Hi everyone! Welcome back from the depths of the silly season, where I’m sure all your eating would have made me proud. Whatever gluttony was involved, I’m just gonna turn a blind eye (what am I talking about? I’m cheering for you food heroes!) and hope y’all had a priceless time with loved ones.

I had a brilliant white Christmas with friends, and I thought that once I landed back in London I’d never have to think about the snowpocalypse again but can you believe it, as we type, NYC is now snowed in and flights are again not getting in or out! This is just insanity and to think at one point they wanted to delay my return flight to London until 26 Dec.

Shhhh-yeah right. If I’d been delayed til the 26th, I’d Still Be There Now!

As much as I love NYC (and totally excited to go back for fun in February), being stranded there for an extra week would have killed me. I’m not really sure what I would have done with myself. Ok, who am I kidding? I totally know what I would have done. I would have stuffed my face with all the awesomeness the city has to offer, such as Lombardi’s Pizza, reputedly the father of the New York style pizza.

On my last day of work in NYC, my co-worker Sam, who by the way also took me for my first authentic Philly cheese steak hoagie (she’s a keeper our Sam), decided that I had to try a pizza from Lombardi’s, America’s first pizzeria. Again, didn’t take too much to twist my arm.

So at lunch on Friday, we cabbed it down to Nolita (North of Little Italy duh) and joined the queue of hungry locals and tourists alike, eagerly waiting to be called and seated and stuffing one of those ginormous beasts into our faces. Despite the long queue, the turnover is constant and within 15 minutes we’re in bizness. There are no “flavours” per se at Lombardi’s. You order whatever toppings you want and it’s all costed up that way. We shared a large (because NO ONE orders a small) pizza with pepperoni, sweet Italian sausage and roasted red peppers.

Firstly, the m*ther f*cker is HUGE.

Secondly, there is no secondly.

The pizza is fracking enormous and doubly delicious, the pepperoni is like crack and I said to Sam that we totally did not even need sausage or peppers. Next time, I’m getting nothing but pepperoni.

And the crust! Cooked in a traditional coal fired oven (which I don’t think many modern pizzerias do any more), the result is the perfect crust – smoked and crispy and bready, but not too bready, and this old dawg also learnt a new thing: the “upskirt shot”, a photo of a pizza slice’s crust, shot from beneath.

Check it out:

The perfect crust on the perfect giant mofo of a pizza. What else could you possibly want? This place is definitely on my February “NYC-eats” list and like I said, nothing but pepperoni. It doesn’t need anything else.

Oh, and we had a house salad too.

Lombardi’s Pizza
32 Spring Street
Nolita, NY, 10012
212 941 7994
website

Lombardi's Pizza on Urbanspoon

16 Thoughts on “Lombardi’s: the father of the New York pizza

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention NEW BLOG POST] Lombardi's: the father of the New York pizza: -- Topsy.com

  2. I have heard so much about this pizza and it sounds like it did not disappoint! Love that smoky charred base…

  3. i wish i had more time to try it when i was in NY 🙂

  4. Pingback: Our Food And Beverage Blog » Archive du blog » Sausage With Peppers Is A Delicious Meal Used For You

  5. Omg that pizza is HUGE. Would love to tackle that baby! Did you guys manage to finish it?

  6. Wow!! That is Ginormous!! Did you manage to finish the entire thing between the two of you?? =O

  7. Linda at Pink Elephants coffee,LLC on December 29, 2010 at 4:28 am said:

    I liked the photo of the crust underside. That crust shows spunk! You’re right.The
    sausage and peppers aren’t needed with pepperoni. I like pineapple on mine. And
    artichoke hearts. But no mofo anchovies. Capers add something nice to pizza
    deluxe (just about everything on it is a ‘deluxe’ or a ‘supreme’).
    In Chicago early days, a pizza was a nothing with maybe some cheese and spinach.
    In California, pizzas come in a variety of combinations and then some (‘then some’
    being whatever a customer wants to throw together). The pizza I bake at home is
    better than any restaurant’s, according to my guests and my own preferances. There is a trend afoot, of using some freaky sour crap that poses as cheese. It ruins
    takeout pizza, for sure. The pizza places are pretty darned smug about it, all of
    them insisting theirs is the best. It’s not. It’s awful. But the one you ate looks like a yummy meal with a perky crunch to delight!

  8. Gourmet Chick: it’s definitely worth a try if in NY. Don’t be phased by the queue, it moves quickly!!

    Simon: Guess you need another trip back? 🙂

    Su-yin & Kay: we just about it! Didn’t manage to finish the last two slices but Sam had them to go 🙂

    Linda: I like pineapple too – there are so many pineapple haters out there 🙂 The pepperoni really didn’t need anything else at all, it was perfect on its own!

  9. Hahah that pizza is so massive, bigger than you! I guess having pizza in NYC is a must experience ;-D

  10. next time try Motorino or Keste if you want to be really impressed… so many really amazing places for pizza here, there are just too many to count.

  11. I like the Ray’s on the Upper West Side (Broadway and 86th). My favorite NYC pizza though is John’s on Bleeker Street. Perfection.

  12. I have been there! We’ve been trying to remember the place since we went there and now I know the name again, thanks!
    Absolutely amazing pizzas.
    I would advise not going in the heat of summer (as we did) because there is no aircon and it is sweltering.

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