Friday, July 24, 2015

PIZZA

It should be simple; subtle yet distinguishable with virtue, taste, sauce and texture. 

It is the quintessential American food, so of course its roots are from immigrants and it was popularized by American GIs returning from WWII  who served in Italy. 

We are talking about Pizza and it's time to reveal the best in Miami. 

First, if you want to mention the chains, go to another blog. Such swill will not be given the time of day here. 

Second, we start with the reigning champ- Steve's Pizza in North Miami. It has been there forever, and its pizza is great. So we will make this post on where to get a great pizza south of 79th Street. 

A word about Anthony's Coal Fired. The pizza is great. The Paul and Ron is our favorite. All the pizza comes out of a coal fired oven, with a distinctive coal-fired taste. Anthonys is a South Florida original, and has franchised to many locations in the eastern sea board and even successfully invaded the Pizza capital: NYC (don't even start Chicago).

Anthonys is sui generis.  It is unique and has great food and great pizza, but it is not what we are after. 

What we are after is the neighborhood joint. The small place, with the pizza craftsman, who makes a superb slice, pie after pie. 

Henrys. In Midtown and soon to be in Coconut Grove, Henrys does a good job with pizza, and now offers any pizza on the menu gluten free (which is really a very healthy way to eat.). Henrys has wings and some fancy side dishes. Its pizza is good and tasty, but it is not great. 

Casolas. Ensconced on 17th avenue just off US1, Casolas is a neighborhood joint, started by a couple of brothers in the late 1970s who came to Miami via Argentina and Boston. Casolas has been around forever, and walk in late any night and see the truce between the city of Miami cops chowing down, and the bad guys they are chasing who are carbo loading before or after a night of clubbing. 
But the pizza is bad. Doughy, and chewy and lacking flavor. But what the pizza lacks  in taste, it makes up with in price and size. Each slice is the equivalent of two slices, and a pie is an enormous acre of dough and sauce and cheese and can easily feed a dozen people. The chicken wings are enormous and the best in the city and the subs can range from the good (steak and cheese) to great (the italian). But as a pizza joint it cannot hold a candle to Steves. 

The Queen.  Many years ago, trying a case before the great Jack Weinstein in the EDNY we asked our local counsel for a dinner recommendation. "Youse like pizza?" "Sure" "The Queen on Court Street is the best around." And it was. A sauce that was tomato-y, yet a hint of sweet. Fresh mozzarella. A cook that made the pizza slightly burnt and of course burned the roof of your mouth. We've been searching for the South Florida equivalent ever since. 

Pomodoros. Coral Gables. We may have found the Miami Queen tucked on a side street in Coral Gables, a half a block in from Miracle Mile. It's a small joint, with a few tables squeezed in with some seats by a railing. It does a brisk take out business, but our first hint that we may have stumbled on to something was that during lunch this week people were waiting outside to order and be served.  

The pizza came out piping hot. The crust made a crunching sound at the back as we gave it the old "NY fold" and the tip sagged under the weight of sauce and cheese. A great crust should be thin, but not too thin, with the slightest hint of pizza dough taste, and the dark marks of the pizza oven on the bottom, each pie and slice containing the marks of a thousands slices before it. 

The sauce was just right. Strong tomato flavor, and a subtle sweetness that means just the right amount of sugar was added to counter balance the vinegar in the sauce.  This my friends, is a great slice of pizza.  Check out the reviews on line. They all say the same thing- a great slice of NY style Pizza. 

We can quibble with the cheese- standard mozzarella, nothing special like you may get with the pizza restaurants in NYC that cater to demanding millennials- "the cheese is locally sourced from a family farm outside of buffalo that has grass fed cows and is 100% organic and pesticide free…"  But all in all, this is what a pizza slice should be. 

Pomodoros. *
 2413 Galiano Street, Coral Gables, Florida. 
Delivery: Yes. Reservations: No. 

What the stars mean:
* Good food. Worth a trip. 
** This is chef capable of turning out an amazing meal. One out of a hundred joints gets two stars. 
*** This is a meal you won't ever forget. Not just a meal, but a memory. 
**** Noma in Copenhagen, Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy, (tell Massimo you read our blog and he will hand you a glass of home made italian wine on the house) and no other places get four stars. 

46 comments:

  1. Claude Erskine -. BrowneFriday, July 24, 2015 9:14:00 PM

    Rocco' s on Hollywood Beach ( Johnson street? ). The owner's father was born in Sicily. Real southern Italian cuisine. They serve a good pizza 🍕 you can't refuse

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  2. Narisawa, Tokyo, Really Rumpole how could you not give it four stars?

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  3. Gaggan, Bangkok, the most innovative restaurant in the word.

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  4. Give me Le Bernadin, NYC every time.

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  5. Ultraviolet in Shanghai. The best foie gras in the world. Last time I was there It was a geezel a person including only a modest few bottles of wine ( a cab for 250 and a petit syrah for 200) . The food is the best, the music weird, the vibe amazing. A true experience.

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  6. The REN, a venue, Kendall. Kobe beef sliders. The best Veal Parm in the city. A ragu of lobster stuffed sole that is amazing, and crackling pig skin stuffed with grass fed beef marrow and roasted organic beets. Homemade pasta Tuesdays are not to be missed and they have a new pastry chef and she is turning out amazing desserts.

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  7. Come on Rump. Really. Per Se NYC. Know you've eaten there. 100 day old aged beef. Never will you find a better piece of meat.

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  8. Gotta go with an oldie- French Laundry in Napa Valley. Best salmon on earth. Soups to die for. Amazing bread. And of course the wine the wine the wine. Still the best restaurant in the USA and one of the top 10 in the world.

