Cafe Rustico II

Last week I did karaoke with my work friends at iBop. 

That place is cool because you can bring your own beer and order a pizza right to your room, which of course we did. 

Bud Light 40s + pizza + karaoke = best night ever?

I apologize for the crappy pic, there was like, a black light or something

A large pie is $16. A slice at the place is $2.50.

pretty much I'm a loser

So I can't really give this pizza a proper review since I had my 2 slices about 6 beers into the evening...but from what I, and everyone else there, remember it was really good. 

Seriously, I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area. No joke.

Cafe Rustico II

25 W. 35th St (btwn 5th and 6th Ave.)

New York, NY 10001

Lenny's Pizza

Image stolen from the Slice blog

So I was in Park Slope on Monday and had an hour to kill before recording. It was pouring and this place is right by the studio so I stopped in. Technically I'm only supposed to review Greenpoint pizza, but I make the rules here and decided now I just do whatever. This place has a good reputation, I don't know why. 

I got a plain slice $2.50

The asymmetry of the fat crust bothers me

Fine. It looks good - it always does, right? Looks can be deceiving. Folks, for those of you who are into it, Lenny's is a thin crusted slice. I am not one of these people who are into it, apparently. The crust was so thin that the sauce  just made it soggy. The sauce was good, but listen - I don't want a soggy slice. And although not as greasy as the slice from Russ, this is still an intensely greasy slice. The cheese is good - no complaints. Will there be a day where I complain about cheese? I dunno. So I had this mush of a slice of pizza and when I got down to trying to enjoy the fat end crust, I just couldn't. This crust tasted the most like cardboard out of all the slices I've reviewed so far. Needs more than salt to fix this one. 

I like that there's a good amount of seating in the back and God knows I love wood paneling. The old guy who works there (is that Lenny? I don't even know...) was nice, cracking jokes that I had to politely laugh at since they were directed at me since I was the only one in there and while Hot 97 blasting over the speakers is not my thing, they played T.I.'s Whatever You Like, which of course you know made me happy because you guys know me so well; however, credit cannot be attributed to the establishment for that one. Run-on sentence much? I don't even bother editing apparently...Sorry dad.

Pros: A lot of places to sit, Lunch special of 2 slices and a small fountain soda for $4.50

Cons: Crappy pizza for realz, my Diet Coke fountain soda (which they don't put any ice in) tasted like root beer halfway though. 

Lenny's Pizzeria

594 Fifth Avenue (btwn 16th St and Prospect Ave)

Brooklyn, NY 11215

dream dude? dream pizza

This movie was posted on the Slice blog, thought I'd share. This is where I'll go for my post-Passover pizza

Russ Pizza

So I met up with Christine on Saturday for GPC #3 after she'd looked an apartment. I'd never been here which is kind of ridiculous, but I think I've always been turned off by the amount of people it looks like are in there on line since it's such a narrow entrance? When I got there there were a bunch of people waiting around, this doesn't seem like fastest place and I get the impression they don't really care.



 I don't think I knew they had seating in the back in the way that Italy Pizza also does. The seating area is pretty substantial and it seemed like most of the people who were on line were taking their pizza to go and not hanging around like us.



Plain slice $2.25 



This slice is not from a fresh pie, and it needed to be heated up. It took longer to heat up than it should when I'm hungover and want pizza AND as you can see, it's smaller than the Schmook's slice. I have to say I really liked it though; the cheese was salty, the sauce was good - it reminded me of one of the Park Slope pizza places I used to go to growing up. Smiling, I think? The crust was okay; it was crispy and wasn't undercooked but it could have used more salt. The main issue here is that this is one helluva greasy slice. Christine did "the dab" - seriously, check this out:



Kind of gross, but listen, we got another slice to share just to be sure and we got a slice from a fresh pie. It kind of does make a difference. It was still amazingly greasy, but very good.



What else?




Pros: Yum, my favorite so far on the GPC
Cons: Slice too small for amount I want to eat, slow service, fountain soda tasted like crap and the large isn't large enough



Russ Pizza
745 Manhattan Ave (Btwn Meserole and Norman)
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Fornino

image stolen from some Yelp review

Dinner with Gideon last night at Fornino. Technically it was my second time there but I'd never had the pizza before...What?! I know.


image stolen from NYMag

I had pretty high expectations because they have won some Best of Citysearch award which is a big time big deal I guess, and it's posted right out front. Anyway, it's a cute little place that doesn't take itself too seriously. No tablecloths (yes, that's an indicator). So yeah, nice casual brick oven pizza. Love it. The waitress was very nice - Hi, and it wasn't too crowded, but it wasn't empty either. The atmosphere is cozy and it didn't take too long to get our pizzas.



I got the Ortolana ($11) since I had gone through the menu earlier in the day and couldn't stop thinking about it. Also, my new rule for eating whole pizzas is that it has to have a lot of veggies on it to make me feel less guilty about it. This one has zucchini, eggplant, broccoli rabe, and roasted peppers. This pizza is definitely smaller than the one from Gnocco, but seems to be the right amount of food for someone like me. Absolutely nothing was wrong with this pizza, but it didn't blow me away. I don't know if Gnocco has ruined me for all other pizzas or what (hope not), I just didn't feel the same way about it as I thought I would. The crust was perfect: thin and a little charred - the way it should be, fresh ingredients, the eggplant was delicious like butter and I don't even like eggplant. I can't put my finger on it, I just didn't fall in love with this pizza and want to marry it. There was no oomph to it, I guess. I still ate the whole thing though. Please.



