Best New Pizza: Paulie Gee's

By Time Out editors Fri Apr 1 2011

Food & Drink Awards 2011: Readers' choice

Photograph: Lizz Kuehl

Paulie Gee's
Photograph: Lizz Kuehl

Paulie Gee's
Photograph: Lizz Kuehl

Greenpointer pizza at Paulie Gee's

Photograph: Lizz Kuehl

Paulie Gee's

RECOMMENDED: Complete New York pizza guide

OTHER NOMINEES: Best Pizza, La Pizza & Pasta at Eataly, Rubirosa

Italian heavyweights (La Pizza & Pasta at Eataly), Staten Island imports (Rubirosa) and scrappy hipster upstarts (Best Pizza) have burst onto the city's exploding pizza scene, but you chose the unlikeliest of contenders—a restaurant on the fringes of Greenpoint, tended by a 57-year-old IT-professional-turned-pizzaiolo—as the destination for New York's top new pie. Paul Giannone, whose passion was ignited at Totonno's 16 years ago, spun his amateur enthusiasm into a pro-level gig when he opened this rustic tavern. The hand-built, wood-burning oven, artisanal fior di latte, bright, fresh tomato sauce and pillowy, Neapolitan-style crust—chewy and scorched in all the right places—are testaments to the years he spent calibrating his craft. But it's the artistry in Giannone's offbeat toppings (Bacon Marmalade, anisette creme) that propelled him ahead of the dough-twirling pack. 60 Greenpoint Ave between Franklin and West Sts, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (347-987-3747, pauliegee.com)