Totale Pizza
Continuing the theme from the last post about the excellent pork chops and fried chicken legs, today let's talk about pizza. As simple as fried meat on rice with meat sauce and pickled vegetables, the pizza is usually just dough, cheese, sauce, toppings. It's funny because growing up in the midwest and the south, pizza usually meant Pizza Hut. Then around middle school, Papa Johns started to get big with those buttery dipping sauces for your crust and the peppers. Anyone know if they stopped doing that to save money? And of course there were cheap pizzas like Little Caesers. In central Ohio, there was a chain called Donatos that had good-ish thin crust pizza. At least I enjoyed it very much... it was addictive as hell. But all this to say that I mostly ate Pizza Hut growing up. Now that I've had all these fancy Neapolitan pizzas that's all the rage, I have to say that I miss the simplicity of craving a pan pizza from the Hut. No, seriously. You pay like $12 bucks and the pizza fills two fat kids to the brim. What is not to like about that? If this was the real life version of Allegory of the Cave, I'm the guy thinking, "Dayum! I miss them shadows." Since life doesn't occur in a cave, I think the thing that I miss the most is value. I love pizzas at Co (co-pane) and Motorino, but they're not cheap. So when Steph and I saw Totale Pizza on Saint Marks selling pizzas for no more than $13... well, we had to try it.
The thing about the fancy pizza movement is that it's all these personal pizzas. They're entree-sized and meant one per person if you're not sharing. You miss out on the Midwestern sensibility of eating til you burst. Now I suppose eating less and enjoying it more has some merit... but why can't we eat more and enjoy it more? Why can't I be a greedy American? huh? Totale totally takes the current pizza model and flips it because they're serving pretty good pizza for what seems like a lot less. Sure, maybe the difference between an $11 dollar pizza and a $16 dollar pizza is just five dollars... but Totale Pizza feels like a deal. You still get a pizza to yourself, it's still made to order in a cool looking over, and it has all those characteristics that other fancy pizzas have.
We tried two pizzas, one was a white pie called the Bianca. And another one that had priociutto on it. I liked them both, maybe favoring the priociutto one a bit more. I know some people wanna get all into the math and calculate price per square inch. Look. these pizzas are no smaller than what is at Motorino, and as a cheap ass chink, I can tell you first hand that these pizzas are legit and way more friendly to your wallet than their competitors. I don't know if they're doing daily/weekly specials yet, but they definitely should because that keeps the customers happy with some variety. When we visited, they hadn't installed the A/C and let me tell you... eating pizza on a 86 degree day without A/C in the same room as the oven is uh... awesome. They've since installed some A/C so it would make the eating experience that much more pleasant. Definitely get out there and try Totale Pizza. It may not be like Motorino a few blocks away, but it's a little cheaper and not as far to the east. All in all, a great addition to the fooding landscape on Saint Marks in the East Village.
Totale Pizza
36 St. Mark's Place.
New York, NY 10003
212-254-0180
The last pizza picture looks over cooked. I wonder if it taste good?
vanesa
July 24, 2010 11:01 am
Of the suddenly trendy, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzerias that perpetually crop up in the city, I think Totale's definitely top dawg. Cheapest prices, least soupy, and best crust. I just went and wrote about this place today, actually, and I thought it was pretty good! You should try the margherita pie -- pretty classic. Here's what she looks like: http://www.wordshalfeaten.com/totale-pizza-sundaes-cones
Allix
July 21, 2010 12:16 am
Yea, I passed by this place, but when 2 Bros is just next door, $1 pizza led my wallet there. One day. I'll try it. How's the cornicione? Looks a bit burnt.
I also grew up on Pizza Hut and the local pizzaria. Now that I think about those forgotten slices, they're all imitation cheese and watery tomato sauce, but heck, brought back a lot of fond memories.
kim
July 20, 2010 5:48 pm
High five for Pizza Hut guys!
Seriously though, I think even after trying Motorino, Difara, and all those fancy pants pizza places, I still like the oily bread crust of a Pizza Hut/Dominos/Papa John's pan pizza. It's just an oddly satisfying feeling of being a glutton, and indulging in something so cheap and magnificent... the advent of the 5-5-5 deal never tasted so good :)
To answer your question, Papa John's still does that garlic butter package thing in every box.
Nicholas
July 20, 2010 7:01 pm