Pizza in New York City
Pizza is an important part of the [Cuisine of New York (magazine)|New York City|culinary culture of New York City]. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian immigrants adapted traditional Neapolitan pizza to the ovens available in New York, leading to New York–style pizza. The style then, in turn, influenced pizza-making in Italy through the pizza effect. As of 2018, the city is home to between 800 and 3,000 pizzerias, many of which focus on serving individual slices, the price of which has become an economic indicator called the Pizza Principle.
History
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Italian immigrants came together in an area of Manhattan later known as Little Italy. They brought with them a variety of culinary traditions, including Neapolitan pizza, a combination of flour, water, tomatoes, and cheese cooked in a domed, wood-fired oven. With no access to the kind of ovens needed to make that style, the immigrants rented time to use the bread ovens at local bakeries. These were much bigger and ran on coal, which burns at an even higher temperature than wood. As a result, the pizzas were much larger and one could feed multiple people, unlike the traditionally smaller Neapolitans. As gas ovens became more popular, pizza became easier to reheat without burning. and pizzas cooked inside took longer, leading to ingredients like oil being added to the dough and the introduction of toppings that would not otherwise have cooked properly in high heat.According to the Museum of the City of New York, while pizza was created in Naples, "New York City is recognized as the epicenter of the American pizza culture that has taken over the world." It has also had an influence on Italian cuisine through the pizza effect.
The first pizzeria in New York City, and possibly the United States, was Lombardi's in what is now Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood. Gennaro Lombardi opened the restaurant in 1905, making pizzas in a coal-burning oven.
Culture
Pizza is an extremely popular food in New York City and associated with the culture of the city. Grub Street described New York as "a pizza town, maybe pizza town".Styles
New York style
The basis for New York–style pizza is the Neapolitan style, which historically involved a hot, wood-fired, stone oven. When Italian immigrants used bread ovens to make pizza.New York style is often cooked at a high temperature, sometimes using coal-fired ovens, to produce a crust that is both crisp and chewy.
When eating a slice, it is common to fold the pizza at the crust. It can be considered a political gaffe for candidates to stray from this practice.
Sicilian
Sicilian pizza is made in a rectangular pan coated in olive oil. The dough is allowed to proof for longer than other pizza styles, rising to make a thick, fluffy crust similar to focaccia bread.Grandma
Grandma pizza is a rectangular pizza similar to Sicilian style, but the dough is not proofed as long, resulting in a thinner, denser crust. Grandma pizzas are often cooked with more olive oil in the pan, producing a crisper bottom. They get their name from the Italian-American grandmothers who did not have time to wait for the dough to proof. Though its origins are likely on Long Island, it is considered regional to the New York City metropolitan area. In some pizzerias, cheese sits below the tomato sauce.Neapolitan
Pizza began in Naples, cooked quickly in a very hot wood-fired oven, combining flour, water, tomatoes, and cheese. It was adapted into New York style by immigrants using bread ovens, but more traditional Neapolitan style became popular in New York in the 2000s. In 2009, New York magazine wrote of the "neoclassical Neapolitan pizza revolution" in New York, citing high-profile examples like Una Pizza Napoletana, with an emphasis on quality of ingredients, tradition, and skilled chefs.Ingredients
Water
A common belief is that pizza in New York City tastes better because of the city's unfiltered tap water, similar to an appreciation of New York bagels. Water is brought into the city from multiple areas, but most is from the Catskill and Delaware watersheds, which is considered "soft" because it has less calcium and magnesium than other water supplies. It flows to the Hillview Reservoir, where it is disinfected and treated with various chemicals that also raise its pH level to 7.2. By the time it reaches the taps of New York City, it has a variety of substances, but it is the second softest of any city in the United States. Calcium and magnesium has the effect of strengthening the bonds between proteins in the flour, so soft water leads to softer dough. According to Food & Wine, however, it is likely this difference in water has a nonzero but "minimal" effect on the final product, which varies considerably in quality even among pizzerias using the same water.Flour
Some pizzerias, like Scarr's in Lower Manhattan, mill their own flour.Pizzerias
Estimates for the total number of pizzerias in New York City range from 800 to 3,000. Most focus on selling individual slices rather than whole pies.Lombardi's in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan is regarded as the first pizzeria in the city and possibly the first in the United States. Many of the older pizzerias, like Lombardi's, used coal-fired ovens, which operate at a higher temperature than other ovens, which cooks the dough's exterior to a crisp while retaining a chewier interior. Though sometimes thought to have been banned in the city due to emitting smoke with harmful particulates, the 2016 law just requires an emission control called a "scrubber" to filter the smoke for human health and climate reasons. In addition to Lombardi's, Patsy's and John's of Bleecker Street in Manhattan, and Totonno's and Grimaldi's in Brooklyn are examples of coal oven pizzerias.
In the 2000s, several Neapolitan-style pizzerias opened, many of them using a wood-fired oven instead of coal. While not all Neapolitan, Roberta's, Paulie Gee's, and Lucali in Brooklyn, and Kesté and Motorino in Manhattan use wood-fired ovens.
Economics
The price of a slice of pizza in New York City can be controversial. There was a protest outside Pizza Suprema in the early 1970s when it raised its price from $0.20 to $0.25 a slice.In the 2000s and 2010s, new "dollar slice" businesses opened which prioritized high-volume sales at a low price, charging $0.99 or $1.00 for a slice of pizza. Most are located in Manhattan, where population density is high enough to support such a business model, and they often operate as chains. Critics of the model argue that it is detrimental to traditional neighborhood "midpriced" pizzerias.
The cost of a slice at any given point can be used as an economic indicator via the Pizza Principle, which references a long-term correlation, first noted by George Fasel in The New York Times in 1985, between the cost of a fare on the New York City Subway and the price of a slice of pizza.
The rising costs of rents to operate a business in New York City has been a persistent challenge for pizzeria owners.