East Village Pizza

There was an original wave of postwar New York slice shops, roughly 1945 to 1975, disproportionately run by guys named Luigi, Ray, and Antonino. These were Italian-American neighborhood spots that established what a New York slice should be: big, thin, foldable, inexpensive, and baked in gas deck ovens (Who even knows what Americans were eating before that? Ketchup & Velveeta on Wonderbread?)

Then, starting around 2010 - the year Williamsburg’s Best Pizza opened - came the New Wave of baking perfectionists making elevated slices. These are shops obsessed with fermentation, flour sourcing, oven temperature, etc., all in pursuit of perfecting the classic slice. These also tend to be my favorites (see my best pizzas of NYC rankings).

But there was another wave in that 1975-2010 gap (aside from Philistines putting pineapple on their slices). During that period, the slice shop became less specifically Italian-American and more “New York” - something new arrivals could learn. Immigrant operators increasingly opened neighborhood pizzerias, carrying forward the old formula like medieval monks preserving pizza knowledge in a fallen world (where Americans thought pizza came from a “hut” in Kansas). East Village Pizza, opened in 1997 and run by Frank Kabatas, belongs to this middle generation.

Despite its recent IG virality, @eastvillagepizza feels like a neighborhood pizzeria. I saw a remarkably diverse crowd and a variety of accents (from thousands of miles beyond the outermost boroughs), while the windows were covered with hand-painted Peanuts characters, aliens and dinosaurs eating pizza (as opposed to the traditional aliens, dinosaurs, and Sinatra). It feels eccentric and genuinely of the neighborhood.

The pepperoni slice tastes old-school too. It is big, thin and foldable, with plenty of cheese and sauce, a substantial pale rim and straightforward pepperoni. The top is fairly pale and initially suggests a softer, underbaked slice, but the underside was actually evenly browned, surprisingly dark and nicely crisp. It’s a classic New York slice, competently if not obsessively made. It hit the spot.