Yesterday we took the third leg of our pizza crawl to Grimaldis in Brooklyn. Having met some fellow board members and members from other boards was surely the highlight as the pizza sucked. Mind you the line was never less than 80 strong and maybe as much as 120 at a point I go to wondering: At what point does quality shoot out the smokestack to make way for numbers…big numbers.
To start with I had seen more Central Americans making pies than Europeans, or more pointedly, Italians. Ok I can get beyond that as it’s the way of a big city like New York, and I am sure there is many a competent cook amongst that community, but let’s talk pizza. It was…bad. The crust was soggy and the sauce uneven. We had a regular cheese, a regular cheese with pepperoni and sausage and a regular cheese with extra basil. The basil was good. 3 pies, 3 sauces? Nope, just not any consistency with them. One was flat and unsalted, one was globby, and one was ok. The crust on the first was burned. I know burned and I am a big proponent on charring, but burned is not good. The 3rd had the least burned and my wife was actually able to eat a slice, almost. Watching the pizzaioles ake the pies was strange as well, no real rhyme or reason, just sort of building and cookling, and the results showed.
I don’t quite know what to say beyond…wow. I have had Grimaldis before but remember a much better experience. Maybe it was touristy Saturday? Maybe not caring? I have heard rumors of a sale, so that could be it. Whatever it is does not bode positive for the future of Pizza Hierarchy in NYC.
“To start with I had seen more Central Americans making pies than Europeans, or more pointedly, Italians.”
There is an Italian comedy whose name I forget where the big boss of the local mafia comes into a pizza joint and immediately falls to the floor. Just as he does so, the guys behind the line making pizzas open fire. The boss’s bodyguards shoot the hit men and then ask the Don, “How did you know?” to which he replies, “In Rome all of the people who work in Pizzarias are Egyptians and Africans, those guys were Sicilian!”…
I’ve only been to Grimaldi’s once, but it was a perfect experience. A beautiful spring day in NY, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, the line was only a 15 minute wait, and the pizza was excellent. I doubt any of the cooks were actually from Naples, but they did a fantastic job. I’m going back next month when I’m in NY.
Naples and enthused? Too much to ask for. Less of a factory line and maybe a bit more care should not be.
Keep us posted on your experience. Everyone has bad days and maybe it was just that, but not that Ihave mentioned it to a half dozen people in person, 4 tell me they heard similiar bad reports.
the one time I was at Grimaldis, I found it to be quite good…I really liked the olive pie with good olives (kalamata if I remember correctly)…but when I was there it wasn’t very busy, so maybe that has something to do with it…I can imagine if you have 80-120 people to get through, quality might dip