Little Italy & NYC Pizza

We managed to do quite a bit more walking tonight. Our first area was little Italy which is pretty much Mulberry Street. The temp hit about 11 this afternoon and all of a sudden, every Italian place had its sidewalk seats out. And every place had a guy with what sounded like an official Italian accent trying to get you to come into his restaurant. They were quite insistent at times. One guy told us about coming to Toronto, after he asked where we were from, then recited the dishes we needed to have in about 20 seconds.

We kept walking and explored Union Square Park which was very crowded and had all the stalls for the market just closing up. We also checked out Mario Batali's Casa Mono and Bar Jamon. Both were very small and we decided not to try to get into Bar Jamon tomorrow. It doesn't take reservations and there seemed to be about 10 seats. Next we looked at McSorely's Old Ale House for beer and dinner but it was packed and we moved on. In the end, we went all the way back to Little Italy and had some real NY pizza at Lombardi's. It's a NY institution and they say they were the first pizza parlour, established in 1905. We had the basic margherita pizza. I had always thought I wouldn't want a pizza with no meat, but I was wrong. This one was great. Perfect, chewy crust, great sauce and excellent mozzarella. We'll try this one out at home too.

 Here's my first slice with a pint of Brooklyn lager. Perfect.