Pizza, Pizza!

Here's the deal: I've got less than a month left in NYC and one thing I really want to do yet is eat the crap out of this city. I've gotta admit, despite not being one who eats out often, I'm a bit anxious about the thought of being slice-less and schmear-wanting for the next three seasons. Therefore, I sent one of my good buddies, Melissa (aka Fork This) a list of places I'd be interested in hitting if she'd be game to accompany me.

Hell yeah, she said (more or less).

We decided to focus on pizza. But then the question remained, what kind? I mean, there's the new wave of NYC's fancy pies and then there are the classic, old school pizzerias. There's Ray's, Grimaldi's, John's of Bleeker, Lombardi's, Patsy's, Di Fara's, Keste, Sal's on Court (one of my fav's), and so on and so on. How does one decide?

Well, I ultimately decided that I really wanted to try Motorino, the pizza place that the whole damn town can't stop yapping about. The food reviewers are falling all over themselves about that crust, that simplicity, that ambiance in that cozy spot in Williamsburg. (Avoid the teeny loud East Village location with the bad acoustics! they say.) Anyway, I'm not one to necessarily believe all the hype (anyone seen the "thriller," Lorna's Silence lately? Sheesh!), but when it comes to pizza and I've only got about 25 days left to gorge myself, I want to do it right.

So off to Motorino we went. We decided to order the very simple Margherita pizza. Of course, most people eat one of these puppies by themselves but my oh-so-witty friend had devised a plan before we even got there. (Wait for it!) Anyway, I'm no food critic so I'm not going to spend the next two paragraphs trying to describe the intricacies of the tomato sauce or what the hell fior di latte is anyway but suffice it to say that it was indeed delicious. As Melissa pointed out, our pie had a nice "blistered" bottom and the right amount of cheese but it also had a strange sogginess in the middle that perplexed us a bit. I'm sure those fancy pants pizza guys would tell us that the sogginess is exactly how some Italian grandma does it in her dirt floor kitchen outside of Naples and that's just fine by me. We happily gobbled our two slices a piece and I left a whopping $6 poorer.

On to the next! Yes, Melissa had come up with the fabulous idea of doing a little pizza taste test. We'd try two different restaurants in one night, ordering one pie at each. Brilliant! So we hopped ourselves onto the L train and headed a few stops away to Roberta's. Now, I wasn't too keen on going to this place considering the rabbit butchering workshop they recently held that I just read about in the New York Times that morning. However, a good friend was in that hood and willing to meet us there so I tried my best to keep the images of slaughter out of my head. (Yes, I know as a non-committing vegetarian type, I am being very hypocritical but emotions are emotions. What can I say?)

We were greeted by ACDC blasting from the sound system as we entered this cozy, tucked away spot in Bushwick. I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere. Heavy wooden benches, tables cramming into one another, the smell of a wood burning oven, quiet, friendly chatter...I felt as though a fellow diner might just whip out some marshmallows alongside a little Kum Bay Ya at any moment. My friends and I decided to order a pizza of kale, taleggio cheese, and sausage which Roberta's calls "The Good Girl." Comfortably satiated by Motorino's Margherita pie, I only had one slice of this one which was delicious as well, despite being a bit heavy on the kale. (Who wants a salad pizza?) And due to my strict, pre-European adventuring budget, I passed on the alcohol and spent a total of $11 on three pieces of pizza in two cozy spots with a couple of fun friends. Not bad.

As for my rating on the pizza? Yum. Best in the city? I don't know...I kinda like my little hole in the wall, Sal's in Carroll Gardens but I'm glad to have gotten in on the fancy pizza, too. Soon enough, I will be back to eating sausage in a very different, link-like form. And that's definitely not fancy.

Wanna hear another perspective of the pies and restaurants? Check out Melissa's account at Fork This. Feel free to drool away.