Glenn G.
Yelp
A while back, I made some "pizza for dinner" plans in NYC with my Pasta-Crazed Compadre. We talked about the kind of pizza restaurant we wanted to dine at right before we both boarded our respective flights for the Big Apple. The challenge my Compadre posed for me was to find us a decidedly upscale venue with top-shelf pies. I did some Yelp searching on the in-bound flight, and I settled on B-Side Pizza because it had over 1400 hundred Yelp reviews with a 4.5 average, it was within walking distance from my Times Square hotel, and (most importantly) it had what sounded like some seriously legit pies. Game on!
B-Side is decidedly different from my usual NYC pizza haunts. It's fairly upscale as pizza joints go; no back-alley entrance, no greasy counters to lean against, no knife fights in the back... The pizzas here are not served by the slice; they're Neapolitan rather than strictly NY-style. Baked in a Coal-fired pizza oven, their pies all have unique names to suggest the toppings used.
My Pastra-crazed Compadre and I walked in to B-Side at around 10:30pm. It was just as well that our visit was spontaneous, as they don't take reservations. Despite the late hour on a Thursday night, the place was damn-near full! The host/waiter who greeted us offered us a choice of either two seats at the bar or a pair of seats at a window counter; we opted for the former so we could watch (and smell!) the pizzas being made.
My Campadre and I had both just flown in from the West Coast (me from SoCal and her from SF) and we were both hungry enough to join the Donner Party. We decided to start things off with two pies to share, and an order of Brocollini to illustrate exactly how civilized we are ;-)
Despite how crowded the venue was, service was excellent and totally on-point. My Pastra-crazed Compadre got a spot-on cocktail recommendation, and I got a couple of recommendations (with tastes of each included) for some of the local draft beer.
The first thing to arrive was the Brocollini; while it was acceptable (given how famished we were) it was rubbery, undercooked, and quite unappetizing. We both struggled to eat a few bites, then gave up and asked our served to take it away. When we told him what we thought of the dish, he removed it from our bill with no questions asked.
Our two pies arrived at the same time. Here's what we got:
- Spicoli ($21) - tomato, mozzarella, roasted mushrooms, carmalized onions, Parmesan
Apparently named for Sean Penn's surfer-Dude character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, this pie was pretty darn good. The dough was perfectly cooked and flavorful,with just the right amount of char, and the toppings were all obviously premium and very generously applied. I could easily have devoured one of these all by myself, but then I tried a slice from the Killer Bee...
- Killer Bee ($24) - tomato, mozzarella, sopressata, garlic purée, chili oil, and honey (infused)
This amazing pie was obviously named for the principle creators of the most distinctive ingredient used herein - the honey. Like the Spicoli, the dough is totally legit and perfectly cooked, but then they take it up a notch. The combination of the sopressata and the honey that's infused into the cheese and sauce create a unique flavor profile that I've never run across before. While I'm no stranger to dipping my pizza crusts into honey, the notion of infusing honey into the toppings is simply brilliant!
Between the two of us, we completely demolished our Killer Bee and about half of the Spicoli. Not that there was anything wrong with the latter, it's just that the former was so damn GOOD!
When next I return to NYC, I'll make a point to visit B-Side again to enjoy another Killer Bee, and I look forward to checking out one or two of their other pies too. I'll visit Prince Street pizza again as well; while both venues are exceptional examples of what they each do best, there's unquestionably room in my life for both ends of this particular spectrum :-)