Old Forge, Pa: Pizza capital of the world

[PizzaBrewer]

Anyone else been?   I'll withhold my comments for now...

---Guy

[Pete-zza]

My brother mentioned it to me and when I looked into the matter further it seemed that there was a special blend of cheeses that differentiated the Old Forge pizzas from others. I couldn't find what that blend was. It supposedly is some kind of secret. Do you know what the blend is?

Peter

[ilpizzaiolo]

my friend studied a type of pizza from pennsylvania that sounds close to what they are talking about. It is like a medium-thin sicilian dough, the pan oiled with peanut oil, so the dough sort of got a fried consistancy like pan pizza from pizza hut. The cheese blend was unique in that it used something like mozzarella, provolone and cheddar. The pizza also has a simple sauce. If someone is interested in the ratios, I certainly can ask my friend. This pizza maybe good, but I never understood why my friend persued this style of pizza when there are better, more authentic forms of this pizza. Such as l&b spumoni gardens, or rizzo's up in queens. If your going to copy something, copy the best. not some bastardized  pizza from a small town, that is only a success because all the other pizza is inedible.

 - ciao

 ron

[ilpizzaiolo]

i double checked on this pizza with my friend and he confirmed everything I said above, except that the cheese was 100% wisconsin white cheddar. And also that a similar pizzeria exists called victory pig pizza


ciao

[pizzabill]

I'm from PA and I've had Old Forge style pizza. It's good, but not anywhere near the top of my list of favorite pizza styles. The last one I had almost tasted like a french loaf pizza.

I will say that when you drive around up there (Northeast PA) there seem to be hundreds of pizza shops! I guess you can never have enough to choose from.

-PizzaBill

[PizzaBrewer]

American cheese.     Believe  it.

People who grow up on the stuff swear by Old Forge pizza and even brag about it with a straight face.

---Guy

[Dirty]

Old Forge Pizza is great.  And it really bugs me that all the little icons next to the OF pizza comments, are of round pizza.  Old forge pizza is rectangular.  You order it in trays, red or white depending on if you want sauce.  Also never go on a friday night if you are hungry, the service is lousy.

[Billsled]

Old Forge Pizza is great.  And it really bugs me that all the little icons next to the OF pizza comments, are of round pizza.  Old forge pizza is rectangular.  You order it in trays, red or white depending on if you want sauce.  Also never go on a friday night if you are hungry, the service is lousy.

I love Old Forge style pizza. It was always a treat to get away from the "normal" type of pizza and get a taste of NEPA pizza. Old Forge is the %$# and any type of pizza that comes out of there is awesome. Go Old Forge Pizza! P.S. I'm writing this from State College, PA where I found out that one place sells Old Forge Style pizza and I was soooooooo happy.  Go Scranton, Go Wilkes-Barre!
Bill From NEPA

[Artale]

my friend studied a type of pizza from pennsylvania that sounds close to what they are talking about. It is like a medium-thin sicilian dough, the pan oiled with peanut oil, so the dough sort of got a fried consistancy like pan pizza from pizza hut. The cheese blend was unique in that it used something like mozzarella, provolone and cheddar. The pizza also has a simple sauce. If someone is interested in the ratios, I certainly can ask my friend. This pizza maybe good, but I never understood why my friend persued this style of pizza when there are better, more authentic forms of this pizza. Such as l&b spumoni gardens, or rizzo's up in queens. If your going to copy something, copy the best. not some bastardized  pizza from a small town, that is only a success because all the other pizza is inedible.

 - ciao



 Yes !  now were talking pizza !!   
 
l&b spumoni gardens   Brooklyn   
Sicilian   oh boy

 Artale

[PizzaBrewer]

not some bastardized  pizza from a small town, that is only a success because all the other pizza is inedible.

 - ciao

 ron

Actually NE Pennsylvania does have some excellent pizza.  There's a few places I know where you can get a better slice than anything I've had in Manhattan.  Which makes the local taste for the Old Forge thing a mystery to me. 

And yes many people around here do seriously believe Old Forge is the pizza capital of the world.

---Guy

[Jpres11]

Old Forge Pizza is great!!! I've traveled to a lot of different areas in the US and have not taste anything as good as Salerno's tray of red / white..

