Nick's Pizza

[weinoo]

Nick's Pizza of Forest Hills and Rockville Centre "fame" has opened on 2nd Ave. and 94th Street and I was wondering if anyone else has been?

I'm holding my opinion till I hear from other egulleteers...don't want to sway anyone one way or another.

[DavidJS]

Weinoo, I'll let you know sometime in the next coming days since Nick's (UES) is walking distance from me. I just recently went on a recent pizza critique (Agata & Valentina, Francesca, Delizia, Gino's, Candido, Arturo's, Anna Maria) in this area last night. And it'll take me couple of days to not look at a plain slice of cheese without feeling ill.

[robert brown]

What happened to Totonno's?

[Robert Schonfeld]

Nick's Pizza of Forest Hills and Rockville Centre "fame" has opened

I'm holding my opinion till I hear from other egulleteers

Why? Tell us what you think. I promise not to be swayed by your opinion.

Why do you have fame in quotes?

Edited April 20, 2003 by Robert Schonfeld (log)

[DavidJS]

Where's Totonno's?

Here's my rating card for the best pizza slice in the Upper Eastside.

Agata & Valentina has hand down the BEST cold pizza with fresh prociutto/ argula slice! Avoid the plain/ pepperoni its salty.

Delizia is for those who are big fans of the thin crust slice - tasty but spendy for $1.90!

Gino's is most likely going to be the place for me for plain/ or topping slices - tasty, not too dry and reasonable priced. Cozy ambiance you could even bring a girl here.

[Fat Guy]

David, any way I can convince you to expand on your comments and talk a little more about each place you've sampled? We can turn this into the definitive UES pizza thread and then challenge all the lesser neighborhoods to a pizza-thread showdown.

[weinoo]

Nick's Pizza of Forest Hills and Rockville Centre "fame" has opened

I'm holding my opinion till I hear from other egulleteers

Why? Tell us what you think. I promise not to be swayed by your opinion.

Why do you have fame in quotes?

Fame is in quotes, because every time I read about Nick's, it was always about how great it is, but I'd never eaten at either of those two Nick's.

Anyway, I thought the pizza was merely good, not great - a little heavy on the tomato sauce which made for a somewhat soggy slice...or perhaps the mozz was a bit watery. We ordered a large pie - 1/2 anchovy (canned, not salted)...I suppose I'd give it another try.

They do offer a full menu as well with large portions - we had a decent Caesar salad, and a good side of sauteed broccoli raab to go along with the pizza.

Alas, I wanted to try one of the chicken dishes, but they were all made with boneless breasts and I really don't like that prep for dishes that should be made with cut-up chicken on the bone.

With 2 glasses of Chianti, we dropped $50.

FG, I like your idea.

David, how about locations?

Totonno's is on 2nd Avenue between 80th and 81st.

[danger_doug]

Nicks was one of my favorite restaurant when I lived in FH (rivalling only John's of Greenwich Village in pizza quality). As soon as passover is over, I will give a full review of the new one. Are you sure it's related?

[weinoo]

One and the same - should be an article in tomorrow's NY Magazine.

[mogsob]

What happened to Totonno's?

Nothing. Still sucks (at least on the UES).

[DavidJS]

Yeah, I remember Totonno's couple of months ago their slices was un-inspiring after a night of bar hopping. Even California Pizza Kitchen produces better food!

[Fat Guy]

I stopped by Nick's for lunch today with some out-of-town friends. I like Nick's Pizza in Forest Hills, which has for years demonstrated that a gas-fueled oven can produce first-rate brick-oven pizza. This Manhattan branch does not quite live up to the performance of the Forest Hills original. Still, it is a lost closer in quality to its progenitor than, say, the Patsy's branches (which are owned by members of the same family that owns Nick's; the same folks also own Angelo's) are to the original Patsy's in Harlem (which is under separate ownership and is quite different and superior), or John's today is to John's when I was a kid.

The better pie of the two we tried was the white pie with mozzarella and ricotta -- a "symphony in white," said the German art collector -- and that's primarily because the sauce on the margherita pie was insipid and watery. Other than that, all the ingredients were quite good, especially the crumbled sausage with a ton of fennel in it.

