Best Pizza: The Walking Slice

Williamsburg’s “Best Pizza” is a new icon with an old school flavor. The interior with the yellow light plastic sign menu and red cursive lettering, walls plastered with paper plate art. It’s impressively nostalgic for a joint born from a young buck’s vision.

Head chef Frank Pinello gained fame from his Munchies series “The Pizza Show” in which he tours the world of pizza and dives into the history of each famous pizza region. He hails from “Roberta’s”, but while “Robterta’s” borrows its style from the classic, certainly not New York, woodfire and fermented crust, Pinello revives the quintessential New York Slice.

Walk in and marvel at the shameless display of the kitchen. Pizza carousel to the left, counter in the middle, and register to the right, all framing the bustling oven and dough tossing space. The design celebrates classic Brooklyn pizza culture.

The cheese slice is $2.75, right there where it belongs, and it is served on a paper plate just like any other pizza spot, inviting you to either sit on the wall bench or walk out with it.

What elevates this slice from your standard cheese, what makes this spot worth the short walk from the Bedford stop on the L, are two factors. First, most obvious, is the basil leaf on top. Each slice gets a little love in the form of a fresh, picturesque leaf of basil. It’s a nice touch, the signature of the “Best Pizza” slice.

The second factor that makes this pizza stand above the run of the mill slice is the crust. The bottom of the crust is totally smooth. This is a sign of a clean oven, and perhaps too the grade of flour used.

Of course the crust is crispy, holds up, the sauce is pure and clean, the cheese is just good cheese. It checks off every box. And while the regular slice is a treat, I also had the pleasure of trying the  grandma slice and a vegan slice. The sauce on the grandma slice is a little sweeter, and the crust is thinner and more thoroughly crispy throughout than a sicilian slice. I don’t have anything to compare it to so for now I’m putting it at the top of the list for grandma slices. The vegan slice, which was also gluten free, was impressive. It was certainly its own beast, not too similar to any normal slice of pizza, but it still had a depth of flavor and just as much love put into it as all its sister slices.

“Best Pizza” puts care into their work, and for that I am marking this spot for return visits.