[nggallery id=1233]
Scott Wiener is a pizza geek extraordinare. A Neapolitan nerd. A mozzarella mensch. All of which makes him the perfect guide for the cheesiest tour in New York. You will learn more about pizza during one of his three hour pizza tours than you will in a lifetime of eating at Domino’s…or whatever neighborhood slice you swear by.
[imagebrowser id=1128]
If you’ve ever have a hankerin’ for a slice of old New York pizza — and let’s face it who hasn’t? — then only one pie in Las Vegas really fills that bill: the Old New York Pizza at Metro Pizza. Owners John and Sam Arena take understandable pride in their array of styles and techniques, and take great pains to duplicate the tastes of their youth…back when they were two yutes.
The slices above reminded ELV of one of his early New York pizza memories — at the original Ray’s, before it became famous for being Ray’s, before it even became famous, and before it then became Famous Ray’s and/or the Original Ray’s Famous and then became the subject of lawsuits anytime someone named Ray was either eating or selling a pizza anywhere within a hundred mile radius of midtown Manhattan.
With its fresh tomato sauce, thin, squishy crust, accent of herbs and good mozz (all in correct proportion), it also put us in mind of Patsy’s in Harlem. In other words, it was/is perfect for those needing a New York pizza fix 2,500 miles from there.
A small one costs $12.70 at any one of the six Metro pizza locations in town. No litigation necessary.
Just thought you’d like to know.
ELV note: John Arena — The Godfather of Las Vegas Pizza — has owned and operated our local Metro Pizza restaurants with his brother Sam for over thirty years. He is also (and ELV uses this phrase with the utmost affection and admiration) a pizza geek of the first order. The following article was written by him for a Chinese pizza magazine (!?), that wanted him to explain the ins and outs of American pizza types for its entrepreneurs and readers. It does a wonderful job of illuminating (in exquisite pizza geek detail) what differentiates pizza from region to region in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Buon gusto!
[imagebrowser id=1103]
PIES IN THE SKY
While Italy may rightfully claim to be the originators of the dish that we have come to know as pizza, there can be little doubt that the United States has developed the most diverse expressions of this culinary mainstay. This is a result of many factors including cross cultural influences, creativity, and the vast array of ingredients and equipment available to ambitious American based pizza chefs. Unlike classic French cuisine, the rustic Italian cooking arts that inspired American pizza are highly regionalized and resistant to rigid structure and rules. Students of the pizza making craft have felt free to experiment and innovate so that in the US we now have dozens of identifiable pizza making styles often coexisting side by side.