New Roma Pizza + A Slice of People Watching

People from New York are very proud of their pizza, and while I recognize the beauty that is the quintessential newyawwkpizza (!!), I find myself occasionally craving a simple, fat slice with cheese that stretches as you pull it away with a monster bite (a la Ninja Turtles style).

And a spot that has the gooey cheese I lust for is New Roma Pizza, a narrow railroad strip of a pizza place at the corner of Essex Market.  The pizza is not a destination for foodies by any means, but it's basic, and sometimes basic is all I really need.

When you enter New Roma's, you select premade pizza (they offer a variety of specialties like barbequed chicken and basics), and they quickly pop it in the oven for a quick heat and serve it to you on a paper plate. The pizza is always perfectly hot when it comes out, and the cheese perfectly melted.

The slice is larger than my face, and my face is pretty big.  

New Roma's has a handful of wooden tables to eat at, but I much prefer to sit along the bar, a front-row seat to the Lower East Side with only a glass window separating you from the sidewalk on the other side.

This is the view you will get when you eat here:

You could be sitting right here!

And there's always something to see.  Always.  The first time I was here, a bum stood on the other side and yelled at me for 10 straight minutes.

This time, a family decided to park outside the front.  They had a plastic bag inside an otherwise empty stroller.  I watched a little girl run to the stroller, grab a square jelly doughnut (Diana, you know the one), and then I saw the mom pull a chocolate doughnut out for her little son.

  

She then held the unbelievable chocolate doughnut for her son to eat.

 

And then as I reached for my cell phone to take a picture for Diana

(because I know she would have totally appreciated this cute scene with

our beloved Doughnut Plant confections), this scene broke out:

 

The kid proceeded to puke his chocolate guts out.

I had no idea how so much chocolate could come out when

he had only taken one small bite!

Then the mom proceeded to stand there for a full minute as the

kid cried his eyes out with puke running down his entire shirt

and pants.

(Awkward.)

There are so many places to eat in the Lower East Side (as my previous posts can attest), but if you are just dying for a quick slice, New Roma's is not bad.  And you can get lucky and watch little kids puke!

New Roma Pizza

116 Delancey Street

New York, NY