Baby Luc's

@babylucspizza is the casual slice-shop offshoot of @lucali_bk (often called the best pizza in NYC), and while both are made with craft, the pizza here is pretty different from its famous parent. I stopped by recently for a Saturday night slice. These are thick, rectangular Sicilian slices with a crisp, heavily baked bottom and a light, airy interior.

The crust was the highlight. It had a really nice combination of crunch and chew, with substantial char underneath without tasting burnt. The open, irregular crumb reflected good fermentation, giving the dough some character while keeping a fairly thick slice surprisingly light.

The sauce had an interesting flavor. Bright and tomato-forward, but with a slightly sweet, almost cooked-down quality that made it more distinctive than a standard slice-shop sauce. And, of course, the thin cup pepperoni was applied with little restraint, which I am generally in favor of, and had a nice, smokey flavor. While plentiful its thinness (rather than thick cut pepperoni) kept it from overwhelming.

Baby Luc’s is a very good, slightly idiosyncratic square slice that succeeds mostly because the underlying crust is so well made. Sophisticatedly simple & very tasty.