On my 40th birthday last December I awoke in a hotel room in Florida to be told that my present from Darren was to be a trip to New York. Gifts don’t get much better than that and last Thursday we tootled off to belatedly celebrate the start of the second half of my life.
New York was hot. Very hot and humid. We coped though. Soldiered on with barely a moan about sweaty undercarriages and non-air-conditioned boutiques. We arrived early afternoon and, after dumping our bags in our lovely AC controlled room in Chelsea, we bimbled on down to Greenwich for the evening. First stop and first pizza of the trip was at Johns. This place is recommended by pizza aficionados all over the web and has been making full pies (no slices) since 1929. We had the classic plain cheese version washed down with beer and pepsi. It was served straight from the coal fired brick oven and was super crispy and delicious. I’m not going to write tons of stuff about the merits of each pizza that we ate so I’ll just tell you whether it was good or not. This pizza was great.
Two hours later we’d strolled into the East Village and came across a Two Boots pizza place. Compared to some of the places we would sample pizza at over the next few days, Two Boots were considered the new boys on the block. They’ve been collecting fans since 1987 and now have several locations in NYC and even have their own art cinema attached to one of their restaurants. They serve slices too which was good as we’d had a whole pie just hours before. I went for the Cleopatra Jones which was loaded with spicy meats and peppers and Darren chose the Siciliana which was thick, doughy and meatily spicy. We ate them sitting in the window watching New Yorkers dashing home from work. Two Boots pizza was very good but not great like Johns. Maybe it’s got something to do with the ‘pie -vs- slice’ thing. Slices come from a pie that was cooked maybe an hour ago and are reheated back in the pizza oven whereas a pie is lovingly made to order from scratch and served immediately. As if this cheese overload wasn’t enough we ended the evening with an early night and a pint of Hagen Dazs each while watching telly. Fat bastards!

Our messy room, Johns Pizzeria and our pie. (click to enlarge)

Two Boots slices, Dave and Darren defy the evil humidity. (click to enlarge)

Coming soon: rollercoasters, movies, more wicked weather and a day with Joe and Terrence.