I believe I have discovered the best pizza in New York City, and easily the best pizza I have ever eaten. I just returned from NYC for my honeymoon, and I love pizza (and my new wife too, of course 🙂 ). One of the things I really wanted to find was a great pizza or really good Italian place. I believe I succeeded in that goal, because I managed to stumble across the BEST pizza I have ever had. It was at a place called Arturo’s in Greenwich Village, at 106 houston st.

My friend Tom had read an article a while back that explained one person’s opinion on why NYC pizza was the best around. In this article, the author cited the age of the oven, which imparts a unique flavor on the pizza crust that is not easily replicated. This flavor, called gestalt, is responsible for giving the pizza and other things cooked in the oven their distinct flavor.

It is interesting to note that when the pizza arrived, it appeared slightly burnt. The cheese and pepperoni looked good, but the crust was exceptionally dark brown. I hate burnt anything, so as soon as I saw the pie, I was a little worried. All my worry went away as I dove into the first bite. The cheese was just the right consistency and flavor, and the pepperoni was very high quality. It was very flavorful and not oily. It was not crisp like it was cooked on broil. Something I noticed right away is that despite this being relatively thin crusted pizza, there was no oil pooling anywhere on the cheese or from the pepperoni. I haven’t had thin crust pizza with this property before, and was impressed, because overly oily pizza is not fun. I finally got to the crust, which was dark brown, almost black in spots, and reluctantly took a bite. Instantly, it became apparent that this was not burnt pizza, and no ordinary crust. It had a very strong flavor of cooked bread. The kind whose crust is thick to get through, but really soft and warm in the middle. The flavor was like the smell of fresh baked bread. The crust wasn’t crunchy at all, it just had a firm rind to it, but was easy to enjoy. The flavor had just a hint of burnt crust to it, so little that I found it to be a compliment to the crust flavor, and not a detraction from it. It is important to note that the whole bottom of the pizza was not “burnt” at all,only a slight hint on the outer edge of the pizza. When I go back to NYC, Arturo’s on Houston St. is where you will find me.