Lombardi’s
1/2
The oldest pizzeria in the U.S.? The oldest coal-burning oven? Something
like that. Many swear by Lombardi's. However, I just sort of ended up there.
I'd wanted to go, but on this particular evening, Raoul's was the plan.
Twice the price, triple the crowd and who knows what else. I just wasn't in
the mood for a sceney place (I mean, the "New York Times" claims it to be a
favorite of Matthew Broderick and Gwyneth Paltrow, and who needs that). It
was freezing, and even though we were supposed to be a bistro mission, but
in the back of my head I was thinking how good an old-fashioned piece of
pizza sounded (actually I was thinking how great a Hawaiian pizza sounded,
but that's blasphemous in N.Y.) so we headed east for some simpler fare on
Spring St.
It was a house salad, a large sausage and mushroom pie and root beer. I
don't know where the root beer idea came from since I never drink soda and
it's not like this is Pizza Hut. All was good and low-key, and we ended up
sitting next to the third guy from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?." Not George
Clooney and not John Turturro–the other one (who I just looked up so as not
to sound uninformed–it's Tim Blake Nelson). Who needs Gwyneth, right?
I only regret leaving the leftovers in James's fridge. I meant to bring
a piece to work for lunch and I fear it'll be gone by the time I make it
back over there. (Yep, they were gone when I checked the next night.)
Lombardi's * 32 Spring St., New York, NY