Sorry Local Broker. Sorry BrooklynQ. Sorry Arthur. I cheated on all of you.
Without a peep to any of you, I slunk off to Totonno’s Pizzeria Napolitano (1524 Neptune Avenue) Friday afternoon – Totonno’s first day open since their fire last March. I went with my brother. Neither of us had been there before.
It. Was. Delish.
After many a fakeout, Totonno’s is finally reopening on February 10th, according to Slice pizza blog. Totonno’s, which many pizza aficionados agree is one of the best slices in New York (and thus, the world) closed down after a fire devastated the storefront back in March. In September, Slice reported that the famed Coney Island pizzeria would begin welcoming customers again in late-September or early-October. Then it became November. Then December. You can guess where we’re going with this.
Slice wrote the following quick post on their site yesterday:
Our man Ed Levine just got off the phone with Totonno’s owner Lawrence Ciminieri, who tells us that Totonno’s is reopening next Wednesday, February 10 at noon.
Ciminieri says he himself will be making the pies that day.
We’re confident that this is the real deal this time. Ciminieri says he’s got all the permits now and the pizzeria is ready to go.
We hope it’s for real this time. I had planned to go for my first visit right before it burned down, and all this waiting has got me seriously hungry!
Photo courtesy of GerritsenBeach.net
Knapp Street Pizza (2157 Knapp Street near Avenue V) is advertising a generous $1-a-ticket raffle drawing. The raffle will be drawn on January 1 at 3 p.m. The prize? Free pizza every week for the rest of your life! Oh, and some other stuff:
[via GerritsenBeach.net]
Papa John’s, a Kentucky based pizza chain in business since 1984, boasts that it has “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza.” We’re not sure if founder John Schnatter is aware, but the center of the pizza industry is New York City– and as New Yorkers, we are notoriously skeptical about a good slice.
Sheepshead Bay has its fair share of places to grab a decent slice but by no means are people flocking to the better bay in search of the perfect pie. Opening up a chain restaurant is not going to change that.
Having slowly popped up all over Brooklyn in recent years, Sheepshead Bay is finally getting their own Papa’s, and one major concern is its placement. Located at 3528 Nostrand Ave, a mere 167 feet away from Domino’s (3514 Nostrand Avenue), the area is not exactly lacking in terms of NYC’s most prized culinary masterpiece (apart from bagels). If you continue walking up Nostrand to Avenue U, there’s even a KFC/Pizza Hut– and we haven’t even touched upon ACTUAL pizzerias yet!
Pia’s Pizzeria is just two blocks away from the commercial pizza joints, and and three more blocks after that is the home of Connie’s — both of which have graced Sheepshead Bay with cheap eats and smiles for decades. Delmar, La Sorrentina, Knapp Street, The Original 4, N&D and even Papa Leone’s may be a bit further away, but are all within delivery range. Word on the street seems to be littered with indifference, though Papa John’s had come under fire in 2007 after opening up a franchise next to Sunset Park’s Johnny’s Pizza — a neighborhood installment since 1968.
George, the owner of Pia’s Pizzeria, claims he doesn’t really care. “What am I going to do? It’s just more competition. I’m not worried. I’ve been here thirty years.” Some may share his sentiment, especially foodies who don’t consider chain pizza authentic, anyway. But certainly there are those who will be outraged that yet another brand name has taken up residence on the streets that used to be OUR neighborhood.
Convenience may be attractive, but at what cost?
What does this mean for Sheepshead Bay’s sudden abundance of doughy pleasures? Well, for starters, all you low-carb fiends trudging over to Bally’s in the snow this winter best resist temptation. With Papa John’s chocolate delight desserts on top of an impressive selection of allegedly fresh toppings and side dishes, the immediate impact will likely go straight to your thighs.
Beyond that, what does this say about the choices we make during times of economic duress? We are not living during a time when new business ventures are expected to do well– in fact, it’s common knowledge that most new businesses fail within the first year. But Papa John’s will likely be different. Why?
Pizza is cheap. Pizza, even when it’s subpar, is still reasonably good. You can’t really go wrong bringing home a pie. It’s one of the easiest and most affordable ways to feed a large family, especially with the deals that assembly line restaurants dole out to reel you in. Hell, even most frozen pizza is somewhat palatable these days.
At Papa John’s, you can feed a family of four for under $20 including dessert– you can’t even say that much for McDonald’s.
Papa John’s has not opened its doors for business yet, but when it does, will Sheepshead welcome the new patriarch of pizza on the block? Or, will it succumb to the fate of the cyclic closing of eateries that fail without the necessary hunger, both literally and metaphorically? In time, we’ll know for sure.
Is it possible for a reviewer to declare a restaurant a success after eating one slice of pizza?
Well, when the restaurant is mainly a pizzeria, the answer is, “maybe”. And when the pizzeria is Sofia, the ‘”maybe” becomes a definite “yes”.
Sofia Pizza Restaurant, with its clean dining area and lovely food display case, welcomes visitors who have a healthy appetite. Being the relatively new kid in Sheepshead Bay, the restaurant is competing with Del Mar Pizzeria, Bay Pizzeria and numerous other old-timers. And compete they will.
The Sofia pizza slice is excellent. I got the first slice from the still-whole pie. The counter clerk heated it up to right temperature and I poured on all the spices. First bite. Cheese did not burn the roof of my mouth. Crust is crispy with no dark, overcooked spots on the bottom. Dough is cooked thoroughly and, yet, is not too chewy.
