Pizzacentric
66 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 7 years ago -Podcast interviews with various people - all on the topic of pizza.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
PizzaXO: Scott Wiener
June 27, 2017 17:11 - 20 minutes - 10.7 MBInterview with Scott's Pizza Tour founder Scott Wiener, June 2017
Ireland
November 09, 2015 22:57Grazing horses at the Cliffs of Moher - in pursuit of a photo like this one, I touched my forehead to electrified wire and was shocked. The feeling wore off an hour or so later :-) "People don't go to Ireland for the food, Petal." That's what my friend Angela said to me when I'd mentioned, while planning last summer's family trip, that I wasn't excited about the eating options I was finding online: very little variety, + the more differentiated and interesting restaurants were pricy (and ...
Imperatives 4 - The Pines of Rome
June 05, 2015 02:11My dad follows DC-area real estate news and for several years he has warned me that the Pines of Rome might not be around for much longer. Properties adjacent to it, he told me, had been sold to developers. Ultimately, he said, someone would purchase the Pines of Rome’s building because it’s in the center of what could be one big development. I've lived in New York City for many years, so I'm no stranger to the phenomenon of long-beloved restaurants and shops closing not because they aren't...
Quick Rec - Armando's in Canarsie
March 07, 2015 02:27Here's a cheery way to start a food story: I had a root canal a little over a year ago. More traumatic than the procedure itself was the realization I had after those three or so visits to each of two dentists: that I now have a “post” and a “crown” instead of one of my upper teeth. Looking at the dentist office poster of what a post and crown actually are freaks me out to this day. And a new reality sank fast into my knock-on-wood previously good physical existence: teeth and people are vu...
Imperatives 3 - Rented Room Thanksgiving
March 03, 2015 03:15Every year we head to DC for Thanksgiving where my parents, my aunt, and my uncle take turns hosting the big meal. The number of guests has varied ever since grandchildren arrived on the scene, and sometimes there are too many people to fit easily into someone’s dining room. My parents will host at their place when it’s not everyone; my aunt is more game and always hosts; and my uncle — since his house is too small, when it’s his turn he gets a rented room in a building in downtown DC and h...
Imperatives 2 - (My) Childhood Foods
February 13, 2015 03:19Here’s what kids do: they categorize meaningful occurrences in terms of extremes: up or down, love or disappointment, sweet treats or disgusting vegetables, the best day ever or the worst day ever. As adults we yen for a return to some of those objects or places or people or foods we’d defined as good stuff back when we were younger. Perhaps the best word in English for this sentiment is “nostalgia” – or maybe a string of words along the lines of “relational food memories of fondness.” I im...
Imperatives 1 - New Diet
January 23, 2015 04:16Coffee was the biggest culprit in my regular not-low-acid diet. For the first time in my life a certain ridiculous thought had entered my head: that a day could come when I might no longer be able to eat pizza. I had gone to the doctor to report on some what-I-thought-were minor symptoms (heartburn and stomach cramp) — and because of this she suggested some changes to my diet. I guess by the age of 47 the chance that one or more of those commercials for previously-irrelevant medicines that...
The Last Factory?
January 17, 2015 04:18Last week the news came down that Streit’s Matzo factory, which has been producing its crisp Jewish flatbreads on the Lower East Side of Manhattan since about 1915, is leaving New York sometime this spring. They've sold their site for an undisclosed amount of money. Developers will probably turn it into some sort of glass-façaded enormous condo building with apartments "Priced from the two millions.” People, myself included, get seriously sad about old places closing, the general purging o...
Italy's Hidden {Pizza}
November 18, 2014 04:20Focaccia di Recco prep at La Manuelina, in Recco. I learned last summer, on the day when we had only an hour or two for a stop in Recco because we were on our way from one place in Italy to another, that one must eat focaccia di Recco (also known as focaccia col formaggio) straight out of the oven and not from an old pie that has already cooled to room temperature. This revelation occurred to me in the corner bakery located just next door to my first choice bakery that was, surprisingly, c...
