An unique slice you shouldn’t order, and two Sicilian slices that you must.
Picture: Chris Crowley
Some mentioned it might by no means occur: 5 years after first saying they might broaden to Dumbo, the house owners of L&B Spumoni Gardens have lastly opened their second location, conspicuously, throughout the road from these different well-known Brooklyn pizzerias. L&B is likely one of the most well-known names in New York pizza, which is, in fact, essentially the most well-known identify in pizza. It’s dwelling to a sauce recipe that was, perhaps, as soon as stolen, which led to a mob confab in a Staten Island Panera. Going there’s a summertime ceremony of passage in southern Brooklyn. However that is their first growth after 85 years of enterprise, and I wanted to know: How does the pizza on the new store evaluate? To search out out, I hit each spots in the identical day.
Yesterday morning, I took the subway right down to Gravesend. Regardless of the dreary climate and midweek timing, there was a small and joyful crowd: A employee in his DSNY garments, one other in a Verrazzano Bridge sweatshirt, a trio of men loading half a dozen pizzas and extra meals into an MTA van, somebody taking a enterprise name and speaking about CEOs. In fact, nobody was consuming the common slice, which is a entice, roughly on par with what you’d discover at any East Village counter at 1 a.m. after too many beers.
Earlier than occurring, I’ll confess that I’ve not too long ago described L&B’s well-known Sicilian slices as “bricks,” nevertheless it was lots higher than I bear in mind. Nonetheless, it’s dense and bready, with that gummy layer towards the highest the place the cheese melts into the bread that has by no means labored for me. (It nonetheless doesn’t.) The crust of my nook slice was cooked properly and a bit blackened, and really crunchy. There’s nothing unhealthy to say in regards to the candy tomato sauce, which spills over the sting, and virtually caramelizes with the sprinkling of Parm on prime. You perceive how this sauce might encourage tales of mafia infighting.
Happy with the comprehensiveness of the analysis I’d performed in Gravesend, I hit the highway once more and made the hour-long subway journey to Dumbo. Trudging via the rain, I arrived at Outdated Fulton Avenue and located a a lot tonier house than in Gravesend, the place a safety firm’s workplace is throughout the road. There’s no outside seating on the new restaurant, and it’s a bit extra refined inside, with small black-and-white images on the partitions, an extended counter and row of pizza ovens upfront, with white marble tables. (The menu is extra restricted for now because the store is in soft-open mode, nevertheless it consists of necessities like chicken-Parm sandwiches and mozzarella sticks.)
However what in regards to the pizza? To my tastes, there was hardly any distinction between the 2 outlets. Down in Gravesend, the slices had been baked slightly more durable, with a crunchier crust. Each had that gummy layer; each had that nice sauce. Each really feel like relics of an earlier period in New York pizza, earlier than speak of dough fermentation grew to become large. (The approach would assist to lighten slices like these.) But there’s an apparent attraction to the Dumbo outpost if you happen to don’t stay close to Gravesend. Nonetheless, there’s one thing to be mentioned for a schlep.
EAT LIKE THE EXPERTS.
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