Their Second Hit on #WhomYouKnow #BestPizzaon1st Avenue by #JohnOsmani 1038 First Avenue Between 56th and 57th Streets
From the pizza to the Shrimp Scampi, Best Pizza on First is even better than we remembered!
It's not who you know and it never has been. It's WHOM YOU KNOW and we know John Osmani, 100 percent owner of Best Pizza on First, and were delighted to recently visit. As we said in our first review, Mayor Koch we hope you are reading up there and this is right near your bridge.
There's a big difference between being featured once and being featured a repeat time: obviously, the better places earn return features. It looks like El Pres of One Bite Barstool Fame visited seven years ago so maybe he read our spot? Well El Pres we suggest a return for you too and here's why.
If you are in Manhattan now, you know it is literally a hot tropical island calling for salads.
The salads are fresh and spectacular at Best Pizza on First.
Meet the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and it was exactly what we were looking for. All elements were cut well and it hit all the high notes setting the tone for an even better review than the first time.
This visit, we worked with Tony Osmani, John's son, who possesses better business acumen and manners than many of his generation in Manhattan hospitality. He was a pleasure to work with and was not old enough to work with us the last time!
The Antipasto looks like a bouquet of roses except even better, you can eat it. The rosettes of ham, salami and provolone danced among onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives to make a festive plate.
Note all pictures are unedited as always.
They listened and put the dressing on the side for Ms. Pretty Picky, and we did like both the Ranch and the Caesar dressing.
The Tossed Salad was a vision in simplicity that will pair well with every edible on this menu with depth and it's just what we wanted.
You could probably spend a month eating the Calzones, Strombolis, Rolls, Cold Heroes and Hot Heroes (yes the plural is ES) and have something different every day. We have greater ambitions for this section but this time we chose some old favorites: Chicken Parm, called Chicken Cutlet Parmigiana formally on the menu, and Spinach Roll. Even though the Chicken Parm is hot, it is still delicious even though it's 100f in tropical Manhattan. It is even good cold when the temperature is this hot. The Spinach Roll was both delicious and nutritious.
Do not forget the marinara!
The tomato sauce here is made on premises and refined over John's 30 year career in this business. The Meatballs we tried as a side, and they are 100 percent beef and 100 percent enticingly delicious. The basil leaf was a nice touch and little things like that set this apart from the random pizza place on the corner that will come and go.
We totally loved the Shrimp Scampi and we chose linguini to come to the dinner party; the garlic accentuation was simply smashing and this dish sung a perfect song of summer. Pepsi goes well with it. There is not a liquor license here.
The great plains of Pizza
So, not all pizza is created equally. New York is one of the best pizza spots in the world! The pizza here is NEW YORK style pizza. We always have a regular cheese to see how the basic pizza is and we really like the sauce and cheese here and the ratio to each other. And for everyone that thinks that pizza cannot be healthy we beg to differ: we chose spinach, onions, mushrooms, garlic and tomatoes and that's five vegetables! We really liked how well every ingredient was chopped and put together, yielding a wonderful symphony of flavor rather than one huge chunk of topping like you can find at lesser spots. All ingredients were fresh and this pizza was not floppy: it held up its toppings well.
We look forward to seeing the Osmani family keep up the excellent work!
