Pizza in New Jersey

[NJ2FLA]

Rail Paul,

Paulie Pizza is on Route 3 coming Westbound just past the Honda Dealer that used to be the New Clairmont Diner. It's just before the exit there and before the Tick Tock Diner. It's in an old building and it's attached to some type of flooring store I believe.

Anyone remember the Clairmont when it was here in Verona? Anyone remember Morris?

-NJ2FLA

[Double 0]

201 (from the BR rest reveiws) I live in NE Bergen and find it hard to go anywhere close to me to get a slice. In my small town there is probably 10 pizzarias and its impossible to get a slice thats anywhere near fresh. I don't need "artisanal" pies, just one thats not totally oxidized from sitting in the racks since 11am when they open. I guess this is a problem everywhere, it just seems extra bad in my neck of the woods. Btw speaking of bad pizza, Dominoes is coming to Westwood soon (thank god I don't live close enough for delivery because sublimation has brainwashed my kids into beleiving that its actually good)

[dodge621]

Mazzones in River Edge is not bad. On Kinderkamack

[201]

...In my small town there is probably 10 pizzarias and its impossible to get a slice thats anywhere near fresh....

Oh yeah... slices are a whole different category, but one that's certainly worth exploring! I don't get slices very often, but I'm sure someone out there must have sampled enough to know some good spots.

The horrible little pizzeria where I used to work would only have fresh slices if they sold out of the slice pies that were made in the morning (or sometimes the previous day!). Of course, my boss had absolutely no love for his profession, so I like to think that SOMEwhere there's a pizzeria where they make fresh slice pies as a matter of honor rather than necessity.

Double 0 - Should I assume that the places you mentioned earlier in the thread have good slices? If so, then I can go sample them and have a benchmark by which to judge (since I can't get the memory those horrible slices out of my head)!

[howard88]

Vics in Bradley.

Reservoir tavern in Boonton

Nicks, across from Charlottes Web in Dover has

excellent thin crust pizza

[TheMan,TheMyth]

Vics in Bradley.

Reservoir tavern in Boonton

Nicks, across from Charlottes Web in Dover has

excellent thin crust pizza

I think Vic's is good, but I think Carmen's (a.k.a. Pete and Elda's) which is in the same geographical area is ten times better. Hands down the best thin crust pizza in the State of New Jersey.

The Man, The Myth

TapItorScrapIt.com

[La Niña]

We shall be going to DeLorenzo's in Trenton this Sunday. Cannot wait.

[Double 0]

...In my small town there is probably 10 pizzarias and its impossible to get a slice thats anywhere near fresh....

Oh yeah... slices are a whole different category, but one that's certainly worth exploring! I don't get slices very often, but I'm sure someone out there must have sampled enough to know some good spots.

The horrible little pizzeria where I used to work would only have fresh slices if they sold out of the slice pies that were made in the morning (or sometimes the previous day!). Of course, my boss had absolutely no love for his profession, so I like to think that SOMEwhere there's a pizzeria where they make fresh slice pies as a matter of honor rather than necessity.

Double 0 - Should I assume that the places you mentioned earlier in the thread have good slices? If so, then I can go sample them and have a benchmark by which to judge (since I can't get the memory those horrible slices out of my head)!

yes, especially Pizza Town USA (RT46 W, Elmwood Park, 201797 6172). Its one of the few places that doesn,t have 10 "oxidized" pies sitting around all day.

[existo]

Cross Posted from the NY Board:::

Hi, first post here.

A few comments::

Denino's--Excellent, try the M.O.R pie. Meatballs Onions Ricotta. Also, try their fried calamari. Maybe the best I have ever had.

L&B Spumoni Gardens-- To get the true experience go on a summer night in July or August, make sure you get a few squares from a steaming hot fresh pie.

Also, someone asked where to find this type of slice in NJ. Well, Spumoni Gardens is now open in Old Bridge on Rte 516. Not as good as Brooklyn, maybe something to do with the water here in NJ, the dough isn't the same,but as close as you're going to get in NJ. Whoever said Palumbo's in Old Bridge is good, must also like Pizza Hut or Dominoes

Totonnos in Coney Island and Grimaldis under the Brooklyn Bridge-- THE best pies you will ever have!! Period.. Try the white pie at Totonnos for an extra treat.

Also in Bklyn, if you're ever in the area of 18th Ave. and would like a coal oven pie try Il Colloseo on 78th St and 18th.