Slice Out Hunger 2014
October 15, 2014 03:22Scott Wiener, owner of Scott's Pizza Tours, introduced Slice Out Hunger to New Yorkers in 2009. ** Stats are in from Slice Out Hunger's 2014 event, which was held on October 8 at St. Anthony's Church at Sullivan and Houston Streets, in Manhattan. ~ ~ ~ 1,000 people through the door. 8,659 tickets sold at $1 each. 50 participating pizzerias donated fresh pizza pies that sold for $1/slice. Pizza came from all 5 boroughs + Hoboken, Jersey City, and Caldwell, NJ. $30,000 raised to bene...
Pizz' n the hood
October 02, 2014 03:24Corner of Henry and President Streets One rainy day last autumn while out walking my dog in my neighborhood some strangers approached me with a pizza question. “Excuse me,” one of them said assertively and with a German accent, “Can you recommend a place for pizza?” LOL, don’t you know who I am? I thought to myself. I’m Pizzacentric, and you’re so lucky to have found me! But questions beget questions not answers, and that’s especially true when it comes to pizza recommendations. What ...
Motorino & Co. - NYC's Best Fancy Pizza
June 10, 2014 03:26Jim Lahey (right), at Co. Naples-style pizza is an extremely popular style in the US these days. Yet, but for one story I posted about a single experience I had a couple summers ago in Naples itself, I’ve remained mum on the topic. That’s because I don’t always love it. Too many times I’ve left disappointed (pizza is often soggy) and feeling a little ripped off. Since there’s not much difference between Naples-style pizza and many other similar ones that don't count as Naples-style becaus...
Be Careful What You Read
March 31, 2014 18:01CAUTION: Some writers may present their opinions via a clouded lens. Some restaurant reviewers have gotten out of hand. With ease of publication at an all time high thanks to the internet, anyone can pose as an expert– and whenever they choose to, they can easily put their words out there. I suppose it’s up to readers to decide whose writing they like and what to trust. But these days there’s often no accounting for taste, and it may even be that eaters get fooled by writers who bestow und...
Argentina 3 - Elevating the Grill (Literally)
February 26, 2014 23:51We were in the midst of the 17th snowfall in two weeks in New York and I found myself wondering how I might get down to Argentina for a weekend because it’s summer there. By weekend I don’t mean two or three days (too far + it's a place too full of wonders) but rather, that any visit to Argentina – especially if you know people there – must include a weekend. Because weekends are when asado goes down throughout Argentina, and probably in Uruguay too. Asado is a daylong meat barbecue event....
Argentina 2 - Restaurant of the Year
January 15, 2014 02:33SLIDESHOW: Pulperia Ña Serapia in Buenos Aires. A pair of empanadas at Pulperia Ña Serapia. El Mártir. Walter goes over our (extensive) order with Hector. The sculpture. The food side of the menu. At black market rates, US $1 got us AR $8.5 (in 2014). Empanadaas listed top left. Beverages. A wine spritz. Steaming tamale (foreground), humido (background), hot sauce (center). A dessert cheese with some sort of preserve, perhaps quince. There it sits amongst the wicker baskets and su...
Mustard, a Christmas Story
December 13, 2013 15:57It all started two years ago when after we’d already had dinner we went to a Christmas party hosted by the parents of one of my wife’s students. It was in a lovely house with multiple staircases, tall ceilings, a great kitchen, and possibly secret rooms. When I saw the enormous spread on the dining room table I knew right away I was destined to eat a second dinner. What I didn’t know, but would know as soon as I got to tasting stuff, was that one particular item amongst the many would chang...
Argentina 1 - Pizza
November 21, 2013 16:03SLIDESHOW: Pizza at El Cuartito in Buenos Aires. One of several alluring pizzerias along Avenida Corrientes. I’m a sucker for neon signs and Buenos Aires has plenty of them. El Cuartito’s crowded entryway. Pizza action. The employees were super-friendly. This large party is out to celebrate Friendship Day, an important holiday in Argentina. Oozy cheese: very comforting Excellent anchovy pizza. A serious matter: Walter wrote down the order to make sure nothing was forgotten. Side v...
