October 30, 2008
Getting to know Staten Island, one pizza slice at a time
NewYorkology contributor Anna Links boarded the Staten Island Ferry last weekend, headed for the press preview of SINY’s new pizza tour. Her report:
Larry Ambrosino knows what you think of Staten Island and he is not impressed.
Larry is a third generation Staten Islander and the executive director of SINY, an initiative dedicated to promoting his often overlooked borough. Beginning November 8 at 11 a.m., SINY will offer the Staten Island Pizza Tour to lure you beyond the ferry terminal.
For $40, you’ll travel by mini-bus for slices at four of Staten Island’s finest pizzerias with several local attractions interspersed for the benefit of both your digestion and Staten Island edification.
Moreover, your money buys you a day trip to a New York you’ve probably never seen, except maybe on television.
The pizza is good.
However, the Staten Islanders themselves are the attraction. You may have some notions about them. Before you deliver another Staten Island joke though, visit them in their natural habitat. There’s a powerful community feeling to the restaurants and to the tour: a lot of handshakes and announcements of who went to school with whom and who used to coach whom in football. Since the tour functions to promote the hidden charms of Staten Island, the tour members on Saturday were treated as distinguished guests. It’s essentially public relations through pizza.
At each pizza stop, we were greeted by the owner of the establishment and ushered to a banquet room. Piping hot pizzas were swiftly delivered and devoured. Cheese pizza was the standard at Joe & Pat’s and Lee’s Tavern, (pictured, whole pie.)
At Jimmy Max we tried the Max Special margherita (pictured, slice at top) and DeNino’s gave us small slices of both cheese and margherita. Pitchers of soda were ordered up for the tables. Be aware there are distinct pizza factions. At DeNino’s, in fact, we met a patron who grew up in Brooklyn, lives in New Jersey and travels to Staten Island for his pizza.
 In between pizza stops, there are very brief visits to Staten Island attractions: Wagner College, the Staten Island Zoo, the College of Staten Island and the Grotto of Mt Carmel, (pictured, left). Each stop is about 10 minutes. The zoo and the grotto are great for photos. The colleges are fine institutions that Ambrosino wants you to see, things he’d show any visiting dignitary to his island, but not necessarily of interest to the average daytripper.
Ambrosino himself led this press tour. He appears to knows everyone: every restaurant proprietor or their father or their children. He also knows the Wu-Tang Clan. It’s the access provided by Larry and his friends and colleagues that ultimately make the tour possible and it’s this slice of life that’s the real draw.
Reservations can be made by phone at (347) 273-1257 and must be made two weeks in advance of tour date. Cash or check only.
There’s no pizza tour website yet, but the plan is to offer the tour every, or every-other Saturday. Plan on catching the 10:30 a.m. ferry from Manhattan. The tour is scheduled for three hours, but the media preview ran close to four.
Skipping breakfast is highly recommended.
Related: Slice’s Staten Island pizza map
Picture credits: Anna Links
October 30, 2008 11:16 AM in Foodology, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology, Tours
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