For slices in Bklyn, try DaVincis on 65th and 18th not as good as L&B, but pretty good nonetheless.

In Staten Island, Nunzio's-- Pretty good but nothing special to me. Closed for renovations presently in case anyone was planning on visiting

Goodfella's--I had a bad experience at the Brooklyn location. I'll leave it at that.

[La Niña]

DeNino's was a major disappointment.

The best pizza in the US is DiFara, on Avenue J in Midwood. No question about it.

We went to DeLorenzo's in Trenton today. More about it later.

Edited December 23, 2002 by La Niña (log)

[ngatti]

Just a couple of farthings worth:

My wife and I split a Pizza Margherita at Andiamo's (Haworth?/Demarest?). Both perked up at its arrival and thought it quite good. I compared it to a 'refined' Brooklyn Coal (Hackensack). This was a large (18") pizza very thin crisp crust. Topped with a thin tomato sauce, thinly sliced plum tomatoes and slices of what looked and tasted like freshly pulled mozzarella.

Try it for yourselves. I don't know if you'll find it the second coming, but I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Nick

Edited December 24, 2002 by ngatti (log)

[alembic54]

There is a place in Long Branch called Nunzio's that IMHO makes killer pie. They've been there since '53...same family owns it. My friend Frank Ravaschiere who's been going there since around 1960, took me to Nunzio's for the 1st time in 1997 and I've been back around 30 times and have always had great pie there. it's thin crust, but not as thin as Federici's in Freehold (which I think is too thin) Bear in mind I live in Livingston, so its about 50 miles each way but I still make the drive because its so good!tasted. I usually get the special which is mushroom and sausage. Louie, who is the owner makes the pies himself and is a sweetheart!

Thin crust, great ingredients and very reasonable prices. the food is good also, although I usually just get the pizza.

One thing..Nunzio's hours are weird they are open every day except Tuesday and (this is the weird part)their hours are 4:30-8:30. They are closed the month of February for vacation but that's it.

Check it out you will not be disappointed.

Jeff

That's it

[Wiener]

New member here so hope I do this correctly. Ralph's in Nutley has my vote. I have enjoyed their pizza for at least 40 years.

[Kim WB]

Hi Weiner, Welcome to E-gullet and the NJ board. What's yor all time favorite restaurant in NJ?

[Wiener]

Favorite New Jersey restaurant is the Black Forrest Inn and ,on a much different level, I love the roast duck at the Red Wolf Inn outside of Belvadere. Red Wolf is a bar restaurant frequented by bikers, so I am told, however the roast duck with a resberry glaze, is out of this world.

[RockADS21]

Ralph's in Nutley is by far the best pizza I have ever had - as I have mentioned pages ago in this thread...I can not put into words how great a pie from there is but just thinking about it makes me want to drive back to my former hometown right now. It is well worth burning the roof of your mouth for - that is how good! The Chimney Rock Inn in Bridgewater is also very good - thin crust as well...

Edited December 31, 2002 by RockADS21 (log)

[menton1]

I was looking for input about decent pizza in North Jersey; after salivating while reading in NY about DiFara's, Nick's, and John's, I realized what a sorry state the pizza of New Jersey is in.

Most of it tastes like reheated cardboard. Or the cheese is overly greasy and drips on your shirt; I often see the counters of these pizzerias brimming with all types of pizza-- with chicken, mushrooms, onions, broccoli.... all look so severely dried out (probably from sitting there for hours) I don't know why anybody would order them...

So if anyone has any ideas about getting good pizza without spending $6 on the GW Bridge, please let me know!

[tommy]

there are a few threads on this for sure, but...

Brooklyn's Pizza, in Hackensack, has a very good thin crust pie. they have stores in edgewater and ridgewood as well. the ridgewood store is BYO. the hackensack store, which is the original, is far superior as far as i understand. it's not BYO, and they have really crappy chianti for 16 bucks a bottle.

Kinchley's in ramsey also makes a great thin crust pie. although, it's not as "fresh" tasting as brooklyn's.

both are kid-friendly. kinchely's is a zoo before 8 PM because of this.

[Rosie]

A link

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza

[tommy]

when i was a kid, we used to take trips down to balitmore. i vaguely remember a huge pizza-type place right over what i assume was a bridge btwn NJ and Delaware. my memory says that it was right over the bridge and on the right. it was there for years.

i recently returned to baltimore, and i figured i'd see that same pizza-type place. however, much to my chagrin, there was nothing in the place where i expected it to be. in fact, the area looked nothing like i remembered it, so it's quite possible that either

1) i was remembering the wrong bridge

2) i made this all up in my head as a bored child in the back of a car for 3 hours.

does anyone know what this might have been, and if it might have been?

any help would be appreciated.

