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NYC Slice

elkue.com

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Re: NYC Slice

#511
post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, Joe's is just a random place. If you're near there don't even bother with cheesesteaks. There's so many great places to eat along that corridor, whether you want a sandwich (like at Costinello's or Liberty Kitchen), Falafel at Goldie's, something fancier/more substantial at Elwood, Suraya, Middle Child, Cheu, etc. Or just want to eat at a bar, there's JB's, Kraftwerk and more, with great new places popping…

so many great places in this post. i'd also add angelo's. that's been my favorite steak since moving to the city (but also want to try d'alessandros, have heard good things)

Everyone has an opinion and mine is to walk across the street from Dalessandro's and go to Chubby's instead :)

I'm just not a fan of how finely they chop the meat at Dalassandro's.

Re: NYC Slice

#512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention they have typically been making the regional food for centuries, if not millennia. The selection can be more limited in the EU, but the quality is incredible, and at a very low price point compared to US. You can get cheese and wine made in the US ~ as good as French, but it’s 5x as expensive.

I don’t know about the cheese but I disagree with you about the wine. For example Californian wine is excellent, and you get a much higher quality for the money than with French wine for anything below $150. French wine is in much higher demand so all the lowest quality is sold too, instead of being made vinegar or discarded, becoming the entry level. French wine is subjected to strict rules that don’t allow them cor…

You need to sample the price/quality in France, not on goods exported elsewhere - that’s the key point of this observation. French products are often expensive abroad, but dirt-cheap locally.

The top-quartile 5-10 EUR bottle of wine at the hypermarche is way better than anything in the <$20 price range made in the US. A $15 lump of cheese would be a few EUR in France at quality-parity.

Re: NYC Slice

#513
Native from Ozone Park, still living here. I'm excited but not surprised to see Ozone Pizza AND New Park on that list. This neighborhood along with Howard Beach to the south was mostly Italian immigrants and their descendants so good Italian food was/is a staple. Of course it was full of mobsters and is the Goodfellas neighborhood; parts were even filmed around here for authenticity, check out Nier's Tavern. Into the late 90's and early 00's you could still walk into a local joint like Ozone or Romeo's and sometimes in the corner would be a table of well dressed older gentlemen speaking Italian. And no one sat near them because you knew not to.

New Park is a local landmark and its been around for decades, my father ate there as a kid. They have this unique old school slice with lightly sweet sauce and the bottom is salted giving a wonderful balance of flavor to the ingredients. They don't make frilly slices so no buffalo or vegetable slices, just standard toppings. It's big with JFK workers and cops so the place is busy and volume is high and they tend to under-cook the pizzas so ask for it well done. And even if its under cooked and slightly doughy its still damn good.

Ozone Pizza is not only good but cheap. I can order a pie, usually half mushroom/eggplant and half pepperoni, with an order of garlic twists that comes with this amazing marinara sauce for $23 and change. Delivered. Domino's cant compete in price or quality. They also have a really good buffalo slice based on a white slice. Before I stopped eating a little too rich I used to walk over and grab a buffalo slice and a beef patty with cheese n pepperoni (another NYC staple not many know of - take a fresh Jamaican beef patty, slice it open, cover with mozzarella and top with pepperoni then bake. see also beef patty on a roll with cheese - perfect drunk food)

Not on the list but I'm also a fan of Dani's House of Pizza in Kew Gardens. I love their signature pesto slice which is usually sold out. A few times my brother and I would get sick of waiting for a pesto slice so we'd order ahead and pick up a full pesto pie. Their regular slice is very good with a sweet sauce. During the summer I sometimes walk or cycle up to forest park, walk around until I'm hungry then go to Dani's for a pesto and regular slice. I usually sit on a bench at the LIRR station around the corner and dig in.

Re: NYC Slice

#514

> but the overall quality of your average slice in the city has definitely suffered This is true of the big national chains, too. They've kept prices relatively stable for damn near 25 years, at this point, but quality has gotten far worse over that same time span. That mouth-watering Pizza Hut pie you remember from 1992 isn't all nostalgia—every now and then I find single-location or small-chain joints that make piz…

> That mouth-watering Pizza Hut pie you remember from 1992 isn't all nostalgia—every now and then I find single-location or small-chain joints that make pizza very similar to how I remember those tasting.

100% their pizza has changed from the 90's. There is a single location in Gettysburg that I ate at twice and LOVE it - Tommys Pizza on Steinwehr Ave. They even have the textured red plastic soda "glasses" that Pizza Hut used. Solid old school Pizza Hut.

Re: NYC Slice

#515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like out-of-towners asking which cheese steak shop in Philly is the best. The best is whichever corner shop is closest to you. If you're local and eat cheese steaks often, you don't drive all the way across the city to get such a lunch. You walk one or two blocks whichever shop you're near. But visitors want to experience the best, not experience it as a local would.

