The Pint-Sized Palate —A Kid’s Take on NYC Food

Every Night is Pizza Night

By Churchill Stone

SIMO IS MY FAVORITE PIZZA – just ninety seconds to Napoli! Photo by Webster Stone.

Greenwich Village is famous for having great pizza. Here are some places where I like to go:

New Pizza Places

Mama’s Too, 325 Bleecker St.
They have lots of different kinds of pizza such as: Angry Nonna (salami, Calabrian chili oil, and hot honey — sweet and spicy!), Upside Down (mozzarella, tomato sauce, pecorino — but the cheese is on the bottom and the sauce is on the top!); Vodka Pie (vodka sauce, ricotta, and pecorino — my favorite!), and even a Poached Pear Pizza (pear, mozzarella, sweet gorgonzola, hot honey — it’s good for dessert).

They also have regular pizzas. We usually get a square pepperoni pie which is about $40, a pretty good deal because it feeds my whole family, and also my uncle and grandma.

One time we got eight slices of eight different kinds of pizza — that way we could try everything, like the Bufalina (beer-battered fried chicken, red devil sauce, gorgonzola crema, roasted chili powder, and chopped scallion).

L’Industrie, 104 Christopher St.
This place has lots of different kinds of pizza and it’s all very good. The problem is that the line is usually at least half a block. Also, there is basically no place to sit inside or out. We only went there once (it was raining and there was no line).

Napoletana Pizza Places

Simo, 92 Gansevoort St.
Simo is my favorite pizza place. The pizza is like in Italy (in fact, their motto is “Ninety seconds to Napoli). It’s the kind of pizza where you need a knife and fork. Simo is very kid friendly — they will even do pizzas in the shape of a heart or a bunny. Their margarita pizza is under $15 and you can always sit down at a nice big table.

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, 2 Bank St.
This is very good Napoletana pizza. Their pizzas are big and the place is gigantic. They have pastas and salads too. You can watch them make the pizza through a large glass window — throwing it in the air, dropping and drizzling ingredients, and then sticking it inside an oven full of fire that is 1,000 degrees hot. They have pizza-making classes for kids, but you do not use the oven. My parents have been to the original Da Michele in Napoli and they say it is the best pizza ever.

Happy Hour Pizza Places

Roey’s, 1 Perry St.
From 4-6 pm you can get their margherita pizza for $7 which is so good that we sometimes order three. But get there early because many people also go there for Happy Hour cocktails.

Fellini, 174 7th Ave.
From 4-7 pm you can get their margarita pizza for $8. The Napoletana pizza is also pretty good, but it’s a smaller version of the pizza they have on the menu.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

By Charlemagne Stone

CHARLEMAGNE’S CHOCOLATE GOOEY BROWNIE ICE CREAM CONE: “It was the biggest scoop of ice cream I have ever had in my life!” Photo by Webster Stone.

Salt & Straw
540 Hudson Street
Recently, a new ice cream place opened near my house, Salt & Straw. You should definitely go.

Salt & Straw has some regular flavors but most of them are difficult to explain, like Cornflake with Marionberry Jam or Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper. I did not want to try those.

But Barry, who was super nice, let me try the other ice creams. I had Double Fold Vanilla, Freckled Mint Chip, and Salted Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough which I liked most. I usually do not like cookie dough ice cream, but this one was delicious! My father tried Strawberry and Coconut Sherbet and he loved it.

But when it came time to get my real ice cream I wanted Chocolate Gooey Brownie. I had the children’s size ($5.95) and it was the biggest scoop of ice cream I have ever had in my life!

Barry told us they are called Salt & Straw because a long time ago they used salt to help the cream freeze and straw (hay) to keep the ice cold because they didn’t have refrigerators.