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Went earlier this week to the famed Difara's Pizza in Midwood, Brooklyn. Difara's has been named best pizza in NYC by practically anyone worth asking It really is an experience.

Dom Demarco has been working with pizzas since the old country in Italy. He's combines some of those authentic flavors and techniques, not to mention an incredible work ethic , to make signature made to order pies. There are no ingredients pre-chopped. Everything is made right before your eyes.

After rolling out your dough, and dousing it in his magic tin can of extra virgin olive oil, he'll apply the homemade sauce with juicy chunks of tomato. The he'll break apart a piece of mozzarella sparingly over the pie. Then with the application of your selected toppings it goes, via his bare hand, into the oven.

When that baby pops out, he snips some fresh basil directly on it and give it a last sprinkle of Parmesan-Romano cheese. Whomp there it is.

Needless to say this exercise is time consuming - we were there for 2 hours for 2 pies.


We went for two pies: the classic plain for true flavor critique, and a sausage/porcini mushroom combo. Damn. I mean damn. They were both cooked to perfection.

Check the photoset from the night, and watch this short movie of:

Dom Demarco at work on a Difara's Pizza

Labels: food, nyc

This past Friday we tried a new
Pizza joint on the LES called Cronkite. I went in with very high hopes after a tight review over on Gothamist. Here's how the deal went down.

Ambiance: Very nice and cool downstairs eating area. Went at about 8 on a Friday night and the place was compfrtably full by the time we left at 930.

Drinks:
Wine and beer only, none of the hard stuff which was a bummer - I was
in the mood for a cocktail. They did have a unique beer list though,
and I treated myself to a Sammy Smith Oatmeal Stout. It was
delightfully delicious.

Appetizer: Antipasti platter. Really tasty, although the sopresetta was a little meaty - for meat. The mozzarella was just right though, and the eggplant crostini was the perfect consistency

Ok let's get down to business

We ordered three small pizzas to get a sense of what they could do. On our
menu was the classic Margarita DOC, a Sausage & Broccoli Rabe number and lastly a veggie.

Margarita: Very Good. Crust and dough were just right, cheese could have had more flavor but was still respectable, but the sauce lacked that special flavor you need to go over the top.

Sausage & Broccoli Rabe: BITTER! The broccoli was just too damned bitter to make this pie enjoyable, regardless of how tasty the sausage was.

Veggie: Pretty good.

So overall the pizza was good to pretty good. Here's the curve ball, desert was awesome! Tiramisu in a sundae glass, chocolate hazelnut & strawberry gelati. And then they kicked in a free cotton candy. Yup, you heard me. Fancy-ass cotton candy. In a restaurant. It was delicious.

With the deserts it brought my rating of Cronkite up to:


*Pizza pictured is NOT from Cronkite!

Labels: food, nyc