This is a new place located one block from the famous Joe's Pizza (which was the location of the opening scene of Spiderman 2). Numero 28 is on Carmine, just south of Bleeker.
The owner/chef told me he's a 4th generation pizza maker from Naples and he's on been in the U.S. for 2 months.
Overall, the pizza was good but not spectacular. He had a lot of the right elements, but the big problem was that the pie was too thick and a bit gummy. I talked to him for a while. Here's the basics, directly from him:
-Caputo Pizzeria Flour,
-24 hour warm rise, but will put it in the fridge a bit as needed to delay the rise.
-He uses only a sourdough culture and no baker's yeast.
-He said it was 90 seconds in the oven, but I didn't time it.
My observations
-small woodburning oven, no door
-Very simple sauce - probably just tomatoes. Crushed with some lumps. Simple and nice but a bit bland.
-He spread the dough by pounding on it quite a bit and stretching it on a floured marble surface. He didn't hold it much or stretch it much with this knucles.
-The dough showed little potential for windowpaning. It's a bit hard to tell, because he was not trying to stretch it paper thin, but from my experience, it would have ripped had he pushed it too far. I mentioned that mine it a bit thinner, and he said that in Naples it's thicker like his. Hmmm.
-The dough had a nice char on the bottom, but the heat was not balanced. The top was too raw and blonde.
-The dough was flavorful, but too thick and gummy. When you have very high heat, and the pie is thick, the inside of the dough can be a little uncooked. This is what happened. It was pretty obvious. If he fixes this, the place could be much better.
The crust had a nice spring, but was really uncooked inside and thus it didn't have many bubbles or big holes. Much of it was left on the plate.
-There were lots of topping choices
-The cheese was excellent - bubbling without burning nor breaking down, the way that my Atlanta cheese always does. I should have asked him where he gets it.
Overall, I'd give this a 7. My guest, who's been to all the top places too, was not as generous. But I think that there was really just that one problem. But it was major and did hurt the experience.
Ciao,
Jeff
