Bronx Pizza: New York Style Pizza by the Slice

Place:
Bronx Pizza
111 Washington St.

Time:
Saturday 22 August 2009
14:30

Investigation Led By:
Agent Joe, despite the big plans of meeting up with three other people.

Pizza:
9 out of 10

Atmosphere:
8.5 out o 10

Bronx Pizza, as most people will tell you, makes the best New York style pizza in San Diego, and has a laid back vibe with a unique architectural set-up.

I thought Bronx was going to be a tiny hole in the wall place, especially after my last pizza excursion to Lefty's, where there's about enough room inside to turn around and that's it, but actually Bronx is a much larger hole in the wall than I initially expected; there are three parts to it. From the outside there is an ordering window and a door with a couple benches situated in front of the large window on which there is a picture of boxing gloves. Apparently, according to their website, one of the employees is a boxing fanatic and himself a former boxer.

As you walk in the first part of the pizzeria you notice this is where all the magic happens. The first thing I noticed were the pizzas by the slice offered in the display case. Behind them was a nice guy named Seth who took my order. He had a shaved head and a lot of tattoos. Tattoos seemed to be common with people who are into making good pizza. The pizzaioli in Una Pizzeria Nepoletana in New York is well tatted also. This has to be the only place that when I see tattoos I get a sense that these guys may be obsessed with their jobs. Behind Seth was a beautiful pizza oven. I'm not sure what kind of oven it was exactly. I didn't see any flames, so I don't think it was a wood fire. My guess is a brick oven. I believe old school New York pies where cooked using a coal oven. Either way it was a great sight. I sat down across the room facing the oven watching the guys cook up the pies.

Bronx went a little deeper into the building as well. Interestingly, there was a patio as you walk in deeper into the shop, and then if you go further there was more of a restaurant-looking place with tables and red bench seats, giving this portion of the shop a sort of 1950's diner ambiance.

I had big plans to meet up with some of my coworkers here, pool our money together, and buy a huge selection of pizza. I also hoped to buy a whole pie, so I could take the fresh-out-of-the-oven taste test. Unfortunately for me, I'm the only person who thinks that a pizza date is a big deal. Every single person flaked on me and this ended up being a solo mission. But considering that I still had a pretty good time and the pizza was worth the 50 minute drive there and back.

I decided not to order a whole pie and instead go for a couple of slices. I ordered a Whitestone pizza and a Whitestone with spinach. The Whitestone pizza consisted of mozzarella, ricotta, garlic and parmesan, and, of course the Whitestone with spinach is all that plus some spinach.

The pizza was great, to the point that I now appreciate New York style pizza. My favorite style is still the Chicago deep dish, but I now understand why so many people crave good New York style pizza. The bread and crust were just right, thin and crispy but yet still tender inside. My slices weren't over cooked to the point of being like dry crackers or undercooked to the point where there's no crunch when you bit into the pizza. The mozzarella was a little rubbery; I think because it was by the slice, so I didn't get the fresh out-of-the-oven melted, stringy, gooey, mozzarella. Their placing of the ricotta chunks, and the spinach chunks for the slice that had spinach on it, gave just the right amount of ricotta and spinach in each bite. The crust was tasty on its own, which I think is important considering that pizza is mostly just bread with toppings. The crust is the eater's chance to taste the quality of the pizza bread without the confusion of the taste of the toppings. The crust was crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, but I did think the crust was a little chewy. One reason for this may have been the fact that is was a reheated slice from an earlier cooked pizza. I don't think, however, that the slices stay in the display case for long. Bronx had a steady stream of customers, who mostly seemed to order by the slice. I bet a pie doesn't last much longer than 20 minutes in the case on slow days.

While I was eating my last spinach slice watching customers order in front of the display case, one family came in and told Seth that they traveled all the way from Oakland to eat at Bronx. The father quickly qualified the statement by saying that they always stop by the Bronx when he's in town, which now made it seem as though he didn't voyage all this way just for the taste of Bronx pizza. This made a little more sense considering if he had gone only a few hundred more miles but eastbound from Oakland, he could have had New York style pizza in New York, imagine that. The more I thought about it, the more it sounded funny, to travel 500 miles for New York style pizza in San Diego. But I do think Bronx pizza would be at least a competitor, and probably better, to any of the typical pizzerias in New York. I can't really say that with certainty since I haven't tried pizza in New York. My claim is based on the assumption that these guys know the New York style, and on the evidence I gathered on this investigation that they put in the time and effort to produce a great slice of pie.

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