What is your favorite pizza?

[awl4knot]

Originally Posted by SR Only

Pepe's in New Haven. They typically end up in the top ten lists in magazines/papers/reviewers. Thin crust and incredibly fresh. We'll sometimes get a clam pizza as a "starter." Fresh clams on the pie with oil, garlic, no cheese. Yum. Coal fired ovens really do the trick. A few years ago they finally expanded to four other locations. While they are very good they are a click off of pies from the original location (Wooster Street). I generally get Genesee beer with it. It's a good pizza beer (not heavy). http://www.pepespizzeria.com/

SR,

I was with ya until you mentioned "Genee". I remember it as a cheap smelly beer that you bought in quart bottles because you couldn't afford Schlitz. Maybe it has improved?

But clam and garlic pizza is sooo good. And I love the clean, simple tastes of Margherita, named in honor of a queen and presenting the tri-colors of Italy: red (the sauce), green (the basil) and white (the dollops of riccota).

My local trattoria has a pizza section that has 10 to 12 types of pies "on tap". In addition to the Margherita, I am partial to the Buffalo Chicken pie. It's a thin sliced pie topped with diced chicken and the hot butter sauce used for wings. The roasted vegetable pie with artichokes is also good, and healthy.

This place is so good that I rarely have pizza elsewhere and I only have a single slice at lunch. Those days of eating half a pie pepperoni and sausage with a six pack of beer are long gone. In fact, I have heart burn just thinking about it.

New Haven and Trenton have legendary pizza joints, but I read that Phoenix has an outstanding place. Is that true?

Years ago I was exiled near Harrisburg, PA and there was a place favored by the pols that served a Greek (stop sniggering) pizza. It was fabulous with a Greek salad with feta cheese and a cold Rolling Rock. I have never had anything like it and haven't thought about it in years.

[Guest083011]

Originally Posted by awl4knot

SR,

I was with ya until you mentioned "Genee". I remember it as a cheap smelly beer that you bought in quart bottles because you couldn't afford Schlitz. Maybe it has improved?

Gotta have it from a tap. That's why it works at Pepe's.

Originally Posted by awl4knot

Those days of eating half a pie pepperoni and sausage with a six pack of beer are long gone. In fact, I have heart burn just thinking about it.

Wuss. Be a man and have mushrooms with that meaty pie. Those in the know grab a six pack to drink while waiting in line at Pepe's. The concept works well with a group of people.

Originally Posted by awl4knot

Years ago I was exiled near Harrisburg, PA and there was a place favored by the pols that served a Greek (stop sniggering) pizza. It was fabulous with a Greek salad with feta cheese and a cold Rolling Rock. I have never had anything like it and haven't thought about it in years.

See above about a beer to pair with the pizza.

[gnadfly]

I like pizza as much as the next guy but if there's a Popeye's around its no contest.

Every time I peel the crispy top off the breast piece its like opening the BIG present on Christmas Day.

[Guest050715-1]

Originally Posted by bigtex

Is it a date?

Absolutely! You being the pizza, and I’ll bring the Chianti!

[Guest083011]

Originally Posted by OliviaHoward

I’ll bring the Chianti!

And some fava beans?

[discreetgent]

For those who get to NY:

New York Pizza Enters a Golden Age
By OLIVER STRAND NYT

NEW YORK’S pizza moment is stretching into a pizza era. The wood-burning ovens and rock-star pizzaioli that seemed exotic not long ago are becoming familiar. A blistered, bubbling 12-inch Naples-style pizza, once a hard-to-find pleasure, is almost routine.

Three new pizzerias add to the abundance. They might not seem to have much in common, but they all follow the same playbook: focus on pizza and keep the prices down so nobody will care if you punt on the salads, side dishes and desserts.

The most ambitious newcomer is Olio Pizza e Più, 3 Greenwich Avenue (Sixth Avenue), Greenwich Village, (212) 243-6546 begin_of_the_skype_highlightin g (212) 243-6546 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, olionyc.com. This large restaurant has the generic feeling of an Olive Garden, although the sidewalk tables have successfully colonized what was a grim stretch of Greenwich Avenue. Now there’s a Mediterranean liveliness to the street, never mind the M10 buses waiting for the light to change.

