Lombardi's in Little Italy

This is a perfect place to start off the tour.

Chronologically speaking, Genarro Lombardi started this pizzeria in 1905 and it is known to be the first pizzeria in the U.S. It's no wonder pizza in the States is so great, with Lombardi's as a starting point in the history of American pizza. Eamonn and I got inside the pizzeria at the corner of Mott & Spring and were instantly in awe of our surroundings. We were biting into a slice of pizza history, the restaurant retaining a nice charm with wooden walls and black and white pictures to counter the typical red and white checkerboard tableclothes. Unfortunately the clam pie (their specialty) was fresh out of clams, so we had to order a meatball pie and a standard pie instead.

As our first stop on the pizza tour, it's hard to judge with the rest of them. I assume every slice after this is going to be judged against this one, as it beats out any of the best pizza I've had in New Jersey. The pizza's crust was thin, bottom blackened and had a nice crunch from the pizzeria's coal-burning brick oven. On top, fresh mozzerella, tomato sauce, and basil. The tomato sauce was nicely textured, not too soupy like it can often get. Overall delicious pie. The meatball pie was excellent in my opinion. Real meatballs, sliced in half on top of the pie were a good complement to the cheese and sauce. Eamonn thought they might have overpowered the pie, but since he's not here and not writing anything, you can trust me that the meatball topping added to the glory of the pizza. As a pizza purist though, all judgement comes down to basic cheese pizza. And it was superb.

The service was great, we were in and out quick because we both had places to be (so is the life of a busy pizza-freak). One of the guys that was in a picture on the wall (I'm guessing a descendant of Genarro himself) was actually in the restaurant and came by to see how we liked the pizza. He slapped me on the back and went off behind the bar. We walked out of the place completely stuffed.