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Cheap Eats
PIZZA KINGS OF
QUEENS
Pies that
bring you back again and again.
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Margheritaville:
A perfect pie at Nick's Pizza in Forest Hills.
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Speaking of pizza pilgrimages,
we've done Denino's (Staten Island), Totonno's (Coney Island), and
Pepe's and Sally's (New Haven) -- all mandatory excursions for any
pizza freak. But it takes more than a pizza margherita -- no matter
how masterly -- to bring us back again and again.
At Nick's Pizza in Forest Hills, Queens, owner Nick Angelis's
light, fragrant, superbly charred crusts ($11 and up) contrast beautifully
with creamy fresh mozzarella --melted but not boiled over -- and
bright tomato sauce and basil. No wood, no brick, no coal -- how
does he achieve pizza greatness with a conventional gas oven? The
mystery is part of Nick's allure. That, and a wine list that goes
beyond the basic pizzeria house red and white, plus killer cannoli
that will change forever your perception of the Mulberry Street
staple.
A year ago, we tracked down a favorite ex-Mezzogiorno pie man at
Sapori d'Ischia in Woodside, Queens, working for importers
Frank Galano and his son Anthony, who've transformed their wholesale-gourmet-Italian-foods
warehouse into a red-hot red-sauce dining destination where you
can still get a great deal on imported pastas and cheeses. On Tuesdays
and Wednesdays, there's live Neapolitan music; Thursdays are "opera
nights." If the stellar thin-crust pizza, the homemade pasta pillows
wrapped around spinach andricotta, and Wednesday's hunky headliner,
crooner Paolo Siani, aren't enough to lure you out to this industrial
desolation row, factor in the steep discounts on extra-virgin olive
oil, 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, and aged provolone -- all up
for grabs, if you can work your way around the boisterous crowd.
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