Prince St Pizza & Nicoletta

I love the vodka pizza from Rubirosa, but everyone else seems to love it too since there's always a 1-2 hour wait.  Why are waits like this okay, New York?!

But thank goodness for good ol' impatience which drove us to try something new in the same neighborhood - Prince St. Pizza.

The pizza parlor is about the size of a closet, based out of the famed, original-Original Ray's pizza, and maybe that's an indicator of why the pizza is just that more special.

The setup is simple.  Just trays of pizza on a couple of shelves.  Point at what you want.  There's more stuff scribbled on the chalkboard on the wall, but it's hard to read and all you really want (and everyone is eating in there) is the famed Soho square.

The Soho square comes in a few varieties - the signature Soho square with secret-recipe tomato sauce, 

and spicy pepperoni with fra diavolo sauce.  

They come on this thick square that looks so heavy at first glance, but is absolutely light to the touch.  The bottom just pure, crunchy perfection, fried while baking in the signature black iron pans. I wish I had a picture of the bottom, but both my hands couldn't let go of my slice until I finished stuffing the entire thing into my face.

The slogan is "No other square can compare," and it's absolutely true.  This is without a doubt my favorite square slice in Manhattan. 

After, we walked to East Village to try one of Mr. FoodandPants' favorite ice cream spots - Nicoletta.

While Nicoletta primarily serves pizza, the gelato has definitely given the restaurant more renown.

There's a handful of favorite combination options, though the dozen or so available toppings are free for you to mix-and-match on your own, as well.

The boy's concoction featured pistachio brittle, salted caramel and the richest, little chunks of brownies.

My peanut butter cup was full of crunchy chocolate chunks, hot fudge and peanut butter crumble that melted on the tongue into peanut perfection.

The gelato (fior di latte) is milkier and lighter than most places, which allows you to go that much more hogwild with your toppings.  The best thing about the sundaes here (besides everything) is that they really know how to construct it - making sure they put toppings on the bottom of the cup in addition to the top to ensure you get just enough deliciousness into every bite.  Now that's attention to detail!

Han's Nonsensical Rating:  All I can think about with Prince St. is the Seinfeld episode where Elaine says she hasn't a square to spare, and I don't either, because I just want to eat all the Soho squares at Prince St. Pizza and not leave you any.  It's too good, it's too crispy, the pepperonis have awesome burnt edges, and I need more !  And Nicoletta's sundaes are a good dessert spot if you want to eavesdrop on so many dates (and eat tasty ice cream).

Prince St. Pizza
27 Prince St, New York, NY


Nicoletta
160 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

District of Pi

Last weekend I visited Dan, who recently moved to DC to start a new gig. You know what that means! There will definitely be DC eats to explore and report. His apartment is - as fate would have it - a few blocks from District of Pi. Why fate? Because that means we get to eat pizza from our favorite St. Louis joint Pi all the time now! 

It is just as delicious as we remembered. The space is super trendy (hello, exposed brick) and HUGE. Check plus.

We started with the house salad. Light, good ratio of fixin's… there could have been a tad more dressing throughout, but maybe they wanted to make sure we saved our caloric intake for the pizza to come.

And then. The "western addition." Our go-to Pi masterpiece: mozzarella, spinach blended with ricotta and feta, mushrooms, onions, and garlic.

We love the deep-dish cornmeal crust. We love the heaping amount of ingredients - the fresh tomatoes… and the GARLIC. If you have a relationship with garlic, this is the pizza to get. No question.

Then it was time for dessert -- the apple pi.

Basically, it's apple pie made with their famous cornmeal crust, and served with salted caramel ice cream. The crumble on top was just the right kind of buttery and cinnamon-y. It was a great way to end our meal. My two minor complaints about it are a) it could have been served warmer (I prefer Hot to Kinda-warm), and b) the very bottom of the crust was impossible to cut through. If they manage to make those two changes, I'd be having the apple pi every day of the week!

So excited to visit DC more now and check out some mouth-watering spots.

Stay tuned!

District of Pi

910 F St NW

Washington, DC 20004

202.393.5484

Thin is in ! Rubirosa and a corn cup from Fonda

(I wish I could do you better justice than these shitty-pix, Rubirosa, but you'll just have to forgive me.)

Rubirosa has become one of my back-pocket staples when it comes to figuring out a restaurant to take a visitor to experience a form of New York pizza, and Italian food, all in one.

The special bruschetta comes one to an order, perfect for Thanan, who prefers not to share anything, especially good-looking bruschetta topped with brussel sprouts, sweet onions and gooey cheese that I watched him pull from the toasted bread like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  "It's good!" he said, stating the complete obvious.  (That cheese string just has to be good.)