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  9. Jesus I eat at Shulas and I feel like a big maccha. How are you people able to fly the world and eat at the these places? Tokyo, Copenhagen, really? Really?

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    1. wow, you really don't understand how the legal system works

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  10. Kings County Pizza off 182nd and West Dixie Hwy has all these places beat. Take out only. Legit all the way.

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  11. Lucali in Sunset Harbor. You must try it!!!

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  12. PizzaFiore on 79th Street off Collins

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  13. Sorry Rump, but the best chicken wings, (on 79th Street by the way) can be found at Shuckers in North Bay Village.

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  14. Frankie's Pizza * on Bird Road serves up a rectangle of pizza goodness, with no frills. 4 stools at the counter and mostly folks waiting to pick up. Place is an icon.

    One of the best meals I've ever eaten was at Blue Water** in Vancouver, BC.

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  15. Frankie's on bird road is a unique treat. It's square, crunchy and has no peer. Also it is intimately bonded with all those Miamians who took care of their first munchies.

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  16. Frankies is a Miami original. Surprised it's still there. But that tall girl fetish they have is a little weird. Sorry cap Casolas are better because their wings are the size of small Turkey legs. Big and juicy and fried just right with all the great sauces on the side.

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  17. Favorite pizza joint: Mamma Mia's down on SW 152nd St. It's a trip, but worth it.
    Best ice cream in the world: Berthillion in Paris, France.

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  18. "Anthonys Is not great or even very good. The wings are very good. The pizza is crap. The pizza at Lucali is unequivocally superior to your list/testament to pizza mediocrity. Frankie's is a unique historical gem as is is Steve's. Sadly, Miami's Best Pizza is now shuttered. My hidden gem suggestion to the readers is Joe's Old School Pizza on Federal Highway.

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  19. Mauro's on Hollywood Blvd off of Young's Circle. No frills but great pizza by the slice.

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  20. How could Captain Justice not be Michael Haber with that comment about Shuckers on 79th St.?

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  21. Sorry Rump,

    I 100% agree with the Captain. Shucker's has, beyond a reasonable doubt, the best wings in town. Sitting on their deck with a dozen of the special grilleds and your favorite beer, looking out on the bay. Can't be beat. On the eastern end of the 79th Street Causeway, just look for the Best Western sign, park and go to the back.

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  22. I know Henry's is popular but it's terribly overrated. I agree that the pizza there isn't great. Steve's is the best; I agree. What about Andiamo? Love that place.

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  23. The Original Pizza Rustica at 9th and Washington has always been great.
    Also Steve's Pizza in North Miami has the best pepperoni pizza in town.

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  24. Norma's luster has faded. You can't be the best in the world, if you aren't even the best in the city. Try Kadeau or Studio, if you want a water view.

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  25. Mellow mushroom needs to be in this discussion

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  26. Stupid autocorrect! Noma's star has faded, Noma. As Claus Meyer's attention has moved to other ventures, Noma has lost it's luster.

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  27. Steve's sauce is too sweet for my taste. I prefer Picallos up the road off 123

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  28. Frankie's on Bird, Paulo Luigi's in Coconut Grove, or make my own.

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  29. Pretty sure you are thinking about Harry's Pizza, not Henry's.

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  30. Haber isn't Captain Justice. For one thing, Haber can't spell. Another thing is Eiglarsh confessed his identity on these blog pages some time ago.

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  31. Station 87 on 8th street has the best napalitano pizza in town. It is good by any standard.

    By the slice, the best pizza in the U.S. is joes just off west 4th in the village. In miami there is no good pizza by the slice.

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  32. I had Kings County last night, It ain't that great

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  33. Hey, maybe The Professor is Haber.

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  34. Addendum:
    I ate last night at Visa-01. It's a six table pizza joint hidden in an office building off Lincoln Road. Excellent pizza second only to Lucali. Caveat, long wait in a room smaller than Courtroom 5-5.

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  35. I like Primanti's in Broward. Great crust. Great tomatoe flavor (Dan Quale taught me that spelling)

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  36. Polo Norte, west of the Palmetto at Hialeah's W 56th street. Great lobster pizza.

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  37. Delvechio's in Broward has the best New York style pizza. Thin crust with the perfect amount of cheese.

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  38. Pizzarium on Flagler has my vote. Very underrated.

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  39. The Professor is Dan Lurvey. Confirmed!

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  40. The REN ( a venue) has that kid wonder chef Miguelito from Cuba and late one night last week the manager comes over with a plate and said the chef was fooling around with some ingredients that hadn't been used that day and made a "pizza" with pancheta, pork belly fried in duck fat and then a sauce I'm still not sure I understand but it was white and creamy and apparently had organic beef marrow as a base with some mushrooms and cream and a dash of a heavy red wine. It was beyond amazing. Each bite was heaven. I begged him to put it on the menu. The guy laughed and said every night as the kitchen closes the kid whips up some miracle dish with the leftovers and this was just one of many.

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  41. Domenico's in Miami Lakes!!!! Great Pizza and baked ziti

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  42. Di Napoli down in Pinecrest has a wood oven, has that good thin authentic crust you're talking about. It's been around for probably 25 years. Same shopping center as Whole foods.
    Much better than the Coal fired stuff which isn't well done, it's burnt.
    Also in the area, APizza Brooklyn has really good pizza as well. And they make their own mozzarella. Same shopping center where Hooligan's used to be - which actually had some of the best wings around, if you could get past the college kids trying to get in the door on nickel (later quarter) beer night.

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  43. Rick freedman is the professor

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