Weekly Pizza Lunch

Weekly Pizza Lunch: Thin-crust mushroom pie at Ditmars Station

This was sort of a bonus WPL pi. I’d already eaten my WPL but ended up trying Ditmars Station with my friend Justin on Saturday while I was doing laundry. The crust really is ultra thin. Most people think that New York–style pizza is “thin crust.” And, yes, it is thin, but I find that … Read more

Weekly Pizza Lunch: Vezzo and Tappo

I’m combining two Weekly Pizza Lunch outings into one here. That’s because they’re practically the same place. —The Mgmt.

Vezzo Meatball Classic Pizza
Vezzo’s Meatball Classic pizza: tomato sauce, mozzarella, house-made meatballs, red onion, and basil. Pictured: small, $9.

There’s a pizzeria mini chain in the heart of Manhattan that I think doesn’t get enough attention or praise.* Part of the blame may lie in its unusual naming convention. I mean, did you know that the pizzerias Gruppo, Posto, Spunto, Vezzo, and Tappo are all related and are pretty much the same thing? I know! You’d think they would have settled on one name and stuck with it. (Think of the efficiencies gained by maintaining one single website!)

Then again, avoiding the appearance of a chain has a certain advantage as well.

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Weekly Pizza Lunch: The Calabrese pie at Nicoletta

Like most bar or Midwestern pizzas, this pie is extremely satisfying and wallops you with flavor. The crust is flavorful, though I still think it’s not going to satisfy fans of Neapolitan or New York–style pizza. The crust is almost a vehicle for molten cheese and, in Nicoletta’s case, high-quality toppings. It’s basically Midwestern gut-busting pizza as done by a hot-shit New York City chef (which, by all accounts White, the former Wisconsinite, is).

Weekly Pizza Lunch: Coney Island’s Totonno’s rises from the floodwaters

Totonno's pizza plain pie
Totonno’s serves one of the better coal-oven pizzas in NYC. A plain pizza from just after the joint’s triumphant post-Sandy reopening.

You know, you’re not going to go wrong adding toppings to a Totonno’s pizza, but when the joint is firing on all cylinders, like it was when I visited yesterday, you only need a plain pie for a satisfying meal.

Of course that didn’t stop me and my dining companion from getting another pizza topped with sausage.

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