Dan Perlman
Google
I’ve heard recommendations for this place “to really understand Argentine pizza”, almost always from locals, which is usually a bit of a warning flag. Not that they don’t have good taste, but there’s almost always this sort of heart-strings, nostalgia, it’s the place we went to every week when I was a kid and I remember it as the best. We all have those place from when we grew up. So we approached this one with a little trepidation. On arrival, we found a small pizzeria with cars, taxis, motorcycles, and trucks parked haphazardly on the street in front, and inside, jam packed with people, half of them spread out around the small counters lining the walls, rapidly gobbling down slices of pizza, fainá, and empanadas, and washing it down with glasses or bottles of seltzer water. The other half were lined up in a snaking queue to the cash register. We got in line, it moves fast – despite their being about twenty people in front of us, it took no more than about five minutes. You order, you pay, you get a slip of paper, the guy next to the cashier hands you your drink (almost everyone gets seltzer, with a smattering of sodas and beers), and then you move down the counter to pick up your food – hand over your ticket and tell them to go or to stay, and in seconds it’s in your hands. I have to admit, if there’s a place that could be the the poster boy for Argentine style pizza, this has got to be it. Thick crust, the merest blush of sauce seemingly just brushed on it, and gobs and gobs of cheese. We’ve seen it too many times.
But you know what, they do it right at La Mezzetta – the crust is smoky, charred, and has a good crunch, the cheese is gooey, and while it could use a little more browning, it’s tasty, and the sauce adds just an elusive hint of tomato to it all. An anchovy slice was quite good – the tomato sauce really shines when there’s enough of it, and it’s not masked under gobs of cheese. On the other hand, the fugazzeta rellena was an oily yawn. First, they do a double crust pizza and sandwich an extra layer of cheese between the two crusts – plus the usual quantity on top – it was just way too much dough and oily cheese. And, the onions weren’t caramelized, they were borderline raw, and fairly scarce at that – it was almost like they’d just scattered a small handful on top of the parbaked pie (they precook all their pizzas as plain cheese ones on prebaked dough, and then add toppings to order), and just warmed it up. The last, which they’re famed for, disappointing.
