I grew up eating a lot of pizza. Generic, homemade pizza, with the crust made from one of those packages you add water to, jarred sauce, basic mozzarella, a sprinkle of oregano, maybe some kind of topping. It was one of the very few things my dad could prepare, and he was responsible for feeding us several nights a week while my mom worked nights. We had it at least once a week. I never particularly liked it, but, it was what it was.
Like most kids, I got excited about pizza parties for birthdays, although my town had only Papa Ginos (which I remember liking?) and Pizza Hut (which I never liked), plus your classic New England "Village Pizza"/"House of Pizza" Greek style pizza place. We never had frozen pizzas really, so it was a treat when I was at a friend's house and we got Ellios. I remember really liking that. Or one particular friend had a mom that made what I thought were amazing English muffin pizzas. So I had my share of not great pizza, for many years, and then, post college, just really didn't have pizza again (besides a few trips to Little Star for deep dish) for many, many years.
2023 or so woke up the pizza enjoyer in me. Not sure what changed, but my basically 15-20 year pizza hiatus was over. So of course when I'm in New York, the pizza capital of the US, I seek out pizza. Yes, I had L'Industrie and had my mind kinda blown by just how good a NY slice could be. But I've even enjoyed no frills places like NY Pizza Suprema. One place I was well aware of, as people talk about it quite a bit on "best pizza in Manhattan" lists, is Mama's Too! (excitement, theirs!).
Mama's Too! is known for their square pizzas (more rare in NY) and their sandwiches too, in addition to traditional round pies. Square pizzas obviously aren't classic NY style, so it is curious that they wind up so well regarded by the locals. I became a huge fan of square, Detroit style, pizza the past few years at Square Pies Guys in SF, so I was quite curious to see how this would measure up, even though I know Mama's Too is a Sicilian style square, not Detroit. They have two locations in the city, one in the West Village, the other Upper West Side. I didn't visit in person, but rather, got delivery at my office. I had some "fresh" then, and also heated some up later at home for better results.
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| Ooooh! |
I was delighted when I walked into the microkitchen to see someone had extra pizza, and the boxes were from Mama's Too! I got to cross another place off my list that I'd been wanting to try!
We had a variety of pizzas, all the square style.
And ... well, I think in this case, the square pie style, I'm going to say that SF wins. NY definitely wins at the pizza scene overall, but actually, for this style, SF has a number of great contenders, and ones I actually enjoyed considerably more than this (Square Pies Guys is my #1).
Overall, I found the focaccia bases to be too greasy, too spongy, and just too heavy. Don't get me wrong, Square Pies Guys, my gold standard, is a very indulgent heavy pizza with a crispy cheese crust and all, but these just felt greasier and off putting. Yes, these are a different style, SPG is Detroit style and these are Sicilian focaccia style, but somehow, even though Detroit style has the crispy cheesy edge, this was significantly heavier.
The square pies here are double the size as those from similar places in the Bay Area. Cut into only 8 slices, so each kinda huge. I can't imagine eating two slices of this. I wished I had tried their round slices for comparison.
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| Cacio e Pepe. $38. |
"Whipped marscapone, aged mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, parmigianno reggiano, cracked black pepper."
I didn't know what kind this was, nor that it was one of their famous slices, when I grabbed a piece. There was just a lot of it left over (several pizzas) and it looked unique, so, why not?
The toppings were decent, obviously very cheese heavy, but it was flavorful. Not really what I'd normally pick, but, certainly interesting and different. But ... I just didn't care for the base at all, which made it hard to enjoy. 2/5.
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| Poached Pear ($36) & Upside Down ($34) |
I also grabbed what I thought was the regular House Slice, but turned out to be the upside down (which I learned once I went to write this up). The House Slice would have fresh basil on top, and big gobs of motz on top too.
It had the same focaccia base that I just didn't love, although it wasn't quite as greasy in this one, and I tolerated it more. It was nicely crispy, light char, and did seem to have a bit of a crust. It had a nice malty taste too, that verged on sourdough territory for me (that I don't like) but, it was decent.
The sauce wasn't too sweet nor too acidic, was pretty good, and I liked the amount of it applied, it added a lot of moisture to the slice. The cheese was good, I greatly preferred just the aged mozz here to the Parm and others on the previous slice. The upside down style was different, I didn't have particularly strong feelings about it either way.
Overall, this was a slice I was happy enough to eat, but I still prefer my Square Pies Guys. High 3.5/5 though, maybe 4/5, as it really was a nice slice. I'd like to try more of their red sauce pies in the future.
Also pictured here is the poached pear with gorgonzola and hot honey. Definitely a unique, signature offering as well, but I passed that up.
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| Bufalina. $50. |
"Beer-battered fried chicken, red devil sauce, gorgonzola crema, roasted chili powder, chopped scallion."
What a wild looking pizza. I could tell it had chicken though, I didn't take any.
