Greenpoint has something of a pizza problem. I think that for most neighborhoods in NY, you can generally apply the same rule to pizzerias as you can to laundromats: you go to the one that is closest to your apartment. A High density of pizzerias per neighborhood ensures healthy competition between establishments, so even your average, local pizza place should be better than a large chain. That's not the case for pies in the garden spot. There simply aren't very many pizza places, and the one closest to my apartment, Triangolo, serves a kind of bland, junior high cafeteria style pie. Like many food related things in Greenpoint, sometimes convenience and quality don't go hand in hand.
Enter Casanova Restaurant. Casanova occupies a horrible stretch of McGuinness Ave about two blocks away from the old, grey, Polaski Bridge - not exactly close to where I live, but within a comfortable walking or ordering distance. It has one of those horrible 4' porcelain statues of a fat Italian stereotype holding a pizza (usually a bad sign), and generally kind of looks like someplace Hugh Grant would be taken by James Caan in "Mickey Blue Eyes", if you know what I mean.
Anyway, their grandma Pizza is tops. A Square pie, with a rich, almost foccacia like crust, it's dressed with thin slices of fresh mozzarella, bright homemade tomato sauce and lots of fresh garlic. This thing tastes like summer. The little dabs of basil don't really do too much, but the overall flavor combo is irresistible, and what's more, each slice is completely light and airy, with several huge air bubbles throughout. Unlike a lot of really tasty pizzas, this pie is the very opposite of a gut bomb. We ordered one of these to celebrate a half day friday, and pretty much kept gnawing on it piece by piece for the next 8 hours like it was make-pretend food. A Large (pictured above) is $16.
338 McGuinness Blvd.
Brooklyn, NY 11222
718 389 0990
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