Through all the years that I’ve lived and worked in midtown, I never once thought to venture into Angelo’s. It’s dumb/arrogant of me, but I always just assumed it was a tourist trap for the people going to see Letterman or Colbert next door. And being just a few streets up from Times Square and right on Broadway, I just assumed it was a shit show, like almost everything in Times Square. Boy, was I wrong.
While it may indeed get crowded at times due to the location, the pizza is definitely on point. They use a nice big coal-fired brick oven that heats up to 900 degrees.
The guys slinging the pizzas work with robot precision, and nearly every pie that comes out looks identical.
They’re not all square, obviously, and in fact these square pies are rolling out on the menu soon. The current pizza menu is quite diverse and full of really nice variations. The one that the guy was making above (at least in most of the pics) was a simple style pie with sauce, mozz, chunks of parm and basil. It was pretty good.
My friends at NYCFoodFOMO and BeFatBeHappy invited me here for an Instagram influencer event to sample and take pics of the food for promotional purposes.
The joint itself is category 1 in my pizza review taxonomy, which means that it’s a pie only place, with no sales by the slice. But it’s also a legit Italian restaurant as well with a fully stacked menu. With all that said, here’s what I tried:
There were two pizzas conceptualized by NYCFoodFOMO and BeFatBeHappy. One had sausage, roasted peppers and pepperoni, and the other had ricotta, garlic, bacon and red onions.
Here’s the first:
And the second:
Both were excellent, and the circular pies were more of a success than the square pies. I think if I had to choose one, the sausage, pepperoni and roasted peppers was the winner.
We also tried some pasta dishes. Three to be exact. The first was a nice and simple bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.
The meatballs were pretty good. Nothing can compare to mom’s, but these did get the job done.
Next up was a carbonara pasta dish with fettuccine and mushrooms.
Not bad! But it just needed a touch of salt. I guess the pancetta in the dish wasn’t as salty as expected.
Finally was a shrimp and pasta dish with added baked mozz on top.
Very nice. And then we moved on to dessert. Tiramisu, cheesecake and vanilla/chocolate mousse pie.
If you’re wondering who these folks are, they’re some of the crazy Instagram food people from the event. Check out the madness:
UPDATES 7/5/17 & 7/23/17
I finally made it back to try a classic style pie. Awesome.
It is now my go-to delivery pizzeria as well.
ANGELO’S PIZZA
1697 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
