Aria Nova Pizzeria

I happen to be in New York during the inaugural @newyorkcitypizzaweek, which seems like a pretty good “excuse” to add a few more pizzas to the the SliceIndex.com. @aria_nova_pizzeria, on pizzeria-rich Bleecker Street, is one of this year’s participating shops (“Aria Nova” means “New Air” in Italo-Latin)

Of course, I wasn’t paying attention and instead of ordering the Pizza Week slice, I went with the classic Margherita, which features fresh mozzarella they make in-house daily.

This is a very crisp slice. Aria Nova screen-bakes its pizza, and the bottom was deeply browned with an almost fried quality to it - crunchy and flavorful. The crust was rigid, while the interior still had enough aeration that it didn’t eat like a cracker. Parmesan is shaved over the pizza after the bake, giving it an extra salty, savory hit that worked particularly well against the tomato.

The shop itself is also worth looking around. The walls are decorated with patent drawings of pizza equipment - exactly the kind of obsessive pizza ephemera I appreciate.