The Best Places To Eat Pizza in Southern Brooklyn

The Best Places to Eat Pizza in Southern Brooklyn

You know that feeling you get, when you're interested in someone, and that wave of nervous excitement crashes over you, when you see them? That's how I feel when I see pizza. To me, pizza is the perfect food. It's quick, it's cheap, and you can write a blog post, about your favorite pizza joints while eating it.

There are many sides to New York City's pizza scene. One one hand, you have pizza joints with $100,000 hand-built wood fired pizza ovens. The pizza is hand stretched by a Pizzaiola who tops the pizza with the freshest ingredients. On the other hand, you have the $1 slice joints, which use the crappiest ingredients, and techniques to form a slice of slop. Depending on our situation, both are good and hit the spot. But to me, the heart and sole of New York City's pizza scene is the local slice joint. That little spot on your block that you hit up everytime you're craving a great slice. These are mine: 

Delmar: Located in Sheepshead Bay, Delmar has been slinging the same classic New York city slice, since I could remember. After hurricane Sandy, I was worried they would never re-open. But after a few months they did,  with a new interior but still serving up their perfect old school NYC slice. 1668 Sheepshead Bay Road, Brooklyn NY 

Pizza Wagon: When I was high school,  I wanted to be a chef.  The only high school at the time with a culinary program was in Bay Ridge, an hour bus ride from my house. So before I'd make my trek back home I would stop off here for a their regular and square slice, and do a little flirting with the bimbos from the surrounding all-girls catholic schools. 8610 5th avenue, Brooklyn NY 

Espresso Pizza: This place is new in my rotation. I actually came here on a whim. A few years back when Robert Sietsema was still writing for the Village Voice he did a little write-up about this place. Once again, he nailed it. The slice took me back to the late 90's.How the fuck is this guy never wrong? 9403 5th Avenue, Brooklyn NY

Difara: I mean,  come on. Do I really need to explain this to you? 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY

La Casa Bella: What can I say about La Casa Bella. I am here at least once a week, and I've been eating their pizza since the mid 90's. What sets La Casa Bella apart from everyone else is their Alla Vodka slice. A Crispy dough layered with thick, creamy, tomato-ey vodka sauce, topped with a blanket of fresh mozzarella,  sprinkled with parsely,  basil, and the crust is sprinkled with sesame seeds. The layers of great flavors makes this,  in my opinion, the best vodka slice in Brooklyn. 2579 Cropsey Avenue, Brooklyn NY

Knapp Pizza 2: This place serves up a great grandma slice. A perfectly thin crust topped with fresh mozzarella, a ridiculously good tomato and garlic heavy sauce and sprinkled with olive oil and fresh basil. 261 Avenue X, Brooklyn NY

J & V: The Sicilian slice or better known as the square slice is what this place does best. Their slice is thick with a crispy bottom. The inside is fluffy, topped with the perfect amount of sauce and cheese. 6322 18th avenue, Brooklyn 

Totonno's: Even though this isn't a slice joint,  I wouldn't have respected myself if I didn't add this place to my list. Totonno's is the pride and joy of my neighborhood. The charcoal pizza oven has been pumping out perfect pies since the early 1900's. Actually they have only been pumping out pies for the past twenty years. When the original owner was alive,  he would only make enough dough for 50 pies. If you were pie 51,  guess what? You were assed out and if you talked back,  he would chase you out the store with a baseball bat. 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn NY

And lastly, my favorite spot for pizza is my kitchen.  It's kind of a funny story how I got into making pizza, I was drunk. I wanted pizza, it was 3am, so pretty much I was beat. In a fit of drunken, pizzaless rage, I took matters into my own hands and bought a stone, peel, and cutter on eBay for $30 at 3am. This assured me I would never go pizzaless again. 

Something that started out with me just wanting pizza when I was drunk flourished into another beast. I became infatuated with pizza, I mean like, reading Slice & Pizza making forums at 4am on a wednesday night, infatuated. Today, I have my own dough recipe, my own sauce recipe, and in the midst of figuring out how to make my own cheese curds to stretch out fresh mozzarella. 

Sound Bwoy Burreill: San Marzano, fresh mozzarella, spicy capicola, sweet sopressata, pecorino romano, red onion, olive oil 

Triple OG: San Marzano, dry mozzarella, grana padano, pecorino romano, olive oil, sea salt,basil.