A Slice of Brooklyn, A perfect slice of NY Pizza
I know. It’s been a while. You wouldn’t believe the pictures I have of all the food I’ve eaten with the intention of writing a post for you guys and just never got around to it. But once in a while, an experience comes along that you just have to share. Yesterday was that day.
It was all kind of serendipitous really. My company put together this pizza tour and invited a few brokers and a few people from each department to come along. My boss and another colleague were supposed to go but neither could at the last minute, so there you go. I got the lucky ticket. The tour is actually one that runs regularly – they do private tours like we were on, or a public tour. They are called A Slice of Brooklyn and they offer a few different tours of Brooklyn. The one I was on was a pizza tour. Our tour guide was Marc, clearly an actor of some sort because he was on, funny, entertaining, etc. He really did make the tour. He was also a wealth of knowledge. Turns out he grew up in Brooklyn and was genuinely passionate about it (or just a really good actor) but either way it totally worked!
We took the Manhattan bridge – I’m guessing so we could see and take pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge and got all kinds of interesting trivia about it. You can actually walk over the BB and get yourself to the first stop if you wanted to do that instead. 
First stop in Brooklyn is an area called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) (Yes I learned that yesterday) Great area of Brooklyn where rents are on average more than Manhattan?! (Yes I learned that yesterday, too) Anyway – first stop was a place called Grimaldi’s.
Apparently it is one of the top 5 pizza places in all the U.S.A. The pizza tour was about getting us to try two different styles of pizza and this first stop, the tour guide called Neapolitan (as in from Naples). Although, having eaten pizza in Italy, I challenged Marc on this, because this really isn’t the kind of pizza you get in the home country. I would call this Americanized Neapolitan pizza aka thin crust. However, by way of American style thin crust…THIS is top notch!
It’s the real deal folks and the crust is PERFECTION. And let’s be honest, the crust can make or break a Pizza.
After stuffing our faces with the above, back on the tour bus on a drive through Brooklyn where we got to see Shore Road (like 8 million dollar homes) and every place we went they had infused with scenes from famous movies. Like Goodfellas:
Next actual stop was Bensonhurst at a place called L&B Spumoni Gardens.
Which is apparently known for their epic Sicilian style pizza
That would be sauce on top of cheese so the bread doesn’t get soggy! Brilliant! And, now, while I prefer thin crust pizza in general, this was fantastic Sicilian, probably the best I’ve ever had.
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They are also known for their Spumoni – which is ice cream like – and I got it because they said we should try it, but it’s nothing like gelato and if that is what you are expecting, just skip it as you will be disappointed.
The last stop on the tour was Coney Island and Marc, our tour guide’s favorite stop. He was full of info about how much it has been cleaned up and improved and how they are fighting for more sections of it to be land-marked and not destroyed because Coney Island is iconic. I’ve passed but, I’m ashamed to say, have never been; however, we may make an effort this summer as I really think the kids would love it.
After that we made our way back to Manhattan. The tour was about 4 1/2 hours long. It was educational and entertaining and all around yummy. You can catch the public tours out of Union Square for like $80/per person. However, we might be able to work on that price.
So my recommendation is to get one of these tours, but if you can’t, just walk over the BB and go to Grimaldi’s! Go here! Eat this!
Go Here! Eat This! 