Restaurant experiment: Lombardi’s Pizza

Lombardi’s Pizza

32 Spring Street at Mott Street

New York, NY 10012

212-941-7994

http://www.firstpizza.com/

I was stoked to knock off two New York institutions in one night (the other being Katz’s). And no waits and throngs of tourists. Score!

Usually I am on my burger quest, but now I’ve taken a wee detour into a pizza quest. Lily was hungry, we were in Soho, I suggested Lombardi’s. That worked. On the way, we saw a dalmatian at the FDNY station. Novelty.

The hostess was wearing some earpiece like a Secret Service telemarketer combo. We were seated in the first dining room; I was surprised at how large Lombardi’s is. There was an obnoxious large group which needed to shut up, especially the loud talker man. After some deliberation, Lily and I agreed to share a small pizza with sauteed garlic spinach; it won out over roasted red peppers.

And was that the right choice or what? Totally appetizing. Marvelous sauce and fresh mozzarella. The center of the circle’s crust wasn’t falling apart. The outer crust was a tiny too much floured, but no biggie. The spinach brought the pizza to a whole new level. It all worked. It’s like one of those days where the sun is shining, it’s not too humid, you are wearing a new snazzy outfit, you left work early, and you excited about meeting friends for dinner at a place you picked out (wait, that’s me). Modify that to your liking.

It was about $20 total. Cash only, sigh. I might wait fifteen minutes in a line for Lombardi’s. Generous, because I dislike waiting in lines. This just well maybe perhaps might be the best pizza in Manhattan??? At the very least, it’s the oldest parlor in the US, birthed in 1905. Ancient!

Restaurant experiment: Motorino

Motorino

319 Graham Street at Devoe Street

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718-599-8899

http://www.motorinopizza.com/

The picture is gigantic on delicious purpose.

I didn’t have a choice in the matter; it was destiny. It was fate. Last week, the heavens were telling me to go to Motorino.

• My Newsweek from last week contained an article, “Save the Slice,” which mentions Motorino. The article was kinda dumb though.
• My Time Out New York from last week did a mini-writeup about Motorino in a section about pizza.
• And I was slated to be in Brooklyn that weekend anyway.

Since Lily, Nina, and I showed up at a funky time (mid-afternoon) on Sunday, Motorino wasn’t very crowded. I’m not sure how crowded it gets, but with all these articles and buzz, I’m sure the traffic has been heavier as of late. We were given the option to sit in the backyard but since the sun was in full force, we opted to stay in the main dining room by the open doors. The staff is very helpful and genuinely affable. It’s Williamsburg, ya know? So that was surprising.

There was a $10 brunch which I didn’t select mostly because it offered two liquids and I didn’t want to drink much (non-alcoholic but alcoholic for $3 more). I opted for a pie for myself, and Lily ordered one for herself. The Prosciutto di Parma ($12) featured parmiggiano, olive oil, and oregano, though I maintain that my pie was meatier than hers and more filling. Nina commented that they sure were generous with the prosciutto, and I concur. See the evidence above. The crust was outstanding! The right amount of burnt combine with a hint of cheese, aw yeah.

Lily’s pie was sort of like the flagship Motorino pizza: the Margherita DOC ($13). That baby had tomato, mozzarella di bufala (tangy buffalo cheese), and basil. She and I slice exchanged, and I also approved the message the Margherita DOC was expressing. Very thin dough in the center though. Typical New York.  Lily also had wanted lemonade and was offered some lemon drink ($3) which was astronomically sour, meaning I loved it or at least the sips I stole.

In the battle of the Williamsburg pizza parlors, I might have to side with Fornino but I still like you lots, Motorino.

Restaurant experiment: Fornino

Fornino

187 Bedford Avenue between North 6th and 7th Streets

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718-384-6004

Stacy declared that we had to try Fornino because their tagline is “the art and science of pizza.” I’m not sure what they qualify as science. Did they hole up in a lab and run experiments with all sorts of controls to determine optimal conditions for pie production and ingredient combinations? Forgot to ask. There were no references to published articles under each menu item, tsk tsk.  All right, I’ll stop.

Since it was such a warm day, we decided to sit in the enclosed back patio which was the same idea a lot of other diners were having. At Fornino, you aren’t served by any one person; it seems as though the staff swap duties/tables because I was a bit surprised when different hipster girls kept coming up to our table.