Slice Out Hunger 2013
October 15, 2013 17:48Slice Out Hunger, Scott Wiener’s pizza-charity extravaganza, rocked the Village again last week when more than six hundred people waited in a line that went nearly three-quarters the way around a city block for $1 pizza slices from 43 of New York's best-known shops. In total, those pizzerias donated 800 pies and over $20,000 was raised for Food Bank For NYC, a non-profit that provides 400,000 free meals a day for New Yorkers in need. The money from Slice Out Hunger's equates to 100,000 meal...
Patsy's in Harlem - The *First* Slice
October 06, 2013 01:40Many apologies! It’s been months since I’ve posted regularly to Pizzacentric. I’ve tried to prove I still have a pulse by sharing photos on the PC Facebook page, but - due to my involvement in a book project, and to the amount of time I spent out of town last summer, including a two week trip to Buenos Aires (about which there will be several posts) - I have had little time for Pizzacentric. I hope that’s about to change. You’d be right to remind me that I could at least have posted little ...
Frank Pepe's Limited Ed. Tomato Pie
July 19, 2013 02:13When it was time to head back to New York from Cape Cod last Friday, the hour of our departure presented an opportunity for two fine road meals. First we stopped at Barlow’s Clam Shack ("We have been cooking on Cape Cod since 1668 when Grammaw Jane Besse-Barlow was convicted of cooking and selling her fine liquor to the Native Americans here"), where our friend R. and I picked up a couple of lobster rolls ($13.99 each, served with fries). The anatomy of a proper lobster roll (and lobster r...
Maria's & Other Milwaukee Things
July 09, 2013 12:57Here I am on the last morning of my family’s annual visit to my brother- and sister-in-law and their two sons, all of whom live in farm country about thirty minutes away from Milwaukee. Between the pool (which occupies most of my daughter’s time when we’re there) and my wife’s brother’s hockey and fitness business that he runs out of a red barn, it seems we rarely leave their place and we eat most meals in. In fact, over the many years we’ve been visiting them, I can count on ten fingers th...
Toasts d'Uzer - A Perfect Party App
June 04, 2013 17:27When we have people over for dinner we try to have something ready right away. Drinks for sure, but also something to eat. Mainly due to time constraints, we don't often have a lot of time for this part of the meal. So unless the evening involves a taco bar (in which case chips & guacamole are in order), we keep it easy by putting out a few cheeses, some bread or crackers, and maybe some olives. It doesn’t take much to please arriving people. However, when there we want to go that extra mi...
Calabria
May 28, 2013 13:09Place is the place from where you sit to view the space. I wrote that sentence as the opening line for an epic poem that I started years ago but didn’t finish. Hundreds of pages of sheer poetic genius but alas, not much plot. Actually, there was a plot ― I just didn’t get around to including it. I was reminded of the sentence when I began to consider how to best describe a certain pizza experience that I had last summer in Calabria, Italy. Yes, food is important, but setting matters also...
Finally, Good Shrimp Parm in NYC
May 15, 2013 13:10I got it in my mind to pick up a shrimp parmigiana hero from MD Kitchen, a tiny restaurant owned by members of the family that owns Di Fara Pizza. Though MD is just a quarter-block away from bustling Avenue J, this part of Midwood feels different: people live here ― and some even have driveways. Because MD Kitchen is tiny and seems best for picking up food to go, I ate in the car. I would have preferred to eat on the car but I didn’t have much time and so needed to keep moving. To eat a s...
Quick Rec: Sandwicherie, Miami
May 09, 2013 13:11I have visited Miami only two times, each just for a day: first in 1998, when my wife’s family treated us and her siblings and their spouses to a Caribbean cruise that left from there; and second, this past April (2013). In 1998 we flew in, went to the beach, and gawked at the creamy green hue of the water (rollover above photo for a recent shot). My wife reminisced about the year she had spent living there and how she had rollerbladed the path along the ocean nearly every day. When we got...
Quick Rec - Japanese Rice Balls
March 12, 2013 13:14I see them in pizza shops but of course I don’t get them: I’m there for pizza. Anyway, I try to avoid reheated fried foods. Rarely, in New York at least, are Italian rice balls made fresh and not reheated or kept under heat lamps ― so they become damp with oil. On the few occasions I’ve had them, it’s been from places that fry them up fresh to order. A couple years ago I wrote about the made-to-order ones at Joe’s Superette, a now-since-closed shop in the formerly-Italian neighborhood where...
