Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I have lived in Pittsburgh all my life and I cannot understand why people love Primanti's. The sandwich is very dry from the french fries.

I want to meet the advertising person who came up with the idea as much as I want to meet the executive who approved it...

i'm in love with the pizza maker.... like gepetto in pinochio!

I've been to DiFara only twice and I doubt I'll ever go back unless their policy changes. Although I thoroughly enjoy both his slice and his Sicilian, it is simply not worth the hassle. It should be an establishment's responsibility to assure that their customer recieve the pizza in a fair and orderly fashion. They can easily impliment a process to accomplish that, but the obviously have chosen not to. I'm sure they realize that the uncertainty that their non-system has created is in great part responsible for their extreme popularity and have no intention to change it. I do recall hearing something recently about Dom's daughter establishing some kind of order, but it seems like that effort never took hold from the comments I've read about the place since. If and when things change, I'll head back their for their excellent slices, but until then if I want that style of pizza, I'll head to Lucali and get a pie.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

@cliffyb: as mentioned, only the Grande "Rotondino" Fior-di-latte cheese, which is among three cheeses Dom typically uses including an imported mozzarella di bufala from his hometown outside of Napoli and either freshly grated (as in grated per order) blocks of parmegano-reggiano and/or pecorino romano, and in my opinion the olive oil, could even be remotely construed as "Sysco-esque"....and that Grande Rotondino is very high quality stuff.

This is one of the more expensively topped pizzas, without the need for additional toppings, you are likely to encounter in the pizza world as Dom adds very high quality toppings with the finesse of a sledgehammer. The only thing normal about his pizzas, and I was prepared for it in advance, is his crust. If you go at the right time of the day you will not have to wait that long. As far as the hype, I think only you can decide that. I will say making a trip to DiFara is something anyone with a love for pizza should do once in their life and my short time there is one of the absolute top cherished moments in this dummies pizza eating life.

@cliffyb: I suspect you're asking this question to stir the pot here—particularly the "Sysco" comment. But if you're sincere, then I apologize for jumping to conclusions and will answer:

The pizza is very good. The wait is very long. Budget at least one hour (on a good trip) and up to three hours (if things are horribly packed and Dom forgets your order).

You are perhaps half correct in assuming locals get served first. What I've seen happen is that people who push to the front and have the brashness of native New Yorkers get their pizza quicker. If you're meek and deferential, your wait will increase accordingly. But it seems to have less to do with Dom favoring locals than just serving whomever's at front. Pizza darwinism, I suppose. That said, I have seen occasions where Dom has served police and firefighters first—seems to be an old-school take-care-of-the-folks-in-uniform thing.

The ingredients: Definitely not Sysco-esque. Maybe the most common mass-market thing he uses is the Grandé aged mozzarella, but even Grandé is widely regarded as the best mass-market pizza cheese.

Re cliffyb: Don't feed the trolls, people.

@Pizzablogger: Next time you come up to NYC, lemme know. I'd love to grab a slice or pie with you.

@pizzablogger what are you doing in Brooklyn? Thought you'd be in the land of Francis Scott Key on this holiday weekend. If I had known, I might have fit you in to my tasting last night.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

This is ridiculous - sure, he's an institution, but he's the *only * man who can make his pizza?

Then again, that sicilian looks goooood...

The beauty of Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray consumed with pastrami or corned beef is that you get a double-dose of nitrites: first from the meat cure, then from the celery extract. I love it!

About 10 years ago I was at a "guest chef" dinner at Cornell's Hotel & Restaurant Management school, in which the guest chef was Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit. He used a celery sorbet as a palate cleanser, and it brought me right back to Ratners on Second Avenue (Yes Cel-Ray makes a wonderful accompaniment to dairy, especially latke, another entree that Ratners' called "protose steak" and other oil-infused dishes; just like with pastrami, Cel-Ray is a perfect foil to the food's richness.

I will only eat the filet o fish, the burgers are nasty.

I was at Ray's for this - I spoke to Biden briefly, asked him what he was going to get. When he said he was getting a burger with Swiss, I pushed hard for him to add the mushrooms, which is probably Ray's best topping. He looked at me like I was crazy and didn't respond. Oh well.