Currently Good Pizza

I sent a friend a list of current pizza I like in (loosely) the Tristate area. In roughly north-to-south order, meandering between styles, and ignoring Staten Island, Long Island, and New Jersey. This was not written for public consumption, but the beauty of producing a sleepy little Slog is that I can hopefully share it on the down-low.

Pizza House
89 Howe Street
New Haven
203-865-3345
Very good Greek-style pizza (warning: I haven't been there in a couple years). Slices lunch-only. FYI the best Greek pizza I know is Bill’s Pizza in Portland, Maine.

Trackside Brick Oven Pizza
118 Dudley Ave
Wallingford, CT
203-697-1081
GREAT brick oven pizza in an old railroad car down in a gully, invisible from the main road, baked by Ecuadorian dudes who worked at Pepe's/Sally's during the glory days. I wrote about this over ten years ago, and haven't been back (just too far away for me). No idea if it's still good, but it was amazing then. Here's my report, with photos (scroll down past the gym comedy stuff)

Francesco's
600 Mamaroneck Ave
White Plains, NY
914-946-3359
The last great southern Italian American restaurant in the Tristate area, in a grimy tavern frozen in amber from like 1956. Chef-owner is OLD....hurry to try. His rigatoni with broccoli rabe and sausage (must ask for hot, not sweet), his garlic bread, and his garlic bread with cheese are so great that you could almost miss the fact that his thin-crusted bar pizzas (I prefer meatball) are sensational. Don't come for dinner...his assistant usually cooks. Lunches only. Sit at the bar. Enjoy Fox News.

Johnny's Pizza
30 West Lincoln Ave
Mt. Vernon, NY
914-668-1957
Whole pies only. Assholes. Great pizza.

Razza Pizza Artigianale
275 Grove St
Jersey City, NJ
201-356-9348
http://razzanj.com
Pretentious expensive place. Full menu, but only get two things: pizza (any pizza) and bread and butter (expensive and killer great). I haven't been there in a year, so no promises, but they had a Mexican dude manning the oven who cared so deeply that the place could burn down and he'd still be carefully monitoring the pies. He was clearly riding some unfathomable wave of divinity. IF he's still there, you'll have the best brick oven pizza I know in this country. Note that the PATH train's Grove St station is right nearby.

Best Pizza
33 Havemeyer Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-599-2210
Really inspired. Whole pies MUCH better than slices. Several times I've finished eating here and my entire party rose to their feet and applauded the kitchen. And they didn't seem surprised. Great as pizza is, the meatball parmigiano hero (made from SCRATCH) is even better, and unmissable.

Paulie Gee's
60 Greenpoint Avenue
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
347-987-3747
You probably know about them. Dude was an amateur pizza maker, won competitions, etc, finally opened this place. Crowded. Specializes in obscure salumeria toppings.

Joe's Pizza
7 Carmine Street (near Bleecker and 6th Avenue)
Manhattan
Been there forever, and somehow still great. This is the last remaining great 1979 suburban shopping mall style slice pizza.

Sal's Pizza
316 Mamaroneck Ave
Mamaroneck, NY
914-381-2022
Woops, I lied. This is also really good 1979 suburban shopping mall style slice pizza.

Sal and Carmines'
2671 Broadway (@101/102 St)
212-663-7651
Slice pizza. Not as great as years ago, but still a very interesting slice (from the "extra salty" school).