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August 22nd 2009 5:30pm
Exhaustion hit and the 8th stop on our tour, La Pizza Fresca, was closed for repairs so we decided to visit the nearby Barnes & Noble and then retire to the lovely Cupcake Cafe for some dessert. Too tired and full to continue, we lounged around until we were kicked out and then all went home to digest and sleep off the pizza.
August 22nd 2009 4:20pm
Stomachs stuffed to an uncomfortable level with only a short subway to digest, we continued into Williamsburg to Motorino. As we approached a sad sight lay before us; they were closed for an engagement party for the evening. After a little bit of sweet talking to the waitress, manager, and chef, we were escorted into the beautiful back patio area and even given a free pie (spicy Pugliese with sausage, burrata, and broccolini) to enjoy.The group scores were as follows:
Cheese to Sauce Ratio: 4.24 out of 5
Crust: 4.56 out of 5
Taste Per Price: 4.4 out of 5 ($13 for small DOC Margarita)
Assorted Comments: "Saltiest yet! Best crust yet!" -Ilya Kushnirsky "Perfect charred crust, DOC tangy sauce is perfect." -Jason Eppink "Great crust, puffy around outside, very yummy." -Maura Lane
Rated #8 by New York Magazine: Motorino, 319 Graham Ave., Williamsburg
When Neapolitan pizzaioli engage in mine-is-bigger-than-yours trash talk, chances are they’re comparing cornicioni. On that front, Mathieu Palombino has nothing to be ashamed of. His crusts are so tall and puffy they should be tethered to ropes and paraded down Broadway like Bullwinkle on Thanksgiving Day. His tomatoes are bright, his buffalo mozzarella sweet, and his Margherita DOC a thing of beauty. The crust exhibits a range of appealing textures, from crisp and chewy to light and airy.
August 22nd 2009 4:00pm
Riding the L train into Brooklyn chatting away about pizza and the delicious pizza ahead.
August 22nd 2009 3:45pm
We trekked on to our 6th stop still going strong, that is until we encountered Artichoke's massive slices. Each monstrous slab is more than enough for two people to share and Artichoke proved to be the slice that broke the pizza tour's stomach.
The group scores were as follows:Cheese to Sauce Ratio: 3.75 out of 5
Crust: 2.87 out of 5
Taste Per Price: 4.75 out of 5 ($4 slice)
Assorted Comments: "Portion gigantic. unnngh!" -Raymond Kim "Tasty at first bite." -Clay Ewing "I want to smear that sauce on my body and lick it off." -Naomi Huth
Rated #18 by New York Magazine: Artichoke Basille's Pizza, 328 E. 14th St., nr. First Ave.
This is not dainty stuff, or pizza for the faint of tummy. While the too-hard crust of both the Sicilian and the round Margherita pies could use some work, this robust style of pizza-making doesn’t exactly lend itself to delicate dough handling. Nothing else like it in the world, and rare enough these days that, unless you’re a cop or an EMS worker with line-cutting privileges, you should be prepared to wait for it—even, as we discovered recently, in the rain at three o’clock in the morning on a Monday night.
August 22nd 2009 3:15pm
Excited about the high rating of Luzzo's in New York Magazine, we crowded into the pizzeria only to be disappointed by our least favorite pizza.
The group scores were as follows:
Cheese to Sauce Ratio: 3.1 out of 5
Crust: 4.25 out of 5
Taste Per Price: 2.28 out of 5 ($17 for small pie)
Assorted Comments: "No likey cheese; sauce was in globs." -Andrea Waters "The crust makes it edible." -Naomi Huth
Rated #6 by New York Magazine: Luzzo's, 211-213 First Ave., nr. 13th St. 
Owner-pizzaiolo Michele Iuliano, while Naples born and bred, is unafraid to flout the rules. Sure, he flies in the buff mozz from Caserta like a good Italian pizzaiolo. He brazenly cooks in the coal-and-wood-fired oven (instead of the regulation wood-only) he inherited from Zito’s East. He puts sugar in his dough, which among puritans is something like the equivalent of Alice Waters crop-dusting the Edible Schoolyard. Shocking, apocalyptic stuff. The result of all this roguish behavior is a crust that’s somewhere between the Neapolitan and Roman ideals. Like the Roman, it’s uniformly thin and crisp with only a modest cornicione, yet it has the silky, tender, inviting mouthfeel of the Neapolitan minus that style’s puffy, sometimes heavy chew.
