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Glad to see Antica get a nod.

I had several really great pizzas at A16 back in early 2006. I know they want through some chef changes and heard it slipped, but now have heard it is back to greatness. The place is very cool too...they were actually roasting corn on the cob in the ovens - practically every table had some.

@jimbojones - I've tried the West Village one three times and found it very very ordinary. Way too much seasoning in sauce and toppings, meatballs tasted like commissary food, cheese was dried out, no effort put into the crust. Seems like it was there as a topping delivery vehicle only. NY Style is not my favorite (prefer Neapolitan), but I think Coal Vines does it much better. New Grimaldis just opened in Allen so I will try them too...

A key ingredient in making a restaurant succeed is having an owner that is passionate about pizza - not just making a system to make money (although you need that too). Jeff obviously has passion in spades - the big challenge will be is if he can scale the dough recipe and maintain consistency doing 200-300 pizzas per day, every day.

I own a very popular wood-burning pizzeria in the Dallas area. I've been screwing around with poolish forever and have not been able to make it work well for small quantities, never mind large quantities - but I'm no engineer. Dough shouldn't be too complicated. For us: Double Zero flour, tap water, sea salt, fresh yeast. Mix 15 minutes, rest for an hour, portion into balls, retard in fridge 24-48 hours.

My pics of Neapolitan Pie made it up...although the link seems to be broken:

http://gallery.mac.com/jjerrier/100128

It keeps forwarding to Apple Mobile Me, so hopefully Mac will get it fixed

havent had a decent pie in so. cal. since the mid 60's at a small italian deli perfect crust made daily perfect sauce from italian tomatos and the cheese ratio was also perfect, toppings were kept simple italian sausage, italian salami, or italian pepperoni, occassionally some italian olives scattered sparingly , oh to go back in time , then shakeys came to town and pizza died , now we have pizza with bbq sauce,chicken, somesort of white sauce and all those other designer flatbread doughwads with anything on top that gets passed off as pizza. if i ever go to new york maybe i'll find a real pizza !

is this vito from nj (elizabeth)

Re: the Garage Pizza mention above...

It's interesting to note that Elmer, the chief pizzaiolo at Garage Pizza, was one of the principal pizzaioli at Joe's in Venice. [He left Joe's to help start and run GP.] And, to add to the intrigue, he shared with me that GP's dough recipe, leavening technique, and sauce are virtually identical to those at Joe's. Anyway, if anyone reading along is looking for a Joe's pies of old, stop by GP some night and ask Elmer to toss you one very thin, or "Joe's Style." E.M.

It's important to distinguish between the best pizza and the best slice. Mozza is by far the best pizza (second in my heart only to Franny's in Brooklyn), but it's not a place to grab a quick on-the-go slice. Vito's offers the best slice in LA, though clearly not all toppings are created equally.

The two times I've been to Joe's I've been hugely disappointed.

The slices at Village Pizza are not recommend. Unlike a NY slice which is fully cooked yet gains something on second heating, the slice at Village is actually undercooked originally so that they can finish cooking it when you order it. The result is that you wait 10 minutes for a slice that's scalding hot yet insufficiently charred. Not good.

I had a surprisingly good slice at Garage Pizza in Silverlake. Good solid slice, about average for a NY slice but way above for LA. The owner really knows what he's doing and seems eager to experiment with interesting toppings based on customer feedback.

Just the other day, I was out to eat with my friends at Butterfly down on the piers, where I had the tender duck dish. Food was delicious, but what surprised me more was Butterfly’s partnership with StreetSmart4Kids. For those of you that don’t know, SS4K is a nonprofit organization, whose mission is to keep homeless teens off the street. The campaign they are running this year is called “Dine Out and Donate.” All you have to do is visit one of the participating restaurants around the city (visit www.streetsmart4kids.org for a list) and give a donation when you pay the check. It’s a really great way to give back to the community without the stress of doing strenuous community service labor. So next time you’re going out for a night on the town, check out SS4K’s restaurant list and kill two birds with one stone—eat great and do it for a great cause!