More Pizza Blogging....it's the Pizza Tour!

If you love pizza as much as I do you want to try all the different types and styles. One day last winter we went on the Pizza Tour and I have to say it was pretty great. I had low expectations because it was run by a very enthusiastic hipster named Scott Wiener but I to have to admit he knew his pizza. Even if he was a wiener.

We started at Lombardi's which was were pizza was invented. The first pizza shop to be licensed as such they are the shop from which all other pizza stores sprung. Which is appropriate as they are on Spring Street. They had a coal burning brick oven and we got to go to the back and see the oven in operation. The slice was made with California Tomatoes, Cows milk mozzarella and was very tasty if slightly undercooked for my taste. Your basic Margarita pizza. A superior slice and well worth the visit if you are interested in the history of pizza.

Then we went to Luzzo's on First Avenue which had a wood burning oven. This Neapolitan slice was much sweeter as they used Buffalo Milk mozzarella and tomatoes from San Marinzano in Italy. The slice tasted much sweeter and lighter and is highly recommended in my book.

Next we jumped on the bus to Brooklyn which is pretty funny because I thought we were going to the Bronx. I don't get to the Bronx all that often so I was looking forward to some new joints but they changed the tour at the last minute.

So where do we go but to J&V Pizza which is just like a million other pizza joints in the city. The funny thing is that it is right across the street from the OTB where the wife used to work and the owners used to come in all the time and bet their asses off and lose the weeks take. They served a Grand Ma square slice that was very crunchy and not up to the rest of the slices. They had other slices that were better but the one they picked was not up to par.

But the joker in the deck, the O Henry ending is the last stop. Sam's in Carroll Gardens. Three blocks from the store. I go on a tour to see history and they bring me back to my house. You see I grew up with Louie who owns the joint since we were pissing our diapers on Tompkins Place where we both born. I haven't been in there in about twenty five years. Now I know I had a beef with him but I forget what it was. It was either the time his cat sat on my veal cutlet parmigiana or the time he was screaming at his 90 year old waiter and my buddy's wife got all upset. I don't remember which. So I haven't gone in there in years. Actually about seventeen years. So we pull up in the bus and we all get off and we walk in the joint. Louie looks at me and goes "You live in the neighborhood forty freaking years and you have to take a bus here?" Hey waddayagonnado?

Oh the tour guide was shitting his pants. Louie and I growled at each other a while but it was no big deal. We have been friends for over fifty years after all. I honestly don't go down that part of Court St anymore so I really just forgot about it. I promised I would be back soon. Things got back to normal and we caught up on the news of all the old timers we used to know. Who was dead. Who was in jail. Whatever. Old times.

We could have just gone home but we rode the bus back with our friends to have dessert in Little Italy. It was a fun day. I highly recommend the tour if you are in NYC and want a slice of life.  A pizza slice. The kid who runs it is cool. You will have fun.