Co. (Company) Pizza

Every self-respecting foodie has a favorite pizza joint in New York City. If you don't, well, you should probably consider relocating or taking up a new hobby. Enjoying a crisp but doughy, smooth but cheesy slice is as much a part of Manhattan culture as getting tickets to a show on The Great White Way.

I have a few favorites, and at the risk of being written off as an amateur food critic, my top pies include: Pizzeria Uno's on the UWS - yep, I'm sorry, their small, deep-dish cheese with sausage is one of the best-tasting, dependable pizzas and the crust makes me swoon (if anyone tries to accuse me of being a food snob ever again I'll just direct them to this post); Pala - I ate here with Winette once and I've never gotten over their thick gourmet pizza sold by the slice; and Trattoria Dell' Arte - I just had their thin crust pizza about a week ago and it may as well have been from a cafe in Florence - thin, light and delicious.

Whew! I'm glad I got that off my chest.

While I could direct people to find a good local pie, I don't eat pizza enough to be an authority. Pizza for me is like a holiday: you love it, but it doesn't come around often enough. I am no health nut, but I do like to (sort of) watch my figure. If I order a pizza, I have no self control. Four to six slices will be consumed in one sitting, which leads me to often avoid the temptation by ordering an alternative. Even when I "share" with other people I inevitably end up eating more than twice what they do, because, I, unlike most people, have no stop sign in my stomach.

As part of my attempt to eat more pizza, I brought FTDC (Fat Tuesday Dinner Club) to Co. The place has been getting more press than the former "Jon and Kate Plus 8," on the local and national level. It's made about a dozen top lists, from best pizza to best new restaurant. Rob Patronite named it best new restaurant of 2009 and it showed up again in New York Magazine's "Top 20 Pizzas of the Moment." It's in Food and Wine's "Where to Go Next" section. Time Out features it as one of the "Best New Pizzas in NYC." I'm sure I'm missing others, but you get the idea. My sense is Co. is going to be a victim of its own hype. The excitement met its fever pitch when I read on Twitter and in multiple "Spotted!" texts from Young'un that Martha Stewart had pizza there one night. Well lah-dee-dah. I'd already been. Take that, Marfa!

Fashionista and I walked in to Co. and found TheDude and TheRookie chilling with a couple glasses of Cava. They were celebrating TheDude's return from his vacation to Costa Rica where he proposed to his girlfriend. I hate them. But it didn't stop me from ingesting several congratulatory drinks on their behalf.

The place reminded me of a contemporary Noah's Ark. If it was an opera, the set at the Met might resemble the dining room at Co. The walls had wooden panels like the shell of a huge boat with their long, smooth, light brown tone (and the tables and chairs to match).

I was pleasantly surprised that our wait for a spot at one of the community tables wasn't very long. We all enjoyed a glass and a toast to the to-be-weds of Cristalino Cava before we squeezed into our four seats. It wasn't very long before I could feel the stare of the woman to my left like a hot iron. I'm sorry, am I being too loud for you? Who goes on a date and expects to hear themselves think at a place where you sit with 20 other people? I didn't let her quiet 'tude get to me as our boisterous conversation jumped from one story to the next.

Dinner club consists of food, drinks and love life updates. The topic usually plays out like an episode on "Survivor" or "Project Runway."

"OK, Mona, who got voted off the island?"

"J- is gonzo. D- is on his way out. B- is still a heavy contender."

"Fashionista, your turn. Who is in and who is out?"

"S- is in. C- is out."

TheDude makes us jealous of his romantical, I-found-true-love adventures while TheRookie makes us laugh with his trials and tribulations on J-Date. I don't know where he finds these girls, but some of them sound very special (by special I mean they ride the short bus).

Eventually we glanced down at our menus and were entranced by the pizza offerings. How the heck did anyone choose? They all sounded great.

For starters we went with one piece of each of the toasts: eggplant, pinto bean, red peppers and chicken liver. Like clockwork we quartered each slice, placed it on our plate and passed it around. I was a fan of two of the four toasts. The chicken liver was amazing as was the eggplant. The pinto bean and the red peppers were less bruschetta-like and more like let's dump a mountain of salad on a piece of toast. The bread was firm enough to stand up to the wetness of its toppings but I like a light drizzle on toast, and the red peppers and pinto beans drowned the bread.

For the main course we decided to divvy up three pizzas:

Ham and Cheese: pecorino, gruyère, buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto, caraway
Flambé: béchamel, parmesan, buffalo mozzarella, caramelized onions, lardons
Bird's Nest: raschera, tomme de savoie, parmesan, shaved asparagus, quail eggs, shaved black truffle

We tried to go for an even selection of cheese, veggie and meat options and it was a huge success. The fan favorite was the simple ham and cheese round: strong on the cheese and light on the meat. I like my pizza like I like my ice cream, layered with goodies, so I voted the Flambe as best in Co. And unlike the bird's nest, the cheese was powerful.

Below you'll find the bird's nest. We heard our server describe it as a special and we were totally sold. Think a twist on the Korean dish bibimbap on a pizza. I loved the egg combination with the asparagus, but I was disappointed I could barely taste the cheese. And with three types listed on the menu how could this be? Perhaps it was a case of too many toppings and short-changing the most important one.


The crust was tremendous. Depending on my mood, I can swing either way, between thick and thin crust. Co.'s pizzas were a sort of combination of the two. It wasn't deep dish, but it was far from thin crust. Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery prides himself on his no-knead bread. It was both chewy and crisp and bubbling in all the right spots.

As I said earlier, I haven't eaten enough pizzas in this city (sober and not as munchies) to be the judge of who makes the best pizza. My lame claim to fame is telling Leonardo DiCaprio across the street from Lombardi's that they had good pizza. His response? "Yeah, it IS good pizza!" I doubt he actually went with his mom on that rainy afternoon, but I could at least point him in the right direction. The bottom line: if you're looking for the freshest ingredients and some creative pies, Co. is your place. My only gripe is community tables are not for everyone and the bar is small, make that non-existent. They would benefit from enhancing the bar area so more people could actually sit and eat there. If they had a bigger bar, I would have been back solo for some Cava and a pie, or I would have invited the winner of "Survivor: Mona's Island" to accompany me. Oh wait, haven't found him yet.

230 Ninth Avenue, at 24th St.
212-243-1105