Pizza and Mormons New York, NY

New York, NY

Today was the “slice of Brooklyn pizza tour” – where we did what I think many Manhattan locals fear to even contemplate – we got out of Manhattan and into, unsurprisingly, Brooklyn. We jumped on the subway to get down to E 14 St where the tour began, and while waiting for the tour bus to arrive, we notched another tourist moment. Bagel with cream cheese: Check! The bus arrives, and over to Brooklyn we go.

Alas the famous Brooklyn Bridge is closed to big vehicles, but we took the also-very-pretty Manhattan Bridge over to Grimaldi’s, apparently world famous for its incredible pizza. I guess something I’ve learnt today is that my worldwide pizza knowledge isn’t all it could be, as I wasn’t familiar with it beforehand. But still, what landed on our plate was some beautiful, simple, Margherita pizza. Cooked in 3 minutes flat, in their 900 degree coal-fired oven, it was light, tasty, not at all greasy or oily, a wonderful slice of pie. Yes just like the Dean Martin song, they do all refer to a whole pizza as a ‘pizza pie’. Just down from Grimaldi’s was Brooklyn Bridge Park, where we had a brief chance to stop and get a few photos before we piled back on the bus to see more of Brooklyn.

To stop us getting restless while the driver was working his way through the Brooklyn traffic, our guide played clips from the many movies that have scenes in Brooklyn. Goodfellas, The French Connection, Saturday Night Fever, Moscow on the Hudson … It was a little odd to be in the bus, on the street, watching a movie clip of a car chase happening on that very street. It also means I can watch a whole bunch of movies and annoyingly shout “been there!” every few minutes 🙂 The second pizza place we visited was the appetisingly-named L&B Spumoni Gardens. Spumoni, apparently, is another Italian ice-cream that isn’t gelato. With a name like that, can’t imagine why it hasn’t caught on. The pizza was Sicilian in style – deep, and square. And yummy. I think the best thing about this place was that it isn’t a hot tourist spot, a must-visit destination, it is simply a good pizza restaurant where all the locals go. And talk in a very very Brooklyn accent. (Or maybe the tour company hired a few “genuine local Brooklyn characters” ™ to add to the local feel. )

A very brief visit to Coney Island was next, which might be worth a revisit, though not to the still-working 86 year old wooden roller coaster, can’t say that inspired confidence. Nor the Wonder Wheel – a Ferris wheel where the gondolas aren’t fixed to the outside, but fall from the centre of wheel to the outside and back again, on a track.

After that it was goodbye Brooklyn and back ‘home’ to Manhattan to get ready for our next Broadway Show. The Book of Mormon. The funniest show I’ve ever seen, I think it’s safe to say. So clever, so hilarious, and so well put together and wonderfully performed, it was awesome. It was enough to (almost) make you forget that when the Eugene O’Neill theatre was built in 1925, people must’ve been a lot smaller, coz things were a bit squishy!

After that it was the now-usual fight through the crowds of Times Square back to the hotel, where it was time to write up the day, wrestle with an uncooperative travel-blogging app, and go to sleep. Tomorrow, the behind-the-scenes Wicked tour, and, surprise surprise, yet another show!