[Rich Pawlak]

Such a northern NJ bent to this topic! When the truly finest pizza in the state exists humbly in Trenton and its environs. Both of the Delorenzo's pizza joints serve perhaps the finest tomato pies in the state, hands down. The Hudson St. Delorenzo's may be the best representation of the genre, with the Hamilton Ave. Delorenzo's (relatives of the original, but not affiliated) serve nearly the same product, with slight, almost imperceptable variations (a white pie with broccoli, a more garlicky white clam pie, a slightly saucier red pie).

Either place is pilgramage-worthy, hour-long wait worthy, and astonishingly good.

[201]

It's just a North Jersey sort of crowd, Rich!

I'm glad this topic popped back up though because it reminded me to post about a little trip I took down to Old Bridge to try the Jersey location of L & B Spumoni Gardens. The jist of it is, if you're not in the immediate area, you're better off going to Brooklyn. The longer version is below...

The Spumoni Gardens in Old Bridge is located in a small strip mall on route 516. Driving by the front of it I was a little nervous when I saw the sign read "Spumoni Gardens Express" and consequently had thoughts of microwaves and a warming lamps filling my head. When I pulled around to the parking lot in the rear, the sign simply read "Spumoni Gardens" again, so I was relieved... a bit confused, but relieved all the same.

I walked through a set of double doors into what looked like a moderately sized dance hall. The room was deserted at 5:30pm, but it was clear that it wasn't the dining room. Through another set of doors I entered the dining room... roughly the same size as the dance hall and this one looked like the banquet hall of a convention center or some such institution. I didn't bother counting the tables, but let's just say that this place holds a LOT of people.

Apparently my friend and I had entered through the wrong doors, so we walked all the way up to the hostess station and seeing as there was only ONE occupied table made the entirely too-obvious joke of "wherever you can fit us will be fine". She was good about it though and seated us with a smile.

This place seems to be TRYING to be somewhat upscale (certainly moreso than the Brooklyn location), but that definitely wasn't what I was looking for. Sure, tablecloths might be nicer than picnic benches, but the pizza seemed to be hidden away towards the back of the menu and that's just not right!

Our server was very friendly and efficient, but it took probably a good 40 minutes before we got our pizza from the kitchen. Granted, I did have a salad as an appetizer, but it was still a long time to wait and the salad was NOT worth the delay. It was a goat cheese, pear, and walnut salad using canned pears. The waitress asked what sort of dressing I'd like on it and then listed off a few that didn't make any particular sense given the salad. Pass.

Anyway, we got pepporoni and sausage pizza. It was in the style of the Brooklyn location (crust, mozz, sauce, then parmesan, toppings), but just not as good. The sausage, for one, had a particular dense texture and was sliced thickly enough that I could see a lot of charred skin. The Brooklyn location slices the sausage very thin and it has (perhaps consequently) a more crumbly texture. Pepporoni tasted like Hormel brand packaged pepporoni.

I think the other main difference was in the crust. Someone mentioned above that it might be a difference in the water and I might just agree with that. Unfortunately this trip was a while ago so I can't quite bring up what it was about the crust that was different, but suffice to say, overall the pizza was not as good as the Brooklyn location.

As we were eating, a gentlemen who seemed to equally likely to be either a cook, manager, or owner walked through the room and asked how everything was. it was one of those rare times when I knew I wouldn't be returning, but felt I should give an honest assesment anyway. "It's decent, but I don't think it's up to the standards of the Brooklyn location." His response had a confrontational tone, "Oh, you DON'T, huh?" I explained about the sausage and was told in the same confrontational tone, "I KNOW we buy GOOD sausage." At this point I think the two of us were done with each other and he left the room. I wasn't entirely sure what buying good sausage had to do with slicing it differently and charring the hell out of it, but I knew I wasn't getting that answer from him.

Anyway, as I said, I don't see myself going back to Old Bridge for this place, but maybe someone closer might want to give it a shot.

edit: It was so long ago that I completely forgot the difference between Woodbridge and Old Bridge...

Edited April 22, 2003 by 201 (log)

[tommy]

It's just a North Jersey sort of crowd, Rich! 