Tomato sauce is sweet, not syrupy; tangy, but not annoying. Slice holds up and doesn’t sag under the weight of the cheese. Taste is delicious, right down to the last bite of the unadorned crust area. Verdict: Sofia’s pizza is a major competitor to all others. Price competes, as well, at $2.25 a slice.
A steady stream of customers came in and were ordering from the numerous foods on display: Sicilian slice; garlic knots (ever so cute, smaller than others); pasta in various forms; rolls; calzones; and, get this: pan pizza!
The sign says that the place is a pizzeria and pasteria. Having never heard that word before, I figured pasteria meant that Sofia would be the place to stop for some Italian pastry to go with my pizza. But with no pastry in sight, and with a wide array of food on display and in their glossy menu — I’m thinking the word pasteria refers to “pasta”. If you have any insight into this word usage, please let us know.
With its convenient location near a bus stop and great food, we expect this place to do well. So, I get to my pet peeve: why do they need to put those flags out front? To the owners of Sofia, we welcome the pizza but not the holes you had to drill in the sidewalk in order to hold the flags in place. We can forgive you for February’s inspection — knowing that all is now well — but passengers trying to get out of a car parked near those flags will not be too happy.
Sofia Pizza Restaurant
2822 Coney Island Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235
(Between Avenue Y and Avenue Z)
(718) 513-6300
(718) 513-6301
Credit cards accepted: Discover, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, & Diner’s Club International
Hours: Monday through Sunday 11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Free Delivery
Slice, the pizza blogger over at Serious Eats, has been doing a heck of a job keeping track of Totonno’s Pizzeria Napolitano since a fire destroyed the legendary pie-tosser in March. After initial updates saying the pizzeria would be open in June, then July, then August, the site is now reporting that it will reopen in late-September or early-October.
Why the delay? After the fire, [Owner Lawrence] Ciminieri said, his family had two choices: rebuild from scratch or salvage what was there. The initial reports from the architect Ciminieri consulted with indicated that the building was sound enough to salvage, but once crews started renovation, city inspectors found more damage than expected. It turns out that the building needs to be shored up to support the weight of the oven and the coal used to fire it.
“It would have been easier to just knock the place down and start over,” Ciminieri said, “but we’re already in the middle of this [renovation] and just have to finish now.”
This time, he said, it’ll definitely be no later than October.
I can’t wait to have a slice of Totonno’s. Despite being so close to home, I’ve never made the trip there and had planned one right before it burned down. Come on, Totonno’s, we’re all rooting for you!
Here at L & B Spumoni Gardens (2725 86th Street), I get dragged out in the late hours to carry cleaning supplies. While I’m lugging around buckets and mops, these late night customers come in to grab their Sicilian slices as if it’s their life-saving fix. But there are those one or two pizza snobs I hear saying things like, “This pizza sauce tastes like Prego from the bottle.”
But those people who eat the orange sherbet vanilla swirl ice cream cones and spumoni just seem to go on and on. “Mmmm, yummy.” Lick, lick, lick. “This cone is delicious.” Slather, slather, slather. “Tastes just like a Creamsicle.” Slurp, slurp, slurp. I have to just sit there and listen to this junk all the time. Someone licks a little too hard, the cone drops to the floor. Porters roll me out with the mop and pail to clean that gunk up. People, it’s a soft-serve cone. Take it easy, will you?
L & B doesn’t feed this workhorse shopping cart even the pizza crust crumbs. I so wish I could be back at Babies-R-Us over at 8973 Bay Parkway, where those ‘preggo’ customers know what’s important in life and handle me like a baby. They love to drape me with a delicate, cotton, newborn layette — just the way a cutie, plastic shopping cart ought to be treated.
They use a code name for me in these Bensonhurst concrete “gardens” — so, just ask for Lil’ L & B. That’s ‘L’ for lavender and ‘B’ for baby. Just don’t tell them that you’re here to rescue me, or they might not bring me out of the slop room.
After Coney Island’s Totonno’s Pizzeria burned down in March, we were devastated by the loss of a legendary pizzeria near our ‘hood. Now local pie-hunters are taking one more hit, as another celebrated dough tosser near our borders raises its prices to damn-near-unaffordable.
Di Fara Pizzeria (1424 Avenue J) in Midwood will now charge $5 for a regular slice, $25 for plain pies, $30 for square pies and special round pies, and $35 for special square pies. Additionally, the joint will be closed on Tuesdays as well as Mondays.
So how ’bout it, Sheepshead Bay. Would you pay $5 for a slice?
[via Serious Eats. Thanks to Arthur for the heads up.]
For those of you living in a pasta-poor home — like the one our reader, Jim, grew up in — here’s an all-you-can-eat pasta night.
And if these are not the prices you would normally expect to pay for pasta, just remember that Benny’s Gourmet Pizza serves up Kosher food and you won’t have to travel to Midwood.
Your choice is to stay home and follow the recipe for Rich Pasta for the Poor Kitchen. But if you’re a “rotten cook” — also like Jim’s mom who had some difficulties in the kitchen — you can make your way over with an empty stomach to Benny’s, singing, “Pizza, Pasta, Salads & Wraps, Hoorah!”
Benny’s Gourmet
1730 Jerome Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235
(corner of East 18th Street; between Ave Z & Voorhies Ave)
Tel: (347) 673-7340
Apparently, Benny’s Gourmet Pizza is firing up the barbie. That’s right folks, it looks like Grillin’ On the Bay made an impression on the sidewalk cafe at East 19 St and Jerome Ave.
The grill wasn’t smoking when this picture was snapped, but if on your next trip to the U.S. Post Office (across the street) you notice some smoke, take a snapshot for us. Or better yet, grab a taste and let us know how it is!
