“Have you ever eaten pizza for all three meals in a day?” I asked Ted as we walked up Broadway. We’d already decided we were having pizza for brunch and dinner that day.
“I don’t think so,” he laughed. “Have you?”
“Yep,” I answered. It was back in college. I tried to recount where each pizza came from, but could only guess that one was a frozen pizza, one might’ve been delivery and I was pretty sure one was from Schlotzky’s Deli.
Hop aboard the pizza train! We’re you’re conductors Ted & Shayne. Final stop: Bushwick.
After a night at Flaming Saddles (basically the coolest gay cowboy bar that anyone could dream up) capped off by three too many Painkillers (man, they’re just so tasty!) at Reunion Surf Bar, Ted and I awoke intact and ravenous. I was in town for his going away party. After more than a decade in New York City (we moved there together back in the day), he was off to LA, and I had to have one last hurrah with him before it was all over.
All aboard the pizza train!
First Stop: Marta
When Ted suggested we hit up Danny Meyer’s new pizza joint Marta in the Flatiron for brunch, I said, hell yeah! We arrived to this sleek, sexy, yet still warm and cozy restaurant in the lobby of the Martha Washington Hotel and snagged two seats at the bar where we proceeded to execute the perfect order starting with two Bloody Marys, our bartender was even taken with us!
First Course:Â The kale salad we manifested on our walk over, craving some restorative greens, was on the menu! We ordered the small Cavolo Nero Salad with kale, meyer lemon and parmigiano. It was bright, acidic and savory, and perhaps the most perfectly textured kale that I’ve ever had. It was so soft, yet crisp, you could almost describe it as fluffy.
We also ordered the Suppli Alla Terrazza, green risotto croquettes with mozzarella and mixed herbs. It was basically the ultimate mozzarella stick, crispy on the outside with fresh mozzarella oozing from within the rich risotto.
Main:Â We opted for a pizze bianche, the Cavolini with Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, pickled chili and parmigiano with a fried egg on top. Talk about the ultimate brunch pizza!
The masterpiece that is Marta’s Olive Oil Affogato
Dessert:Â Two cappuccinos and then one of the most emotionally evocative desserts to date, the Olive Oil Affogato. Allow me to paint the picture: a dense ball of vanilla gelato is topped with a crumble of honeycomb candy and encircled by delicate slices of kumquat and slivers of blood orange. The waitress pours a beautifully verdant olive oil on top and sets the plate in front of us. Our bartender boyfriend coos, “It’s a very special dessert.” And advises us to strive for the perfect bite with all elements on one spoonful. It’s an exquisite symphony in your mouth.
Second Stop: The MoMA
“Memory of Oceania,” summer 1952- early 1953. Photograph: Succession H Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. This was one of my favorite pieces. It’s meant to represent a boat and Matisse described the orange paper in the right corner as the Tahitian sky at sunset.
Okay, admittedly there was no pizza involved in the second stop on the pizza train, but catching Matisse’s Cut Outs exhibit before it closes February 10, was a high priority stop on this trip. While the MoMA was positively swarming with people, the entire exhibit was such a delight. Matisse has been one of my favorite painters for years and it was fascinating to learn more about the process involved in creating these elaborate cutouts towards the end of his life when he was wheelchair-bound in Nice, Paris and Vence.
We learned that he worked with assistants who painted the pieces of paper with gouache to achieve the rich saturated colors (clearly a precursor to construction paper and collage!) that we associate so much with his paintings. He’d cut out the shapes, often organic and amorphous, and then have his assistants pin them to the walls upon his direction, creating entire worlds surrounding him. And they weren’t fixed creations. He’d constantly direct his assistants to change the configurations in a sort of slow capture animation, and when you view the works, you can see all the different pin pricks in the pieces of paper.
By the end of the exhibit, you’re enchanted by his worlds of swimming pools, his signature nudes, goldfish, pomegranates, seascapes and depictions of his own studio. The exhibit is expertly curated taking you on a journey from the small scale and commercial work on magazine covers to all-encompassing, abstract large format pieces. As Matisse put it, it was in a quest of resolving “the eternal conflict of drawing and color.”
Third Stop: Roberta’s
As we journeyed on the L train deep into the heart of Bushwick, I said to Ted, “I want to eat so much pizza that I’m completely stuffed, not just enough that I’m merely full, okay?” He laughed and agreed. He’d long waxed romantic about this place Roberta’s, so I demanded that he take me there, not just for the pizza, but also for the Bushwick experience.
It was dusk as we got off the train and took in the graffiti art on our short walk to Roberta’s where we met my brother Brett and my friend Rebekah. With exposed concrete cinder block walls, long wooden picnic bench seating, wood-planked ceilings and a cozy back bar all strewn with knick knacks and funky art, the place has a sort of hipster ski lodge vibe to it. We put our names down for an hour wait and then proceeded to the patio bar that was “fully winterized” where we were able to snag a first come, first served seat and ordered right away.
Here’s what we had:
First Course:Â Brussels Sprouts with apple, bianco sardo, sunflower and egg to sate our restorative greens craving. And the Kyoto Carrots with grilled mussels and lime. Pretty delic!
Pizzas:Â These are the pizzas we had in order of favorite. At the end of the meal, we each weighed in on this order, and the list below represents my opinion only. Please note: They were all the bomb!
Behold, from left to right: the Lamb of God, Good Girl, and Speckenwolf . Bee Sting was already eaten at the time this photo was taken.
1. Bee Sting- This item was not on the menu, but Ted knew to order it anyway. It had spicy soppressata topped with honey over melted mozzarella and tomato sauce on a crisp, slightly charred, yet chewy crust. It was melt-in-your mouth divine. Like an elevated pepperoni pizza.
2. Good Girl-Â This one was my contribution to the order. Made with taleggio, pork sausage (I love a good sausage pizza!), garlic and chili, it was topped with copious amounts of crispy kale (restorative greens). Yum!
3. Speckenwolf-Â A classic-a pizza pie-a! Speckenwolf had mozzarella, speck, mushrooms, onion and-a oregano-a!
4. Lamb of God-Â This one was sort of like a salad pizza: tomato, ricotta, parmigiano, lamb sausage, escarole, onion and chili.
In the end, I achieved my goal of being totally stuffed and Roberta’s is an experience I’d recommend to anyone.
Sorry there’s not more pictures! Remember, I lost my iPhone! All photos in this post by Ted Donath (except for Matisse). Follow him on Istagram, duh!
Will you please tell me about your favorite pizza in New York City or otherwise? Please be as passionate as possible in the comments below!