[Gorgonzolla]

I love this stuff! After reviewing the thread I believe that this pizza is a spin-off of the Sicilian try type pizza I refer to as "Bakery Pizza". I have allways remembered this as a convienience type product that you might try and choke down on the run to fill the void. Also note that this type of pizza is poupular in every school cafeteria across the nation. I think it should be better known as "No-Fail" pizza . Is it good? It seems to be widely acceped and I think it might fall into the good eats catagory. Is the "Old Forge" tray pizza good? I strongly belive that this rendition of tray pizza is probably outstanding for what it is. But I might also add that I'm amazed at what poeple in regional sectors of the country get used to and think of as "The Norm". For instance on a trip to another part of the country that shall remain nameless as not to offend anybody, I went into a sandwich shop and ordered a roast beef sandwich and the clerk asked "Do you want real roast beef?" To that I responded...  "What other kind is there?.. Nevermind I'll have the tuna." Even that seemed like giviltafish salad. I looked around and everybody else seemed to be chowing away as if there wasn't a problem.. These poeple were acoustom to the regional foodstuffs and accepted the synthetic roast beef rendition. Personally I'd rather have a rare beef and Boursin on a twisted roll.

[bakerboy]

gorgonzolla.  well said.  I'm always amazed at how different peoples reaction is to different styles of pizza.  I'm currently reopening an old bakery that has been around since the 40's and they made what you aptly described as "bakery pizza":  basically a fast risen dough baked in a sheet pan with some tomato sauce on top.  Red Pie is what they called it.  Fairly uninteresing stuff but they couldn't make enough of it.   i've never tried old forge style pizza, i think its probably done in a similar fashion but it HAS to have more flavor than that red pie.  i think i have a pic of the red pie.

[Mahoney]

Here is a good picture of the Old Forge white pizza...

http://www.well.com/~captward/

I read about Old Forge pizza in the Donimick DeAngelis book, and I think this thread has inspired me to drive out to Scranton tomorrow and try it (I'm not that far).  If I do, I'll snap some pictures and post them.

[bakerboy]

Now THATS something different than i imagined the old forge style  pizza to be.  That looks really good....and i'm a big fan of white pie.  I also like those "double" pizzas, the kind with the thin crust on top and on the bottom.

[scott r]

no kidding, that stuff looks amazing, and it sounds like they are using top shelf ingrediants, squeezing their own olive oil at some places. Now that is serious!  Nothing wrong with scamorza.  I thought it was going to be bakery style pizza with cheddar cheese, but the cheese blend described on the website sounds like it would be quite tasty.  It looks like a gigantic calzone. And at that price you could eat for four days on 8 dollars.  Maybe the cheddar cheese is the fifth "secret" cheese in the blend.

[Gorgonzolla]

That sure is but anything I imagined! Should read "Calzone capital of the world. I can see why they're lined up on weekends.

[PizzaBrewer]

Gorgo:  The white pizza is double crust, like you see in the photo.  The red looks like the pic Bakerboy posted above, with cheese (including American cheese) on top.  Some places the cheese melts into the sauce creating a soupy pink goo on top.

I haven't had the white pizza at A & G, but the white pizza at Revello's (the favorite pizzeria in OF) tastes just like a grilled cheese sandwich.  I must say though that the photo of the A & G white pizza looks good.

---Guy

[Mahoney]

I still haven't tried the old forge style, but I did find a recipe for the Victory Pig pizza mentioned above.  This is the fried pizza style that I'm less interested in, but I thought I'd pass it along because it might be authentic and someone might be interested.  The recipe is at the bottom of this page...

http://k0lee.com/vp.htm

[Kevin J]

Having grown up in the area, I know them very well. There are at least 7 high quality Pizza shops in Old Forge. Pizza is broken down into two types there, Red and white. Some sell both types but excell at one. What is interesting is there is no one "Old Forge" Pizza style, unless you are talking about the white Pizzas, which are largely a kinda super high fat grilled cheeze....

If you go ther, it would take three days to try them all. They are truly that different. One man's opinion, Rivello's fro red, Arcaro's fro white. Also, its orderd as " a tray", never  "a pie". Just a colloquial thing.

For really unique and different Pizza in nearby Scranton, Try Pappas, located downtown. You will either love it or hate it.