South Brooklyn Pizza E. Village Outpost: Deliciously Pricey

What defines a trend? So goes the saying: one's company, two's a crowd and three's a party. And if that's the case, then there is certainly a Brooklyn pizza party taking place on the island of Manhattan.

Earlier this year, successful Brooklyn pizzeria Motorino took over the vacated Una Pizza Napoletana space in Manhattan. And recently word spread that Grimaldi's would be opening its first Manhattan outpost in the new Limelight Marketplace. Finally, last month South Brooklyn Pizza (122 First Avenue) opened up shop in Manhattan leading me to conclude that Brooklyn pizza places are invading Manhattan. Beware!

I'm not sure if this trend surprises me. Brooklyn is an easier and less risky place to start any type of business. If successful (and once a profitable business model is in place) many of these places should theoretically have the finances to expand. Although one option is to open another Brooklyn location (like Fornino just did), the most logical next step is to set up shop in Manhattan. Which is why in the last few months we've seen three notable Brooklyn pizza places open up in Manhattan. I would not be surprised if more are on the way.

Before I share my thoughts on South Brooklyn Pizza's new location, it should be noted that I've never been to their pizza place in Brooklyn so I have nothing to compare it to. It's been on my list of places to try, but now that I don't have to trek out to Brooklyn for it, chances are it might be longer than anticipated before I make it out there.

Their new spot is a no frills, hole in the wall space on 1st Avenue in the heart of the East Village. For now, you wouldn't even know you were passing by a pizza place unless you knew what you were looking for. I'm sure signage will soon follow. After all, this isn't Lit Lounge.

The space itself is not much bigger than that of Artichoke Basille's up on 14th Street. When the spot first opened there were no seats, but since then, they've been able to squeeze in a small table with two chairs. So essentially, this is a take out spot.

The pizza I had was delicious, albeit just a tad overpriced. Right now they're serving only margherita slices and sicilian slices. Each cost $4.00. Considering that there's nothing cheaper to order, in a sense this outpost of South Brooklyn Pizza has become Manhattan's most expensive slice joint. I've seen expensive slices at other places, but usually it's possible to order a cheese slice for just a couple of bucks. Other places, like Artichoke, where slices start at $3.50, aren't far behind. But the $4.00 slice is officially in full effect in the East Village.

I preferred the regular slice over the sicilian. Two slices were quite filling, so you shouldn't need more than that unless you're really looking to stuff yourself. All of the ingredients are fresh, despite the fact that the slices are reheated before being served. They're also oily -- which I love -- although my dining partner on this particular evening had to remove some of the oil using the napkin blotting technique.

The most interesting thing about the sicilian slice was that it was served with onions on it. I'd never had a sicilian slice with onions. I think that if they were more caramelized it could have worked, but there was something a bit off with the flavor. That's not to say it wasn't great -- after all, onions are one of my favorite toppings. It was just a little bit surprising when my first bite revealed a hidden treasure inside.

One of the cooler things about the South Brooklyn Pizza outpost -- and perhaps a way of justifying the price you're paying -- is their condiment section. Specifically, their roasted garlic. Made fresh throughout the day, you have the option of putting roasted garlic on your slices. Put too much on and it'll taste like your slice is topped with garlic bread. But then again, doesn't that sound kind of awesome? Regardless, as long as you're not planning on any late night make out sessions, you'd be at fault for not at least trying out a bit of this roasted garlic magic on your slice.

At the end of the day, this South Brooklyn Pizza outpost is one of the better slice joints in the area. But it caters to people who are looking for a more expensive, upscale slice. At least they don't skimp though. For $4.00 you're getting a generously sized slice with fresh toppings that will leave you satisfied. Even better would be dropping the price $0.50 cents. NYU students in the area will certainly go to one of the many other pizza places around, but for someone like me -- I'm happy to shell out some extra quarters for some quality pizza.