Pizza by Certé - The Trailblazer
February 20, 2013 14:15A revolution is underway at Pizza by Certé, a small shop on East 56th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Its pizza pays tribute to the New York pick-up-fold-and-eat model, but the chemical-free ingredients they use are a rarity in the slice business. And, as if that’s not enough, Pizza by Certé offers its pizza at the not-upgraded price of $2.50 per slice. Is this Eco-Pizza? Pizza by Certé has received three (out of four possible) stars from the Green Restaurant Association, a distinction not of...
Luigi's Not Messin' Around, w/Other People's Boxes
January 21, 2013 14:16I can't help but write again and again about my very favorite places. Anyway, why shouldn't I? The more time I spend somewhere, the more stories to tell. The other day, I stopped in at Luigi’s Pizza for the second time in a week. I was on a mission to photograph pizza boxes. I’d seen them stacked in tall piles around the shop and in the back, and had noticed that many had the names of other pizzerias on them. So it seems that Luigi's ― which is located on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, just a...
Restaurant of the Year - Alpino
January 16, 2013 14:17It's a family affair at Ristorante Pizzeria Alpino, in Vodo di Cadore, Italy. Before getting to the highly-anticipated (and somewhat delayed) topic of Pizzacentric's 2012 Restaurant of the Year, let's first touch upon the topic of dreams. Because whether for money or love or a new job or no job, or the clean air of Alaska, or softer sheets ― we all wish for things. I love to travel with my wife and daughter; I’m always dreaming of our next trip. I wish I could speak other languages; but at...
Spicy Pizza, Yes or No?
December 18, 2012 14:18At forty-five, I feel old. “You should avoid spicy foods,” my doctor said, as we discussed the possible causes of my recurring upset stomach. “Huh? No fried foods?” (My hearing’s not so good.) “No,” she said. “Avoid spicy foods. And caffeine.” Uh, oh. No more moderation bullsh*t like how I’ve winged it with meats and cheese and fried foods and (dare I say) pizza? It hasn’t been easy. I love curries, pico de gallo, all matters of hot sauce (except for those that are hot only for hot’s sa...
1932: Exploding Crabs & (Real) Clam Chowder
December 07, 2012 14:19Blue crabs and foods comprising crabmeat are like soul food to old timers from the Eastern Shore regions of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. But the Chesapeake was over-crabbed. Demand expanded beyond the regional population. And importers began to bring (inferior) crab meat from other parts of the world. Prices continue to rise. My grandmother was raised in a kosher home and never ate pork or any meat with dairy. But she loved crab cakes and shrimp and she broke kosher law by eating the...
Peppino's Disguises White Pizza as Croutons
November 15, 2012 14:21A partly-consumed caesar salad at Peppino's in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm a fan of the pizza at the Pines of Rome in Bethesda, Maryland. I love how the pizzamen there press the tomato sauce into uncooked dough with their fingers so that the two become one, but yet how some tomato fragments manage to surface above the cheese by the time the pizza is finished cooking. I also love the white pizza. It’s made with olive oil, shallots, herbs, and with...
Taking Ownership at Sal & Carmine
November 06, 2012 14:22They used to say it’s the water -- why bread and bagels and pizza were supposedly better in New York. I don’t know if anyone has debunked this myth but I’ve found no good proof ― neither scientific nor anecdotal ― to convince me it’s true. Perhaps it's that the skill of bread-making is not easily transferrable. I’ve seen bread master Jim Lahey sweat from frustration whilst prodding an employee to get the stretch right. The guy may have made bread but, pre-bake, it didn’t look like Jim’s...
Di Fara Weights and Measures
October 19, 2012 13:24Perhaps no pizzeria has inspired more hunger and admiration amongst pizzaphiles and food adventurers alike than Di Fara ― a classic corner joint in Midwood, Brooklyn. Lines snake out the door, the wait for even a slice can exceed an hour, and owner Dom DeMarco -- the man who makes all of the pies ― speeds up for no one. I have written about the experience of waiting for pizza at Di Fara (awesome way to pass time!) and many have covered Di Fara with reverence for this man who does pizza th...
