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There’s a lot of good to see at this Manhattan subway stop.
Two years after opening the subterranean bar Nothing Really Matters, hospitality professional Adrien Gallo continues building his subway station empire, opening See No Evil Pizza last week on the concourse level of the downtown-bound 1 train station at 50th Street and Broadway—a space that once housed a Dunkin’. It joins his Tiny Dancer Coffee on the same concourse.
“I basically transformed a subway station that was super neglected to a destination spot in the middle of Times Square,” Gallo tells Time Out New York.
For this third turn, Gallo fit an entire restaurant, replete with 40 seats, a bar and open kitchen, into the 1,100 square-foot slot.
“It’s almost like a restaurant from the East Village or Lower East Side stuck in a little space underground in Times Square,” he says.
The biggest challenge was arranging a whole pizzeria setup inside (including three new electric ovens), where pies are perfected by executive chef and partner Ed Carew, who got his NYC start several years ago at Gramercy Tavern.
“The ovens that we have, you can control the heat on the top and the bottom,” he adds. “You can really personalize how you’re baking your pies.”
Ten, 12-inch varieties are crafted from three-day fermented dough made with artisanal flour from Italy and ladled with raw sauce (tomato pulp, salt, oil, mix), topped with ingredients like mozzarella, mushrooms, hot soppressata and broccoli rabe and baked for about three-and-a-half to four minutes.
“If someone sat down with a pizza and a glass of wine or beer they’d be in and out of here in 20 minutes,” Gallo says, though the space is intended as a destination for lingering.
The menu starts with stuzzichini like giardiniera for little snacks and antipasti like grilled octopus salad, risotto croquettes and sardine toast “alla Veloce,” which Carew says was critically important to include. “It’s a total nod, ripoff, homage to Veloce,” Carew says.
“I wanted to have featured seafood before you eat your pizza,” he adds. “When I go into a place I like to have some nice anchovies, sardines, octopus, something like that before I have my pizza. Because it eats light, it’s fun, I just gravitate toward it.”
For their love letter, Carew cures the sardines in house.
“We haven’t found a product that stands up to the fresh ones,” Gallo says.
A rotating lasagna is also on the menu, presently a Sunday gravy-style, and many of the pizzas will eventually be available gluten-free.
See No Evil has its own beverage program with a license for beer and wine, which also incorporates cocktails like the self-explanatory No Negroni Sbagliato.
Gallo was already able to gauge the double-takes, surprise and delight some commuters would register meandering by Nothing Really Matters, obscured as it is before you swipe through the turnstile, and he’s seen more of the same response to this third operation.
“Every person that’s come in, not only do they enjoy the food, it’s the journey, the destination, and the design,” he says. “I designed everything a little bit nicer than it has to be because it’s in juxtaposition to the subway. It’s a very unique space that just happens to be underground”
His hat trick here also bookends a whole itinerary with distinct styles and experiences. “People could start at the coffee shop in the morning on their way to work, they could come for dinner and a glass of wine at See No Evil, and then have a late night cocktail at Nothing Really Matters, all in the same day, within 20 feet of each other.”
With the Public Works gallery occupying the concourse’s fourth bit of real estate, Gallo is out of spots in this bit of the underground. Although he says he isn’t eyeing any other subway stops at the moment, he is still thinking about ways to use and improve, “unwanted, overlooked” spaces.
“There’s odd opportunities a lot of different places,” Gallo says. “So why not try to make that work?”
See No Evil Pizza is located on the concourse level of the downtown-bound 1 train station at 50th Street and Broadway. It is open for pop-ins and Resy reservations Monday-Saturday from 5pm-midnight.