Random cheesesteaks in Philly are far better than random cheesesteaks in any other city, but I would never recommend a tourist to go to a random spot over one of the highly rated places. You'll just feel it was good but over hyped. It's a waste of time for someone who is there temporarily and doesn't live in the city. If you go to a place like Joe's you'll understand why the food became famous in the first place and…

To be honest I've never found cheesesteaks to be exceptional, the best of them are just pretty good, cheap, convenient and satisfying. I tell people that if they want a really good sandwich in Philly, they should go to DiNic's for one of his pulled or roast pork sandwiches. It's in Reading Terminal Market, which is a pretty nice place to take visitors anyway.

Re: NYC Slice

#516
post #109
post #90

Native New Yorker here. Out of towners are obsessed with the BEST slice, but the true measure of NYC's 45 degree greatness is the decent quality following a Poisson distribution. My tip: just travel to any random spot in the five boroughs. First; you will be impressed how close you are to a pizza spot wherever you are. Second: you will be impressed with the slice, and with the variety of people who are good at making…

Out-of-towners are obsessed with the BEST, most obscure everything. It's one of the things I liked least about living in the city. Everything always felt like a competition about who knew the coolest places. It's comical that someone would travel more than a few minutes within NYC just to try a slice of pizza. Like if it's a nice neapolitan pie, sure. But just for a standard NYC-style slice? That's a waste of time. A…

Frankly because in many (not all) places (and especially true the further back you go) -- there's very few good ... anything. When I first moved to Austin TX in 99 I remember being really puzzled by how bad all the food was. Like nearly everything was mediocre. Very slowly better places popped up and everyone talked about them. The one exception was BBQ, and to that end yes -- the "best" was Franklins but frankly it was nearly all very good.

But overtime, other good stuff started to pop up, and eventually there were enough good places that "the best" became less interesting. Still, Austin is far away from NYC, and of the few times I visited Europe (Italy specifically) nearly everywhere in the US is a bit behind. IMHO that's largely b/c of how new everything is. Overtime as areas become more established, things get passed down and around, the quality of everything goes up. And in some places, there's so much good stuff that yeah it makes no sense to talk about best anymore. But for many places the difference between the best and the rest is the decision point of "is it worth going at all?".

Re: NYC Slice

#517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% agree, and I've only visited NYC a couple times. Each time I visit, I try to eat at least one slice of pizza and one bagel every day. The thing that blows me away is how generally good they are, no matter where I buy them. Of course I'll look at reviews, but I won't walk more than 5 blocks to get a slice. Never been disappointed. Same thing visiting Paris - you can hunt for the BEST croissant, but the remarkab…

While we’re on the topic, any recommended pizza places in SF?

Doppio Zero on Hayes by Davis Symphony was quite good, although a bit fancier. Amici's East Coast Pizzeria on Lombard in Marina was also very tasty. Also, it's not as fun, but Mountain Mikes is also great, inexpensive pizza, like in your Papa Johns range but better overall.

Re: NYC Slice

#518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not hunting for the "best slice" because they want the best slice -- they just want a story to tell. Most people can't tell the difference between good and ok food.

Everyone has an opinion about good food and ok food. None of them are wrong.

Exactly my point: how can there be a "best" slice?

Re: NYC Slice

#519
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% agree, and I've only visited NYC a couple times. Each time I visit, I try to eat at least one slice of pizza and one bagel every day. The thing that blows me away is how generally good they are, no matter where I buy them. Of course I'll look at reviews, but I won't walk more than 5 blocks to get a slice. Never been disappointed. Same thing visiting Paris - you can hunt for the BEST croissant, but the remarkab…

One thing I've heard said about French food generally in the past is that there's an entire supply chain in France around French food in particular so you really tend not to get bad French staples at very many places--even if it's a random touristy place. You can rinse and repeat in many places for various items. For example, when I was last in Germany, you'd get good sandwiches with good bread at any random train st…

Last time I was in Germany, they had a lot of food just sitting out in the open with flies regularly hanging out on it

It looked tasty except for the flies, but I don't think I'm ever going to trust something in Europe that wasn't covered up before it was handed to me

Re: NYC Slice

#520
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've heard said about French food generally in the past is that there's an entire supply chain in France around French food in particular so you really tend not to get bad French staples at very many places--even if it's a random touristy place. You can rinse and repeat in many places for various items. For example, when I was last in Germany, you'd get good sandwiches with good bread at any random train st…

Last time I was in Germany, they had a lot of food just sitting out in the open with flies regularly hanging out on it It looked tasty except for the flies, but I don't think I'm ever going to trust something in Europe that wasn't covered up before it was handed to me

That's what your immune system is for. Unless you're unusual, you'll be fine.
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