South Brooklyn Slice, East Village Style
Quick, who makes New York City's best slice? Joe's on Carmine in Greenwich Village? DiFara in Midwood, Brooklyn, at $5 per slice? It's a tricky question. Everybody in New York City swears by their place, and well, most of them don't know what they're talking about. For being known as a great pizza city, the state of the slice isn't what it you'd think it is, especially today, when the city is in the grip of the Neapolitan craze and $.99-cardboard drunk food. Hell, you'd almost prefer to see D.C.'s jumbo slice take hold. But there is hope, and it's the form of South Brooklyn Pizza in the East Village.
A slice at South Brooklyn takes time (on average, about five to 10 minutes), but it's worth the wait, so much more than the cardboard being served at Artichoke nearby. At South Brooklyn, pizza is layered with sauce that's neither too sweet nor acidic, topped with layers of thin, ovoid mozzarella slices, and dotted with Fontina cubes.
The conventional gas oven gives the upskirt a slight char, and the pie is finished with a generous drizzle of olive oil, basil, and grated Pecorino. The thin crust cracks, but carries the cheese and sauce all the way up the slice, tangy bite after bite. And for these reasons this dish made my list of most memorable meals of 2011.