August 22nd 2009 2:20pm
Mini rain break on Houston Avenue before the skies cleared up and our bellies growled for more pizza.
August 22nd 2009, 2:00pm
Braving the heat, we trekked on and into the cool, cleansing air of Emporio.
The group scores were as follows:
Cheese to Sauce Ratio: 3.4 out of 5
Crust: 3.9 out of 5
Taste Per Price: 2.9 out of 5 ($15 for a small Margarita)
Assorted Comments: "Beautiful back room: friendly, really salty." -Jason Eppink "Wet and small." -Emily Young
Rated #12 by New York Magazine: Emporio, 231 Mott St., nr. Prince St.
To fit the restaurant’s theme, Cangialosi makes Roman-style pies: thin and crisp rounds designed to whet the appetite, not defeat it. Crunchy where Neapolitan pies are tender and without a discernible rim, Emporio’s pizzas are still fairly pliant and well-conceived. The basic tomato-and-cheese pie, of course, requires no explanation, even if its cooked-in visage does: The buffalo mozzarella is drained, so it doesn’t soak the crust, and applied in such a manner that it virtually dissolves into the tangy tomato sauce, making it impossible to determine where one sublime ingredient ends and the other begins.
August 22nd 2009, 1:30pm
The expedition for more pizza continues. This is what America is all about.
August 22nd 2009, 1:00pm
Just off the ferry and around a few bends lies a quaint old-fashioned cobble stone street and the tastiness of Adrienne's Pizzabar.
The group scores were as follows:
Cheese to Sauce Ratio: 3.4 out of 5
Crust: 4.1 out of 5
Taste Per Price: 3.9 out of 5 ($18 for a large)
Assorted Comments: "Yummy. Square is the new circle." -Naomi Huth "Great rich taste." -Andrea Waters
Rated #14 by New York Magazine: Adrienne's Pizzabar, 54 Stone St., nr. William St.
In this pizza town, there are good round-pie men and there are good square-pie men. Rare is the switch-hitting pizzaiolo who does well by both. This is thin-crust pan pizza called “old-fashioned” on the menu. Long Islanders will recognize it as Grandma style, a native permutation, and, if they can bring themselves to admit it, declare the delicately crunchy stuff superior to anything they can get in Nassau County. Besides a good crust, what elevates it above the norm is fastidious ingredient sourcing, including top-notch mozzarella that gets deliciously browned on top as Grandma pies often do. The fact that you can eat it outside the restaurant on a beautiful cobblestone street closed to traffic is another rare treat.
August 22nd, 2009 11:30am
We arrived at Salvatore of Soho, mouths watering and scorecards ready.
The group scores were as follows:
Cheese to Sauce Ratio: 3.38 out of 5
Crust: 4.7 out of 5
Taste Per Price: 3.4 out of 5 ($19.50 for Large Neapolitan Pie)
Assorted Comments: "Crust perfect crispiness with good amount of 'char' flavor." -Anneka Fagundes; "I like the little burn spots on the bottom." -Emily Young
Rated #16 by New York Magazine: Salvatore of Soho, 1880 Hylan Blvd., Staten Island
Although the Salvatore in question (Sal, for short; last name Ganci) now resides in that hinterland, he grew up in Sheepshead Bay and got his start in the pizza business at Famous Ben’s of Soho (actually in Soho). “Since I’m 15, I spent most of my time in Manhattan,” he says. “When I’d go home to Brooklyn, they’d call me Soho Sal.” Now, he’s making the best pie in a borough that prides itself on the stuff. It’s Old School New York Neapolitan hybrid pizza served in a snug, nostalgia-heavy shop. Thanks to an infernal coal-and-gas oven with a revolving floor (Sal’s own design), the crust gets so crisp and blackened the menu comes with a disclaimer: “served charred and well done.” S.O.S. makes a decent clam pie, but our favorite is the plain old cheese-and-tomato with house-made mozzarella.
