vip in the city

That’s Amore!

It all started with an email just before New Year’s. DK, prompted by a post he saw on Chowhound, sent out an email jubilantly announcing that the long-lost pizza from our childhood had somehow resurfaced at a nondescript shopping center off the service road of the Van Wyck Expressway. Was it possible?

Given the rhapsodic tone of his missive — “the sauce… the sauce… best pizza i’ve ever had in my entire life. i’d eat half a pie as a little kid.” — I’m surprised that a full week passed before we made the trip out to Queens to investigate.

Saturday afternoon, he and SYB dropped by Dad’s office to pick me up for our adventure. We bid adieu to my parents (who seemed amused by the prospect of the three of us driving out to the mall for pizza on a Saturday afternoon) and off we went.

There it was: Amore Pizza. The familiar, sweet aroma hit us as soon as we stepped inside the glass doors. We ordered a pie and proceeded to wait with nervous anticipation. Would it be just as we remembered? Or was the pizza we once knew, lost to our decades of memories?

When the tray finally hit the table, it was all DK could do to pause the necessary few minutes to allow the cheese to set. (At least it gave me a little time to snap this photo.)

A tentative bite. Some thoughtful chewing. Yes… yes… a shade on the crispy side, but otherwise, yes, it was the same pizza! Slow smiles spread around the table.  DK looked so happy. There’s some remark to be made here about Proust and his madeleines, but on this sunny, surreally warm January afternoon, among two of my oldest friends, such erudite thoughts were far from my mind. Sitting in that booth with molten slice in hand, I felt about 16 years old, which these days, isn’t such a terrible thing.

There are 5 Comments ... That’s Amore!

Qsoz
January 12, 2007

We’re not that old. 😛

H20Buffalo
January 12, 2007

Wow, I love this post. Makes me think of Jacos. The local name for the potato wedges that are spiced and baked. So good. No one makes jacos anymore. For shame.

vipnyc
January 12, 2007

Thanks!
I know not of these “Jacos’. Are they something that JG could replicate?

jason
January 14, 2007

that’s crazy there’s a msg board post about a specific pizzeria like that…i don’t recall amore though, was it on kissena or main? but that’s the library, right? that brings back some memories, a less pretty version from flushing back in the day.

vipnyc
January 16, 2007

I was hoping that Flushing pizza-connoisseur DK would interject here, but it seems I’ll have to take up the mantle.  There were two pizzerias of note on Main Street: Gloria’s, and farther north, tucked under the LIRR trestles, Barone Pizza (which remains to this day.)  Lucia Pizza on Roosevelt (just east of Main Street) is/was also popular.

Yes, that’s the Flushing Branch of the QPL. Do kids go to libraries anymore? 

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