Prince Street Pizza

My first day in New York after relocating my team had a pizza party.  It was not something I planned, nor even knew about, until right then.  I had other plans actually, but, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to at least grab a slice.  It felt like the proper NY thing to do.

"Our pizzas are available by the slice and as whole pies and are prepared using the freshest ingredients and handcrafted sauces made daily from scratch.  To get the same dough texture in markets outside of New York, we even use a water filtration process that replicates the water used in New York."

The host ordered from Prince Street Pizza, which I had certainly heard of, but hadn't tried before.  They have a few locations, in NY, and strangely in Miami and California.  I remember thinking that it seemed like people generally find it decent, not amazing, not the sort of place people line up for, but, a decent option for takeout or delivery for an office celebration like this.  They make both classic NY Style Rounds, and Sicilian squares, which I think is what makes them a bit more unique than most similar places.  They also have a couple token salads, motz sticks, garlic bread, and generic desserts (cheesecake, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookie). 

Since then, I've stumbled into their leftovers at various events in my building, so I've had the chance to try it several times.

New York Style Rounds

"Thin, crispy crust for those that like a round-or-bust kind of pizza."

Our group started with a couple of the most basic NY style rounds.  

The Fancy Prince.

"Original Pizza Sauce, Fresh Mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, Fresh Basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil."

First up, the Fancy Prince, or as all other establishments call it, the margarita.  I'll admit it looked pretty good.  I almost grabbed this just to have a good baseline.  But I only wanted one slice, and this wasn't my top choice.

The Boozy Broome.

"Vodka Sauce (contains Prosciutto) and Fresh Mozzarella."

The host's favorite pizza is the Boozy Broome, e.g. their vodka sauce pie.  I didn't try it however either.  

Sicilian Soho Squares

"Sicilian-style squares with a thick, crisp and fluffy crust."

The Soho Squares are their Sicilian style rectangular pizzas.  Cut into 8 slices.  I'm not usually one for Sicilian style, but I think this is what they are more known for.  

I didn't really care for this crust.  It was exactly the style I'm not into - it looks like Detroit style at first glance, which I do love, but then I taste it, and ... yeah, Sicilian style.  It tastes like the pizza I grew up with: airy, chewy in the wrong way, way too much crust, no interesting base flavor, and greasy.  Not the crust for me.

Spicy Spring.

"Fra Diavolo Sauce, Pepperoni, Fresh Mozzarella, Pecorino Romano."

I almost grabbed the Spicy Spring, as the fra diavolo sauce sounded interesting, and hey, what's not to like about fresh mozz and pepperoni?  I appreciated the use of cupping pepperoni.  I have to say though that not much care seemed to be used to apply the toppings, they looked pretty haphazard (which seemed the case on the prior pizzas with uneven application, but was much more clear here).

The Naughty Pie.

"Spicy Vodka Sauce (contains Prosciutto), Pepperoni, Fresh Mozzarella, Whipped Ricotta, Zab's Hot Honey."

Instead, I went for the final choice: the Naughty Pie.  It also featured vodka sauce, so I felt that was honoring my host's recommendation for the vodka pie, yet it was a spicy version of the vodka sauce, which is more my style, and it had the same pepperoni and mozzarella as the previous square, AND it had hot honey (trendy, I know, but it works) and ricotta.  Ricotta I can take or leave, but the rest sounded like clearly the best of all the pizzas.

I eagerly plucked a pepperoni off that fell off as I took my perfect slice (I had first pick!). Again though, toppings were kinda all over the place.  The pepperoni was thick classic cupping pepperoni.  No more, no less, but good.  The little bit of hot honey drizzled on it gave it a delightful sweet and spicy element.  I plucked off a few more.  I really liked them.

It was oozing sauce everywhere, so that definitely dominated.  

I wish I could tell you more about this slice.  But I actually wasn't hungry for pizza in the middle of the afternoon when this party happened, so I saved my slice to heat up in my toaster oven later for dinner.  But ... I put it in a fridge that failed, and I decided not to risk food poisoning and thus sadly had to throw it out (I was soooo tempted to still eat it ...).

Houston Jalapeño.

"Spicy Pepperoni + Jalapeño + Hot honey."

A few weeks later, another event, so I got another stab at (spicy) pepperoni and hot honey, this time with jalapeños too (although regular sauce, not vodka).  I was thrilled to see how ridiculously loaded up with toppings it was, three of which were spicy.  Bring it!

I did really like the pepperoni.  It was quite flavorful, thick slices, lightly curled up, and indeed spicy.  A great pepperoni, but because the pieces were so thick, and there were sooo many of them, this was obviously an exceptionally pepperoni forward pizza.  The pepperoni gave it actually plenty of heat, so the extra kick from jalapeño almost felt unnecessary.  And then of course, the hot honey, which was delicious, as expected, a bit of sweet and spicy, and always goes so well with pepperoni.  I did like all these toppings.  

It was a very topping heavy pizza, obviously, with the pepperoni and jalapeno so visible, but also underneath all that.  Lots of sauce.  Sweet, tangy, kinda in your face red sauce.  Too much sauce for my tastes.   Full coverage of cheese, this was a good element, it melted well, had good cheese pull, etc, but, definitely a cheesy pizza.  

And then the aforementioned Sicilian style crust, which I just don't care for.

Did I really enjoyed the pepperonis?  Absolutely. Was I happy to take any extras that fell off of slices?  Absolutely.  Did I think the cheese was good?  Yep.  But ... did I actually like this pizza?  Not really.  When I disliked the crust and the tomato sauce, and they were so dominant (well really, every element was so dominant!), it just made it hard to really like it.  4/5 pepperoni, 2/5 crust and sauce, 3.5/5 cheese, so, yeah, probably just a 2.5/5 for me.

Mercer Margherita.

"Fresh mozzarella, basil, fresh garlic, and extra virgin olive oil, also pecorino romano."

I also tried a small piece of the margherita, but it was even less enjoyable for me.  Just so much of the sauce that I don't care for, the crust I don't care for, and some decent cheese.  Meh. 2/5.