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veloce pizzeria: the latest square pizza in town
given my love of the sandwiches produced at porcetta, i was pretty darn excited to try out newly opened veloce pizzeriasince porcetta’s owner sara jenkins is half the creative team behind this sicilian pizza venture (the other owner come from the bar veloce mini chain which i’ve never tried). and since j has no problem trying out every single pizza spot in new york, it was easy to convince him to come along to veloce pizzeria this past saturday night before seeing this really great little autobiographical musical everyday rapture sung by its author sherie rene scott (and now i really want to know more about mennonites, and their shunning practices).
the big thing at veloce pizzeria is this is all sicilian or square slices. with a limited menu, veloce had five primary pizzas to choose from and two specials. we ended up with their sicilian classic called the sfincione with tomato sauce, anchovies, onions, caviocavallo and toasted bread crumbs as well as the special with capicola, fontina and red onion. the special hit the spot. the slices had a really lovely crust which was soft and airy and yet had just the right amount of chew to it, and then the toppings were also delicious with the onion super soft yet barely caramelized and the pork had a little kick to it. although the dough on the classic was equally good, neither j nor i were too thrilled with the flavors, but i am guessing that had more to do with our unsophisticated tastes than the veloce’s pizza itself. i am sure a fish loving person would love it.
in terms of how veloce’s ranks in the new york pizza world, looking first at only the sicilian slices i have tried, i thought veloce’s were much better than what’s available at adrienne’s pizza bar, and personally (though this may be considered heresy for those diehard classic pizza lovers) i thought the pies soared over l&b spumoni gardens (but they cannot beat that place for atmosphere). i don’t think veloce’s slices topped the perfection often achieved at di fara’s, but in some ways the pizza at veloce is so much fancier that maybe they cannot be compared. and i won’t even begin to try to contrast it with other pizza hot shots (with regular pies) out there like franny’s, co., lucali’s, etc….
in addition to pizza, veloce pizzeria offered a few appetizers. at the recommendation of our extremely attentive and energetic waiter, we got the crisp, fresh and crackling calamari served with arugula and lemon and it was good. other appetizers included frito misto as well as potato fritters served with prosciutto di parma, grana padano and mint. for dessert, we got the gelato. i liked the concept — serving two flavors already frozen together sliced as if they had been cut from a pound cake — but the flavors we had were unimpressive — way too many nuts in the hazelnut chocolate and a very weak, watery tasting sour cream. maybe i’ve been making too much really rich, flavorful ice cream at home lately from david leibovitz’s book the perfect scoop (most recent effort was the strawberry-sour cream ice cream with lots of crème fraiche).
although veloce pizzeria had really nice wood plank floors and the room was generally attractive with stereotypical red checked table cloths and some huge flat screen t.v.s playing black and white movies, there were some oddities. the tables were extremely tightly packed and the overhead flourescent bulbs were wrapped in some kind of wire mesh (maybe just a cheap way to make it look better?). the extra bonus was the wallpaper lining the top of the walls which was done in gold and red with pictures of zebras, giraffes and camels — not quite sure the connection to sicilian pizza but the animals were cute. i think we might have to go back to find out. veloce pizzeria, 103 1st avenue between 6th and 7th streets, manhattan, new york, .
1 Comment »
Check out the owner’s original wine bar, Bar Veloce (east village, March 2000), and then Bar Veloce (chelsea, 2005). You’ll see the “wire mesh” suspended over the bar counters. It’s simply not true that the “wire mesh” is “maybe just a cheap way to make it look better?” Just wanted to clarify your question mark.
)) I enjoyed your article though, I look forward to visiting Veloce pizzeria, I’m a huge fan of Saran Jenkins!