New Una Pizza Napoletana Space In San Francisco

It's been almost a year since Una Pizza Napoletana owner/chef Anthony Mangieri decided to close shop and move out west. And soon after this news sent waves through the New York City pizza scene, we learned he'd be reopening UPN in San Francisco.

This week, CaseyPizza tweeted a photo of the new spot pointing out the two story roll up door.

It would appear that an opening is still far off, although we're always exciting for any UPN updates!

Slice Out Hunger: $1 Pizza For A Good Cause Tomorrow

Tomorrow evening, Scott's Pizza Tours celebrates their two year anniversary with a special event in the West Village. From 6:30PM - 9:00PM, head over to the GAP Adventures offices (364 6th Avenue) where some of New York's most famous pizza places will be selling slices for $1.00. Many of these places -- like Lombardi's -- don’t even sell pizza by the slice normally! The best part is that every single penny is being donated to City Harvest.

And if that's not enough, an exhibit Scott put together called “Pizza Boxes of the World,” will be on display featuring international pizza boxes from Hungary, China, Czech Republic and more!

Pomodoro Pizzaria Opens In The East Village

Earlier this month, Pomodoro Pizzaria opened in the former Dunkin Donuts space on 2nd Avenue in the East Village. And in case you're wondering -- no, that's not a typo in the headline of this post. The misspelling actually appears on the sign outside of the pizza place! (Okay perhaps it's a debatable mistake, but I've always used the spelling P-I-Z-Z-E-R-I-A).

Spelling aside, an abundance of pizza places within a short distance of one another is nothing new to the area, but the corner of 2nd Avenue and 11th Street is turning into quite the pizza hot spot. On the north side of 11th Street is the newly opened outpost of Numero 28 (176 2nd Avenue), which is situated right across the street from Viva Herbal (179 2nd Avenue).

Walk two minutes and you'll hit a dozen other places including Artichoke, Motorino, South Brooklyn Pizza's new outpost, Pizziani, 2 Bros. St. Mark's location, and Stromboli Pizza on 1st Ave.

It's odd to me that Pomodoro Pizzaria is opening where it is... other than some outdoor seating, it does not seem to be offering anything that other places are not already. I guess it's just a matter of location. A block from three NYU dorms is never a bad place to open a pizza place. They already have 3,000 built in customers. Here's to hoping college students do a better job at spelling things correctly.

Check out some shots of the pies and the menu below:

The New York Times Shines The Spotlight On Homemade Pizza

Whenever The New York Times publishes an in depth feature about pizza, I feel obligated to post it on here (heck, I was in the last one!). Last week, however, the paper wrote not about pizza places themselves, but rather highlighted how to make pizza at home (The Slow Route to Homemade Pizza).

I was going to include some of my thoughts about the piece and the growing "do it yourself" pizza movement, but Adam over at Slice essentially wrote exactly what I was going to (and it's probably better written anyway!). So head over there for some commentary on what this piece means for aspiring home pizza makers.

Jennifer May, The New York Times

Roberta's: The Future Of Pizza

Of the hundreds of hours I spend each year reading about the New York City food scene, there is no restaurant I can think of which has gotten more press than Roberta's (261 Moore Street). Since it opened in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn in early 2008, it has become not only a model for great pizza, but also for the sustainable food movement. What started out as an underutilized backyard with a vintage Mercedes that served as a planter led to a sprawling rooftop garden. And this year, Roberta's has laid the groundwork for a true urban oasis, taking over a vacant lot next to the restaurant so that it can efficiently grow an even a larger percentage of it's produce than it has been in recent years. It's not just pizza; it's a movement.

I can envision a future in which all restaurants are run like this. Everything about Roberta's screams local -- from the beer they have on tap (Sixpoint Sweet Action! Greenpoint Summer Ale!) to the meats and cheeses they ship in from area farms. Other restaurants might have a single local beer on tap or have a relationship with one local meat distributor, but at Roberta's keeping things close to home is the rule rather than the exception. As a result, diners are treated to a rotating selection of delicious seasonal pies that rival those of any other Neopolitan pizza place in the city.

