Special FeaturesPlaybill Dives Deep (Dish) Into the Theatre District's Pizza SceneWe do the hard work of taste testing the neighborhood's pizzas and reporting back in this first installment of Playbill's Pizza Primer.
By
Playbill Staff
January 07, 2020
A New York slice is a thing of beauty—but so is a whole pie. And there are fewer areas of the city as dense with pizza joints than the theatre district.
And while you can’t beat a 99-cent slice on a street corner between your matinee and evening performances, there are plenty of opportunities to sit down with friends and family and dig into a pizza. And, this being New York City, the options are both limitless and overwhelming. That’s why Playbill, for purely charitable reasons of course, undertook the herculean task of checking out the pizza wares in Broadway's backyard.
Every week, the entire Manhattan team—from the CEO to the interns—settled down with an array of pies from the neighborhood. The conference room was transformed into a buffet where members of all departments became impromptu pizza critics, weighing in on crust density, sauce thickness, and why a smaller pepperoni is superior to the larger sizes.
In the gallery below, you’ll see classic pepperoni and white pizzas, but you’ll also see some more daring pizzas that you might want to consider the next time you sit down before or after a show.
(NB: There are many fine restaurants serving great pizzas that are not included here. For Playbill’s purposes, we stuck to restaurants, located between Sixth and Ninth Avenues and 40th and 54th Streets, that delivered to our office.)
What are your favorite places to get a slice in Times Square?
0
of
The Playbill Pizza Primer Part 1
The Playbill Pizza Primer Part 1
16 PHOTOS
Ray's Pizza: Cheese: Simple. Classic. When you're talking about N.Y.C. pizza, this is probably the most popular option, and for good reason!
Ray's Pizza: Ray's Famous Vegetarian Pie. When you think of a veggie pizza, this is probably the image that pops into your head. The perfect ratio of toppings—and you can't beat black olives on a pizza!
Ray's Pizza: Sicilian Square with Pepperoni. To quote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: "But square cut or pear-shaped..." Grandpa pizzas are a popular Playbill choice, and this one—with a deep crust, plenty of gooey cheese, and all that pepperoni—really hit the spot!
iPizzaNY: Fennel Ground Sausage Pizza (mozzarella, ground sausage, sauce, oregano). Nothing fancy here, just a great sausage pizza with plenty of oregano!
iPizzaNY: Gluten Free With Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives. Anyone afraid of gluten-free pizza should stop worrying right now, because this very simple pie was a huge hit with a very picky audience!
iPizzaNY: Sicilian Square. As one Playbill employee pointed out, the smaller pepperoni have become increasingly popular with pizzerias because they capture the oil better than the larger size, making them singularly and irresistibly crispy. And every Playbill employee agrees that these little guys make a big difference!
Uncle Mario's Brick Oven Pizza: Margherita: Playbill staffers are big fans of simpler pizzas, like this perfectly executed, slightly-more-colorful-than-usual margherita.
Uncle Mario's Brick Oven Pizza: Uncle Mario's Specialty Pizza (fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce topped with arugula, prosciutto, shaved parmesan cheese). Salty, peppery, and irresistible! For anyone who wants a more sophisticated take on a pepperoni pie, here is your new go-to.
Uncle Mario's Brick Oven Pizza: Vegetable Lover's Pizza. This one was aptly named! This amount of broccoli was somewhat surprising, but ultimately welcome as it provided yet another instance of how tasty a pizza with some added crunch to it can be.
Famous Amadeus Pizza: Caprese. Simple ingredients (fresh mozzarella, red onions, diced tomatoes, fresh basil) provide a nice mix of sweetness and crunch. The red onions turned out to be a big hit!
Famous Amadeus Pizza: Margherita. You can't go wrong with a thick, flaky crust and deep pockets of mozzarella, as seen here on this classic margherita!
Famous Amadeus Pizza: Chorizo. Throughout the process, we tried to make sure to try a wide range of options, from veggies to various meats. Here's a chorizo pizza that turns out to utilize green peppers as its secret weapon! A delicious, unexpected combination.
Famous Amadeus Pizza, Grandpa: There are those small pepperoni again! Famous Amadeus gets them even crispier, making it all but impossible to not grab a slice as soon as it's been delivered (as you can see!).
Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant, Pepperoni: A simple pepperoni pizza that proves Buca knows how to do the classics, while also creating their own iconic choices. See: the next two pizzas.
Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant, Spicy Arrabbiata (spicy Italian sausage, pepperoni, caramelized red onions, Gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone): One of the most popular pizzas with Playbill staffers (at least that seems to be the case given how quickly it disappeared!). The carmelized red onions add a welcome sweetness that melds perfectly with the spicy sausage and the gorgonzola.
Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant: Vegan Veggie. Calling all vegans! This classic pizza was a big hit with vegans and non-vegans alike—particularly thanks to the delicious eggplant topping seen here.
Surrounded by period accurate 19th-century holiday decorations lit via candlelight, the 70-minute production is based on Dickens' own script of the classic.
