesty and general realness in eateries of all sorts but this app concentrates specifically on Jeff’s personal pizza recommendations. Instead of searching based on proximity, Real Pizza suggests pizzerias based on user-selected filters (right screenshot above) such as borough, oven type and pizza style. There are also options to sort by price and neighborhood if you don’t want to go with straight alphabetical order.

This is easily my favorite pizza-finding app because it features something none of the other ones have: curation. Orlick has clearly spent countless hours, days, months, years culling his list and it is constantly being revised and expanded. His app shows you photos he took and reviews he wrote with extra info you can’t get from a simple phone book listing.

Real Pizza’s only real downfall is that there’s so much information that the app tends to run a bit slow and the navigation is a bit clunky. I also wish it had a geo-location function but my fingers are crossed that’s coming with the next update. That being said, this is the only app for serious pizza enthusiasts and it’s well worth the price of admission. (Full disclosure: My tour is listed on the app, but I’d dig it even if it wasn’t.)

Get Real Pizza of New York at the App Store

NAME: Pizza Compass
PRICE: $0.99
TERRITORY: Earth
DEVICES: Compatible with iPhone 3GS and later, iPod touch 3rd generation and later, iPad running iOS 6.0 or later

This one just came out and its release gave me an excuse to finally review the pizza apps that have been sitting on my phone for the past few years. It is without a doubt the most attractive and user-friendly of all selections in this post but at the same time one of the most basic.

The Pizza Compass website is brilliant in its simplicity. It has links to just a few of the massive number of press pieces written when the app dropped as well as a simple video of the app’s “creator” Zeus Gorham Munkist (he’s not listed as a copyright holder) giving a spiel about the app. I was really taken in by the video because it lays out that the app is simply for finding the closest pizzeria and not interested in cultivating an elite list of authentic options. In that sense, it’s a lot like Pizza Finder (and the many other location apps I chose not to include since they’re all the same) but Pizza Compass actually looks like a compass as it points you toward slice salvation. It has smart features like a smoke indicator to let you know when you’re getting close and a red-green bar that tells you whether or not the place is currently open. It’s a really clean design, perfect for helping you find those late-night (READ AS: drunk) desperation slices.

But is it the greatest app ever? Will it change your life? Is it a “tool…to help us celebrate life…love…adventure,” as the video claims? No. No. Maybe. Because sometimes pizza isn’t about historic coal ovens or 48 hour fermentation or mozzarella di bufala; it’s about the comfort of a warm slice without having walked very far.

Get Pizza Compass at the App Store

Zeus Gorham Munkis, Pizza-Compass.com

A new phone book arrived on my stoop and it reveals amazing insight into the state of pizza in Brooklyn. Here are some stats:

- The book lists 518 phone numbers for pizzerias
- There are 19 listings for Domino’s Pizza
- There are 14 listings for Papa John’s plus a location at 3528 Nostrand Ave that’s spelled “Pappa John’s” for some reason (it’s a Papa John’s)
- There are 5 listings for Little Caesar’s
- No Pizza Huts are listed
- Popular pizzeria names include Sal’s (4), Vinny’s (4 + 1 Vinnie’s), Luigi’s (5), Rocco’s (6), Gino’s (6 + 1 Gina’s) but the most popular is Tony’s (13)
- There are no Ray’s pizzerias but 2 Not Ray’s listings remain
- Remove all duplicate listings and the Big Four chains and you’re left with 449 pizzerias in Brooklyn!

Gennaro Lombardi and Anthony Pero (Totonno) stand in front of 53 Spring Street in 1905.

Today is the 118th anniversary of Gennaro Lombardi’s arrival in America. Just 20 years old at the time, Lombardi arrived at Ellis Island aboard a ship called Kronprinz Friedrich Wilhelm after departing from the port of Naples, Italy. He ended up on Spring Street, where most of his family worked as tailors. Lombardi took a job at a grocery/bakery on Spring Street, of which he took ownership in 1905 and converted into the nation’s first pizzeria. 

At the time, pizza was only being sold in bakeries as a side item but Lombardi’s was the first to make it the focus of a restaurant. Several of New York’s most storied pizzerias were founded by former employees of Lombardi’s, such as the recently reopened Totonno’s on Coney Island (1924) and John’s on Bleecker Street (1929).

