A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour!

: Welcome to A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour :
Here's a way for tourists in NYC to easily sample the best pizza:

"For the first time ever you can hop aboard a bus in Manhattan and be taken on a guided tour of the best pizzerias in one of the most famous...and infamous...places in the world: BROOKLYN! Find out for yourself what locals, pizza aficionados, food critics, the Food Network, the Travel Channel and the Zagat Survey already know about the best pizzerias in Brooklyn while exploring some of the boroughâ??s most unique neighborhoods such as DUMBO, Red Hook, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Coney Island and many more!"

New York Daily News
Preaching Pizza
by Lisa Amand

To Tony Muia, a slice of pizza is like a vitamin: nourishing and an essential part of every day.

The 41-year-old Brooklyn-born Muia is so into pizza he gave up a career as a respiratory therapist to dedicate his life to preaching pie to the masses.

When his Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour begins tomorrow, he'll be spreading the gospel about the borough's prowess when it comes to tossing around dough. He'll also be following in the footsteps of his favorite matinee idol, another Brooklyn Tony who devoured slices two at a time while strutting down a Bensonhurst block in "Saturday Night Fever."

Muia, who grew up in that very neighborhood, got the idea for the tours after years of showing out-of-town friends hidden spots throughout Brooklyn that serve out-of-this-world pizza.

The first stop on his four-hour tour will be at the legendary Grimaldi's, where the ancient coal ovens keep the Neapolitan pies coming.

They'll also get a little history between slices.

The tour weaves through Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge, checking out Diamond Jim Brady's former home, a "really cool" tiny Revolutionary War cemetery and the Army terminal where Elvis shipped out to Germany. It also hits Brooklyn landmarks, movie locations and lesser-known nabes (like Bath Beach and Gravesend).

The bus will also cruise down Bensonhurst's main drag. As they pass the famous Lenny's Pizza, the opening scene of "Saturday Night Fever" will play on the bus' screen, showing John Travolta bopping down 86th St., stopping at the sidewalk window to tell the pizzaiola: "Two, two. Gimme two."

Muia will be taking his tour to one of his favorites, L&B Spumoni Gardens, again on 86th St., for two Sicilian squares. Muia has frequented L&B for more than 30 years.

"All you do is come here and people-watch," he says on a sunny Saturday, surveying the al fresco scene where extended families fill the picnic tables, feasting on tomato-red rectangles, heaping plates of pasta and baked clams.

When he was young, Muia's mother made pizza with fresh dough from the local bakery, smoothing it out in the same flat pan she baked cookies. His brothers preferred theirs plain, while Muia liked olives and anchovies. His parents now divide their time between Bensonhurst and Calabria, on the heel of Italy.

Muia knows it's not just tourists but even New Yorkers who need help navigating deep Brooklyn instead of focusing merely on trendy neighborhoods; though Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tours will pass through Dumbo to point out locales from "Scent of a Woman" and "Once Upon a Time in America."

Could he do a similar tour in Manhattan? "Fuhgeddaboudit. Everyone knows the best pizzerias are in Brooklyn!"

I've tried a lot of Brooklyn Pizzerias and none were the stereotypical "best." But yes, Brooklyn does have the best pizza.

I think I'll order some today.

Sorry, but New Haven's pizza is better..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anangrymailman

Sorry, but New Haven's pizza is better..

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Totally dude. I live down the street from Modern, and it is by far the best pizza i have had anywhere. Plus we have Pepes and BAR.

Can't offer an opinion about New Haven, but Brooklyn has many more places than they do. Some might not be as good as their best. It's also about standards and the overall quality of the product. The surveys and critics often choose Brooklyn pizza places as the best, and having firsthand knowledge of it I can understand why. Some pizza in Manhattan, and even Brooklyn, sucks - like most everywhere else. No argument there, but the best places really shine. The "average" pizza in Brooklyn is far better than the "best" elsewhere.

As a former Brooklynite, I must say that Ben's Focacciaria on 5th Ave. near 75th St. has the best fresh mozzarella pie on the planet.

That's in Bay Ridge (you know, home of Saturday Night Fever and Tony Micelli), btw.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dannyboy420

As a former Brooklynite, I must say that Ben's Focacciaria on 5th Ave. near 75th St. has the best fresh mozzarella pie on the planet.

That's in Bay Ridge (you know, home of Saturday Night Fever and Tony Micelli), btw.

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I lived in Bay Ridge during the filming of that movie, and later.

I remember that Ben's was a medium size pizza place/Italian food place originally, that had other very good dishes, in addition to their pizza. We used to eat dinner there. It was totally renovated and expanded into a larger restaurant -I passed by it a couple of months ago, and it looked like it was doing really well. I'd say that the renovation/expansion was within the past 10 years, or less.

I never tasted Grimaldi's Pizzaria, another Brooklyn place, which Zagats says is the best in New York City. I'd take that with a grain of salt, though, until I've tried it myself (which I cannot do at the moment because of my special diet).

OK like anything else ... there is no absolute single BEST ... it's too subjective .. but theoretically, if you tried a slice from every pizza joint in every city ... Brooklyn would be the best ... better than Rome or Naples ...