Brooklyn pizza ... whole pie, minimal waiting

Ok here goes:

Luigis South Slope:

Sals Carrol Gardens/Boerum Hill:

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Fascatis

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Di Fara

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Motorino

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Paulie Gees

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Titonnos

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Juliannas

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Artichoke Basilles

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Bringing up the rear, L & B Spumoni

Warning, do not operate lighter than air machinery after a couple pieces of L & B.

Finally, and this is a new opening at the Atlantic Ave station, Rat’s Subway Pizza:

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Very true. But, weekends are for tourists!!

Fascatis isn’t what it used to be.

Hey Einstein, if you check carefully the original poster is visiting for the Memorial weekend, and is looking for places that won’t entail long waits.

Seeing those Sal’s slices brings back memories - it was my lunchtime slice spot when I was in school over there many moons ago. How is it holding up, have you been recently?

We like the pies to go, and it was close for us. It’s also open late.

The attached restaurant was famous for a while too, it got a Ramsay makeover.

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations. Our pizza adventures didn’t go as planned, partly due to weather, but we luckily managed to get Sicilian, grandma, and regular slices on Long Island before heading to Brooklyn.

Here is where we ate, pizza and otherwise:

Julianna’s: We got on the line at Saturday at 2:45, and waited until 4pm to enter (The line at Grimaldi’s was longer and unshaded). A small margherita, a small white pizza, and a no-egg Caesar salad filled us and our 14 month old. This was very good pizza, and I’m glad we waited, but like many people have told me, old-school coal oven style wasn’t earth shattering. Margherita was my favorite. Crust thinned out toward the center, and bounced back upon compression. I enjoyed the lack of bitterness in the char. Like a neopolitan pizza, the center got a bit soggy as it sat, but it was not soupy.

Frascati’s was going to be our Sunday dinner, but it turns out they’re closed Sunday night and were also closed for memorial day. Not wanting to risk a soggy delivery pizza from Roberta’s or another respected place, we ordered pasta from Aita via Caviar, and had quite a good meal in.


Vinegar Hill House: on Memorial day at 6, an easy walk-in for our party of 5. Asparagus with bottarga and ricotta cavatelli with a ramp pesto were the standouts.

Ample Hills ice cream: Forager’s Market in Dumbo has a nice selection of bougie foods and few varieties of Ample Hills ice cream. Pints of allowed us to skip lines at the Pier 5 (Brooklyn Bridge Park) location. Delicious stuff.

Mile end deli: top notch knish (served with a super garlicky sauce) put the slop at Yonah Schimmels to shane. The best poutine I’ve had outside Quebec. Montreal smoked meat was disappointing and dry, But I liked the peppery and clove intense seasoning. Cole slaw doesn’t have the oniony flavor more typical of NY delis.


Damascus bread and pastry shop: regretfully, we weren’t hungry enough to eat anything savory here, but the desserts (honey cake & knafeh) were excellent.

Kosher bagel hole (midwood): close to DiFara’s. Good bagels and bialy’s and half sour pickles. I haven’t had dry, salty lox in years so this was a treat. Good smoked salmon too.

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Pardon me if I’m perplexed since the title of your thread was “Brooklyn Pizza, whole pie, minimal waiting…”

You probably spent almost as much at Juliana’s as you would have at the River Cafe.

For pizza that wasn’t worth the wait.

Glad you wound up enjoying Julianna’s, Mile End, Vinegar Hill House & Aita’s delivery, but I have to admit that I’m somewhat confused as well, since very little of this was pizza or met your original criteria. If Juliana had an over 1 hour line on Sat. afternoon & Fascati’s was closed on Sun., both of my pizza place recommendations above, Sottocasa and Table 87, were/are close by (doors away from Damascus bakery, closer than Aita) & were open to eat in or to get delivery either day/evening. And you went all the way out to DiFara’s area for Bagel Hole? As I said, I’m glad you wound up doing well & had a nice time, but it sure looks like you disregarded just about everything you asked for.

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I’ll just add at the River Cafe they could have made a res and saved all kinds of time.

It really is a spectacular venue, even if it’s an old barge.

Hey, whatever happened to L & B Spumoni?

The plans of mice and food obsessives don’t always go according to plan :slight_smile: We visit NY every year or so and can put to use everyone’s thoughtful advice next time around (and will check hours of operation beforehand too).

I appreciate the River Cafe recommendation, it looked beautiful from the outside, but it wasn’t a good fit—- I called ahead and they told me “you don’t need a jacket as you would for dinner, but no sportswear, no sneakers” for Saturday lunch. I only had sneakers, so that precluded us from going.

I’d have preferred an easy walk-in, but Juliana’s was close to where we stayed and the line wasn’t too bad (we swapped who stood in line, under a shaded construction awning, so the other could walk around a bit). We all thought the pizza was excellent, but not OMG excellent (few things are I guess). Next time, I’ll aim for the other places people mentioned, coal oven or otherwise.

Ha, good bagels there, but I wouldn’t take the train just for that—- we went there to visit relatives in Midwood on Monday (DiFara’s is closed then). They wanted to stay in rather than go to Spumoni Gardens, which we’ve enjoyed with them before.

Thanks again for those suggestions. We’ll hit Sottocasa or Table 87 next time we’re in Brooklyn—- neither were open on Monday afternoon so we went to Mile End instead. On Sunday night I considered Sottocasa, but thought pizza might not travel well in delivery (what are your thoughts?). I had planned Frascatis because it was walking distance for takeout, but neglected to check hours until dinnertime.

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Thanks for reporting back! I know that juggling plans and logistics can get complicated when visiting- certainly looks like you had some tasty meals! And that’s great you found ample hills ice cream, although I can’t have their dairy flavors i can say they’re a destination for the nondairy ice creams. (They’re in the gotham west market in manhattan)

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I remember the days of flying across the continent with small children to visit family. Things did not always go as planned. Glad you could have some good food and look forward to your reports of subsequent visits.

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6 posts were split to a new topic: [Brooklyn] River Cafe

My experience has been that the general level of Thai food all over the West Coast is superior to some of the best Thai food I’ve had in New York, but then I haven’t had a lot of Thai food in Brooklyn. Which places in Brooklyn are better than the restaurants you frequented in the Bay Area (and by the way, which Thai places were you going to when you lived in the Bay Area)?

The Thai places in Brooklyn I’ve liked are Ugly Baby and Look By Plant Love House. There are reportedly good places in Elmhurst but the closest I’ve gotten is Kitchen 79 which happens to be convenient if I’m taking public transit to LGA. In the Bay Area, I used to eat at Lers Ros, Kin Khao (lunch only), Tycoon Thai, Amphawa, Zen Yai, and a couple of Tenderloin places that have since closed.