Not Ray’s, but still Classics
Posted by melissamccart on December 10, 2006
From the TONY Pizza issue, the list of oldest/classic pizza parlors:
1) Arturos, Manhattan. 1957. I’d always been underwhelmed by this pizza. I’m convinced that everyone loves it because they get really drunk on cheap red wine while waiting for a table. That said, it’s better than alot of D.C. pies. “This always-packed sit down spot on Houston has been pumping out pies charred in a coal-fired oven (one of the few remaining).”
2) Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Brooklyn. 1990. This place is great for the attitude and the view from between bridges. The owner is a nephew of Patsy Lancieri (Patsy’s pizza–1933). Another coal fired oven place, too.
3) John’s of Bleeker Street, Manhattan. ”Not worth the wait to get in: mediocre pies, goopy cheese.”
4) L & B Spumoni Gardens, Queens. 1939. Aside from the fact that this is also a spumoni shop, TONY says little about the pies.
5) Lombardi’s, Manhattan. 1905. I love the pies here. “Started by Gennaro Lombardi. .. the pizzas can be delightfully balanced or oversauced and undercooked.”
6) Patsy’s, Manhattan. 1933. “. . . the ultra-thin crust, charred by a coal burning oven, can be beautifully blistered, or just flat-out burnt.”
Other tidbits from the issue? Best places to get a pie at 2am, weird pizza shops (pie by the inch, for example) best gourmet pies (yes, Otto is one of them), number of pizzerias in New York (495), and the average number of slices an American eats annually. It’s allegedly 46, but I’m quite sure I eat that many slices per season.
