Wednesday, September 29, 2010

J's Pizza: "Oh, whatever."


J's Pizza is pretty nice on the inside. It seemed really shoddy and thrown together in a totally charming way, and I really liked the feeling of being there and the aesthetic. There were two burly, brusque men chatting in a language that neither Tonie or I could recognize.
"You think it's Bulgarian?" she asked.
"Maybe Albanian," I replied. And started to tell her about the trend in Albanian run pizzerias, although it turns out we had discussed that a few days prior when Tonie was interviewing me about New York eating habits for her ethnography class. Anyway, we looked around and there were a number of Albanian flags and shit hanging around the place. The influx of Albanian pizzeria proprietors to New York City during the Kosovo War is a subject that was first introduced to me by my friend, Book Thug Aaron Cometbus. I've since researched it a little bit and it's worth noting that the Famous Famiglia chain, for instance, which I think might be the biggest national pizzeria chain from New York, is owned by four Albanian brothers. But the story of Albanian pizzerias is to be told another day, because I have things to do and I have to get


I forgot to photograph this slice, although right before we threw the remainder of it in the garbage, Tonie reminded me that there was no picture. This slice was really smooth. Like, the bottom was especially slick and smooth, the way the cheese melted and stretched in my mouth felt very smooth. This slice was really salty, though, and it kind of sucked because of that. Tonie said, "when you first have it in your mouth it's good, but as soon as you chew it all you taste is salt." I'm not sure what is responsible for that phenomenon, because the crust was not salty at all, in fact, it wasn't salty enough. So that means that either the sauce or the cheese is responsible for the unpleasantly salty flavor. We nearly finished it, but this slice was practically inedible. It's a bummer because I liked this place.

Rating:


J's Pizza - $2.25
98 7th Ave (at 16th)
New York, NY 10011

1 comment:

  1. You must have gotten a bad, or old, slice, because this pizza place is usually really good (not wood-fired good, slice joint good). That's the problem with trying a place once; especially if you're just going for a pre-made slice, it can be vastly different from one hour to the next. Also, I think they are from Montenegro, not Albania.

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