Lunch today at Scarr's Pizza.
My approach to eating/dissecting the pizza was a little bit different than some of my other pizzeria visits, as my focus wasn't solely on the pizza. Instead, I was engaged in lively conversation with Quiet Desperation
It was great to finally meet a forum member in real life!
Also, when we were leaving the pizzeria, Scarr was hanging out on the sidewalk with a couple friends. The 3 of us chatted for several minutes. We didn't get too specific into ingredients or the pizza itself. He talked a lot about how NY slice pizza has changed (degraded) over the years. That pizzerias use bad ingredients, but that the tourists don't know any better because it's still better than anything they can get where they came from.
Scarr said his pizza was different. He uses the best ingredients, and its organic. The result is that you don't feel sick after it, he said. Personally, I still think some of this is marketing. I do think he uses good ingredients and cares a lot about his pizza. But while we do buy some organic products at my house, I still don't think it makes a real difference. He did say something to the effect of milling his own flour isn't marketing, it really makes a difference.
We also chatted about different pizzerias, and some other pizza-men he knows, primarily Paulie.
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Ok, on to the pizza. QD and I each had a slice, and we split a Sicilian. They were re-heats.
Overall, I liked this pizza. I was especially pleased that it was seasoned and had a good amount of flavor. After the first bite I said I was reminded of the Sicilian Oregano I use. I'm not sure that was it, but I was clearly hit directly with oregano. There was basil in it too. And atleast one hard cheese. You can see in one of the photos where the mozz didn't quite get to the rim, that there was a lot of hard cheese.
The tomato itself wasn't super present. I think the reason, is that there just wasn't that much sauce on the pie. QD said he prefers more sauce, and I do as well. I wouldn't say it was significantly undersauced compared to an average slice, but it was nothing like the sauce-heavy pies in Queens.
The sauce is also fairly thick. This, and the fairly modest amount, meant that the slice didn't really have any juice. No real grease. Nothing dripped. I don't know if the re-heat impacted this, but I don't think it would've made much of a difference based on how the pie was topped.
The mozz cheese was fine, nothing really to say. Again, the flavor was driven by the herbs and hard cheese.
The crust had a nice structure. No flop when holding the slice, but very bendy and no chance it would crack. QD commented that it got tough as it sat, and I agree. It also just seemed to add to the overall dryness of the pie. But hey, I prefer a high-oil dough. The undercrust coloration was interesting, you'll see the contrast of black areas. I went basically right up to the oven (this place is tiny), but I couldn't read the temperature gauge. It was as if it was fogged over. But I took a picture where we can see the needle at least. QD asked the temp, and guy said "uh...600 to 700". I thought, "ok, usual BS answer". But given the undercrust, who knows, I guess he could be baking hot.
The Sicilian was ok. Very crispy. I agree with QD's assessment that it was like a focaccia and that it was baked with a good amount of oil in the pan. Given the sauce was on top, I would've expected it to be very saucy, but it wasn't. (The upside down Sicilian at Suprema was loaded with sauce, actually too much for me). Not much more I can say on this one.
As I said, overall, I liked the pizza, and I was happy to see someone using herbs and hard cheese. But not a slice that hit my tastes. A very good experience though. And Scarr seemed like genuine guy.
Oh and bonus points for leaving a small pitcher of water out with cups for customers to help themselves. I've never seen that before.
