Lombardi’s Pizza – NYC
32 Spring St
New York , NY
(212) 941.7994
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VdV Rating: 4
Food: Pizza
Ambiance: Casual
PRO: America’s first pizza! Classic NY spot, great pies
CON: Popularity makes for long waits. Waahhhh!
So in addition to discovering the best of the best buffalo wings, we’re also on a mission to find the best pizza outside of Capri Italy, which would just so happen to be the pizza at Ristorante Aurora (OMG this stuff rocks the world. Their linguine with clam sauce is also the best on God’s green earth, The clams are teensy tiny and yummy). So hop a jet and get to Capri, slackers!
So anyway, we took to a very cool blog about pizza called Slice (this must be the fattest blogger in the world, I think he eats pizza breakfast lunch and dinner) and the reco of the hair stylist that styles next to John’s stylist Ashlee (OK, TMI) and found Lombardi’s Pizza. Touted as one of the first pizzerias in America we had to discover if a place that has been around for a century could fire up a pie since the Bay Area can’t really seem to. (Except of course you A16, Little Star, Golden Boy and Delfina). And, could they stand out in one of the ‘Za capitals of the world? A place where every fleabag slice joint churns out pizza that rivals most of the best places here in sunny ‘ol vegan-eatin’ SF?
We ventured out of our mid-town digs at the Chambers Hotel, got a cab and went downtown to the corner of Spring Street and Mott. Little Italy, bitches! Woo Hoo! Put me in the mood for a back-to-back-to-back Godfather marathon when we got back to Chambers. Well, maybe a back-to-back since G3 SUCKS ASS. I mean, that whole ‘Love you, cuz’ thing with Andy Garcia and Sophia Coppola getting it on? I think I just vomited in my mouth.
Oh well, cinematic liberties and ADD aside, the East Village is cool and having lived in NYC, I can’t believe I never got to this joint since it is pretty cheap and I was dirt poor. That said this place is cash-only! Cool. Love places like that…NOT! At least install an f’ing ATM Lombardi’s! Might help control the dine-n-dash, know what I mean?!
Anyhoo, we arrived in our stretch limo (kidding!) to a line outside and shoved past the riff raff (again, just kidding! We didn’t actually shove them;) and went in to see if we could…SURPRISE…belly up to the bar. Well, missy, sure ya can…but ya can’t order food there. So all we could get was vino as we waited for a table and tried not to steal some old codger’s pie.
We waited for an hour (that equated to about 4 glasses of bad wine at the bar) then got seated. The hostess took us back through the kitchen into another part of the restaurant. Seemed like a different building actually. Who cares, we’re here for the pizza, right?
At this point we’re ready to gnaw each other’s limbs off so we quickly order a house salad cuz it seems like somewhat of a wait for the pie. Salad was good, and gone in about 3 minutes. Details? F the details it’s SALAD. Jeez.
Onto the pizza. This pizza is special cuz it’s coal-oven pizza, few pizzerias do it this way. Maybe because coal kills. I dunno. But if it helps bake a killer ‘Za then screw the people down wind! We ordered a small pie which is about 14″. We got half mushroom and half plain (Margarita). And damn it was fantastic. Why, kittens? 1) we were Donner-party hungry 2) the crust is awesome. Thin but firm. You can hold it in one hand and it doesn’t buckle in two. But on the other hand, it doesn’t snap in two and disintegrate when you bite into it either. Nice! 3) The Mozzarella cheese was f-r-e-sh and in nice big blobs all over the ‘za. Mmmm. 4) They gave us a side of pizza sauce so we could dunk it! Yeah baby!
Contrary to Pazza Notte another pizza fave in midtown, this crust was crunchy but Pazza Notte is solid for those who like it limp (fyi, limp is good only for pizza)!
All in all, not sure it was worth over a stinkin’ hour wait but a great foodie experience. We hit it on a sunny Saturday afternoon so prolly off-peak it’s a faster serve. We give it a solid 8 outta 10.
VdV Rating: 4
Hours:
Sun-Thus 11:30a-11p
Fri-Sat 11:30a-12a
Lombardi’s Pizza
32 Spring Street (Mott)
New York, NY 10012
(212) 941.7994
