Pulino’s Pizzeria – NYC
PRO: Great pies, cool space, very good menu, solid service
CON: If ya still hate Nate, you SF-ers!
So, I like Pizza. Pretty much if you torture tabby kittens (F those Siamese) and still toss a great pie, I’m your friend. Hey has anyone tried that Tabby Kitten Pie at Little Star? Ooops. Just kidding, call off the attorneys.
(Cue the Run-On Sentence):
Anyhoo, Nate Appleman…LOL I so called him Nate AppleBAUM for years and years at all the parties and golf outings we met at…formerly of ‘Frisco-based (can we pleeez bring back Frisco) A-16 and SPQR. And I didn’t say ‘disgraced’ Nate Appleman as he did leave under ‘certain circumstances’ but what the hell do I know I’m only a lowly restaurant critic, and as long as Tiger just plays great golf, as long as Nate tosses a great pie, surfaced most recently at Pulino’s with Minetta Tavern owner…what’s his name again…WTF knows. Anyhoo, this isn’t a bio on restaurant owners (take that, Eater) or the state of golf, it’s about a brand spanking new Pizza Joint. OK? Wow. Just go back, and read that again. It’ll make way more sense the second time around. Maybe.
So I actually made a resie for here at 2p Saturday. A resie? Yeah, a resie, I was that gung ho about hitting this place, early on. And what an f’ing awesome day to skip through the lines of losers that did not have the foresight to plan ahead! I mean, it was 72 degrees and we were wearing shorts in March! Pulino’s was slammin’ 
when we checked in. Gotta tell ya, the front of the house had it handled. Very impressive and nice people (dude even complemented my cool Modern Amusement shorts, nice) checked us in, pointed us to the bar and let us know it’d be 10 minutes or so. So we saunter up, order a couple Rosés and scope the place. Nate was in ‘da house, making sure things were running as they should.
This is a cool spot, bitches. It’s a large, open space, with old brick walls, high ceilings….and these people have a real hard-on for booze. Lining most of the available walls there are rows of old school hard core booze bottles. Me thinks some of which will get shoplifted by hooligans, but oh well. Old school feel, original white and red tile floors, an open kitchen and those old wire-laced windows (so ya don’t break in) that open all the way up on the Bowery side. On the sunny day we were there, it rocked. The inside is Organized Randomness. Marble table there, wood plank table there, copper top table over there, a magazine rack by the front door. Very cool. OK, enough Architectural Digest, on to the food!
And guess what? We didn’t eat at the bar! We were promptly seated at a 2-top right by the open windows, and barked out our order for: More Wine! Ok, then, Burrata with a Beet, Celery, Leek and Parsley Salad ($10). In many ways I think Burrata is Burrata. Know what I mean? As long as it’s creamy and good it’s good. So it comes down to how you pair it, and Pulino’s did it right. The grilled beets were excellent. Yes ma’am, they grilled the beets which gave them a great taste and texture, and I’m really getting into the great fresh taste of celery. Hey quit laughing! Loved this dish. It made a typical (and good) Burrata a unique yumminess.
Moving on, we ordered a great brunch dish, the Fonduta ($12) with cream…how much cream?…the cream from many happy cows…that’s how much cream. And along with all that cream, ham, spinach, a couple eggs and crunchy toast. Served in a skillet. Shit, this was tasty and not at all what I planned on from a ‘pizzeria’.
Next, last and not least bien sur…the holiest of all holy’s (or holies, whatever it’s a rip off of Pulp Fiction), The Pizza Pie. We had…no not the Margherita you dimwit, the Salumi & Olive Pie ( $14). Now, I’m not 
a huge fan of olives on Pie. Just gets in my way and has a way of overpowering the other more subtle flavors but the other J demanded it. So it came, as all the dishes did, promptly, and right off the bat looked awesome. First off..the Key Ingredient Distribution was spot-on. Excellent spread of the sauce, cheese, salumi and olives. Sauce all the way to the edges, kittens. Bam! Second, the crust. Thin. Thin thin thin. Awesome crust, rolled or tossed, whatever. And burnt ‘just so’ on the bottom, crisp with a slight chewiness. I don’t like pure ‘cracker’ crust. Dumb Cracker. My fave crust needs a little teensy weensy bit of chewy to it. And this Did It. After that, the cheese was tight with a slight saltiness, the olives were a little charred (I liked them better alone, not on the ‘za) and the flavors melded like a Justin Timberlake and Timbaland music video.
So the ‘come back’ factor? We’d run back here in a flash! Better than John’s or Lombardi’s, a great menu and they bring it with the pies plus a great range of other dishes as well. Sorry you A16 and SPQR haters! Pulino’s is killing it and for all the right reasons. So open an NYC outpost or shut your (pizza) pie holes! Yes, Shelly we still love you:)
Hours:
Dunno
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