The New York Pizza’s Secret

Pizza is the queen of New York City food. You will find it here at every corner: the price for a slice starts at $1. The classic New York pizza is margherita. You can laugh at this, but I assure you its flavor is completely different than that of any other pizza in the world. You know why? Thanks to the water. I am serious. New York tap water is one of the best in the world and has unique flavor and ingredients, which makes the pizza dough really unique. I wouldn’t have believed it myself, had it not been for a conversation I had with an Italian guy who told me that his parents requested him to bring them a bottle of NYC tap water to Italy. They planned to make pizza and wanted it to be exceptionally good. If Italians order NY water to make their pizza better, the water in question must be really special.

Every year there are listings of the best NY places serving pizza – there are hundreds of them. I can recommend you several places I tried and keep returning to (it’s rarely that a slice is more than $3 here). The first place is the legendary Grimaldi’s pizza (1 Front St.), right next to Brooklyn Bridge Park, close to the popular viewing terrace. It’s been a while since I ate a pizza so wonderfully thin, it’s actually difficult to raise it to your mouth. Next place is located near the former WTC, or current Freedom Tower – it’s called Steve’s Pizza (Cedar St.). The place looks unassuming, but their margherita is really good (note: there are seats upstairs). Another place is Uncle Mario’s Brick Oven Pizza in Hell’s Kitchen (739 9th Ave.) The waitress working them may be a bit too eager (which is not as annoying the second time around, anyway), but the pizza is always great. 

The next place is known because of… artichoke, which is one of the main ingredients of their pizza. The place is called Artichoke Pizza and has several locations – 114 10th Ave., 111 MacDougal St., 328 E 14th St. Their dough is thick, which I usually don’t like, but in this case it actually works. I especially recommend their location at 14th St. and 1st. Ave., mainly when you’re on your way back from a party. It’s a very small place – you cannot sit down, usually there’s a queue outside, and you stand with the merry crowd to get that steamy slice of fresh pizza – but it’s  simply yummy! (an example below)

Share: