[Image: Hungry Channel on Youtube]
The Monday Eater New York Listage included a link to this YouTube video of NYC Citysearch scout Josh Ozersky touring "New York's Finest Pizza" for the "Hungry In" series. When our own Carey Jones asked "What is NYC's best pizza neighborhood?" back in July, most felt that it came down to East versus West Village. Kenji said he'd give West the edge stating, "Without Motorino, East Village would be no better than the average neighborhood in terms of pizza greatness concentration." Commentors like Pizzablogger, bdb318, and egadman concurred that the West Village has the Manhattan advantage. But Ozersky hands the title of "greatest pizza neighborhood on the planet" to the East Village. Check out his reasons for doing so in this video:
[Video: Hungry Channel on Youtube]
If you're skipping the video, here's the summary. He gives Stromboli the classic New York slice award for its "trademark orange color and homogenous taste" of the old time New York slice and for avoiding the old tip sag pitfall. Droop is ok, just as long as it isn't flaccid. (Got that, ladies?) We concur that it's a solid slice, which you can read about here. The East Village does have a much stronger crop to select from in this category, however.
Artichoke gets a big thumbs up for what he names as "the ultimate, extreme, final, Platonic version of the Sicilian slice" and what we know as their grandma slice. It has been a controversial slice shop, but we do include those crunchy bottomed square slices among the top ten in NYC.
As a "monument to pizza variety in New York," Ozersky includes "Michael White's love letter to Midwestern pie," that is Nicoletta, as another favorite. You may remember the harsh NYTimes review, but there is nothing but gushing here over this thick-crusted pizza. Some of our words on Nicoletta are here.
And last, but my no means least, is Motorino representing the Neapolitan tier of great New York piedom. We can't argue that Mathieu Palombino's pies are indeed "museum quality specimens." Read our early review of the East Village Motorino here.
About the author: Meredith Smith is the Slice editor. You can follow her on Twitter: @mertsmith.