When Corey and I walked up to the front of Brick Oven Pizza, we were a little confused looking inside. There was one tiny table, blocking the entrance to the kitchen, that was set like a fancy restaurant, candles and all. Adjacent to the table was a totally wild, fully-marble counter with like, four or five stools pulled up to it and a guy dressed like I used to have to dress at the catering company I worked for if I was doing some kind of cooking in front of the guests. Like, totally wearing impeccably bleached and pressed chef garb, down to the goofy hat. Corey was all, "I don't know about this."
And I was like, "Yeah, it doesn't look like the kind of place that does slices."
And then this paint covered totally rugged looking dude who walking by was like, "naw, dey got slices."
So we went inside. Chef Boyardee didn't even look up from the dough he was kneading. We sat down in our stools, me and Corey did, and we looked back and forth at each other for a full minute before one of us sort of cleared our throat and was like, "Hey, um, do you serve slices here?" Chef Boyardee looked up and grunted but didn't really respond and immediately went back to his dough. Another guy walked in and sat down and didn't say anything. He seemed like he knew what he was doing, so it was comforting, like when you've been waiting at a bus stop late at night and someone else shows up to wait for the bus too.
Anyway, dude totally started making a pie and was like, deliberately refusing to make eye contact with me and Corey. It was so weird and I felt like I was in like, the movie After Hours, or something. It there was just something askew about the whole situation, it was not Normal Human Interaction. Anyway, after like, fifteen real minutes of awkwardly watching this guy make a pizza and throw it in the oven and talk in a language I didn't know with the electrician hanging out in there, he pulled out the most fancy looking pie, and cut a slice off, and handed it to me and Corey.
And FUCK, it was GOOD. Like, the kind of good pizza you only get in a really fancy restaurant or at like, those weird rest stop sort of places they have on whatever is the equivalent of State Highways in Italy. You know what I'm talking about? I don't care really.
Anyways, this pizza was phenomenal. It had the absolutely perfect amount of salt, which is crucial, the cheese was totally delicious and fresh and an amazing texture, the sauce was understated but tangy and sharp, the dough was an incredible texture and everything had that perfect, charred, brick oven flavor. And the best part of all? It was only $2.00.
Rating:
Brick Oven Pizza (annex of L'Allegria Restaurant) - $2.00
402 W 44th St. (at 9th)
New York, NY 10036
autogrilles...the rest stops in italy. AMAZING pizza.
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