Despite the overused pizzeria name, this “off-Broadway” joint established in 1972 actually has some pretty good pizza. Relatively thin for a football pie, the dough is tasty with beautiful char on the mostly firm undercarriage, covered in semolina seeds all over to prevent sogginess, giving off a rough & rigid sandpaper-like texture which doesn’t affect the taste of the pie, keeping it crunchy and dry. There is some minimal floppage near the tip of each slice, mostly due to the weight of the cheese. The crust is incredibly deceptive as it looks thick and doughy; but it’s actually light, airy and crispy. A mostly standard blend of shredded mozzarella, the cheese is a smidge too heavy. Melted well with very good consistency, just a little too thick, throwing off the balance of the cheese-to-sauce ratio. Somewhat undersauced, there’s still a zesty and tangy flavor from what little sauce I could decipher, which appears to be watery, thinned out crushed plum tomatoes as opposed to a tomato sauce purée. Mostly piled up along the bottom near the crust, the rest of the pie left me searching for substantial amounts of sauce. Not an overly oily pie, despite a slightly salty flavor and orange appearance. Even though the majority of the pie is tasty and flavorful, the sauce needs more of a presence to rate higher. I had zero expectations going in; but this is a better than average pizza with just enough uniqueness to separate it from typical football pizzas. Pump up the volume of the sauce, decrease the amount of cheese and this fairly thin, mostly crispy, delicious pizza could climb in the travel-worthy 8s.
