By Scott Belding
Scott loves pizza, and he lives in New York. There is no better excuse to explore all of the pizza haunts this great city has to offer.
Hello pizza enthusiasts,
Deepest apologies for last week’s silence on the pizza front. To mend fences between us, I have included a bonus pizza review this week! In addition, please see below for some guidance on what these numbers I throw at pizzas mean, in terms of cheesy enjoyment.
Rough Guide to Scoring
0-2: Unexplored depths of offenses to pizza. Exceedingly rare in New York.
3: Uncommonly bad pizza. One or more elements are seriously compromised.
4: Flawed, but still pizza. If you are truly craving a slice, this will satisfy.
5: Highly unexceptional, but perhaps the true beauty of New York pizza lies in its floor, not its ceiling. Mmmmm. Food for thought as you down an average slice.
6: When you begin to be reminded of all that is good about pizza.
7: The stage at which pizza becomes noteworthy. This will prompt spoken compliments from first-time eaters.
8: Now we’re cooking with gas! Or coal, or wood, whichever the relevant oven fuel is. This is destination pizza, worthy of fame and going out of your way to enjoy.
9: Any pizza in this territory will burn its memory into your brain. Unlike the burns you may incur on the roof of your mouth, these memories won’t fade.
10: Ah, the mythical perfect score. Does pizza this good even exist, or am I just chasing a unicorn? I choose to believe that it is indeed hiding behind the next skyscraper.
Broadway Pizza Manhattan Valley
>$2 slices, 12 AM
Big, wide slices that provide a good deal of textural satisfaction. Though the margherita doesn’t appear to be a labor of love and its basil is a little wilted, no mistakes are made with the crust, and both sauce and cheese meet expectations.
6
Photo: Broadway Pizza
Fiore’s Greenwich
>$2 slices, 4 AM
Good crust with an excellent level of crispness. The sauce works well even though it’s sweet-ish and plentiful, and the cheese is good in a classically New York fashion. Very solid find in a neighborhood rife with quality slices.
7.5
Photo: Fiore’s
Table 87 Gowanus
>$4 slices, 12 AM
Very thin and well-composed. Incredible ratio, with a flexible crust that avoids becoming overly soft and folds in a highly satisfying way. Delicious cheese, punchy sauce, and well worth the relatively high price point.
9
Photo: Table 87
Roberta’s Bushwick
whole pizzas only
Best crust so far – airy, crispy, charred, chewy, and flavorful in simultaneity and perfect proportion. The sauce bursts enough to almost obviate the need for cheese. The basil is profoundly fresh. The cheese is well-textured and in good thickness relative to the crust. However, it is in a supporting role, not the star, and cheese is too central to my love of pizza to give this a perfect ten. Also a few too many crust bubbles. Ambience is wonderful.
9.5
Photo: Roberta’s