After leaving the Bay Area in the morning and making the four hour drive to South Lake Tahoe (stopping at In N Out along the way, of course), we arrived at the lovely little house we rented for the next few days. We were joined by Claire and Sean’s friends, M and D. The house was perfect for the six of us – 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big living room with adjoining dining room, and a large pass thru kitchen. Plus we had a private hot tub just outside in the backyard!
After settling in and unpacking our things, we were all tired and starving so we decided to head out and grab a bite to eat. After debating what kind of food we wanted, we all agreed that pizza would be the best option. A few iphone searches yielded several choices, and the one that seemed to have the most positive reviews was called New York Pizza.
Being from NYC, we were obviously a bit skeptical but were also curious to see if they really had replicated NY-style pizza. We got to the restaurant and it was totally packed, which was a good sign. You’re supposed to seat yourself so we hung out for a bit by the bar and waited for a table to free up. I looked around the restaurant but the décor didn’t really remind me of any NYC pizzeria. It actually kind of looked like a party in someone’s basement or rec room, with brown carpeting, long tables covered in black plastic tablecloths, and a big screen tv set up in the corner. The only NYC indicators were NY license plates and pictures of the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and the Brooklyn Bridge hanging on the walls.
We managed to score a table after a short wait but it took a while for someone to clear and wipe down the table for us. There only seemed to be one person working the front of the house that night and the poor guy was running around taking orders, delivering food, answering the phone, etc., so we did feel bad for him. We ordered a round of drinks and some garlic bread to start. The garlic bread was true to its name – garlicky! There were huge chunks of garlic cloves tucked in underneath the melted mozzarella cheese, which were a bit of a surprise but fortunately they weren’t too raw tasting. We all really enjoyed the cheesy, buttery, and garlickyness of the bread, especially dipped in the accompanying tomato sauce.
Cheesy garlic bread
We decided to share three medium pizzas, which gave us a nice variety but actually turned out to be way too much food. We got a plain pizza as sort of our control pizza to test its NY authenticity.
Plain cheese pizza
Unfortunately, the pizza failed pretty miserably. The sauce was too sweet and the cheese kept sliding off. The crust was also way too thick and too floppy. That presented an interesting dilemma because we couldn’t pick a slice up without it tilting downward and losing all the cheese, but we also couldn’t fold it in half due to the thickness.
Thick crust with gloppy cheese
The crust actually reminded me of Elio’s frozen pizza, which is soft and bready in the middle. There wasn’t much flavor to the dough either.
Underside shot (with sliding cheese)
We also ordered a pizza topped with mushrooms and pepperoni, which is my favorite combination. The toppings were fine, if a bit oily, but they didn’t do much to salvage the pizza except give it a bit more flavor and some much needed saltiness.
Mushroom and pepperoni pizza
The crust on this particular pie was more browned than the other pizzas, but it still wasn’t great.
Slightly better underside shot
Our third pizza was one of the specialty pizzas and sounded pretty interesting on the menu. It was called the Village and had pesto sauce (no tomato sauce), spinach, artichokes, tomatoes, and cheese. The veggies on top were a nice change of pace from the other pies, but I thought the pesto sauce was a bit too watery and bland. Out of the three pies, however, this was my favorite, as it bore the least remblance to NY pizza and therefore I could appreciate it as something different, rather than a poor imitation of NY pizza.
Village pizza with pesto sauce, spinach, artichokes, tomatoes, and cheese
Overall we were all a bit disappointed by the pizza at New York Pizza. Josh and I really weren’t expecting authentic NYC-style pizza, but even when thinking of it as any other kind of pizza, it still fell short. The crust was too thick and bready yet failed to hold up to the toppings. That’s just poor construction and execution. The flavors were also a bit bland, and the pizzas were soggy and oily. Although service was harried at first, it did improve as the restaurant emptied out. We ended up taking home a bunch of leftover pizza but couldn’t bring ourselves to eat it again later in the week. Unfortunately, I don’t think I would recommend this pizzeria to anyone visiting the Reno/Lake Tahoe area.
New York Pizza
209 Kingsbury Grade Rd.
Stateline, NV