The only way to give Roberta's the proper treatment was by bringing Pizza Club there to try every pie on the menu. There were 11 on the night we went, and with some alterations we ordered a total of 15 pies. I've never been a place in the city with such creativity when it comes to topping combinations. It'd been years since I'd had pineapple on a pie, and ingredients like crema fresca, shaved radish, and ramps aren't things you see on a pizza menu everyday. While some restaurants seem to have a small selection of ingredients on a given night which they use on pies in different combinations, Roberta's seems to limit the majority of its most intriguing ingredients to a single pie. In fact, all of the aforementioned ingredients appear only once on the entire pizza menu.

One of the highlights for me was the Cheeses Christ (black pepper, mozzarella, taleggio, parmigiano, heavy cream), a successful variation of a quatro formaggi pie. It happened to be the first pie that came out, and after going through the entire pizza menu we decided to order another one just to see if we liked it as much. Without a doubt, it was a hit.

The J Street (tomato, mozzarella, ramps, pecorino) featured similar ingredients to Motorino's ramp pie (ramps, marinara sauce, pecorino), but the ramps themselves were used quite differently than at Motorino. While Roberta's takes the entire leaf of the vegetable and serves it on top of the pie, Motorino dices the ramps before they're placed on the pie. I'm not sure I prefer one over the other. But what I do know is that ramps are delicious and if you ever see a ramp pizza on any menu you should get it.

Ramp pies @ Roberta's (left) & Motorino (right)

Despite all of the funky topping combinations available at Roberta's, every trip should include a taste of their Margherita pie, which is simple, solid and only $8. Even their Russo (tomato, oregano, and garlic) is tasty and a steal at $7. Nowhere can you find personal pies this tasty for this cheap. At Paulie Gee's the comparable pies are the Regina (fior di latte, italian tomatoes, pecorino romano, fresh basil) which costs $12 and the Marinara (italian tomatoes, chopped fresh garlic, pecorino romano, sea salt) which costs $10. And at Motorino, a Margherita pie (tomato, fior di latte, basil) goes for $12, while a Marinara (tomato, oregano, olive oil, garlic) costs $10. The pies at Roberta's seem to be slightly smaller, but just as tasty.

Roberta's is meant to be enjoyed with a large group. No two pies on the menu are similar which means you'll just have to try them all! Lucky for you, there's always a party in the backyard where beer taps are flowing freely and there is a DJ spinning some tunes. And inside, there's another bar and picnic style benches that can accommodate a party as large as you can put together (15 of us sat at a single table, and there was room for more). The restaurant is easily accessible, just a two minute walk from the Morgan stop on the L train.

As I walked out of Roberta's on a warm summer evening, I thought about the future of pizza in New York City. A place like Roberta's could never exist in Manhattan or in a more populated area of Brooklyn. It takes a brave soul to open a restaurant away from the hustle and bustle of Greenpoint and Williamburg. The reason being that there are so many good places to eat in those neighborhoods, that you have to give people a reason to want to make their way out to Bushwick. You have to be confident in your product and offer an experience that other, more centrally located places cannot. And Roberta's does just that.

The space is rustic. The pizza is great. And the jalapenos on your pie were grown out back.

Check out photos of all of the pies we tried:

Cheeses Christ
black pepper, mozzarella, taleggio,
parmigiano, heavy cream



Specken Wolf
mozzarella, speck, oregano, mushroom, onion



Rosso
tomato, oregano, garlic



Margherita
mozzarella, tomato, basil



Millenium Falco
tomato, parmigiano, pork sausage,
garlic, onions, bread crumbs, basil



J Street
tomato, mozzarella, ramps, pecorino

White and Green
mozzarella, arugula, parmesan, lemon, sea salt

Cortes
tomato, crema fresca, Hatch Red Chili pork sausage,
lime pickled onion, shaved radish, jalapeno, cilantro

