Totonnos

Just as Matt and my pizza tour was kicking into high gear a couple years ago, a pizza tragedy struck. Totonno's pizza in Coney Island, one of the grand dames of pizza places, was hit by a fire. It was closed for quite a while but reopened about 10 months ago.

Last month, Matt and I finally made it down to Neptune Ave to see how Totonnos stacked up. We expected a super long line, but thankfully we were one of only 4 couples in the restaurant. We made a rookie move and asked for a menu-- the menu is above the front counter. But we recovered. We ordered a 1/2 plain, 1/2 garlic from Louise, the owner, who wasn't midwest friendly but seemed happy enough to have us there.

Check out Small Bites blog for another interesting review and photos.

Wow, do we love Totonnos. Mike (who I think looks like you know who from You Can't Do That on Television) makes a mean pie. The bottom of the pie was nicely charred by the coal oven, but not too charred. The crust was soft and chewy. The cheese was enough for me but not too much for Matt. The sauce was nice and tangy. I preferred the plain but the garlic was good too.

How would it fit in my top 10 list? Definitely top 5! It compares most closely to Lombardis and Grimaldis, but it is probably my favorite of those three by a slice.

Month in Review

A one month blog hiatus... Wonder if I should stop until the new year... or maybe 5 years of blogging needs to be enough. I don't know.

But I've done some fun things in the last month, here's an update:


Heather and I continued our city walks with a stroll across the Manhattan Bridge. I've now walked BMW-- the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges!




And Mom and I took a road trip with Katie to Scranton, PA, where she ran the Steamtown Marathon. Well Done Kater!

While in Scranton, we began to hear that Old Forge, PA was the "pizza capital of the world." Of course I could not leave town without testing that title. Not every restaurant is open on Sunday, but we were glad that Revellos was! As the photo shows, Old Forge pizza is square. The crust is light, almost like foccacia or those prebaked rolls you buy frozen at the store and heat at home. The sauce is tangy, a good tomato flavor, with even a little bit of spice. I read that the cheese is brick American cheese. Frankly, after 26 miles, Katie would have eaten anything. And I am always up for a new kind of pizza. That said, I will not be racing back to Old Forge for pizza any time soon. The cheese melted to the point that it was gummy and stuck to the roof of your mouth. Definitely not full milk moz or grated grana padano. Seems that the title of pizza capital of the world has more to do with the pizza shop per citizen ratio-- I forget what the number is but puts NYs ratio to shame. I don't like to give bad reviews, but the pizza capital of the world title seems to do more with quantity than quality in this humble blogger's opinion.