Some nights the oven is run by Giulio Adriani, a prize-winning pizzaiolo who splits his time between Olio Pizza e Più and Alla Corte dei Borboni, his restaurant near Rome. Mr. Adriani is a ringer for Ali G — full goatee, Ferrari-red glasses, Lamborghini-yellow bandanna, “ADRIANI” spelled out across the back of his chef’s jacket — and some pizzas reflect that flair. The Argento di Napoli, with edible silver, is listed on the menu, but it isn’t available yet.

The best pizzas are less opulent, like the caprese ($15), a riff on the classic margherita with cherry tomatoes and bufala mozzarella. It won the European Cup (all awards are gravely noted on the menu), but whether you like it is a matter of taste. The charred crusts are as soft and floppy as a basset hound’s ears, a true Neapolitan style that doesn’t always play well in New York.

There’s no arguing with the flavors. The arugula and thin slices of lemon in the Amalfitana ($16) give the melted mozzarella and Parmesan a summery brightness. And the combination of smoked mozzarella, grilled pumpkin and speck in the Vesuvio ($18) is so natural that it’s a classic in the making.

The crust at Paulie Gee’s, 60 Greenpoint Avenue (Franklin Street), Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (347) 987-3747 begin_of_the_skype_highlightin g (347) 987-3747 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, pauliegee.com, has more body, though it’s still thin and pliable. The dough also has a good story: Paul Giannone, a software developer and amateur pizzaiolo, was inspired by Roberta’s in Bushwick and decided his hobby was his calling.

In March, he opened a cavernous restaurant that’s part warehouse, part farmhouse, in a secluded spot close to the East River. More impressive, Mr. Giannone, 56, did it at an age when some people start contemplating a leisurely victory lap for a life well lived.

If only the pizzas were more consistent. One night the Rooftop Pie ($17) was a winner, melted mozzarella and hunks of fennel sausage topped with kale singed by the oven that Mr. Giannone had built to his specifications. Another night the Honey Jones ($16) was a wallflower, tasting like nothing at all despite the triple threat of gorgonzola, prosciutto and honey from “Megan the beekeeper.” You want more from a restaurant so proud of its ingredients, and which puts so much care into its food.

There’s less veneration at Totale Pizza, 36 St. Marks Place (Third Avenue), East Village, (212) 254-0180 begin_of_the_skype_highlightin g (212) 254-0180 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, totalepizza.com. It was opened by Eli and Oren Halali, the brothers behind 2 Bros. Pizza, a slice joint a few feet away. The tables are plastic. The waiters haven’t yet mastered the menu, which has nine items. But the oven is kept at an infernal temperature, and the pizzas arrive charred and tangy. The margherita with bufala mozzarella ($11.75) holds its own, and the Bianca ($9.75), with mozzarella, ricotta, olives and garlic, is creamy, intense and satisfying.

Totale Pizza may never inspire the Santiago de Compostela-like pilgrimages some make to Co. or Motorino. That’s not the point. Instead, it matches a Naples-style crust with New York-style convenience: a wood-fired pizza that’s quick, cheap and easy.

[Guest083011]

Proof! I tell ya I got proof!
http://www.connecticutmag.com/Connec...ticle=7#artanc
(in the top third of the page)

[LaurenLynn]

The Garret in Campbell, CA has the best pizza! The sauce is subtly unique in flavor and the toppings are delicious. They make amazing onion rings. I'm told the sandwiches and wings are great too, but I haven't tried them.

Reading this thread is making me very hungry!

[ladibuggg]

pizza pie. is my ABSOLUTE favorite dish.
so much my favorite that i even settle
for Cici's from time to time.. but my fav
pizza is anything with alot of veggies & fruit

[chicken & pineapple]

[Chiara.Delano]

The best wood burning oven thin dough fresh "margherita" is from mediteranneo in east 66th, NYC. Further afield, Il Pomodorino in Porta Romana, Milan for "occhio di bue" pizza (one of my faves) and in London - Pizza Pomodoro - just for the atmosphere.
xx