The Lure of ($1) Pizza
October 12, 2012 13:25I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Scott Wiener L-O-V-E-S pizza ― and pizza could not have a better advocate. He runs a pizza tour business in New York. I’ve attended the tour and I’ve run into him conducting tours a number of times. It's not just pizza the food he loves, it's also pizza technology and pizza history and pizza culture and really anything pizza. Tell him about a restaurant with a destroyed coal oven buried in the sub-basement and he goes to investigate. Bring up ...
Coal Oven
October 01, 2012 13:26SLIDESHOW: Lombardi's NYC, a place where coal burns. Lombardi's current coal oven is a block away from (but at least as old as) the original. Gennaro Lombardi at the original Lombardi's coal-burning oven, c. 1956 (Photo courtesy Gerry Lombardi) On its surface, a Lombardi's pizza is a simple thing: dough, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil... ...but the flavor imparted by a coal-burning oven offers a culinary glimpse into America's pizza past. Busy but efficient...
Rest Stop France Shames Walt Whitman
September 18, 2012 13:27Ah, the rest stop. Found along an off-ramp that doesn’t exit the highway, it's a place where people refuel their vehicles and themselves and where they eliminate solid and liquid waste from their bodies — and from their pets. When it comes to eating along a toll road, there isn't much choice: just the rest stop. When my family hits the road — often with our car filled to the brim — there's no time to pack a lunch, so we either time the drive to occur between meals or we suck it up and go t...
My Naples Pizza Experience
September 10, 2012 13:28When we exited Autostrade A1 onto E45 on our way to Pizzeria Salvo in Naples the plan was to rely upon Google’s map turn details (sans cellular connection) because in Naples there are no street signs. I wondered how would we know when Via delle Repubbliche Marinare becomes Via Provinciale Botteghelle di Portici? (That was the point at which the directions said to drive five hundred meters and then turn left.) When we faced a straight road with low buildings, few trees, and litter scatter...
Italy: Coffee, Granita
July 17, 2012 13:29Over the course of several visits and with Alexia as my guide, I have learned how to do coffee in Rome. I write this on the morning of the day I will head to Italy ― and I don’t know what I’ll do about coffee: I think it has begun to disagree with my inner workings. But I have yet to celebrate Italian coffee on Pizzacentric and ― seeing as it’s summer in New York and Rome ― my thoughts have turned to granita, a coffee-, almond-, pistachio-, or fruit-flavored frozen drink Sicilians often h...
Luigi's - The Raconteur
July 13, 2012 13:35SLIDESHOW: Giovanni Lanzo, pizzaman for the people. Luigi's replaced this menu sign a couple years ago but has not raised prices. There's a lot of magic at Luigi's, but food-wise, it begins with the dough. Luigi's Supreme pie: sopressatta, sausage, green peppers, minced garlic, and homemade green herb olive oil. Visit Luigi's in late summer and you may score a slice topped with tomatoes grown by Luigi himself. Photos are from 2010. “I knew you were coming,” Giova...
Pizzawomen of Queens
June 13, 2012 13:36Back in April, as I worked on an article for Edible Queens about women who make pizza, I began to wonder: how many pizza-making women are there? I had my three for the story ― Lillian Calabrese of Lillian Pizzeria in Forest Hills, Rose and Susan Bagali of John’s Pizza in Elmhurst, and Gianna Cerbone-Teoli of Manducatis Rustica in Long Island City (above photo) ― but how many were out there who I didn’t even know about? Years ago, when I lived in the East Village I sometimes went to Five R...
Brooklyn World - Nino's in Bay Ridge
May 30, 2012 13:44My first job as a photographer was for the Courier Newspapers in Brooklyn. I covered community meetings, block parties, and press events. I made no money and it was not sustainable — they paid $7 per photo (!) and did not reimburse expenses — but I loved doing it because my assignments involved photographing people in places all around the vast borough of Brooklyn. I photographed in Canarsie, Sheepshead Bay, Bensonhurst, Flatlands, Flatbush, Midwood, Marine Park — and yes, the brownstone...