(no pork sausage on the pie in this photo)

Da Kine
pineapple, jalapenos, prosciutto cotto,
tomato, mozzarella, ricotta



Sea Senor
tomato, Sicilian tuna belly, oregano, caper,
onion, jalapeno, spring garlic

The Lupo
pesto, mozzarella, prosciutto cotto,
smoked ricotta, spring garlic

Get A 30% Discount At Veloce Pizzeria

Today, visit www.blackboardeats.com where you can get a coupon code for a 30% discount on your next visit to Veloce Pizzeria in the East Village. Is trouble looming for this year old spot? Check back next week to see what we think. But in the meantime, enjoy your pizza!

Reviews From Around The Interwebs

Today, I present to you the second edition of: Reviews From Around The Interwebs. Awesome pizza reviews by some of my favorite food bloggers!

Ah' Pizz (7 North Willow Street - Montclair, NJ) - Tommy Eats
New York Pizza Suprema (413 8th Avenue - Manhattan, NY) - Always Hungry NY
Paulie Gee's (60 Greenpoint Avenue - Brooklyn, NY) - One Girl No Diet
Pizza By Cer Te (132 East 56th - Manhattan, NY) - Midtown Lunch
Posto (310 2nd Avenue - Manhattan, NY) - 89th & Broke
Pulino's (282 Bowery - Manhattan, NY) - Eat This NY
Pulino's (282 Bowery - Manhattan, NY) - Immaculate Infatuation

Ah' Pizz via Tommy Eats

Taradel: All Of Your Pizza Printing Needs

There are lots of printing houses out there... but today I bring word of a printer that actually specializes in materials for pizzerias. Whether it's full color menus or box toppers, Taradel will be there to fulfill all of your pizza printing needs. They also specialize in direct mail to reach customers. Plus, you can learn about great menu design here – this is, a menu that will actually increase sales!

Check out their website and contact them today to put together a customized package for all of your printing needs.

"My pizza sales are up 90% in one week from one mailing...
I can’t wait to mail menus for my sub shop!"
-Ali, Owner, Hanna Pizza

This is a sponsored posting.

NYC Food Guy Visits Bleecker Street Pizza

Check out NYC Food Guy's latest video, on which he takes you on a tour of some of the best cheap eats in the Village. First stop -- Bleecker Street Pizza (69 7th Avenue South) where $3 gets you one of his favorite slices in the city.

PizzaPages.com: Find A Local Pizza Shop Becomes Easy

Today, I bring you information about PizzaPages.com a new Philadelphia based start-up that allows consumers to find local pizza parlors by web, mobile applications and soon... by text message too. The text message platform - launching in August - will allow consumers to text their zip code to the word "Pizza" and have the information and current special of a local pizza parlor sent back to them. Pretty cool...

Considering that the domain name pizza.com sold for $2.6 million, it's hard to believe nobody thought about getting ahold of the five digit text message shortcode for PIZZA -- that's 74992 -- until now!

Anyhow, the site currently has more than 21,000 listings nationwide... not a bad start for a company which has set out to make finding and ordering pizza as simple as possible. Check them out. Oh and you can visit their Facebook page here.

Pizza Porn: Motorino

Check out some recent photos of pies from both the seasonal and regular menu at Motorino.

Brussels Sprouts
fior di latte / pancetta afumicatta / garlic / parmigiano reggiano

Quattro Formaggi
gorgonzola / taleggio / provolone / fior di latte / oregano



Soppressata Piccante
tomato / fior di latte / spicy / soppressata / fresh chilies / garlic



Margherita DOC
tomato / mozzarella di bufala / basil



Ramps
ramps / marinara sauce / pecorino

The best of the five? It's a toss up between the Brussels Sprouts and the very limited edition Ramps Pie!