August 22nd, 2009 10:10am
The group met up at the Staten Island Ferry at 10:10am on a slightly gray, yet delicious, morning for a 10:30am ferry. Starting group: Emily Young, Ilya Kushnirsky, Naomi Huth, Jason Eppink, Anneka Fagundes, Raymond Kim, Andrea Waters, Dave Rasura, and Heidi Fridriksson. Pulses racing, and stomachs yearning for pizza, we boarded the ferry excited for the brave new pizza world in front of us. Pigeons wandered around at our feet, unaware of the delicious foods we were about to digest.
Behold the map of Pizza Expedition 2009 created by Ilya.
After spending an entire day making numerous phone calls and endless hours on the interweb, we made a spreadsheet detailing more than just price and location.
Questions Asked:
Do you sell your pizza by the slice or pie only?
What is the best time to come by your pizzeria?
How much is a small/large pie?
Can we take it to go?
Are you a mean, snooty person who we do not want to be buying pizza from?
This is the e-mail from Ilya Kushnirsky, the man behind Pizza Expedition's birth:
Hello! If you are in the To: line of this email, it is because you have expressed interest in participating in Pizza Expedition 2009. Huzzah! If you are in the CC: line, it is because the powers that be have determined that you may be interested in participating. Please read the below and then let me know if you plan to participate (including any applicable +1s), so that we can plan accordingly.
What Is Pizza Expedition 2009?
A month or so ago, New York Magazine chose its top twenty pizzas of the moment: http://nymag.com/restaurants/cheapeats/2009/57893/ Since this is the same magazine that thinks any food under $25 is a Cheap Eat, a little independent investigation is in order. Originally, we intended to try all 20 in one day, but one has already closed, and there is no day of the week that all of the remaining nineteen are open. Also, it would take more than 24 hours just to travel among all of the locations. Thus, the revised plan is to hit ten out of the 20 spots. Our route will take us into ALL FIVE BOROUGHS and will take pretty much all day. If you can't or don't want to spend all day walking around and eating pizza -- in which case you really ought to re-evaluate your life -- you may join for part of the itinerary: Five Manhattan spots have conveniently been scheduled for the middle of the route. Scorecards will be provided so that you may rate each pizza yourself, and the expedition will be filmed for posterity, by which I mean Facebook.
When Is Pizza Expedition 2009?
It is THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 22. I have capitalized the foregoing for emphasis, although, based on my receipt of no fewer than three emails and texts over the past three weeks from people apologizing for having missed it, I don't expect that anyone will read, or perhaps understand, it. I repeat: THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 22. In approximately 42 hours. Soon.
Where Is Pizza Expedition 2009?
You have three options:
1. If you want to come for the entirety, meet us at the Staten Island Ferry NO LATER THAN 10:10 AM. The ferry leaves shortly after, and we have no time to dilly-dally once we arrive. It's strictly boat-pizza-get-the-fuck-out-of-Staten-Island.
2. If you want to come for most of the expedition but want to sleep in and/or are deathly afraid of boats, meet us at the first Manhattan stop: Adrienne's Pizzabar, 54 Stone Street near William Street, AT 1:30 PM. Call or text me at (***) ***-**** to confirm timing.
3. If you want to join at some later, unspecified time, call or text me at (***) ***-**** to determine our present location at any given time. Because of the amount of travel time, we won't be able to wait for you, but you could always anticipate our next stop and meet us there.
What Should I Bring To Pizza Expedition 2009?
- A pen or pencil for rating pizzas (scorecards will be provided)
- Comfortable shoes
- A MetroCard (preferably unlimited if you have access to one)
- Money for pizza
- Protection from sun and rain
- A camera
- Any pizza-themed toys or stories you may have
Will I Really Eat 10 Slices Of Pizza?
Not unless you're some crazy uncontrollable glutton. The point of this expedition is to taste-test some of the best pizzas in the city. A taste-test only requires a few bites, so at each place we will buy and share some small amount of pizza (a small pie or a few slices). With all the walking we'll be doing, you'll almost certainly burn more calories than you consume.
August 22nd 2009 5:30pm
