A Vicarious Visit to Lazzara's

This evening I accompanied J and the bro to the new location of Lazzara's, the famed Garment District pizza shop. We were in the 9th Avenue area and they were hungry, so I encouraged them to try the place, as I'd heard good things. Ever my faithful tasters, they complied.

They placed their order in the tiny shop, and we stood around and waited. Take note: this is not a typical slicery, with premade slice heated up upon order. Instead, the food is made fresh to order, which is great, except it takes a while. We waited for probably 10 mintues or so, standing there awkwardly, until finally the food emerged, and we dashed home with it.

J and the bro each ordered a chicken parmesan sub and a plain slice. When J unwrapped the sub, he exclaimed, "They're certainly not messing around"-- and that seemed true. Check out this enormous puppy:

It hangs off the table

Hot 'n' melty

Though I didn't try the sub (what with the chicken and all), if I can judge by J's half-coherent expressions of delight, he thoroughly enjoyed it. The bro also said that the sub was quite good.

But not as good as the pizza. The slice was pretty small, cut from a square pie with a heavy sauce-to-cheese ratio. The crust was very thin but not too crisp. I took a tiny bite, and even though I haven't had pizza in a loooooong time, even I could tell this was incredible stuff. Not overwhelmingly cheesy, but you could taste the freshness of the mozzarella. The well-seasoned, slightly sweet sauce came through loud and clear, and the thin crust provided the whole slice with bite. It was goooooooood.

Well melted and ready to roll

Crust shot--good char at the edge

So- the upshot of this short and unsatisfyingly secondhand review: Lazzara's is good. If you like pizza, or Italian food, or even food in general, go and check it out yourself.