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Adrienne's grandma-style pie.
(Photo: Kenneth Chen) |
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The storied L & B Spumoni Gardens notwithstanding, square pizza has always been the also-ran, a doughy dowdy sister to the sexy, pliable Neapolitan slice. But this year, thanks to the recent revival of the relatively rare grandma-style pie and impressive work by a fleet of Staten Island–based pizza trucks, some of our favorite slices turned out to be four-sided and fabulous.
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- Sullivan Street Bakery
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73 Sullivan St., 212-334-9435
Even at room temperature and bereft of mozzarella, the sweetish sauce and barely caramelized crust make the pizza pomodoro a Roman-style work of art.
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- De Marco’s Pizzeria and Restaurant
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146 W. Houston St., 212-253-2290
When the slices are good at this loosely affiliated spinoff of Di Fara, they’re very, very good—nearly Midwood quality. Consistency can be a problem, though. And, for some reason, out-of-the-oven pies taste better in the takeout annex than in the restaurant proper.
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- Rizzo’s Pizza
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30-13 Steinway St., Astoria; 718-721-9862
Mecca for serious students of the thin-crust Sicilian style, Rizzo’s makes a square slice that can honestly be called a local treasure: a zingy tomato sauce; a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romana cheeses; and a quarter-inch crust with a golden raised edge.
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- Lazzara’s Pizza Café
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221 W. 38th St., second fl.; 212-944-7792
A favorite among garmentos and square-pie aficionados, this old-fashioned, tin-ceilinged pizzeria serves its crusty Sicilian pies in ancient, oven-worn baking pans.
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- Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck
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47th St. nr. Park Ave., 917-287-7241
The best of the motorized competition, this oven-outfitted truck vends exceedingly crisp grandma-style sauce-lover’s slices to a grateful desk-jockey crowd.
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- Di Fara’s Pizza
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1424 Ave. J, Midwood, Brooklyn; 718-258-1367
If the deliciously oil-slicked, trek-worthy Sicilian at this venerable slice shop tastes better than the regular (a topic of incessant blog debate), there’s good reason: The sauce, unlike the one owner Domenico DeMarco applies to the round, is meat-based.
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- Adrienne’s Pizza Bar
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54 Stone St., 212-248-3838
A rare treat outside of Queens and Long Island, the grandma-style pie—think square, Sicilian style, but thinner and lighter— is baked to crisp-bottomed perfection at this stylish financial-district restaurant.