Roma Foods produced this generic box over 20 years ago!

This may not be a heart-shaped pizza box, but there have been attempts at such a container from at least one of the national chains. I have a prototype from the country’s biggest pizza box manufacturer but posting it here would be legally questionable. My pizza box collection has plenty of rare gems and I’m excited to announce that I’ll be turning that collection into a super-amazing BOOK over the next few months!

The book will navigate readers through the world of pizza box art and design, a subject that usually goes straight into the garbage. I have over 250 boxes from around the world, most of which were sent to me by pizza tour guests. I document the unboxing of these gems on my YouTube channel, so take a gander if you’re keen.

Now for a call to arms. If you spot a cool pizza box, snag it! Send me a photo at SCOTT at SCOTTSPIZZATOURS dot COM and I’ll check the archive to see if I already have it. If you send me new boxes, I’ll send you a prize: up to three boxes scores you an amazing Pizza Pen, 4-6 different boxes get you a free SPT-shirt, 7-9 boxes get you an incredible SPT Hoodie! Ten or more gets you a FREE TOUR TICKET!!! These can be custom boxes from a local pizzeria, old boxes you forgot you had in your pizzeria’s storage closet or even seemingly boring generic boxes from some part of the world that barely has pizza. I’m trying to represent as wide a cross-section of the pizza world as possible and YOU can help immensely!

I’m looking for new tour guides to teach people about the evolution of our most favorite food ever! Check out the ad, follow directions and throw your hat in the ring. Must live in NYC and have flexibility for weekends, weekdays, holidays. Oh, and you have to absolutely LOVE pizza.

Apply Here for the Best Job Ever

David and Kim Sheridan have been planning on opening a pizzeria for years. They searched for restaurant spaces while David honed his skills on the wood-fired oven he built in his own backyard. Some pizza tour attendees were even lucky enough to have eaten pizza with Kim and David in their backyard shrine to deliciousness. They welcomed us and shared some of the best pizza we’ve eaten on any tour. The good news is that they found a space in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn and plan to open their pizzeria/bar called Wheated in early 2013. (While cleaning out the basement a few months back, they even found a century-old coal-burning bread oven!)

In David and Kim’s backyard with a pizza tour group last summer.

It was shaping up to be an extremely exciting spot for pizza lovers but Superstorm Sandy created a major speed bump. David and Kim had restaurant equipment stored in Coney Island, one of the worst hit parts of the city. It wasn’t until a week after the storm hit that they learned about the flooding in their storage space. A pair of Moretti Forni ovens were already corroded and insurance doesn’t cover losses from flooding. It’s a huge setback, but David and Kim are more determined than ever to open their pizzeria.

One of David’s pizzas. It was amazing.

Please consider donating to Wheated’s recovery. If you’re thinking of checking out David and Kim’s place anytime in 2013, it only makes sense to pay for your pizza now when they need it the most!

DONATE NOW

Puppets + the science behind folding a slice a pizza = glorious

Get a free slice for donating blood in Queens!

I did a “Talks at Google” session in their NYC office last month about how to navigate the New York pizza scene. This is intense; it’s over an hour long. Godspeed.

Sandy may have knocked out all power in lower Manhattan but it can’t possibly slow down the city’s pizza habit. Here’s how some pizzerias in Lower Manhattan are dealing with having no power.

Lombardi’s on Spring Street is using a car battery to power a few lights so the kitchen staff can see what they’re doing. Good thing 115 year old coal fired ovens need no power.

Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street uses gas ovens, so they work just fine sans electricity. All they need are a couple flashlights so they can tell when each pie is perfectly baked. I had a slice, it was excellent!

John’s of Bleecker St has no power but they DO have an amazing sign indicating so.

Keste on Bleecker St is so romantic with candles lighting the way. Wood fired ovens need no power to churn out deliciousness.

Pizza Box on Bleecker Street uses these cool (Pixar) flashlights to light their display.

Yesterday’s pizza tour hit Forcella, where we enjoyed a combination of wood fired pizza, candles, flashlights and owner Giulio Adriani.

Newbies Cowboy Pizza on Clinton St made their dough in Long Island and closed when it ran out, just before sundown.