The Pizza Snob has mastered the art of turning just about any family outing into a new pizza experience. On a recent trip back home to the Pizza State, after a morning shopping with Mom, Dad and Mrs. Pie at the Jersey City’s Newport Mall, I managed to maneuver everyone to a late lunch at the nearby Delenio Italian Restaurant.
Delenio’s is your classic Jersey neighborhood family Italian restaurant. It sits in the same lovely part of town as the great Carmine’s Pizza Factory. In fact, one internet reviewer made note of the fact that he lived next to Carmine’s, but chose to walk a block instead to Delenio’s for his pies. While the Snob probably wouldn’t do the same, nonetheless, I was more than pleased with the day’s lunch at Delenio’s.
Located on n the corner of 7th and Brunswick, Delenio’s is a small dark cozy place with only a few tables. Even though they are more of a pizza-serving restaurant than a pizzeria, they were offering $2.50 ($3.00 with a topping) slice specials during the lunch hour. Rather than serving from a complete Italian menu from antipasto to cannoli, theirs was more of a boutique selection of many interesting and tempting dishes. Prior to sharing a large cheese pizza ($16.00), we had some very delicious Caesar salads. I topped mine with chicken and Mrs. Pie chose the salmon. Both came with a ton of their respective proteins and were tastefully fresh and delightful.
Our pizza came just at the right time as we were finishing our salads. The pie looked a little heavier and cheesier than a classic NY pie, and as l lifted my first slice, I noticed that the crust was also a bit soggy. But that soon didn’t matter much since Delenio’s pizza started quickly racking up points as I began to discover the dazzling flavors of its fine fresh ingredients.
As I continued to devour slice after slice, the word that came to my mind to describe this pie was “juicy.” While at first I thought it may have been too oily, Mrs. Pie theorized that perhaps there was some extra water in the tomato sauce making it soggy. I then wondered if cooking it just a little longer would have done the trick in both thinning out the sauce and firming up the crust.
Forgetting the miss on my desired crispness, Delenio’s pie was mouthwatering delicious. It’s so rare for a pie to score so well in all the flavor areas (sauce, cheese and crust) like this one did. Even Mom, who is loyal to her home town Bayonne pizzas, said that this was a winner.
While located in a difficult area to find parking, Delenio’s is well worth the adventure. I would go back tomorrow if I could!
PIZZA SNOB RATING **** Near Perfection
Delenio Italian Restaurant
357 7th Street (corner of Brunswick Street)
Jersey City, NJ
201-798-9539
www.deleniojc.com/
