“The Pizza Pope” has returned.
After slinging pies across the country, revered restaurateur Anthony Mangieri — a Beachwood native who opened his first pizzeria at the shore nearly 25 years ago — has come home to make good on the reputation he’s built from coast to coast.
After opening the first Una Pizza Napoletana in a Point Pleasant Beach strip mall in 1996, Mangieri’s outposts in Manhattan and San Francisco drew rave reviews and hours-long waits. New York Magazine coined him “the unofficial front man” for the Naples-style pizza revolution. New York Times food authority Pete Wells, who infamously proclaimed Jersey City’s Razza the best pizza in New York (yes, New York) in 2017, noted Mangieri was in California at that time when he anointed Una’s Manhattan location as “unmistakably the finest sit-down pizza in the five boroughs” in 2019.
Now, Mangieri is back where it all started. The latest iteration of Una Pizza Napoletana opened earlier this year in the tucked-away Jersey Shore burg of Atlantic Highlands. The town’s well system — Mangieri calls it “miracle water” — was a big selling point.
The new pies in town were an instant hit. For the first two months of takeout-only service (thanks, coronavirus), Una started selling pizzas at 2 p.m. They were sold out by 3 p.m.
And with Una’s New York location shuttered during the pandemic, Mangieri himself has made every single pie.
“It’s not often that people leave New Jersey and come back and do something, and that’s always been kind of a bummer to me because I think New Jersey is incredible,” Mangieri said. “I love it. I always loved it. I really didn’t even want to leave it.”
But just because Mangieri is the so-called Pizza Pope doesn’t mean his reputation here will go unearned. It’s only mild hyperbole to say pizza is a religion in New Jersey. Dozens of pizzerias boast devout followings, and even more places will scoff at the notion that New York has anything on Garden State pies. As I made the trip along Route 36, I wondered if Una could possibly live up to the hype.
Mangieri’s menu is notoriously simple — the mere addition of pepperoni to New York location menu in January sent food bloggers into a tizzy — so I wasn’t surprised to see just four pies on the menu, plus a daily special: Marinara (red pie, no cheese), Margherita, Bianca (a white pie) and Filetti (a Margherita with cherry tomatoes instead of San Marzanos). The special was the Apollonia, named for Mangieri’s daughter (all his special pies are named after significant women in his life, he said) and features salami, egg, buffalo mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, garlic and black pepper.
I tried the Margherita first. The common knock against Neapolitan pies is they’re too floppy, but with Una’s wood-fired pizza, the crust’s texture is an immediate game-changer. It’s somehow crispy and fluffy all at once, like a pizza pillow. Razza has been my gold standard for New Jersey Neapolitan pizza for some time now, but one bite of Una and I could tell this pie was a worthy contender — maybe even better.
“The ultimate for me is when I can achieve that kind of fast bake, but it’s still cooked, but it’s very soft, but it’s not doughy, but it’s light, but it’s pillowy,” Mangieri said. “To get that rim to puff up like that and to have it cook right is the hardest thing for me.”
Elsewhere on this epic pie, the sweetness of the San Marzanos is a perfect match for the melted dots of creamy imported buffalo mozzarella (a staple of almost all his pizzas). I now understand why pizza lovers across the country have gone crazy for it. The simplicity allows for the quality of the ingredients to shine and Mangieri’s oven expertise brings it all home.
The Apollonia was more complex, with the saltiness of the salami playing off the richness of the eggs. It almost felt like a trendy breakfast pizza, but Mangieri explains it has deeper origins than that.
The Apollonia from Una Pizza Napoletana, topped with salami and egg. (Jeremy Schneider | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
“If you were to say ‘I’ll make it a pizza with egg and salami and Parmigiano-Reggiano, ‘it sounds very nouveau or kind of hip,” Mangieri said. “But the reality is the pizza really ends up kind of coming out, almost like what’s called a Casatiello, which is like an Easter bread that is made in the south of Italy in Naples.”
It’s not cheap — individual pizzas range from $16 to $22, and if you’re famished you’ll likely still be hungry after a single pie. But you get what you pay for, and that’s damn good pizza with ingredients imported directly from Italy.
Whatever the price, Una Pizza Napoletana has clearly made New Jersey’s already rich pizza culture even richer — a necessary pilgrimage for worshippers of the Neapolitan style.
“I really wanted this to be like something that became for New Jersey, that was in New Jersey,” Mangieri said. “That people in New Jersey could be like, ‘look, we have a place here that’s been all over the country, it’s back in New Jersey and we stand with it and support it.’”
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
"try" - Google News
August 08, 2020 at 07:00PM
https://ift.tt/31yIg4I
N.J.‘s ‘Pizza Pope’ has returned. You need to try his new Jersey Shore restaurant. - NJ.com
"try" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3b52l6K
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "N.J.‘s ‘Pizza Pope’ has returned. You need to try his new Jersey Shore restaurant. - NJ.com"
Post a Comment