Austin Street since 2021
A shop built around the square
A dozen seats, two walls of windows, and a brick oven.
The square
Forest Hills was never short of pizza. What it did not have was a shop built around the square: the thick, pan baked slice with the caramelised underside that most places treat as an afterthought.
Long cold ferment. Oiled steel pans. A bake that takes the bottom past golden. Customers keep describing the crust as sourdough-like, crispy and chewy at once, which is exactly what we are after.
The round pies are real too. But if it is your first time, get the square.
What goes on it
Fewer things, better things
- Organic tomato
- Uncooked before it hits the oven, so it keeps its brightness.
- Two mozzarellas
- Aged for the browning, fresh for the pull. Most pies get both.
- Parmigiano Reggiano
- Grated over the top after the bake.
- Calabrian chili
- Under the porketta and the broccoli rabe.
On the strip
We sit between the subway and the LIRR, so we feed a lot of people on their way somewhere. It also makes us a neighbourhood shop. Regulars order the same square every week, and we know which ones.
Pickup and dine in only. A square slice does not survive twenty minutes in a delivery bag.