best pizza.

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No, this isn’t the best pizza in New York.  But it comes pretty close — and really, if you’re gonna call yourself Best Pizza, you need to come pretty close at the very least.

I’d been to the Best Pizza space about two years ago, with my friend Rose Ellen, back when the space was Brooklyn Star and they were serving pretty great Southern-inspired fare.  Then there was a fire that pretty much gutted the space, and while Brooklyn Star has promised to return in a new location, the owners, along with the Roberta’s Pizza folks, have teamed up to open Best Pizza.  (Were they trying to come up with the most un-Googlable restaurant name ever?)  Adam Kuban over at Slice has a much more comprehensive review of the place, as does Donny Tsang at Eat to Blog (Donny was actually my dining companion for this excursion, and I think you can see his camera/hand in a couple of the shots), so I’ll not bore you with the technical details of the oven or pies, except that the slices we got were pretty extraordinary.  The plain slices were a nice combination of the thin crust Neapolitan pies you see around the city now, but had the crispy–chewy feel of a classic New York slice.  The tomato sauce on the plain slice was tangy and bright, and the cheese was applied consistently but not overwhelmingly.  The grandma slice was a revelation — Slice mentions that they add some ground anchovies to the sauce in the grandma pie, and there’s such a great umami taste throughout that really elevated the slice to another category altogether.  And the grandma crust!  Wowzers.  A bit denser than the crust on the plain slice, but certainly not crunchy or too chewy.  There’s also a white pie, which I liked despite my general aversion to non-sauced pies — the caramelized onions that come on top were pretty great, I have to admit.

Which is all to say: go.  Go now.  They sell pies whole and by the slice, and the place is on Havemeyer between North 7th and 8th, so a little bit off the beaten path (read: not as burdened with Williamsburg foot traffic), and opens at two pm every day.  These are currently my favorite slices in New York — for reals — and though I don’t often plot out trips to Williamsburg*, much less for a slice of pizza in Williamsburg, I’m considering making my way on the G Train this coming weekend for some pretty craveworthy pie.  Man, I wish they delivered to my part of town.

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* I actually went today to the new location of Pies ‘n’ Thighs on Driggs and s.4th, and sweet jesus, their biscuits and gravy — plus the promise of near-perfect pie at Best Pizza — is making me rethink my recent aversion to Williamsburg eats.   (And yes, I used to live in Williamsburg.  Stop pointing out my internal/obvious contradictions.)

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