Olio E Piú

Things that are amazing about my job.

1.  Eating
2.  Eating
3.  Eating

Did I mention it's amazing and awesome that I get to eat for "work?"  Sure, it gets a little rough.  Like when you end up eating 120 cupcakes over three weeks in pursuit of New York City's greatest cupcake.  Honestly, I think that is one of the most difficult things I've had to make it through.  I'm not kidding.  I thought I was going to ralph more than once.

So, moving on from that last positive note, today's awesomeness came in the form of checking out a new pizza place.  Olio E Piu opened on Sunday in the West Village.  It took over Go Sushi's old locale.  The vivid grass green exterior is hard to miss.  At first glance, I was loving the colors of the interior.  First off, for a New York restaurant, it is rather spacious.  Secondly, the mixture of woods, a few vintage pieces, high ceilings, wood ceiling beams, and bright, creamy walls was visually appealing.  After I'd spent some time there though I reconsidered my original evaluation and felt, perhaps, the place was a bit stark.

Everyone in the restaurant was most certainly friendly and passionate about the subject of pizza.  Giulio Adriani, the owner, is fresh off the boat from Italy.  His oven is as well, straight from Napoli, capital of delicious and fresh pizza.  I enjoyed watching him work the oven while preparing our pizzas.  I also had amazing lunch companionship in the form of Adam Kuban, Ed Levine, and Nick Solares.  Very entertaining lunchmates indeed.

We ordered four different options:

Margherita

Campagnola

Freschezza

Amalfitana

The Margherita was the best which normally is your indicator that the rest will be good as well.  The Amalfitana seemed promising and interesting with "lemon slices."  It seemed the acidity would be a potentially amazing contrast with the mozzarella and Parmesan.  Unfortunately, the lemon slices were much too thick to work.  Because they are so newly opened, I'm going to give some allowance on this one.  Giulio came over to my table to check on me and my companions and sought our opinions.  He said he is using the changes for improvement.  The crust definitely has a decent chew on it and the Margherita will leak yummy sauce all over your plate that you'll have no choice but to sop up with said crust.

So, if your pizzas are more pizzalike than salads with a little crust under them, thank me.  Or if your lemon is shaved super thin.  I'm sure it was all my doing.

New York Pizza: A Growing Addiction

So, it's 6:36 p.m. and I'm getting ready to leave the Serious Eats Headquarters for the day which means I'm thinking about what to do for dinner.  You should know that today I've consumed three types of noodles from Xi'an Famous Foods, four wraps from The Kati Roll Company, a salad and some Tikka Masala from the Whole Foods bar, oh, and eight different cupcakes from the CakeLab (by the way, amazingly awesome cupcakes - which I should know after having sampled 50 cupcakes on Friday.)


So, it only makes sense that I'm hungry.  I don't know what it is but I'm pretty much always in the mood for a slice.  If you can find a good slice your stomach can always make space.  What makes up a good slice?  Crisp, chewy crust, fresh uncomplicated sauce, and light on the cheese.  Heavy on the cheese and I think it must've come from Pizza Hut.  I seriously don't understand how Domino's stays in business in New York City.  Shouldn't people know better?


On to the business of actual eating.  My most recent tastes:


Motorino:

I was fortunate enough to partake in Adam Kuban's bachelor party at the SE office.  Motorino's did us a solid and delivered many delicious pies.  We had many different flavors but I'm going to post just two of them.  Motorino's is considered (by Slice'rs at least) to be one of the best pizzas in town.  They do it Neapolitan style and are in fact delicious.  Great chew to the crust, char as well.  Cheese, sauce, toppings - all perfection.  A definite new love.  Even better, if I'm too lazy to walk down my five flights of stairs, I'm within their delivery zone (although eating pizza at the actual location when it's fresh out of the oven is always best).

Margherita

Brussel Sprouts - they actually found a way to make them taste good!

  Ray's Famous Pizza:

World Famous Ray's Pizza - is it really famous?  Also, I have to ponder a pizzeria's decision to claim "famous" over "best."  The obvious choice would be that they are not the best but rely on business from tourists that don't seem to know any better.  Is it an insult to the New York slice? No.  It falls somewhere in between. 

