Serving the Fleetwood section of Mount Vernon for over 40 years, Joe’s has been making pizzas since 1972. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this old school joint; so I expected a somewhat special pie. What appears to be a thick, heavy & doughy football pizza is actually rather thinnish and reasonably light compared to typical football pies. The dough has a respectable amount of crisp, a no-flop firmness and beautiful char on the undercarriage with that taste only dough made with New York City water can deliver. Despite the thickness, the crust is actually light and airy with a tremendous cracker-like breakaway crunch. The texture of the dough is pretty unique with a sensational smokey flavor from the char. As you can see in the picture, they need to use bigger boxes for their whole pies; this pizza is really jammed in there, overflowing with the crust folding up. They use Grande mozzarella, a top quality, low moisture, delicious shredded cheese blend, producing virtually zero grease or drippage. I was hoping the sauce would be an absolute stunner to send this pie into travel-worthy territory; but unfortunately, the better-than-average sauce isn’t a difference-maker. Hearty and sweet enough, with decent tang and mild kick, the oregano really neutralizes the overall flavor of the sauce. Very serviceable but it just doesn’t dazzle enough to push the score into the 8s. Overall, this pizza is well above average but not quite travel-worthy. The ingredients are quality but just not flavorful enough to elevate this pie’s rating. If you’re going to make a pilgrimage to Mount Vernon, Johnny’s is the spot for elite pizza. While Joe’s is very good in its own right, it’s just not as spectacular as I had hoped.
