I Wonder If ‘New York Pizza’ Is a Total JokeDear Grub Street,What’s the deal with Patsy’s and Grimaldi’s? The guy’s name was Patsy Grimaldi, right? Didn’t the place under the Brooklyn Bridge used to be called Patsy’s? I remember going there when I used to come out for AAU games. And where else would you recommend for true “New York–style” pizza? Or is that term a total joke?DeWayne
Neighborhood Watch
So Much for Eating Year-Round in Union SquareClinton Hill: A brewery on Waverly Avenue hopes to start bottling Kelso beer. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Coney Island: The Slice pizza club convenes on April 15 at Totonno’s. Catch: You have to ride the Cyclone before you chow. [Slice]
Lower East Side: A sneak preview inspires Whole Foods envy: The new one on Houston puts the original Chelsea location in the shade. [Snack]
Prospect Lefferts Gardens: The deli on Washington Avenue is getting renovated; neighbors hope that more than just sugar and water will be for sale. [across the park]
Sheepshead Bay: Grillin’ by the Bay, the city’s only Kansas City Barbecue Society–sanctioned BBQ contest, to be held Saturday. And this year, you’ll actually be able to eat the stuff. [NYDN]
Tribeca: Brunch plans rocked as the Department of Health shutters Kitchenette; also, Bubby’s on its way out. [Eater] Jacques Torres making dark-chocolate-covered peeps for those who didn’t already find them conducive to throwing up in church. [DailyCandy]
Union Square: Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says there’s no chance of a year-round restaurant when the park’s north end gets overhauled. [Daily Intel]
Upper West Side: Ollie’s Noodle Shop workers take their protest to the next level with a hot-shot lawyer. [Daily Intel]
Williamsburg: A sign spotted earlier this week in the window of Brick Oven Gallery said they would reopen today after renovations — but a disconnected phone seems to tell a different story. [Grub Street]
Openings
Brick-Oven-Pizza Perfection Comes to Carroll GardensSlavering outer-borough Chowhounders have recently been storming the unmarked gates of Carroll Gardens’s newest brick-oven pizzeria, a rustic establishment being compared on that contentious, cultlike Website to such sacred pizza cows as Di Fara’s. It’s not only the posters who’ve evoked that mythic name — chef-owner Mark Iacono has as well. “My favorite pizza is Di Fara,” says Iacono, who looks a little like a Pope of Greenwich Village–era Eric Roberts. “The recipe is pretty much the same. Difference is, mine is made in a brick oven.” His pie is also imbued with a feisty smokiness, courtesy of a wood fire, and has a flavorful crust that’s comparatively soft and puffy, closer to classic coal-oven practitioners like Totonno’s and Grimaldi’s than Di Fara’s. “I call it old-school-Brooklyn style,” he says. “That’s what I’m going for.”
