PIZZA REVIEW: Prince Street Pizza

My search for the best pizza in New York continues….

The legend of Ray’s Pizza is not as iconic as it used to be in New York. The city’s food scene is so well-versed in pizza styles that Ray’s rarely enters the conversation anymore. The saga took a blow in 2011 when the truly original Ray’s closed on Prince Street.

In its place now sits Prince Street Pizza. The layout is about half the space that Ray’s used to occupy, but it seems fairly rooted in history. If the signs didn’t say otherwise, you would be excused for thinking this was the original tenant of this building dating back to the 1970’s.

The specialty has also changed. The thing everybody seems to rave about here is the spicy square slice, specifically the one with pepperoni. So guess what I ordered?

I was handed a thick slice with crisp edges and pepperoni rounds that were heated to a nice char. Surprisingly, this gutbmob was practically greaseless with a light tomato sauce and cheese combo. But there was no light hand when it came to the pepperoni, which was awesome because the crisp saltiness married well to the dough base.

Perhaps I got the plain square slice because I didn’t find it spicy at all. That’s ok because it was still pretty tasty. It reminded me of the hipster pie I got recently at GG’s which was incorrectly labeled a grandma slice.

Names aside, this style of pizza is filling and tasty. And Prince Street gets it right. I wouldn’t be surprised if just like the pizzeria’s previous tenant (the famous Ray’s), you start to see fake, generic Prince St. pizzerias pop up all over the city (or further down Prince Street). If so, we’ll all know which was the first.

Is Prince Street Pizza the best pizza in NY? If you want a hearty, crispy meat-filled slice, this is your place. At 8 out of 10, it’s on its way to being a new pizza legend.