The waiter seemed annoyed that we were only ordering pizza -- a stance that seems odd for a pizzeria waiter. But I guess he thinks it's an Italian restaurant and people should be ordering other food too, even at lunchtime when the place is nearly empty.

Nick's

1814 Second Avenue, at 94th Street

212-987-5700

A review by Eric Asimov appears in today's New York Times. He covers it mostly as a family-style Italian restaurant rather than as a pizzeria.

[robert brown]

Given the dearth of interesting culinary resources in the east 80’s, we had our dinner the other night at the new outpost of Nick’s Pizza, whose Forest Hills branch we found quite satisfying several years ago. Having been apprised from a preceding post that Nick’s had a write-up in the current issue of New York Magazine, we arrived at 6:30 to avoid a possible wait in line. Customers had taken up a few tables before us, and by the time we left at 7:45 not many more had been claimed. This might have explained the very obsequious behavior of the young lads doing the service: Every waiter in the place must have asked us several times each if we were enjoying whatever it was we were eating.

The interior at Nick’s is Upper East Side pizza restaurant bland. There’s a large bar as you enter, the chairs and tables are varnished to a glossy finish, and three gas-fired pizza ovens line the back wall. We shared a spinach leaf salad with reconstituted porcini mushrooms, supermarket ricotta salata, and small pieces of bacon that hadn’t seen heat in several hours. Our pizza, half white (ricotta and mozzarella) and half red (tomato sauce, sausage, and roasted red and yellow peppers) had an above-average crust that was neither thin nor thick, such that it was nicely chewy; but sub-par supermarket quality ingredients put the pizza in the middle of the pack, which means better than the Patsy’s chain and John’s East Side location, but noticeably inferior to DiFara’s and Grimaldi’s, which for us is still unrivalled, especially their pizzas with roasted red peppers. The apogee of the meal was dessert, for which we had an in-house cannoli, the ends of which were dusted with candied citrus and crushed pistachios, downed with a very nice cup of espresso. We’ll return, but only because Nick’s is in our neighborhood. Otherwise it’s $40.in cab fares to Grimaldi’s by the River Café.

[Suzanne F]

Also a brief writeup in this week's New York Magazine.

Oh, I see Robert Brown mentioned it. NYM also liked -- nay, loved -- the cannoli.

[emmapeel]

Another restaurant to add to the Nick's Pizza empire, Adrienne’s Pizza Bar is slated to open downtown next week. Dare I say that "Grandma" pizza isn't rare. Rose and Joe's Italian Bakery in Astoria (22-40 31st Street, Astoria, 718-721-9422) makes a great one as does the Sullivan Street Bakery, but I still can't wait to try Adrienne's.

[Fat Guy]

I keep forgetting to post about Nick's whenever we go there. Especially now that we're possessed of a toddler, we've been going more often to the various casual Upper East Side places within walking distance of our apartment. Nick's is certainly one of the best casual eateries on the Upper East Side, but I also think the pizza is, if not on par with the best pizzerias in town, at least at the top of the second tier.

In particular, the white pie with mozzarella and ricotta is one of the better pizzas available in Manhattan. Every time I have one I think of our visiting German art collector acquaintance who called it a "symphony in white" back in '03 (see post #12 above). And some of the other elements have improved, for example the sauce is applied a bit thinner so it doesn't end up soggy, and the crumbled fennel sausage is terrific.

If you're in the area, it's worth a visit. A meal consisting of a white pie (there are three choices, and the best is mozzarella and ricotta) and a regular pie with sausage plus a large Caesar salad (with a nicely anchovy-heavy dressing) serves four people nicely for about $13 a head.

[raji]

Is that the pizza in your picture?

Do they do pizza by the slice?

I'm up at Mt. Sinai frequently and make it a habit to grab a slice at Famiglia's on Madison; the original owners seem to always be at that one and it's a pretty good slice. It is also in between the Mount and the train. I could make a slight detour for a symphony in white

Edited May 26, 2007 by raji (log)

[Fat Guy]

The avatar pizza is from Otto.

Nick's is a whole-pies-only place. It's a sit-down restaurant with table service rather than a slice shop.

[raji]

I've been known to consume a medium margherita and an antipasto on my own... also, coincidentally a lot of times before going up to sinai, I'm supposed to be fasting. So, thanks for the breakfast recc!