Pizza & The GMATs

Today, I am taking the GMATs. Over the past four months, I've spent many hours in the library -- and often times after a few hours of hard work there was nothing I'd be craving more than some pizza. It didn't help that it'd appear that there are a disproportionate number of GMAT questions in my practice guides relating to pizza.

Perhaps it's because of their shape (although the test writers should note, few pies form an exact circle), or maybe just because of the universality of the food itself. Whatever the reason, I hope no pizza related questions appear on the actual exam. Otherwise my stomach might start growling and once I start day dreaming about pizza, it will be all downhill.

The following question (click to enlarge) pays tribute to the Sicilian slice. See if you can solve it:

You can see the answer here.

Cutting A Pizza Pie Evenly

There's nothing worse than ordering a some pizza and getting the smallest slice in the pie. A new product is hoping to solve this problem.

The contraption, which is called the The Portion PadL, enables you to quickly slice pies into any number of evenly cut slices. Check out the video below to see it in action.

I suppose ever pizza related product is intended to solve some problem. We've survived hundreds of years without one of these, so it probably isn't an absolute necessity... but quite cool, nonetheless.

The question is whether it's more or less useful than The Pizza Butler -- a space saving pizza contraption we featured on I Dream Of Pizza last year. What do you think?

All You Can Eat Pizza (+ Mac & Cheese) for $20

Pinch and S’Mac (474 Columbus Ave) recently started offering customers two hours of all you can eat pizza and mac & cheese on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. It costs $20 to indulge and they'll even throw in some salad and soda. Swing by from 6PM - 10PM to start stuffing your face.

UPDATE (05/07): Apparently between when I was informed about this deal earlier in the week and when I posted it yesterday, this place closed down! I hope IDOP didn't have anything to do with it. Oh well.

Where Twins Slugger Joe Mauer Gets His Pizza Fill

We're a month in to the 2010 baseball season and last week, ESPN's E:60 ran a story about Joe Mauer -- one of baseball's most recognizable faces. Reporter Jeremy Schaap spent time with Mauer in Minnesota this winter and the piece focused on how much Mauer, who grew up in the area, loves playing in his hometown.

Obviously no "hometown" story can be complete without mention of the area's best pizza place. So if you're looking to stalk the Twins catcher, pay close attention to the following:

Schaap: So what's, like, your spot around here?
Mauer: Well, for pizza and things like that it's Davanni's. That was kind of our high school hangout.
Schaap: You still go there?
Mauer: Oh yea. Whenever I'm in town I got to get my hoagie and pizza.

A quick look at the Davanni's website indicates that there are more than 20 locations throughout the state of Minnesota and the place has been locally owned and operated for more than 35 years. No word on which one Mauer frequents.

Leave it to the hometown hero to eat a hometown hero... along with some pizza, of course.

Calling All Female Pizza Lovers In Greenpoint

In case you haven't heard, Greenpoint is now home to an awesome new pizza place: Paulie Gee's. And there's no better place for a GGG (that's Greenpoint Girls Group) meet up. So on May 11th, they'll be stopping by the pizza place before they get their dance on.

Girls and pizza -- sounds like my kind of night!

Fornino's Opens In Park Slope; Grills Pies

Fornino's Park Slope location is now open! And you can check out the menu here.

There are 17 pies being served, but notably missing is the Al Roker (roasted peppers, caramelized onions, garlic, rosemary, and prosciutto) from their Williamsburg menu. The menu also boasts a lot of non pizza offerings -- leading me to think that while their original location is primarily a pizza place, the new spot in Park Slope will lean more towards a restaurant which happens to serve pizza. Also of note: the most expensive pies are only $14 which we like!

Reports are in that rather than cooking pies in an oven (as is the case at the Williamsburg location), they'll be grilling pies. Interesting...

You can check out a video below from Accademia Di Vino, which is another notable restaurant that grills its pies.

One of the pros of grilling is that it enables some more experimentation with toppings than a brick oven, although it comes at the expense of a good crust.