I ordered a sausage and pepperoni slice.  Crust had some decent flavor for a bite on its own.  Too much cheese for a New York slice.  At 3.60 for two toppings falls a little on the expensive side for a mediocre slice.  Okay if you're in the area but definitely don't go out of your way to get a slice here.


If you can believe it, I actually have three or four more pizzerias to post about here but I don't want to overwhelm you.  Just know that if you're ever in New York, give me a buzz and I'll steer you towards the right spots and far, far away from all the tourist crap.  

So, what's the verdict?  I'll be eating pizza but one pizzeria may not be sufficient.  This girl has to get as much of the mouth-watering, crunch noise inducing as humanly (or maybe not humanly) possible before she has to leave her mecca.  Sigh.  

New York Wins: Di Fara Pizza and Sweet Revenge Bakery

Living in New York can be tough.  Mostly because there are oh so many meals that are worthy of being shared.  Either because they are truly that fantastic or not worth your time in a town filled with saliva inducing dishes.

Dom, Pizza artist

Last week I had the opportunity to experience what is considered to be one of New York's best pizzerias, Di Fara's.  I was not let down.  It was truly delicious.  In the blog world there are many harsh critics.  Maybe for the simple fact alone that it's easy to be critical or throw out judgments when it's not face to face.  Also, pizza eaters can be quite fanatical and passionate about the beloved subject.

Anyway, here is a write up from Serious Eats (including my own two cents.)  I highly recommend going if you have not had a chance.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/07/di-fara-pizza-new-semi-dried-cherry-tomato-pizza-topping.html

I've also been doing some cupcake eating as of late.  I tasted a Dulce de Leche cupcake from Sweet Revenge which led me to the decision that I needed to venture to the bakery myself to try more.  The frosting was rather creamy and amazing, the cake flavorful but dry.  I wanted to know if this was a fluke or the norm so I ambled over to The Village to check it out.  Service was not phenomenal but I guess the upside was that I had ample time to decide what to order.

I landed on the Sweet Revenge (Peanut Butter Cake, Ganache Filling with Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting 3.50) and the Pure (Mexican Vanilla Cake with Mexican Vanilla Buttercream 3.50.) A guy sitting at the bar swore by the Pure which is what led me to order it. I was actually leaning towards the Dirty (Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Truffle 3.50) or the Crimson & Cream (Raspberry Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 3.50) prior to his offered opinion. Sorry bar guy, flavor failure. His palate obviously sucks.

Very Pirates of the Caribbean, no?

I had help with these babies but the conclusion was the same as before.  Sweet Revenge makes an excellent cupcake BUT their cake is dry.  I don't get this.  Can someone explain to me how a bakery can successfully make a cupcake that has great flavor and creamy frosting (harder to do then you'd think) but can't seem to pull their cupcakes out of the oven in time?  Come on people, seriously.  Not rocket science.  


I may however have to try just one more time...

Mistakes I've Made: Ben's Pizza on MacDougal

Ben's Pizzeria on MacDougal

I realize I'm opening myself up here by entitling this post, "Mistakes I've Made," but it just fits.

Pizza Box, Ben's Pizza, 123 MacDougal Street

When I lived in New York before I spent most of my time in Greenwich Village.  I settled on Joe's as my favorite place for a NY slice and didn't continue my search.  This time out here I have a list (which grows by the day) of places I must try.  Ben's Pizza on MacDougal was on this list.  As some consider Ben's a rival of Joe's I had some expectations.  When I walked past Washington Square and arrived I had a deja vu moment.  I realized I had eaten here before.  That pretty much summed it up right there.  Not memorable.

I ordered a plain slice and a white slice.  Here they are...

Ben's Pizza on MacDougal White Slice and Plain Slice

They look decent from afar albeit the crust looks a little flat.

I'm not going to say they were horrible but if you're living in New York City and have pizza that actually qualifies as good then it kind of makes you want to stop eating.  The cheese was far too thick on both slices.  The ricotta on the white pie was ridiculous.  While they had heated both slices before handing them to me (which is key to having a good crisp, gooey slice) they cheese was still lukewarm.  I'm sorry to say as a sometimes cheap person that I threw the pizza away after trying it.  I thought about finding someone to give it to - but anyone in New York would have known better than to take these slices off my hands.

I'm told that this is good pizza when you're drunk.  I guess I'll never know...