I'm glad this topic popped back up though because it reminded me to post about a little trip I took down to Old Bridge to try the Jersey location of L & B Spumoni Gardens.  The jist of it is, if you're not in the immediate area, you're better off going to Brooklyn.  The longer version is below...

The Spumoni Gardens in Old Bridge is located in a small strip mall on route 516.  Driving by the front of it I was a little nervous when I saw the sign read "Spumoni Gardens Express" and consequently had thoughts of microwaves and a warming lamps filling my head.  When I pulled around to the parking lot in the rear, the sign simply read "Spumoni Gardens" again, so I was relieved... a bit confused, but relieved all the same.

I walked through a set of double doors into what looked like a moderately sized dance hall.  The room was deserted at 5:30pm, but it was clear that it wasn't the dining room.  Through another set of doors I entered the dining room... roughly the same size as the dance hall and this one looked like the banquet hall of a convention center or some such institution.  I didn't bother counting the tables, but let's just say that this place holds a LOT of people.

Apparently my friend and I had entered through the wrong doors, so we walked all the way up to the hostess station and seeing as there was only ONE occupied table made the entirely too-obvious joke of "wherever you can fit us will be fine".  She was good about it though and seated us with a smile.

This place seems to be TRYING to be somewhat upscale (certainly moreso than the Brooklyn location), but that definitely wasn't what I was looking for.  Sure, tablecloths might be nicer than picnic benches, but the pizza seemed to be hidden away towards the back of the menu and that's just not right! 

Our server was very friendly and efficient, but it took probably a good 40 minutes before we got our pizza from the kitchen.  Granted, I did have a salad as an appetizer, but it was still a long time to wait and the salad was NOT worth the delay.  It was a goat cheese, pear, and walnut salad using canned pears.  The waitress asked what sort of dressing I'd like on it and then listed off a few that didn't make any particular sense given the salad.  Pass.

Anyway, we got pepporoni and sausage pizza.  It was in the style of the Brooklyn location (crust, mozz, sauce, then parmesan, toppings), but just not as good.  The sausage, for one, had a particular dense texture and was sliced thickly enough that I could see a lot of charred skin.  The Brooklyn location slices the sausage very thin and it has (perhaps consequently) a more crumbly texture.  Pepporoni tasted like Hormel brand packaged pepporoni. 

I think the other main difference was in the crust.  Someone mentioned above that it might be a difference in the water and I might just agree with that.  Unfortunately this trip was a while ago so I can't quite bring up what it was about the crust that was different, but suffice to say, overall the pizza was not as good as the Brooklyn location.

As we were eating, a gentlemen who seemed to equally likely to be either a cook, manager, or owner walked through the room and asked how everything was.  it was one of those rare times when I knew I wouldn't be returning, but felt I should give an honest assesment anyway.  "It's decent, but I don't think it's up to the standards of the Brooklyn location."  His response had a confrontational tone, "Oh, you DON'T, huh?"  I explained about the sausage and was told in the same confrontational tone, "I KNOW we buy GOOD sausage."  At this point I think the two of us were done with each other and he left the room.  I wasn't entirely sure what buying good sausage had to do with slicing it differently and charring the hell out of it, but I knew I wasn't getting that answer from him.

Anyway, as I said, I don't see myself going back to Old Bridge for this place, but maybe someone closer might want to give it a shot.

edit: It was so long ago that I completely forgot the difference between Woodbridge and Old Bridge...

egullet has become so trite, filled with petty comments these days. whatever will we do.

[201]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also made it Lido and sampled their pizza some time ago, but I neglected to comment on that as well (I've actually got a bunch of places I need to post about). My general impression was that while I really loved the staff there, the pizza is essentially the same style as Kinchley's but not quite as good. At least on the night when I was there it was considerably more oily, but I'd be willing to give it another shot.

The people I was with said the open-faced steak sandwiches were very good though and you can't beat the hostess who informed the entire restaurant that I was not wearing a coat in cold weather.

[tommy]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also made it Lido and sampled their pizza some time ago, but I neglected to comment on that as well (I've actually got a bunch of places I need to post about).  My general impression was that while I really loved the staff there, the pizza is essentially the same style as Kinchley's but not quite as good.  At least on the night when I was there it was considerably more oily, but I'd be willing to give it another shot.

you just saved me a trip. my friends, who lived in Lickmysack for some time, never said anything good about it. i'll put my money on Kinchley's. and 201, they have really cheap beer there, which, you know, is a good thing.