Pizza fanatics may know Paulie Gee from his food blog on Slices.com. A computer geek turned pizza aficionado, Paulie Giannone built a small dome shaped pizza oven in his backyard in New Jersey and started to experiment with toppings and dough. He invited his family and friends to sample his handiwork and many of his exploits were posted on the blog. Before you know it, he cooked up a large Internet following. And now, here he is, roasting away in a gorgeous pizza joint on Greenpoint Avenue. His followers are thrilled because they can join in the fun.
His pizza parlor is designed and built by those crafty carpenters from HoME, the same team that built Manhattan Inn. And their style is very much in evidence, with lots of reclaimed wood and interesting doors salvaged from century old buildings. It looks like an old Italian inn with an odd twist — a bank of white bedroom lampshades illuminating one of the rafters. We asked the waitress what’s up with that and she said, “It’s Brooklyn rustic.”
In the hipster tradition, the menu is short, with a few salads, eight or nine pizzas, Van Leeuwen ice cream, Dr. Brown’s soda, Manhattan Special (Brooklyn bottled coffee soda), and Mexican Coke (more on that later). No liquor license yet, but it’s coming. There are several daily specials scrawled on the blackboard, giving the feeling that Paulie is just having fun and winging it, like he did in his backyard. I ordered the Moby Grape, which is essentially a Margaretta with grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and whole leaf basil. The ingredients are top notch and you can just taste the freshness—fior di latte (fresh mozzarella), Prosciutto di Parma, Soppressata Picante, speck, and arugula. But no bacon and no Gorgonzola cheese, so for now it seems Paulie is sticking to Neapolitan classics. Though the toppings are tasty and well chosen, the crust is not quite up to par when compared to Co. in Manhattan or Franny’s in Prospect Heights. It was a little bit too chewy for me. I would say it comes closest to John’s Pizza. But pizza crust is a very tricky thing. Everybody has their own preference. The 12” pies are $12 to $16, not large enough to share, but not a bad price for top-flight toppings. Paulie Gee’s is only a stone’s throw away from Transmitter Park, so you can savor your artisanal pizza by the river.
Now a word about Mexican Coke, which you can get at Paulie Gee’s. Mexican Coke is Coca Cola bottled in Mexico, it has the same parent company as American Coke, but is sweetened with sugar and not corn syrup. Isn’t it ironic that in a country where corn is king, they chose to use sugar instead? As a result, the Coke is less sweet and more natural tasting. I’m told most native Mexicans won’t go near American Coke and seek out the Mexican version in neighborhood delis. In the same vein, five or six years ago, I bought a bottle of Chinese Coke in a natural food deli in Soho and noticed it tasted a lot better than the regular Coke. I remember joking to my friend that it was probably the original Coke formula, since Coke built a bottling plant in China shortly after World War II. Now, I realize I might not have been that far off. Could it be that the whole world is drinking the “Real Thing,” while we rich Americans, the inventors of the most beloved soft drink in the world, are being force fed a cheapened product? If that’s the case, we all should be furious!
Paulie Gee’s Pizza
60 Greenpoint Ave
(347) 987-3747
www.pauliegee.com
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