NYC Restaurants Are Pivoting to Pizza During the Pandemic

"The opening of this new Coco Pazzo spinoff brings to mind the movie genre where the old gang gets back together and, in the spirit of enjoying one last hurrah, decides to rob a bank. Some 30 years ago, Pazzo’s Pino Luongo hired Ciro Verde to work the pizza oven at his pioneering Chelsea trattoria, Le Madri. Post Le Madri, both went on to open their own restaurants and then fell out of touch. After Verde closed his Brooklyn pizzeria last year because of the pandemic, he reunited with Luongo (along with Coco Pazzo partner Alessandro Bandini), and the result is impressive. Verde’s thin-crust pies are light and crisp and fall somewhere on the pizza-style spectrum between the Roman and the Neapolitan. Great new topping combos like the ’nduja-spiked Comma Pica (“How spicy!” in Neapolitan dialect) and the Burrata pie abound. Best of all is the return of Verde’s focaccia robiola, the superb cheese-stuffed flatbread invented at Le Madri and inspired by that New York City superfood—the bagel and schmear."