Food for Thought - Soft Shell Crabs
May 09, 2012 13:47It was lunchtime, I was hungry, and I needed cash. On the way to my bank I walked past the local fish store and asked the owner to clean a couple of soft shell crabs for me. I picked them up on the way home and brought them into the kitchen. Moments after immersing them into a bowl of milk for plumping, a couple of legs on one of them seemed to move. I thought to myself, “Oh, that’s interesting. So it was crimped up and now it’s floating out because of the liquid. It’s not alive, is i...
Quick Rec - Koronet
April 25, 2012 13:48SLIDESHOW: Big Slice at Broadway/110th St., NYC Pizzamen at Koronet combine solid gripping and body girth to maneuver pies into the oven. Five years after opening in 1981, Koronet upped the diameter of its pies from 26" to 32". At $3.75 per slice, it's a meal option as cheap as any around. Extra cheese on a Koronet slice? Not recommended. Humbled but determined. As an undergraduate at NYU I rotated through many good pizza options in the Village, but whenever frie...
Pizza Rustica: Is it Pizza?
April 07, 2012 14:08We have many names for those elongated sandwiches stuffed with meats, vegetables, and cheese — you know the ones. I believe the plural of hero — the sandwich hero, I mean — is heros. No e. I'd bet most refer to this sandwich as a sub, which is short for submarine. The name derives from its shape. Are hoagies and grinders both from Philadelphia? I believe a grinder is a cooked hoagie, but I assume the cheesesteak is Philly's best-known submersible. The contents of a po' boy may ...
Di Fara - The Wait
March 20, 2012 14:10The first thing you notice at Di Fara Pizza on Avenue J in Midwood, Brooklyn is how shabby it looks. The trash can’s mouth is overflowing — and on top of it, empty cans and bottles accumulate. If there is an empty table, it needs to be wiped off. You’ll also notice that the place is in a state of barely contained chaos. There are dozens of people waiting — but with no clear line. The list of orders is in a spiral notebook and on tops of pizza boxes — stacked at least a dozen high — and...
The Freedom of Pizza
March 06, 2012 15:10Photos by Scott Wiener, 2017 1. Me Pizza inspires passion. Whether it’s a debate about which city has the best pizza or which neighborhood pizzeria serves up the superior slice, everywhere you go, opinions about pizza are legion, arguments are fierce, loyalties are lifelong — and everyone is an expert. I witnessed that passion at my Uncle Charles’s restaurant. In 1977, he opened Geppetto on M Street on the edge of Georgetown in Washington, DC. His pizzas quickly became legendary, and ...
Quick Rec: Monday, Tony's on Graham
January 30, 2012 15:12It was the old one-slice-turns-into-two routine today at Tony's on Graham. I followed up on the plain with a slice of fresh mozzarella. Wilted basil leaves blended with a floating pool of extra virgin olive oil and created a pesto effect ― but sans pesto. I like! Based on details I received from food writer Rachel Wharton, I pictured the Tony's guys as old school Brooklyn types. They pretty much were, although I didn't engage them too much― since it was my first visit. I noticed they d...
Pizza It is A-Changin'
January 08, 2012 15:14At some point during my unhappy junior high years ― I think it was 1980 or ‘81 ― my family visited New York for a weekend. Aside from hitting certain predictable Midtown attractions (hansom ride in Central Park, Fifth Avenue, watching ice skaters) ― we went down to the Village for Ray’s Pizza ― ie. THE Ray’s Pizza ― the one at the corner of 6th Avenue & 11th Street, which served a stretchy, artery-clogging, oozy and indulgent slice of pie. The cheese per slice must have weighed at least a...
New York (Pizza) City
October 28, 2011 14:17It’s no debate. Pizza rules the New York cityscape like no other food. Stand at any Manhattan corner and look around. Chances are you’ll see pizza. In the outer boroughs — places where people often have cars — density is a bit lower, but still: pizza. And it’s not just magnitude. The pizza you find is nearly always decent. Even the 99¢ spots that have riddled Manhattan with snaking lines during the past few years of "economic downturn" produce edible specimens. Of course, side by si...