Pizza D’amore  

Pizza is a big thing in our family. Two of our sons have wood fired pizza ovens and one has a side business called Pizza and People. Ultimately we all want to travel to the Mecca of Pizza: Naples, Italy. Coordinating such a trip has not materialized yet. In the meantime two of us, Johan and I, arranged to meet in New York City for a meetup. Among other activities, we planned a much anticipated Pizza Crawl.  

 

On Saturday, April 22, 2023 Johan and I met at Times Square just before noon. We decided to access the convenient mode of public transportation and walked to the nearby 42nd St. subway station. With tickets in hand we headed for Brooklyn on the S and then L trains. Brooklyn is arguably the center of the pizza culture in the states. There are easily a hundred shops that feature craft pizzas with the finest ingredients and preparation. This borough is massive so we decided to narrow our trek to the Williamsburg neighborhood. We wanted to strike the right balance of walking, talking and eating so we scaled our crawl to a half mile circle in central Williamsburg.

 

Our first stop was L’Industrie Pizza. It is located a short walk north from the Marcy  station where we arrived from our journey from Manhattan. As we rounded the corner of Havemeyer and S Second St. we discovered a line of twenty of so patrons had already formed. The shop opens at noon and these hearty folks wanted to be first in line.  

 

The wait was not long, approximately 15 minutes, as the staff have an eye towards customer service. They brought 6 people in at a time so they could place their order. The shop is small but filled with workers. There were three guys in the glassed off dough room. They were cutting off pieces from a large mound and shaping them into balls for a final rise on trays. There were three more staff around the ovens. One was shaping and twirling the velvety circles. Another was arranging the ingredients on each pie. A third was sliding in and out the pizzas to their perfection. A cashier took orders and relayed them to her compatriots.  

 

Johan and I were going to eat a lot today so we decided we would only order slices from each establishment. At L’Industrie we ordered a buffalo and a pepperoni. The red sauce on each slice was sweet and savory, just to our tases. The pepperoni were perfectly ‘cupped' from the heat. We finished off our first slices with a gelato drizzled with olive oil and salt; perfect.  

 

Out the door and around the corner we arrived four blocks later at Leo’s. The noon crowd had dissipated so there was no wait to order this time. Johan asked for a margarita and I ordered a pepper. Again, the slices were marvelous. What we especially liked was they used a sourdough. We pulled at the crust and immensely enjoyed the flavorful edges.  

 

Pacing ourselves we decided to pop into Levaine for some chocolate chip cookies. These redefine the definition of a cookie. They are heavy mounds of delight. We put them in a bag and carried them with us for later when we rejoined our wives.

 

One of the wonders of the culinary world is coffee. This ancient beverage has traveled from its middle eastern origins to the far corners of the earth. In Brooklyn, NY it has found a fitting home in the name of Qahwah . This is a Yemenis shop that is truly authentic. They source, roast and serve exquisite beans from Yemen. We ordered a pot of mocha that was out of the world. It had was creamy like a cappuccino with subtle notes of cardamon. A needed rest for our journey.

 

We then struck out for Ace’s. We found an outside table and ordered a deep dish. Fortunately they have small size pans and they are not too doughy. The deep dish was a nice change of pace and we loved the wedding of cheese, sauce and peppers. The air was warm, the aroma of the pizza was savory and each bite brought joy.  

 

Our final stop was Fini Pizza. Once again we found chairs outside after we put in our order. No wait and  Here we enjoyed a couple slices of Sicilian style pizzas. These were made on what appeared as thick loaves of bread. It had a marina sauce with shaved pecorino cheese atop. Crispy, chewy, and savory all at once. A final Italian lemon ice completed our taste buds and we were done.  

 

What a day. I started my Strava exercise app when we began and we walked only 2 miles in roughly three hours. We were not in a rush and it was fun to people watch as we wandered and sampled the fares of a vibrant Williamsburg afternoon.  

 

If you have an open afternoon in the Big Apple and want to taste and see some of the city’s finest pizza places, I recommend giving these establishments a visit. There a hundreds of other places but these are all accessible and are among the best in class.