There were two obvious and immediate goals for our trip to The Big Apple: Pizza and Bagel.
Pizza was easy. As soon as we arrived to Penn Station I Yelped the nearest, highly-ranked pizza place and stumbled upon Pizza Suprema. It looks like any other eatery, even upon entry.
After viewing the available pizza offerings, you make your choice. Your slice of crusty goodness goes into the oven for a quick crisping and there you go! Enticing, economical, and highly enjoyable.
After you’ve had your first bite or two and can finally tear your eyes away from the pizza, you’ll see the decor, which involves lots of hype and reviews. Each table had a different printed article from the web with stellar reviews. I am usually wary of this kind of bragging. I mean, if it’s good, why do you have to reinforce this idea EVERYWHERE? I’ll just chalk it up to the experience of being a tourist in New York. I did find this place on Yelp, with it’s thousands of reviews, after all.
We sat at a table with a printout that told us of the guy who decided to eat a slice of “plain” pizza (I guess that’s New York-speak for cheese) from every pizza joint in Manhattan, a tall order, with 372 places to visit! It took him 2.5 years to do it and only a single place ranked a perfect 10 in his book, Pizzeria Suprema.
It has various other accolades you’ll find listed throughout the place: Best Pizza in NYC by Today Show chef Curtis Stone, appearances on Good Day New York and The Rachel Ray show, one of the 10 best in Manhattan ranked by the New York Times, and many other blog reviews.
Pizza Suprema’s got a storied history too; it was established in 1964 at this very location by the current owner’s father, an Italian immigrant who believed in only the best and freshest ingredients always. Until 1988, they only served “plain” slices!
Thankfully they’ve got more variety now. I got a slice of the “grandma pizza,” which is a thin crust, Sicilian style fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato, fresh crushed garlic, imported Pecorino Romano cheese finished with fresh basil and imported extra virgin olive oil. Jon got a slice topped with sausage and his was a traditional triangular pizza slice, as opposed to my square.
The crust was fantastic. A delicious chewy and flavorful dough with the right amount of crunch just as you sink your teeth into it. The fresh mozzarella filled my need for cheese fantastically, and the fresh basil made for a beautiful herby flavor.
Now let’s talk about bagels.
I’ve always experienced bagels as pretty fluffy and dense bread loaves with a small hole in the middle, which I always imagined was cut out or something.
At Black Seed, they’re hand rolled. What I didn’t even know…
The holes in these bagels are much bigger, and the bagel isn’t quite as dense as I am used to, a wonderful trait that encourages eating more bagels. These are also wood-fired after the boiling bit (mmmm).
I got a bagel called “Salmon.” It was listed under the “FISH” section of the menu. Unfortunately I thought perhaps the salmon slid to one side, or was really just broken up bits mixed into the schmear which was overpowered by the onions and capers. But by the time I had gotten through with the first half, I realized it must’ve been a mistake. With a busy counter and half the evidence gone, my fate was sealed: a salmon-less “Salmon” bagel.
Alas! Black Seed Bagels, you’ve left a hole in my bagel experience. But I’ll admit, they were pretty solid bagels.
Whoo hooo for pizza find from yelp!