Hollywood North Pizza & Pasta

Open since 2009 on Beekman Ave in Sleepy Hollow, NY…not sure where the Hollywood North name comes from; it’s a bit confusing though. I love the irregular oblong oval shape of the pie; it’s actually a football-shaped football pizza. This pie was clearly hand-made, not a standard cookie-cutter perfect circle pizza. Unfortunately, the taste is flatter than a deflated football. The dough is boringly bland, super soft, thick & bulky, in need of significant crisping. They use Grande mozzarella which is really good, a tad too thick and just doesn’t pop because of the other lackluster ingredients. The biggest problem with the pie is the dearth of sauce. Lacking in both quantity & flavor, the sauce is spread scantly and overpowered by the flavor of the mozzarella. This is basically cheese melted on soft & thick dough with a light smattering of sauce. The people who run this joint are incredibly nice; I wish I could give them a higher score. Without factoring in their hospitality, this just isn’t great pizza. If they add more sauce and leave the pie in the oven a little longer, maybe the overall rating could break into the 7s. But as it stands, a 6.6 is a very fair and unbiased score.