The Daily Balance

So I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed the Mister’s and I’s passion of za before, no? (Za is how the cool kids refer to pizza, in case you are out of the loop) You may remember that one of the many highlights from my Chicago trip (besides dinning with bloggies, of course), was enjoying za with the Mister at Giordanos. So those of you who have tried Giordanos, you know it is the best (ok, at least ONE of the best) pizza joint in Chicago. How could the Mister and I visit NYC without paying homage to their best za joint? We couldn’t.

However, as many of you may know, NYC is home of ‘the best’ everything. Remember that adorable scene in Elf where Buddy takes his little elf girlfriend to taste the “world’s best coffee?” Yes, in a city where everything claims to be the BEST, it can get a bit confusing for those who really want to try the BEST! Enter — RESEARCH. I wasn’t about to pin all my za hopes and dreams on a restaurant’s claim! No sireee! I evaluated several ‘best of’ lists and cross referenced them all. I chose three pizza joints that appeared somewhere in the top 10 of every single list I looked at (in some cases, top 5) Pretty thorough, no?

In our quest to find the perfect slice, we decided to keep it simple and order cheese at each spot. We figured that this would also prevent a spot from reigning supreme just because they had better toppings.

Our first place on the list was Patsy’s.

Of all the places we visited, Patsy’s was the only spot with multiple locations, which takes away a bit of the ‘mom and pop’ nostalgia, but also offers convenience.

Patsy’s was a quaint little place tucked away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.

Patsy's Pizza

Crust – Chewy, with still being crisp on the bottom — very good. My one complaint is that some of the crust was a bit burnt.

Sauce – Nice and flavorful with a sweet undertone. Mouth-watering.

Cheese – I liked the restaurant’s use of fresh mozzarella, but for me, there just wasn’t enough cheese!

Patsy's pizza pie

For the remainder of a za-hop, we ‘hopped’ on the subway and took the 30 minute ride to Brooklyn.

Di Fara Pizza

As soon as we approached Di Fara’s, we knew we were in the right place. The line was at least 13 people out the door and the space was jam-packed with patrons waiting for their pie. After waiting about and hour (the Mister was EXTREMELY impatient and irritated at this point), we finally placed our order. Now THIS was a true mom and pop shop. Domenico DeMarco himself is the only person who makes the pizza. No exceptions. And when they say FRESH, they mean it. There wasn’t one tub of mushrooms, pepperoni or vegetables. Let me explain. You order a cheese pizza. One of the Di Fara boys takes your order down on a piece of notebook paper and heads to the fridge for a hunk of dough. Mr. DeMarco then takes his time kneading the dough and preparing it into a pie. He then drizzles extra virgin olive oil (flown in from Italy, along with all the other ingredients) on the dough and tops it with fresh tomato sauce. Then after adding chunks of fresh mozzarella and GRATING the cheese (yes, he grates the cheese for each individual pizza), he drizzles with a bit more olive oil and pops the entire pie into the oven. Now — get this…there is no set time that the pizza is finished. Sometimes someone who ordered their pie after you will get theirs first. Why? Mr. Di Fara keeps the pie in the oven until it is JUST right.

He then takes his cooking shears and cuts fresh basil on top. HEAVEN.

Crust – This. was.

Sauce – the. best.

Cheese – pizza. ever.

Any words would not do this pizza justice, so I’m not even going to try. If you are in NYC, you MUST go to Di Fara.

Di Fara pizza slice

Unfortunately, we were unable to enjoy and entire pie for ourselves ;(

Di Fara also sells pizza by the slice and since we spent so much time waiting, we wanted to make sure that we made it to our third stop on the tour (it was almost 9:00 at this point and the next place closed at 10:00). So when pizza slices became available for purchase, we jumped at the chance and let someone else have the pie we were waiting for (cuz we’re nice people like that ).

Luckily, we made it to Lucali’s with enough time to order a pizza — even though they couldn’t seat us inside. It was OK though, we benched it and enjoyed our last pizza on the tour.

Lucali's pizza pie

Crust – Very similar to Patsy’s, but I preferred this crust. It’s difficult to achieve the perfect chew – to – crisp ratio and Lucali’s was right on!

Sauce – CLOSE second to Di Fara. This sauce was amazing. It was the sweetest of all the sauces — mouth-watering!

Cheese – I think this was the cheesiest pizza of the lot. SO good.

The only reason why this spot was beat by Di Fara’s was because of the fresh seasonings Di Fara added to the pizza. I think that, and the fresh ingredients were what put Di Fara over the top.

So the final order:

1.) Di Fara

2.) Lucali’s (The Mister would want you to know that this pizza was his #1)

3.) Patsy’s

I won’t lie. This wasn’t the only pizza we ate on this trip. They are just the only ones worth mentioning….

What’s the name of your favorite pizza joint? Do you go for the simple cheese, or do you like lots of toppings?

Tags: restaurant review, the mister, travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Try It. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.