Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour-with Tony Muia

Last Friday I went on the Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour with Tony Muia. I really thought the tour was awesome! I learned a lot I didn't know about Brooklyn, and enjoyed the two styles of pizzas on the tour. Tony really knows a lot about Brooklyn and explained so many things most people don't know. I enjoyed seeing cobble stone streets, learning about the history of Brooklyn, and seeing how much Brooklyn is changing into more like Manhattan with all the high rise buildings they are constructing in Brooklyn now. Tony also explained a lot about the mob and what went on in Bensonhurst. Tony took the time to take each of the tour peoples photos under the Brooklyn Bridge. I enjoyed seeing where rich people live in the Bay Ridge part of Brooklyn. Tony explained how Coney Island has changed a lot and who started those changes. I also enjoyed driving through the Bowery and learning how that has changed. I saw some pizza men in the Bari Restaurant and Supply shop and sure would have like to go in and look at them. When we got back to Union Square I asked Tony what would be the best way for me to get there. Tony told me to just walk down the same street until I got there. I Googled how long it would take me to get there and it said it would take 55 minutes. It was already 4:00 PM so it was too late to walk there since they closed at 5:00 PM. There is a restroom on the bus and also good screens to watch what Tony is talking about. The seats were really comfy and there were wide windows so you could see everything. I sat next to a lady from Australia. There were a lot of people from other countries and the US on the pizza tour. I didn't take any photos while driving through the one area of Brooklyn but it was interested to see how the blocks had so many different nationalities and seeing the foods and other things they offered. From one block to the next few blocks things can change a lot. Tony is from Besonhurst and still lives there.

 http://www.asliceofbrooklyn.com/our-tours/pizza-tour/



These are some of the things that were seen on the tour.

Come with an appetite because you’ll be eating pizza! You’ll have a tough time deciding which slice is your favorite between the award winning, Neapolitan-style pizza at Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge (where’s there’s NO waiting on line!) and the legendary Sicilian-style pizza at L&B Spumoni Gardens.

You’ll see movie locations from favorite films like Saturday Night Fever, Goodfellas, The French Connection, Scent of a Woman, Annie Hall and more!

You’ll love watching movie clips on our TV monitors as we drive up to the locations!

Visit Brooklyn Bridge Park for spectacular views of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and great photo opportunities!

Walk around Coney Island’s world-famous amusement park and boardwalk.

See incredible views of the world famous Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges.

See the Brooklyn Army Terminal where Elvis shipped off to Germany in 1958.

View million dollar homes along breathtaking Shore Road in Bay Ridge, including the famous “Gingerbread House.”

Learn about your favorite Brooklyn-born celebrities!

Experience parts of Brooklyn you won’t get anywhere else! As Brooklynites, we’ll take you off the beaten path.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN_DPXgJ7nA

I really enjoyed going on Tony's Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour and would highly recommend it for anyone that wants to try two styles of pizzas and also learn about Brooklyn.  I thought the Pizza Tour was awesome, and always will recall the memories of going on Tony's pizza tour.  Tony and I talked about different style of pizzas after the pizza tour.  Tony told me he tried to help a man start another pizza tour in Staten Island, but that pizza tour never really was successful.  Tony did show me though the logo on shirts of where that pizza tour went.  I was lucky to have tried two of those pizzerias on my trip to Staten Island.  I still want to try Joe and Pat's someday.

Included in the photos of Tony's Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour is photos of the ferry ride back and from Staten Island and Manhattan.  

I would highly recommend The Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour!!! :)  Congrats Tony on your 10th Anniversary!!
Norma

More articles about the Evolution of NY style pizza

Frank's Pizzeria started with a Mastro pizza oven. In 1958, Frank purchased the Italian newspaper Il Progresso at Karolewski’s. In the newspaper, Frank saw an advertisement for a pizza making school located in New York. The program was sponsored by the Mastro Equipment Company. For only $600, the company would train you and provide you with a pizza oven, a work table, and a dozen pizza trays. Soon after, Frank left for New York and learned how to make his famous “cheese-under-the-sauce” pizza.

http://www.franks-pizzeria.com/iemain.html

Another article that Says Pizza Pie Craze Capturing the Nation in the Victoria Advocate, dated October 17, 1957. I thought there was interesting things in the article. One of the things that caught my eye was it says stewed tomatoes were used.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19571017&id=NaxTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EogDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7170,5331668&hl=en

This is another article dated October 17, 1957, in the Milwaukee Journal about Pizza Threatening Hamburger and Hot Dog with a photo of a pizza back then. I liked how they used to call a pizza “a big sloppy round one”. I wonder why the pizzas were 15” in diameter. In this article it says that Frank Mastro devised a pizza oven capable of making pizza at 600 degrees F needed for pizza.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19571017&id=s9cjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eCUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7292,4026973&hl=en

On page 5 there is more about Pizza, but I think you have to click to page five in the upper right hand corner to see the page. Some things that stood out to me was the article says B. C. Cohen whose Times square pizzatorium rolls out 9,000 pies a week. A pizza chef commanded 100.00 to 125.00 a week back then. Vincent S. Larosa of the Larosa Macaroni Co. did 2 ½ million dollars in home pizza mixes. There are more interesting things on page 5.

A article about how New York became a pizza capital by Michael German of Pizzacentric.com. In this article Michael says.

In 1958, the first year in which the phone book listed “pizza” as its own category, there were only 117 such eateries in the five boroughs — and just 10 in Manhattan, according to Berman’s research. Fast forward 12 years to 1970, and pizzerias listed in the phone book increase by 636%, to 861. By 2000, that number doubles to more than 1,600 listings for pizza in the Yellow Pages.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/11/30/how-new-york-became-a-pizza-capital/

This article in the New York times says 1944: The Times discovers Pizza.

It has been a staple of New York (not to mention newsrooms) for so long that it is hard to imagine a time when pizza needed an introduction. But that’s what it got on Sept. 20, 1944 — at a time when Italy was full of American troops who were acquiring a taste for the pies. Note the rare use of the plural “pizze”:

Three years later, on May 25, 1947, The Times noted the potential of this seemingly newfangled concoction. “The pizza could be as popular a snack as the hamburger if Americans only knew more about it”:

Photo
Credit
While The Times introduced pizza to readers on Sept. 20, 1944, the wordfirst appeared in the newspaper four years earlier, a passing mention in the last paragraph of a June 2, 1940 story headlined “Mrs. Belardi Regrets.” An earlier version of this item omitted the 1940 mention

http://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/04/13/1944-the-times-discovers-pizza/?_r=0

I wonder why the 1944 article states that the order was dough, mozzarella, then sauce and Parmesan if the comments are looked at. It reminds me of a tomato pie.

From one of the commentators Jimbo he says this: New York City readers were introduced to pizza through a widely published press release in the thirties from the Radio City Music Hall. It was a captioned photo of four Rockettes chowing down on the new delicacy and can be easily found in a web search.

I can't find that photo.

By Steph: Steph

 MD April 15, 2015

I am curious as to where the recipe for the dough came from, because it includes shortening, which would be heresy in today's world of artisanal wood-fired pizzas. Now I want pizza...

Norma

NY style dough pizzas leavened with only milk kefir

I made some attempts on using heavy cream milk kefir to make some NY style, or "Tomato Pie" pizzas.  These photos show the results.  The milk kefir grains looked like I might have killed them but they came back to life to leaven pizzas.

Norma