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Y&H has had Spike Mendelsohn on speed dial today, but so far no calls back from the former Top Chef-er turned burger man. But Mendelsohn himself, according to a food diary he kept for New York magazine, says that he plans to open a yet-unnamed pizzeria in D.C. in the “next three or four months.”
Mendelsohn has been conducting research in New York for his planned pie palace. So far, he’s visited Lombardi’s, 99¢ Fresh Pizza, Grimaldi’s, Emporio, Una Pizza Napoletana, Kesté, San Marzano, and Tonda. The chef isn’t tipping his hat (oh, we kill ourselves) on what kind of pie he’ll make, other than to admit it won’t be a true Neapolitan, like those at 2Amys (which is just as well, since Mendelsohn can’t spell the name to begin with):
I love my pizza. I’m opening a pizzeria in D.C. in the next three or four months. I just took over the building the other day. I’m researching pizza, so I’m trying to hit up all the spots. They [Grimaldi’s] do a great coal-fire pizza. I had pepperoni and green peppers on it and a pitcher of beer. I love watching the owner give everybody attitude in the restaurant; it’s part of the ambience. I don’t think I want to have coal fire. I want to have American-Napolean [sic] pizza. But not a true Napolean [sic] pizza; it needs to be Americanized a little bit. The true pizza from Napoli is really soggy in the middle, and you have to eat it with a knife and fork. I don’t think it’ll take well to the American palate. I mean, most pizzas in the States that are called Napolean pizzas are crispier.
Here’s what Y&H would like to see: A true New York-style pizza-by-the-slice place in D.C. Or is that impossible, because of the Big Apple’s water?
Photo by Darrow Montgomery