The Best Pizza in Staten Island

Is nowhere to be found!

I so want to be wrong, but I'm starting to realize that finding awesome food in Staten Island is not an easy task.

I've moved to the island at the beginning of 2013, and while we spent most of the first year renovating our new home we ordered a lot of pizza delivery (especially when we didn't have a kitchen sink yet!).

Let me specify that we are located in the "North Shore" and so I've been ordering and looking at North Shore pizzerias, because what's the point of finding a great pizza if they won't deliver it to you?

So what are the "supposedly" best pizzerias on the North Shore? Well, during my research and my constant prodding of neighbors, 4 name consistently came up: Brother's Pizzeria, Jimmy Max, Pat and Joe's and Denino's (that fact should have already warn me, because if there was a best I would have only gotten one name).

Before I delve deeper in a pizza review, let me say that I really want to love Staten Island. This place holds a special meaning for me and I really want to enjoy my stay here until and if I move to somewhere else in the distant future. For now I am here to stay, so I have every intention of finding things to love about the island, but I can't help it if I love pizza and I can't find some great slices (yet)...

Anyway, here it goes...

Brother's Pizza: The main problem I see here is that they are not constant. Some days I can find decent pizza, some other days the pizza is not good at all. I'm thinking there are a couple of different pizza makers and while one of them is good, the others not so much. I prefer their Sicilian pizza, but, again, some days not even the Sicilian is good. If I have to pray each time I walk in the place that the good pizza maker is working that day, I can't call this the best pizza place in Staten Island.

Jimmy Max: Pretty much the same issue as Brother's: pretty good pizza one day, and not so much the next day. One time we got a very salty pie. When their pie is good, is pretty good, though. But I need it to be always good...

Pat and Joe's: I've only eaten here once, with the entire family, and I have to say the pizza was good. We ordered a few different kinds and everybody enjoyed themselves. But was the pizza spectacular? No. Was it amazing and like no other pizza I've ever had? No. Was the bill a little high? Yes. So all in all, a good place to go sit down for a nice family or friends reunion, but I couldn't take my Manhattan friends here and tell them it's the best of the Island.

Denino's: I took my family here with high hopes. I've heard so much about Denino's, and I was so looking forward to finally finding my favorite pizza joint in Staten Island. When we arrived here by car, I was happy to see people flocking out with boxes of fresh pies and quickly stuffing them in their cars' trunks and driving away. I was ok with the line before we were able to sit down because I saw it as a good sign. But when we ordered a Margherita and received a soggy pie I was not so ok anymore... A soggy pie. That's all I remember. Maybe they put too much tomato sauce on it? Maybe it was just a fluke? Who knows? I'm planning on giving them one more chance and updating this review afterwards, because too many people seem to love this place and there must be a reason other than soggy pie...

And so the quest for great pizza continues...

About the author's pizza knowledge: You might be asking yourself what my pizza qualifications are so here they are: I was raised in Italy, and ate pizza on the weekends with my friends for decades, and in Italy, or at least where I come from, you never got a "bad" pizza. The pizza was delicious! The tomato sauce was perfect! Moving to NY was a bit of a shock, because pizza here is a little different, so when I judge NY pizza I am comparing it to other NY pizza and not to Italian pizza because otherwise NY pizza would always lose. My NY pizza experience includes Grimaldi's, which is not my favorite but pretty damn good and perfect if you prefer thin sliced pizza. Lombardi's, which is my favorite because I'm more of a chewy crust and Lombardi's crust is the perfect kind of chewy. And then I've been to Totonno's, Otto Pizzeria, Di Fara, and Patsy's in the Bronx. And oh, yes, I never ever eat Papa John's, Domino's nor Pizza Hut's pizza (yuck!).

Staten Island Ballet's The Nutcracker at CSI

Today we went to see The Nutcracker at CSI (College of Staten Island), and I have to say that while I had big hopes for this show, deep down I knew that I was going to be disappointed.

While the stage was very small, and as such limiting the possibilities, it shouldn't have limited the performance itself. I mean, if you are a strong and confident ballerina, you will dance amazingly no matter where. Right? What the size of the stage might have compromised is the number of people that could have been on it, and in big stage productions a lot more ballerinas on stage usually means a great visual feast. 