Stacy’s brilliant ideas consisted of ordering a pitcher of the fruit filled red wine sangria (white was also available) as well as the antipasti platter for $15. I was half expecting a sampler which would barely whet our appetites, but I was as wrong as humanly possible.

Because this is what came out (note the sangria in the background).

Oh, it was massive! A half of that could have easily been my dinner. I tried it all except the beets which I let Stacy consume. Beets and I don’t particularly get along. Highlights include the mozzarella balls, figs in the salad, and the beans. Well, everything mostly. The sopressata was a little too spicy for me, so Stacy took care of them for me. We make a good eating team. I wish I could find the names of everything somewhere online, but nothing’s coming up, so my hampered memory will have to do.

Unfortunately, I still had to contend with the small Trevisana pizza we had ordered. You know, I would have been fine with either/or; both the pizza and the appetizer were too much! The waitress made it sound like the small pizzas were the size of the personal pan pizzas you got from Pizza Hut with the Book It! program if anyone knows what I’m talking about.

But how could we resist? As is my mantra, you cannot go wrong with cheese and bacon. Make that goat cheese, drool. And sweet pearl tomatoes (I don’t know what they are called since the menu just referred to them as roasted tomatoes, but I like calling them pearls) were only making the pie even better. Yum yum yum. The radiccio I could do without, but it wasn’t anything major.  And I had to cut the crusts out of the consumption plan.  Don’t need no filler.

I’m sure any foodie with a pizza hankering could be sated here. The pizza selection is almost too unwieldy, and going with the science theme, I suggested to Stacy that Fornino should implement a flowchart to assist with your pizza selection. For reals. Though I was helped since I don’t like eggplant, and we nixed all the pizzas with that as a topping. Ick.  And clams because we weren’t too thrilled about clams on pizza.

OK Fornino, you get the delicious science stamp of approval from the scientistas.

Lesson time

I learned that pancetta AKA Italian bacon, is different from bacon AKA American bacon because it is cured but not smoked. Both Italian and American varieties are taken from the belly of a pig. And pancetta also often comes rolled up in a cylinder and is pronounced pan-SHEH-tuh. Whoops, I think I had been saying pan-CHETTA but now I know. (reference: http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatcureBacon.html)

Restaurant experiment: La Villa

La Villa

261 Fifth Avenue between Garfield Place and 1st Street

Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-499-9888

lavillaparkslope.com

Pizza.  A word and food that has been at the back of my brain for the last few weeks.  Since I’m too lazy to wait in line at Grimaldi’s (supposedly the best pizza in Brooklyn or NYC), I’ll just have to cope with pizza joints that aren’t as tourist-infested and line-prone.  At the recommendation of the roommate and some positive Yelp reviews, I set out to down some slices on a Sunday afternoon.  My easygoing friend luckily went with my desire for pizza, as long as it wasn’t Domino’s.  Heck no!  How does Domino’s stay in business?  Everyone I know thinks it’s disgusting.  We went close to 1 PM, and there was no wait.  La Villa feels sort of chain-y on the inside with slick shiny surfaces, but it is not a national chain.  The list of pizzas seemed to have the same pizza over and over, but with slight variations like

• tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil
• tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, garlic

Being the nerd that I am, I believed that they should have put this list of pizzas into a table form to lessen confusion.  “Why is this pizza different from this pizza?”  Or maybe a flowchart.  I love flowcharts.  Anyway, we settled on the Grandma’s pizza “Foccacia di Nona” which had, you guessed it, tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, and garlic.  Luckily we ordered a small instead of a large because a small comfortably fed the two of us.  The complimentary bread was yummy, some with onion and some without.  We also ordered an appetizer of baked clams which was probably not something I would get again as a half-dozen for $10 did not feel like a steal, and size-wise: littleneck not cherrystone.  Why were there no cheesesticks in the menu’s appetizer section?  Odd.  I guess La Villa needs to conserve their homemade mozzarella for the pizzas.   

Anyway, the grandma’s pizza was deliziosa!  One gripe that I have with some thin crusts are that the midsection crust flops over and causes all the toppings to slide onto your plate.  That was not the case here since the crust wasn’t anorexic.  This certain pizza didn’t have sauce which probably helped too.  The crust was crunchy but not crackery.  The toppings were all flavorful and delightful with a fair amount of fresh basil tossed about the pie.  Are your ears burning, Patsy’s?  One basil spring isn’t gonna cut it.  Oily but not OILY.  Very pleased.  You know it’s a special pizza when you’re thinking about it the next day.