Pizza! Pizza! (fn1)
Today, we had a rather large group lunch at Grimaldi's Pizza. Located in Brooklyn Heights, Grimaldi's has been named New York's best pizza by Zagat's for six years running. So about 35 of us (two-thirds or so of the summer class) trekked over to Brooklyn for some quality New York Pizza.
We took Lotus cars over there. In typical Lotus car fashion, the driver was absolutely incompetent, had no idea where we were going, and got us completely lost in Brooklyn. It took us about 15 minutes longer to get to the restaurant than it should have.
However, the payoff made the wait worthwhile. It was my first time at Grimaldi's, and after eating one slice of the sublime tomato and basil pizza, I wondered why it took me two years to make it there. The only pizza I've ever had that comes close is Patsy's, but that's not nearly as good. The crust is thin and perfectly crisp. The sauce is tangy. The cheese and fresh and has a full flavor. The basil adds just the right about of spice.
Oh, and did I mention that the price is right? Large pies only cost around $15, and are enough to feed two to three people. With the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory right around the corner, it's a perfect spot to hit for a little visit.
To get back to Manhattan, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Fortunately, we had advance warning of this plan and permission to bring casual clothes to change into. However, I really don't think there is anything funnier than a bunch of slightly overdressed law kids, coming from legal summer camp, trekking across the Brooklyn Bridge in 85-degree heat, jostling for position with bikers, runners, and tourists. It really wasn't that fun of a trip, as our summer coordinator (who moonlights as an aerobics instructor) set a brutal pace. But a good time was had by all, and we could cool off all afternoon in the air conditioning.
Good times, good times.
1. The title is a reference to the Little Caesars pizza commercials. For those of you who don't know (I don't want to do overkill here, but Little Caesar's is headquartered in Michigan, and I'm not really sure how widely spread the chain is in the rest of the country), LC is one of those Domino's-like pizza chains that specializes in selling large quantities of bad pizza at moderate prices. Like many fast-food chains, they decided that an ideal way to encourage customer obesity would be to encourage people to buy pizza in pairs. So rather than having coupons for one large pizza, or one medium pizza, they would have a special on "two large two-topping pizzas," or something like that. Hence, the "Pizza! Pizza!" slogan.
We took Lotus cars over there. In typical Lotus car fashion, the driver was absolutely incompetent, had no idea where we were going, and got us completely lost in Brooklyn. It took us about 15 minutes longer to get to the restaurant than it should have.
However, the payoff made the wait worthwhile. It was my first time at Grimaldi's, and after eating one slice of the sublime tomato and basil pizza, I wondered why it took me two years to make it there. The only pizza I've ever had that comes close is Patsy's, but that's not nearly as good. The crust is thin and perfectly crisp. The sauce is tangy. The cheese and fresh and has a full flavor. The basil adds just the right about of spice.
Oh, and did I mention that the price is right? Large pies only cost around $15, and are enough to feed two to three people. With the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory right around the corner, it's a perfect spot to hit for a little visit.
To get back to Manhattan, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Fortunately, we had advance warning of this plan and permission to bring casual clothes to change into. However, I really don't think there is anything funnier than a bunch of slightly overdressed law kids, coming from legal summer camp, trekking across the Brooklyn Bridge in 85-degree heat, jostling for position with bikers, runners, and tourists. It really wasn't that fun of a trip, as our summer coordinator (who moonlights as an aerobics instructor) set a brutal pace. But a good time was had by all, and we could cool off all afternoon in the air conditioning.
Good times, good times.
1. The title is a reference to the Little Caesars pizza commercials. For those of you who don't know (I don't want to do overkill here, but Little Caesar's is headquartered in Michigan, and I'm not really sure how widely spread the chain is in the rest of the country), LC is one of those Domino's-like pizza chains that specializes in selling large quantities of bad pizza at moderate prices. Like many fast-food chains, they decided that an ideal way to encourage customer obesity would be to encourage people to buy pizza in pairs. So rather than having coupons for one large pizza, or one medium pizza, they would have a special on "two large two-topping pizzas," or something like that. Hence, the "Pizza! Pizza!" slogan.
posted by N at 3:21 PM
4 Comments:
The BRY will be happy to hear that Little Caesar's was quite the chain in Southern California in the 90s. They still exist out there, but they are not so popular now as they were before.
It's not surprising that Little Caesar's is not as prevalent as it once was. They had severe financial problems in the late 90s/early 00s, which forced them to close a lot of their locations, particularly in more "far-flung" areas.
They were also hurt by the K-Mart bankruptcy, because they had Caesar's Express restaurants in many K-Mart locations. These were pretty high-margin operations, so losing them as K-Mart closed stores had a pretty negative impact on their profits.
I haven't eaten at Grimaldi's yet, because every time I'm around the waterfront there the wait is just too damn long. I feel most sorry for that other pizza place two doors down, with their empty tables staring at this queue of tourists and locals up the street.
I'll put it back at the top of my list.
yeah, it must suck to be selling pizza in that neighborhood.
i think the key to getting in there is going early on a weekday.
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