The Black Seed Bagels team today launches a new venture — Black Seed Pizza, a collaboration with Bobby Hellen, who ran GG's on Fifth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B for three years until December 2017.
Hellen will be working from Black Seed's East Village location on First Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street.
The opening menu features five pizzas, including standards such as Cheese, Tomato and White as well as several specialties like Bob's Pizza (seen below), which features sopressata, mozzarella blend, grana padano, pecorino, tomato sauce, castelvetrano olive, banana pepper, oregano and homemade chimichurri ...
The pizzas are available in two sizes — square (12" x 12", feeds 2-3 people) and round (9" diameter, feeds 1 person). Find the menu here.
Some details via the opening announcement:
Black Seed Pizza's dough is fermented for 36 hours and made from certified organic, stone ground flour from Wild Hive Farm in the Hudson Valley, non-GMO all-purpose flour from King Arthur Flour in Vermont, and a 100-year old sourdough starter.The sauce is made using certified organic Bianco DiNapoli San Marzano-style tomatoes from California. All pies are baked in Sicilian-style pans, in a wood-fired oven. Gluten-free dough options are available for the square pizzas, and a plant-based cheese (Numu) is available to substitute for mozzarella
The pizza will be available for pickup at 176 First Ave. and delivery through Black Seed Pizza's own site and also via the usual third-party delivery platforms.
Hours: Sunday to Thursday from 4-10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.
The Black Seed founding partners (Noah Bernamoff, Matt Kliegman and Dianna Daoheung) have been friends with Hellen for years and say that this is more than a pop-up concept, but rather "a full-fledged, standalone business alongside the bagel operation, poised to grow and potentially operate out of more Black Seed locations with wood-fired ovens."
Storefront photo by Steven; pizza pic by Shay Harrington
The Black Seed founding partners (Noah Bernamoff, Matt Kliegman and Dianna Daoheung) have been friends with Hellen for years and say that this is more than a pop-up concept, but rather "a full-fledged, standalone business alongside the bagel operation, poised to grow and potentially operate out of more Black Seed locations with wood-fired ovens."
Storefront photo by Steven; pizza pic by Shay Harrington
16 comments:
This seems like a dumb move by the collaborators. One of the best NYC pizza places, Joe & Pat's, is a few doors down, and Iggy's, blessed by the former owner, Rosemarie, across the street, and another on the corner at 9th street, also well respected.
Seems like a smart utilization of the space, bagels are busy in the morning, switch to pizza later in the day.
Interesting, this could be a really good thing. As these can serve just one person, they could fill the gap left by Joe & Pat's who don't do slices (as far as I know).
That square pie looks good, but it reminds me of Detroit style pizza, and we all know how that worked out. Lions & Tigers & Squares pizza on 2nd Avenue only lasted 9 months, and the Artichoke pizza guys, who actually know how to make money in the pizza business, were the owners. At $21-$28 a pie it better be tasty, and hopefully less heavy than Detroit style. Luckily the Black Seed guys have a bagel businesses to keep them going if this doesn’t work out, but it seems a little strange to take the focus off of bagels if the main business is doing well, especially in an area full of pizzerias. But 8:58 might be right, they are noticeably less busy in the afternoon, and this would be a nice business for the rest of the day. At least they didn’t try to launch it on The Bowery.
I like their bagels so their pizza should be pretty good as well?
That 12 inch square pie looks fuucckkked up! Possibly feeds 2 or 3 Whoo-hoo girls but I could easily devour the whole shebang.
Sounds good and delicious.
@anon 8:33: and we have Sauce and Motorino a block away on 12th, and Baker’s on A, and the new one across the street from Tompkins Square Park... plenty of good options and I am very excited for this addition
Looking forward to trying this. I miss GG’s, and generally like anything wood-fired.
8:33 AM, plenty of room in the neighborhood (and in my belly) for pizza variety!
As if we did not have enough pizza, but makes sense if there is not afternoon/evening business with just bagels, and the bagel ovens can be used for pizza making?
Yes, this seems like keeping the ovens busy all day, which is sensible. I'm sure they're struggling like everyone else. Anyway, I've got one here right now as I type this. It's not deep-dish, crust is puffy like a Sicilian but a little softer. I'm not picking up a whole lot of tang from the sourdough, but with the tomatoes and grana cheese there's already a lot of umami. Quite different from Motorino's (excellent) Neapolitan style. A matter of personal preference or dinnertime whim. With the heavier crust, I'm filling up by just the second slice of the 9", where I can get to three on a Motorino.
(Emmy/Emily/etc. are still kicking it with Detroit-style pizza. It's a tasty variety!)
Had it for dinner tonight. My daughter gave it an 11 out of 10.
GG's was soooo great
Black Seed has exceptional bagels so I have high expectations for the pizza. I am of the school of thought that you can never have too much pizza. Complaining about too many pizza places in the EV is like complaining about too many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. Pizza is one of those things you cannot make at home to the same level as a very good pizzeria--and believe me I have tried--so I always have a wandering pizza eye.
Everybody has their likes and dislikes. I tried GG's once, and was disappointed. I tried Pat & Joe's a few times. I was not precisely disappointed, but it was not a good value proposition for me. We've had many satisfying lunches at and from Motorino's. Numero 28's buffalo mozz pizza is the stuff of which dreams are made, but it doesn't come cheap. I respect Slice, but the electric oven pizza is missing something soulful. The best slice? In America? Maybe Scarr's.
I agree that you can't have too many pizza places, same for bagels and coffee. The more the merrier!
Remember when there was a sudden influx of burger joints? Then froyo, bubble tea, ramen, twee desserts...pizza always wins!
There is sadly no good slice joint in the whole neighborhood except Joe's which is on the cusp of what I'd consider our hood...
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