In my Appetito-inspired reflections on 2024, I started with a shout-out to pizza. My sense is that I’ll be doing the same next year as I only see the appeal of pizza increasing in 2025. This is not only because pizza continues to evolve but also due to its general affordability in what I sense will be a chaotic financial year in general and in particular for the restaurant sector where myriad factors are already reaping havoc.
I’m particularly enthusiastic about the pizzerias that offer a dining experience beyond slices and pies. I think of these as more of a hybrid pizzeria/trattoria with a menu that features pizza but — depending on the establishment — can include ample offerings of starters, pastas, meats and desserts as well as cocktails, beer and wine. These are sit-down places that serve the same function as restaurants.
I’m not a “X Best” ranking guy or someone who has the magical ability to generate a numerical rating of what I consume (on the spot or down the road). I’m an experience person (and an experienced eater) who confidently (and frequently) recommends places I have been to enough times to feel thoroughly familiar. Here are my favorite such places in Manhattan to recommend, all highly-recognized for their Neapolitan pizzas but recognized by me for their complete menu, stewardship, service and vibe.
There’s not a place in Manhattan that I personally frequent or recommend more than the Song’E Napule location on W. Houston Street (they also operate on the Upper West Side and in Rutherford, NJ). Yeah, the Neapolitan pizzas and pastas and desserts are phenomenal. There’s lots of coastal cuisine featured among the savory items, but also a Pasta Genovese (veal and onion ragu) I want to rub on my neck (for some strange reason). All that said, the heart of owner Ciro Iovine informs every aspect of the experience and blesses everyone and everything within the Campanian-inspired confines.
It’s widely recognized that, over the past few years, Anthony Mangieri has become the most celebrated pizzaiolo in the world. Equally as impressive is that Anthony has remained the kind, humble, curious, passionate person that he had been all along his long road to such tremendous success. The experience at Una, in the Lower East Side, is also informed by very personal decor, a staff that doesn’t act like you were lucky to have secured one of the highly-coveted reservations, and Anthony himself, in plain sight, shaping out pies and emanating warmth.
Being named “Pizza Maker of the Year” and becoming a mother for the second time surely made for a memorable 2024 for Giorgia Caporuscio. The former honor, alongside a boatload of other accolades, is well-deserved as Giorgia’s pizza-making skills have been regularly recognized since her 2012 victory, at the age of 22, at the prestigious Caputo Cup competition in Naples. Don Antonio is surely a destination for anyone seeking elevated pizza in Midtown with over 30 Neapolitan pies on the menu and seven variations of Pizza Fritti (fried and deep fried pizza), as well as seasonal pizzas, calzones, salads, small plates and desserts. There’s no pasta, but the curated wine list and extensive, innovative cocktail menu add to the experience. Bonus points for having gluten free options for every offering. Plus, Giorgia rocks.
The OG of Neapolitan pizza makers in New York must be Roberto Caporuscio (father of Giorgia) who opened the original Kesté on Bleeker Street in 2009 and now operates out of a cavernous space on the bottom floor of a residential apartment building in the northeast corner of the Financial District. The extensive and exquisite pie menu (also available gluten free) is buttressed by an array of apps, salads, panini, and desserts. The full bar menu has among the best Italian wines available by the glass (at very reasonable prices). A sausage and pistachio Neapolitan pie washed down with a glass of Barolo…Been there. Yeah.
The newest addition to my pizza recommendations is a franchised version of Naples’ famed antica pizzeria (founded in 1870). There’s nothing “antique” about the New York location opened in the spring of 2023 in a light-filled, brick and wood accented space where Greenwich Avenue meets Bank Street in the upper reaches of the West Village. The elegant decor in the spacious barroom extends to an even larger area in the back for dining with even more seating downstairs. The concept is also distinct from the namesake with all day offerings from extensive menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The pizzas are classic Neapolitan and very good, often delivered to the table by the pizzaiolo, but I’m equally impressed by the pastas (a “Genovese” made from short rib as opposed to traditional veal), starters and mains.
