Best Square Pizza - Best of New York Food (2006)

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Best Square Pizza

The appeal of four-sided pizza is growing geometrically. Here, the pick of the unround pies.


Adrienne's grandma-style pie.  
(Photo: Kenneth Chen)

  • The storied L & B Spumoni Gardens notwithstanding, square pizza has always been the also-ran, a doughy dowdy sister to the sexy, pliable Neapolitan slice. But this year, thanks to the recent revival of the relatively rare grandma-style pie and impressive work by a fleet of Staten Island�based pizza trucks, some of our favorite slices turned out to be four-sided and fabulous.

  • Sullivan Street Bakery

    73 Sullivan St., 212-334-9435

    Even at room temperature and bereft of mozzarella, the sweetish sauce and barely caramelized crust make the pizza pomodoro a Roman-style work of art.

  • De Marco’s Pizzeria and Restaurant

    146 W. Houston St., 212-253-2290

    When the slices are good at this loosely affiliated spinoff of Di Fara, they’re very, very good�nearly Midwood quality. Consistency can be a problem, though. And, for some reason, out-of-the-oven pies taste better in the takeout annex than in the restaurant proper.

  • Rizzo’s Pizza

    30-13 Steinway St., Astoria; 718-721-9862

    Mecca for serious students of the thin-crust Sicilian style, Rizzo’s makes a square slice that can honestly be called a local treasure: a zingy tomato sauce; a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romana cheeses; and a quarter-inch crust with a golden raised edge.

  • Lazzara’s Pizza Café

    221 W. 38th St., second fl.; 212-944-7792

    A favorite among garmentos and square-pie aficionados, this old-fashioned, tin-ceilinged pizzeria serves its crusty Sicilian pies in ancient, oven-worn baking pans.

  • Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck

    47th St. nr. Park Ave., 917-287-7241

    The best of the motorized competition, this oven-outfitted truck vends exceedingly crisp grandma-style sauce-lover’s slices to a grateful desk-jockey crowd.

  • Di Fara’s Pizza

    1424 Ave. J, Midwood, Brooklyn; 718-258-1367

    If the deliciously oil-slicked, trek-worthy Sicilian at this venerable slice shop tastes better than the regular (a topic of incessant blog debate), there’s good reason: The sauce, unlike the one owner Domenico DeMarco applies to the round, is meat-based.

  • Adrienne’s Pizza Bar

    54 Stone St., 212-248-3838

    A rare treat outside of Queens and Long Island, the grandma-style pie�think square, Sicilian style, but thinner and lighter� is baked to crisp-bottomed perfection at this stylish financial-district restaurant.

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