New York Part 4 - PIZZA

Sorry for such a delay in between post, but it has been a hectic couple of weeks. I will get into that in just a little bit but first I would like to wrap up the Big Apple. The last thing I want to talk about regarding New York is probably my favorite of them all, PIZZA. New York may be famous for glitz, glamaour, fashion, never sleeping, the Yankees, high-end everything, and cheesecake(as previously discussed), but for me pizza is number one. Now before my friends in Chicago get their feelings hurt, I do enjoy a good deep dish but the larger than life slices and thinner crust makes me all "antsy in my pantsy". Now I had a few different slices while I was in the city but I am only going to talk about my favorite one, Lombardi's.

As you can see some pretty famous people endorse this place, and as soon as I walked up to this corner restaurant I knew why. As with most restaurants in the city they are not the easiest to find, but with Lomabrdi's, as soon as you get within a couple blocks, you begin to see the gatherings of people waiting to catch a seat in this small pizzeria. If there is one thing I am sure of a line is a good sign that good food is in your future. After being told that the wait wasn't going to be too long, the small L-shaped bar had a few spots open to grab a drink from their nice selection of Italian and a few local brews. The bartender was quick to fill up our glass and the restaurant just had a great buzz about it. The history that you could see in every inch of the place also gave it some nice character. After about 20 minutes, enough time to drink a few Peronis, our table was ready. While being led to our seats in the small upstairs room, we passed through the kitchen, where all the magic happens. With the smell of fresh dough and that amazing fire from the coal burning oven, I knew lunch was going to be GOOD.

As is with most meals for myself, the hardest part about dining, especially in great restaurants, is picking what to eat. After a little debate we decided a couple of things. For the first course, traditional was the key, bruschetta and caesar salad. Not usually a big salad guy this caesar was quite good with fresh romaine, big shaves of parmesan, and  a very tasty dressing. With just a few cracks of fresh black pepper, the salad got the appetite going. The bruschetta was great. The bread was fired in that great coal oven and the nice char with the fresh tomato, basil, and olive oil was nicely done. Then it was time for the star of the show. Deciding on the toppings was where most of the debate occurred, but in the end we figured it was best to get most of them. Now, I am usually a fan of simple pizza but when you have a selection of all those fresh meats, it's hard not to want to try them all. The masterpiece was an impressive combination of pancetta, pepperoni, sweet italian sausage, homemade meatballs, and  fire roasted red peppers. After the first bite I knew what all the fuss was about. All the meats were fresh and probably some of the best I have ever had. The meatballs especially were loaded with flavor and delicious. Even with all those meats you could taste each one individually which goes to show the quality of each. The star though, which really set this pizza apart, was the roasted peppers. They are roasted daily and the flavor from these guys were unlike any roasted pepper you could find.

I can honestly say that this the best pizza I have ever had. Lombardi's is considered to be the first pizzeria in America, and it is good to see they haven't lost their touch over the last 100 years.