Pizza is served with a clover of pretty toppings - red pepper, Italian seasoning and finely grated Parmesan.

Thin pizza makes Jamie look especially Asian - it's a direct correlation !

Pizza at Rubirosa is amazingly thin - a paper crisp crust topped with a myriad of options.  The sausage and broccoli rabe was topped generously with  thinly sliced sweet sausage and tender broccoli.

Though the broccoli rabe pizza is fine, the delectable vodka pizza is definitely the main star here.  The velvety tomato and cream sauce is absolutely titillating on the tongue - slightly tart, a little bit sweet and a lotta bit tasty.

Later visits included orders of pasta which was pretty much drenched in vodka sauce and thus perfect in every way.

Another thing that turned out perfect was their slice of New York cheesecake.  Light and creamy, finishing it was fairly effortless (since it was Thanan's dessert, and he ate it all - haha). 

I love going to Rubirosa.  The service is always solid, the food delicious, and they take reservations ! Who can't get down with that?

After, we celebrated Anne's coming of age at the nearby Tacombi.  She's glad you could be here to celebrate it too !

I can't speak much for Tacombi's tacos and such, but their corn cup is on point.  The combination of chili, mayo and cheese add up to a brilliant cup of spicy, creamy fun! 

Han's Nonsensical Rating: Any way you slice it, Rubirosa is a tasty pizzeria with an addictive vodka sauce.  Definite recommend !

Rubirosa
235 Mulberry
New York, NY

Tacombi
267 Elizabeth
New York, NY

Italian Comfort Food @ Balena

Balena in Lincoln Park is one of my new favorite spots in Chicago. Serving up classy italian comfort food, the space has the warmth of those beautiful weddings-in-a-barn. Not pretentious at all, but definitely rustic-trendy. 

Just look at how inviting this place is:

Why yes, I will sit and eat for hours, thank you.

The wine list goes on for miles, and the cocktails offered are super interesting. I went for the Strawberry No. 1: with dimmi, grey goose, fragoli, la marca prosecco, and wild strawberry.

My kind of drink: sweet, refreshing, and smooth. The little blobs you see? Mini strawberries that have been soaked in fragoli. Sooo delicious. I could eat a vat of these little strawberries.

We started with the mushroom bruschetta with marsala onions and cream.

I loved the thickness of the bread, and the creamy goodness of the mushroom topping. Want. More.

I ordered a pasta for my entree, which the waitress had warned me would not be very big... but to me, it was just the right amount.

Orecchiette with kale, lemon, bread crumbs, and chili. Loved the al-dente, the tartness, and the crunchy bread crumb+kale combo. I finished the whole plate (which, as I said, was the perfect size).

Dan ordered the spicy pepperoni pizza with mozzarella and tomato.

It was huge! And soooo tasty. It was definitely spicier than we had both guessed, but in fantastic way, and the tomato sauce was super fresh. The dough had good texture, and the crust was just dense enough (not too chewy!).

Balena, we will definitely be back!

Balena

1633 N. Halsted St.

Chicago, IL 60614

312.867.3888

Square Slices and A Round Pie at Di Fara's

En route to Coney Island this summer, we paid a visit to our dear friend Di Fara for a very long-awaited pizza meal !

Heather and Harry !

The wait was not terrible, perhaps 15 or so minutes for the slices and about 20 minutes on top of that for the full pie.  It helps to visit Di Fara on a Monday holiday.  Seems New Yorkers get the heck out of dodge for Memorial Day, making it prime pizza picking time at Di Fara!

Our order is scribbled in the bottom left of this sheet.  Triple H.  Holla!

We ordered one square vegan slice for our pal Ryan.  Di Fara's son was super nice about making the slice vegan for us and warned that some parmesan cheese may accidentally be dusted on it.  We said we would take our chances, and just failed to mention that small disclaimer to Ryan.  It worked out alright though !

The cheeseless slice looked positively radiant, topped thick with sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli rabe.  

The rest of us shared one plain square slice as an appetizer to our full round pepperoni pie.  The square slice was absolutely delightful - the bottom crust was so crunchy, practically fried in the oven by the generously drizzled layer of olive oil at the bottom of the baking sheet.

Though I definitely enjoyed the pizza, my favorite part of the whole dining experience was watching Di Fara in the kitchen working his magic.

And soon we were watching him make our pepperoni pie !

Swift scissor snips released lovely leaves of basil onto the bubbling pizza surface.  

And with a heavy pour of olive oil, Di Fara completed our pizza masterpiece.

Excitement !

And the pizza was terrifically satisfying: fresh flavors evident of high quality Italian imported ingredients, and the whole pie imbued with the utter charm of a truly remarkable pizza artisan.

I simply cannot wait for a return visit !

Di Fara

1424 Avenue J

Brookyn, NY