Thursday, January 20, 2011

Villaggio Pizzeria and Restaurant: "This one is pretty all over the place."


I really like the look and feel of Villagio. The kind of ramshackle, formerly fancy awning that is just filthy and tired from looking out onto Avenue C for however many years. I'd guess from the facade and the font on the top that the place has been here for a while, but I'm not an expert. And even if it opened in 1991, that's still 20 years ago! Sheesh. It kind of reminds me of the Jewish Bakery out by my grandparent's old house in Rosedale. Not that this place seems at all Jewish, just that it seems like it is a holdover from the era when even proletarian establishments seemed to want to cultivate at least an air of respectability and class. To stick with my analogy, it kind of reminds me of some of my grandmother's costume jewelry. It seems kind of gaudy and obviously fake to the real fancy-pantses (POP QUIZ HOT SHOT: what is Slice Harvester's stance on fancy-pantsing?), or maybe even to most other adults, but to children and other old people, it made her look kind of elegant. And even those who could tell that the pearls were fake still had a sense of the dignity and charisma, and knew that she SHOULD'VE been wearing real pearls.


This pizza was not so good. The dough was alright, but the cheese was so cheap and the sauce was disgusting. Matthew said it reminded him of Cici's pizza, a Southern all-you-can-eat pizza chain which Matt described as "the secret indulgence of forest activists and woodland crusties who've just been in the woods for three and a half months chaining themselves to stuff and living in tree sits eating dried beans and rice. And then they come out with The Hunger and secretly head to a Cici's and stuff themselves with pizza for three and a half hours. This place tastes like that.

"So I guess the only reason to eat here would be if you somehow found yourself caught up in a subway tunnel for a week and a half subsisting on garbage and somehow tunneled your way out onto Avenue C." Although Noah was quick to add that you'd probably have to tunnel directly ino Villaggio's basement because if you came out on the street "you'd have options," and you probably wouldn't choose this place.

But we all agreed that there was something comforting and pleasant about this slice.

Rating:


Villagio Pizzeria and Restaurant - $2.25
180 Ave C (11th & 12th)
New York, NY 10009

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