We’ve been a bit absent lately – we hosted Thanksgiving at our apartment and cooked up a storm, and we’ll be putting some of those recipes here soon. But in the mean time, we wanted to share a quick post of two great places we’ve enjoyed recently! These spots are both in Brooklyn and both serve up pizza, but they’re two pretty different atmospheres where you can enjoy pies and slices. We had a fun time going to both places, so read ahead to see where exactly we went!
First up, right near the Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo is Juliana’s. This place has a pretty storied history: while it’s only been around for about 30 years, it was started by a chef whose family played a part in two other famous pizza spots in New York, Grimaldi’s and Lombardi’s. With those bona fides, this is some seriously legit pizza that lots of people are eager to try, so if you go be prepared to wait in line outside for 30 minutes or more to get a table. With all that being said, we really enjoyed the pie we got there – just this simple margherita.
And if you want to travel a little bit, you can head deep into Brooklyn to Pizza Wagon in Bay Ridge. This spot is an old-school slice joint, where you order at the counter and then squeeze into a both to eat. We shared two different slices there – this plain cheese one …
… and this cheese Sicilian slice.
These were two fun spots to go to while exploring around Brooklyn – Juliana’s is a very popular place where you can enjoy some pizza history and sit down for some pies. Pizza Wagon, meanwhile, is definitely off the beaten path, but it’s a nice neighborhood spot that does some simple and classic slices, and despite its location and small size it’s been recognized for serving up some of the best pizza in the country. It’s a nice contrast to get to both spots, and they both go to show you that in New York you can find a nice diversity of food, even from the same cuisine, and eat great things from all different kinds of places.
Where We Ate: The Best Pizzas in Queens
One of our passions is pizza, and we’re very lucky to live in an area that has such a wealth of good options. We subscribe to the Pizza Belt theory, which states any given pizzeria within New York City and its surrounding areas is more likely than not to produce a decent pizza. But we’re not just looking for good – we want to know what’s best in our home city. And so, to that end, we recently spent a Sunday afternoon going all around Queens scouting out the best pizzas in the borough. Our quest took us to quite a variety of different places, with each stop easily accessible from the subway, and we thoroughly enjoyed all our slices and pies. Best of all, we were able to eat entirely vegetarian as we made our way around Queens. So here our are picks!
Our first stop was in Forest Hills, just a few blocks from the E and F trains. Nick’s is a small storefront with table service or takeout that’s been cooking up pizzas for 30 years. We decided there we would try this large pie with basil and hot cherry peppers.
From there we headed over to Jamaica, to a very unassuming spot a few blocks from the end of the E, J and Z trains. Margherita Pizza is a tiny, cash only space that serves up mostly slices – and it’s wildly popular among both pizza connoisseurs and neighborhood locals. They have only a few toppings available, so we decided to keep it simple and get cheese slices, which were absolutely delicious.
We next ventured to north, to an area on the border between Flushing and College Point. Amore Pizzeria is about a half-mile walk from the last stop on the 7 train, through an area filled with warehouses. We were pretty unsure if we were going in the right direction until we hit a strip mall and Amore was occupying one of the storefronts. It was pretty surprising to come upon an old school slice joint in that area, but there were a ton of people coming in and out and the place looked legit. We got cheese slices there as well, and we really enjoyed them too.
And for our final destination, we headed to Milkflower in Astoria, not far from the N and W trains. This spot is a restaurant with a full menu, offering pastas and entrees and such, but in keeping with our day’s theme we stuck with just pizza. We decided to keep on with simplicity in our pizza tastes for the day and got the Queen, made with fresh mozzarella, parmesan, and basil on tomato sauce.
It was a day well spent, in our opinion: we got to travel all around Queens to go to quite a wide array of pizza places. We visited two humble places serving up delicious slices, plus one family-owned place for pies, plus a new and creative spot – and we got to make our way through four different neighborhoods. Cyril’s favorite pizza was Nick’s, while Miriam favored Margherita Pizza. We also both agreed that Amore Pizza was the most unexpected, because we didn’t quite expect to find pizza in a strip mall, and in an area that’s much more well known for Asian food. We’re glad we got to explore and highlight some great places, and we’ve got one more adventure up our sleeves to share soon.