Gideon got the Siciliana ($11) which has cherry tomato, anchovies, onion, eggplant, capers, and olives. He added the Mozzarella as an extra. He's so excited to eat that shit. Wouldn't you be?

I was jealous of his olives. I didn't try it so I can't say anything about it. 

Pros: Fresh ingredients, tons of pizzas to choose from - actually 30, Olive oil on the table, Backyard seating in the warmer months, Right off the Bedford stop of the L

Cons: Missing the "it" factor?, Would prefer more attentiveness to refilling the water glasses

For the record: I'm totally willing to go back and give it another shot when I'm done making the rounds.



Gideon's review...

Being a New Yorker, I'm a sucker for Neapolitan. Places like Grimaldi's, John's and Arturo's have been doing thin crust, wood oven pies since long before I was born. And I hold them to the gold standard: smoky, crispy-chewy crust, fresh sauce and high quality cheese. Plus whatever fresh toppings get pulled out of the fridge. Mmmmm yeah. But with new comers like Lil Frankies and Nick's giving the old guys a run for their money, I figured Fornino in Brooklyn would have on it's A game as a contender. Brooklyn represent, right? Or Williamsburg. Or whatever. But like a lot of Billsburg, Fornino tries really, really hard only to miss the mark compared to the real thing. Don't get me wrong, I'd take a Fornino pie over some store bought bullshit any day of the week. But the sauce was tepid, the toppings on mine felt out of a can, and when the crust is the best part of your slice, you know you're in for trouble. I give it a proverbial 5 out of 8 slices. I'd go back. But given that Grimaldi's is less than a mile away, and Fornino only has pizza on the menu, somebody in that kitchen gotta step it up. Best part of my meal was shooting the shit with Joanna.

Fornino

182 Bedford Ave (btwn N. 6th and N. 7th)

Brooklyn, NY 11211

Schmook's

These people are famous now!

Christine and I went to Schmook's yesterday for stop #2 on the Greenpoint Pizza Crawl (GPC).
Plain slice $2.25



Again we got slices from a pie that wasn't fresh. This pizza looks better than it tastes. It's pretty heavy - there is a lot of cheese. No complaints there. My main issue with this slice is that the crust was too thin for the amount of cheese it had on it. The crust was crispy but undercooked and didn't have enough salt. The sauce was good and the cheese was good, I just don't like it when you fold the slice and it breaks in half. I'm gonna have to take points off for that. I mean, it was good but nothing special.



Christine liked it better than I did.

There are ten seats, so I guess the seating situation is good enough. One thing that really bothered me was the horrible screeching sound of the bottom of the chair scraping against the tile floor whenever someone stood up or sat down. It's really hard not to be distracted by and totally takes away from the ambience.



This guy was really nice. And you see that pie? $12

Pizza porn:




...They also have beef patties? $1.75

Pros: Huge slice, Cans of Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, Convenient to Nassau stop, Good topping selection, Good slogan "Schmook's - It's a Pizza Place"
Cons: Annoying sound from chairs that I can't get over, Lame crust




Schmook's Review By Christine

I think that Schmook's is probably the 3rd or 4th by-the-slice pizza place that I have tried in Greenpoint. I've always been intrigued by its circus-lights exterior, but it's a little out of the way for me, so I was glad to finally have an excuse to try it.

I hear all of Joanna's points, but for me, the way the crust cracked when folded was hardly an issue. This could be a question of style -- I don't really like to fold my slice in half because eating it that way makes me feel like I'm eating half as much. For this reason, I like a slice with a relatively crispy crust, and this one didn't sag or get sloppy.

I thought the interior of the place was pretty nice. It looked like they had put a little money into new tables, chairs, and a paint job relatively recently, and to me that made the place seem clean. However, the entire back of the restaurant was taken up by stacks of empty pizza boxes. I don't know what's going on storage-wise in other parts of the building, but I have to believe that there is a better place to keep all those boxes, especially given the seating crunch that was going on while we were there. There's nothing I hate more than feeling like I have to race to vacate my seat because someone else is standing and waiting -- in this case it was a woman who eventually wound up grabbing an empty chair and lifting it over our table to a corner. If that had been me, I would just have gotten my slice to go rather than do that, but I guess that's neither here nor there, and certainly it isn't Schmook's fault.

Overall, I agree with Joanna that the crust, especially the thick edge, could have used a lot more salt. There was a lot of cheese, which I liked, and it stayed in place even though my slice wasn't folded. I also liked the size of the slice -- huge.

Finally, I think this is a great place to order delivery from. Delivery is free with a minimum order of $10, and as you can see in the picture, $12 gets you an absolutely gigantic pie.

Schmook's, if you are reading this, your pizza makers are very friendly, and I like that you have a bar along the front window for casual people-watching. Get some new felt on the legs of your chairs to cut down on that awful screeching, and maybe consider storing your ready-to-go pizza boxes someplace else. B+!



Schmook's
86 Nassau Ave (btwn Manhattan and Leonard)
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Check it

Hot pizzaman from Italy Pizza!!!


Covert spy pic. Afterwards we ran away giggling like schoolgirls.