Being a small theater production this Nutcracker should be reviewed differently than huge city productions, and while I will try to keep that in mind, I can't help having a few grievances nonetheless: 

1) Lack of great visuals. The Nutcracker is so much about visuals! While the stage didn't need to have incredible props on it, the characters could have been a little more colorful, more whimsical, better dressed and oh my, that Nutcracker's face was really scary! And where was Mother Ginger with her huge dress? That would have been another great visual! 

2) Storyline. It wasn't always clear. Yes, sure, we all know the story, so even better when I tell you that it wasn't clear. The switch between the Nutcracker and the Prince wasn't clear. The Sugar Plum Fairy wasn't properly introduced, at first I thought she was just a snowflake. The end is not faithful to the original (was it a dream or not?) and it feels as if the question wanted to be completely avoided. Lastly, the mini pony was a weird "deus ex machina" only used to signal the end of an act (not fair to the pony). Maybe next time a focus group could help.

3) Too many pauses. Too many empty moments. There were so many parts of the ballet where this or that ballerina just stopped dancing and paused, almost as if to rest. And I don't mean that they stopped when they were supposed to dance, no, they stopped because it was part of the performance, but visually it didn't look good, it only made the dance sequence look chopped, lacking fluidity. 

4) Maybe I was sitting too close, but I saw too many legs shake, as in dancers having a hard time keeping their poses. Aren't ballerinas supposed to have the strongest legs? 

5) Weak expressions. In a ballet, where nobody talks, you want to make sure you give enough clues to the audience about what's going on. More than ballet moves translated into visual clues, many times I thought I was watching a silent movie, or mimes on stage. A scene at the beginning where little Clara draws a house in the air (instead of maybe simply pointing at the real house behind her) really made me cringe. 

6) Lack of coordination. This was a serious issue. So many times the coordination was off and at one point, Clara's "mother" bumped into another dancer during a number. A big no-no.

About the dancers: The Sugar Plum Fairy was a decent dancer but a little stiff at times, little Clara danced more like a doll than a girl (not fluid), big Clara had a look on her face that lacked confidence. At times the guys seemed the better dancers, but even they made mistakes: the Russian dancer could have been great, but after so many spins he must have gotten dizzy and slipped right at the end of his number, the prince was nothing special and many times was just holding Clara's hand and not dancing at all. One guy performed well, but I'm not sure how to identify him (short hair with curly on top), he danced one of the first "couple numbers". And my personal favorite was Drosselmeyer, he really looked like he belonged on that stage and he dominated it every time he was on it (even if he didn't do much dancing).

Some girls I did like (I'm not all bad, see?), I liked the leader of the Waltz of Flowers, with the hot pink tutu, very fluid and confident. I also liked a lot the Arabian dancer for the same reasons.

Am I being too critical? Maybe. But I found myself comparing this performance to a circus performance and I have to say that circus' numbers today are so complicated and dangerous that don't have room for mistakes, and they don't make any (when they do, someone usually dies). So if circus performers can go through a number impeccably, why couldn't these ballerinas? I felt we were applauding anytime the feet of this or that ballerina left the floor, as if any jump was something out of the ordinary, and that in itself is an indicator of the (bad) tenor of the performance. 

And there was no standing ovation at the end, which makes me feel less horrible for writing this review, because it makes me believe I was not the only one "slightly" disappointed.

I am not writing this to make anyone feel bad, all in all, my family had a good time, we watched a show very close to home and we were able to see some ballerinas up close and listen to great music (still stuck in my head hours later). What I am writing this for is to push you girls and guys a little. To push the ballet teachers, the students, the choreographer, the whole production in general, to rise above "this is just a small Staten Island production". This mentality is what keeps Staten Island "small". 

Sure the Staten Island Ballet is not the Martha Graham Dance Company nor the Mariinsky Ballet nor the New York City Ballet, but think about it, what do they have that the Staten Island Ballet doesn't have? Gold plated ballet barres? Magic shoes? Flying tutus? No. They have the confidence of being the best schools in the world, that's all (coupled of course with hours of gruesome practice).

Well, those are things that anyone else can have, as long as they really want them. Even a little ballerina from Staten Island, NY. So what are you waiting for? Go get them!

p.s. Next year I want more...  ;)