Di Fara Pizza

Posted by Edmund in Featured Articles, New York City, Pizza, Restaurants | 0 comments

Cuisine: Pizza.
Specialty: New York-Style.
Location: 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY 11230-3702.
Price: $25.00 for Regular. $30 for the Square Version. More for Toppings.

Tradition goes a long way in the New York pizza-making scene, as countless pizzerias draw customers by proclaiming their years of operation, family traditions, old-fashioned cooking techniques, and so on. Yet, once you step inside, you realize those pizzerias are traditional in name only. Few owners actually get their hands dirty in the kitchen, even fewer toss everything by hand, and almost nobody cooks the pizzas in old-fashioned ovens.

Di Fara’s, though, is the real deal.

On the surface, Di Fara’s doesn’t seem like much. It takes an hour from the mainland to get there. The building is small and dinky—not even the type of place you’d sit down to eat. And while the line isn’t too long, the service is very slow, as the pizzeria uses an oven with about 4 spots in it.

That’s really the charm of it, though. It simply oozes “classic.” The original man in charge (Dom de Marco) does most everything himself—from kneading the dough to tossing on the toppings. First, he puts on the toppings, including a whole square of buffalo mozzarrella; then drizzles on extra virgin olive oil; puts the pizza in the oven; places fresh parmesan and basil (which he himself cuts with scissors) on top to finish it off. It’s all almost mechanical, but done with the proficiency and efficiency only a seasoned pro could have. Very old-fashioned, but oh so fresh!

Freshness, though, does not alone make a pizza, and I found myself quickly disappointed with the two pies I ordered. The standard pie (loaded with mozzarella, marinara, and basil leaves, plus parmesan on top) is so greasy that the oil just drips off, though that grease tastes more like olive oil rather than like fast food. The marinara fares worse, having that fast food pizza taste to it. The dough, moreover, comes a tad too burnt/blackened on the bottom, and the pizza tastes very salty. Even the absolute pleasure of biting into the herby, fresh basil, chewy dough, and buffalo mozzarella can’t make up for these glaring flaws. Thankfully, the pie is topped with a generous portion of cheese, particularly compared to the other famous pizzerias. Score: 3.7/5.0

The Di Fara Special, a combination of sausage, mushrooms, and onions, manifests the very same problems: It is salty, the marinara is horrible, and the crust is burnt, especially on the sides. Here, however, it’s more fitting to say scorched than burnt, as the char overshadows nearly everything else on the pie, including the fantastic cheese. The pizza has lost much of its fresh basil taste, too, because of the added, more cloying oil from the meat.

More positively, I ordered this pie in the square format, which comes with a slightly larger and chewier crust, almost like a semi-deep dish. And again, it’s hard to argue against a classic combo like buffalo mozzarella, fresh-cut basil, and sausage. Score: 3.0/5.0.

The pizza, then, is somewhat of a letdown, even though it holds its own against most of New York’s pizzerias. The far bigger disappointment, though, is simply the cost. Not only does each pizza cost about $25 or so, but also about 30 minutes to an hour wait—and that’s on a good day, where only a few people show up in line. The oven, as old-fashioned as it is, simply can’t handle the demand for Di Fara’s pies, yet the quality of that traditionally cooked pie doesn’t justify the wait, the price, or the demand.

Overall, Di Fara’s is a lot of hype for a great, but still quite normal, pizza. I’d recommend sticking to the city’s other classics, like Lombardi’s and Grimaldi’s—same wait, but far better quality and less travel time.

Scores
Taste: 3.5/5.0
Value: 1.0/5.0. Great pizza, but no pizza is worth this much of a wait.
Overall Score: 2.5/5.0