30. Pizza Tour of New York City

When in New York City … eat pizza!

Years ago a friend and I brought my girls to the city. When we arrived late at night, no one seemed tired and everyone was hungry, so we wandered around the Upper West Side looking for something to eat. Of course, many restaurants operated on New York time, open well after midnight. We stumbled into a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint, got a few slices, and ate the best pizza we’d ever tasted.

Now if I could only remember the name of the place …

Recently my younger daughter, now a junior in high school, attended a three-day dance workshop in the city. While she danced all day, I occupied myself with walking for miles around neighborhoods I hadn’t explored before, visiting the Tenement Museum (highly recommend), reconnecting with a friend from college - and taking a pizza tour.

Operated by Scott’s Pizza Tours (yes, there’s a company devoted solely to introducing people to the history and intricacies of New York pizza), the “Original Crosstown Pizza Walk” started in Little Italy, wound through the Bowery (passing the site of CBGB - sadly, now a menswear boutique - where the Talking Heads, Blondie, and other bands got their start), and finished in the Village.

Our group consisted of visitors from Vancouver, Texas, California, and elsewhere, and included some who live in the city. We had at least two young couples celebrating their anniversaries, one family with a toddler, and a few people closer to my own age.

Cedric, our guide, welcomed us warmly and offered a detailed history of the evolution of pizza in Naples, Italy, and in the United States.

Our tour began in front of Gatsby’s, a restaurant on the site of the original Lombardi’s, the first pizzeria in the U.S. Gennaro Lombardi and then his son, George, operated the pizzeria until 1984. Ten years later, Gennaro’s grandson and his childhood friend, John Brescio - who had grown up in the restaurant, throwing balls of pizza dough at the old man - reopened Lombardi’s down the street.

Gennaro III and Brescio wanted their pizza to duplicate the coal-fired original, but by the 80’s coal-fired ovens where hard to find. Knowing that builders sometimes covered the old ovens behind bricks, which could be easier than removing them, they went searching. They convinced a building owner to let them open a hole in the wall, and there it was - a monster of an oven, in pretty good shape except for a few needed repairs.

We got to see that oven, (right), which can hold as many as 26 pizzas at a time.

At each of our three stops we got to eat a slice. The one at Lombardi’s had a thin, crispy crust, circles of fresh mozzarella, a tangy tomato sauce (not cooked before it goes on the pizza), and a few pieces of fresh basil. Delicious!

We went back in time at our next stop, Gino Sorbillo’s, in Noho (which I learned meant north of Houston Street, as Soho means south of Houston). Sorbillo brought his pizza making operation directly from Naples, where pizza originated and where people wait in huge lines to taste his pies made with 00 flour and Marzano tomatoes.

When we visited, the ovens - wood-fired here - reached over 900 degrees, and it took only one minute and 13 seconds to cook the pizza. Sorbillo’s pizza had a slightly softer crust than the one at Lombardi’s, and more cheese (also fresh mozzarella):

Sorbillo’s pizza - most of the group chose this one as their favorite.

I was feeling pretty full after eating at Sorbillo’s, so it felt good to walk a while to our third and final stop on the tour, the famous Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village.

The crust at Joe’s was chewy, not crispy, but not too thick. They use low-moisture mozzarella, the kind you see on a typical pizza, and a sweet sauce. Of the three pizzerias we visited, Joe’s is the only one that adds sugar to their sauce.

I was so full I could only eat half of the huge slice from Joe’s, which we brought across the street to eat in the park, as Joe’s isn’t a sit-down restaurant.

Of our group, only one liked Lombardi’s best, the majority ranked Sorbillo’s at the top, and a few thought Joe’s topped the list (including Cedric, who loves the nostalgia it evokes).

Me? I was the outlier. I really loved the Lombardi slice, with its crispy crust, minimal cheese, and tangy sauce.

This was a fun tour. If you decide to join a Scott’s pizza tour, make sure you bring an empty stomach!