There are so many pizza shops in NYC. Ones with history, ones with huge slices, ones with unique toppings…you name it, we have it. We recently visited a pizza shop with an interesting name, “&pizza” (and pizza). They have three locations in NYC, and we went to the newest location on Wall Street. The small storefront was noticeable with bright yellow like a sunshine. To walk in to the shop was like walking into a bright sun!
The inside was really small, with cash register up front, and some goodies and drinks in the middle of a long, narrow space. You could get more than just regular pizza here, but also a snack in a shape of a pizza!
To order a pizza, you need to go all the way to the back. The counter has a sign that says “kick it off right” with some of the main ingredients that are stationed there. The first step: choose your dough. They have traditional and gluten free dough. Once you make your selection, a staff will put the dough through a press and get it into the elongated oval shape.
From there, they put specific sauce according to the choice of your pizza, and toppings gets placed carefully.
I went with one of their “The Hits” pizza choices, American Honey ($11). It is made with Spicy tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni, arugula, goat cheese, hot honey, red pepper flakes. I saw tater tots as one of their toppings, and since I love tater tots, I added the topping to my pizza. The cheese and tater tots were torn/crumbled before they were placed on the pizza. I wanted to see the shape of tater tots left on the pizza, but I guess it had to be crumbled in order for them to cook right??? There is no additional cost to adding more toppings. How great is that?
My hubby chose Moonstruck ($11), also under “The Hits” items. It is made with Garlic ricotta, mushroom truffle, mozzarella, grilled onion, mushroom, goat cheese, fig balsamic. He added Italian Sausage and Spinach to this pizza. Did I mention you can add toppings without any extra charge? Great!
One thing about Italian Sausage. You might want to specifically ask for it verbally, instead of pointing it with your finger. We were used to seeing Italian sausage in ground meat style. But here, Italian sausage comes in round slices like pepperoni. The ground meat they have here is actually vegan sausage. You can create a pizza with vegan mozzarella and vegan protein here!
Once the basic toppings are all placed neatly, it gets passed on to another staff who put them into oven. When it comes out the oven, it goes to another work station for final touch. They call it “finish with the bang.” Ok then, shall we?
You can simply get the pre-selected finishes on your pizza, or you can change/add whatever you want. Our pizza is ready and they look really good! They slice them into eight slices, and place them into their long box.
They have some special drinks here, and we decided to try their &soda items. They are made with real cane sugar, caffeine free, and have seasonal flavors. We went with Ginger Berry Lemonade ($2.75) and Lemon Lime Basil Sparkling Water ($2.75). Lemonade had great flavor of ginger and berry. Sweet without being too sweet. Sparkling water was refreshing, with just a hint of sweetness.
And here are our pizza creations! Don’t they look great? They certainly had amazing aroma that got our appetite going!
I was excited to try the American Honey with (almost invisible) tater tots. Since the tater tots were crumbled on there, it was not very noticeable… The spicy tomato sauce and hot honey gives a great punch, and at the same time, get sweetness from goat cheese and honey. Interesting pizza for sure! If you like some heat with your pizza, this might be it.
And the Moonstruck with Italian sausage and spinach came out glistening with fig balsamic. Several ingredients such as mushroom and cheese got crumbled or torn as they were placed on this pizza. I guess it makes it a bit easier to cook, as well as easier to eat. The mushroom was very meaty, and balsamic had great flavor. It was very tasty!
Since the pizza is made to order, it was super fresh, and tasted healthy because of it. The size of the pizza was really good too, not too large nor too small. We really enjoyed them both! The staffs were really nice too.
The only issue is that this place does not have any seating. I like having my pizza hot out of the oven if possible, and so I wanted to have these pizza while they were still nice and hot. But, we had to walk around to find somewhere to sit, which is not really convenient. Luckily, we found a bench in a nearby park, but I really wish if they will expand a bit and offer some seating so that we can really enjoy their fresh pizza right there and then. Regardless, we will be back for more for sure!
&pizza – 63 Wall St, New York, NY 10005