OMGee
New York feels so saturated with Neapolitan-style pizza restaurants that you can barely throw a wad of dough without hitting a wood-fired pie in any neighborhood. Greenpoint is just the latest area to embrace the trend with Paulie Gees, which opened mid-March in the old Paloma space.
Run by its namesake, Paul Gianonne, this rustic restaurant is nestled in the hippest part of the neighborhood near staples like The Pencil Factory and The Black Rabbit, and, from the look of the crowd gathered on a recent weekday night, this joint is gearing up to become a permanent fixture.
Upon entering the restaurant, its appeal immediately becomes apparent. The space is decked out like an old farmhouse, with rough wooden paneling, low lights and charmingly rusted bits of metal strategically placed on the walls and doors. There is no kitchen, just an ingredient counter and giant, white-tiled pizza oven straight from Naples, which warmly glows from the fire within as a young man slowly feeds it pies. The open space beckons you to sit down at one of the candle-adorned wooden tables, and peel open the paper menu.
The lack of kitchen becomes clear when you start to read the menu; the only things offered here are a few salads, nine pizzas and a slew of non-alcoholic beverages (wine and beer are coming soon). This didnt seem like a problem since, based on the specificity of the menu and what I had heard about the quality of Gianonnes pizza, my expectations were high. Unfortunately, while the space is divine, the food didnt deliver.
The first pie we tried was the Regina: tomato sauce, basil and fior di latte mozzarella for a reasonable $13. It also comes with Pecorino Romano, but, even with the addition, the pizza somehow came out bland. The crust lacked the sweetness I associate with the Neapolitan style and the boring sauce was so runny that it slid right off the slice as we picked it up.
When we received the King Harry pizza ($16), we hoped the flavor would improve by adding prosciutto di Parma, but again we were disappointed. This pizza tasted exactly like Regina, which is a feat considering the thinly sliced cured meat tends to add a salty and savory punch to most dishes. Perhaps if there were more then a few small dollops of cheese, or maybe if the sauce had a personality of its own, the pizza could have been saved. The Greenpointer ($15) we tried was much better then the other two, not shocking considering it lacked the soupy sauce and, instead, was decked out with a pile of fresh arugula that brightened under a spattering of lemon juice.
Aside from the food, another problem Paulie Gees faces is the lackadaisical wait-staff skulking about the space. While Gianonne himself runs about the restaurant gleefully, chatting to tables and bringing them samples of this and that, the servers he hired appear more concerned with keeping up their disaffected style then actually listening to the customers. I was particularly peeved when, given the size of our small table, I requested the pies be staggered in their delivery. Assured that this happened naturally, we settled in, only to have pizzas piling up around us. Also crowding the table were mounds of dirty napkins that no one appeared eager to remove.
In the end, the service was saved only by a last minute comp by our rat-tailed waiter who removed the unappealing Nutella and strawberry dessert pizza ($7) from our bill. After waiting about 20 minutes for our sweets, the other being two lousy half scoops of freezer-burned Van Leeuwen ice cream ($5), we expected the dessert pizza to be hot. Instead, it was cold bread slathered with what appeared to be the whole jar of Nutella and a few slices of fresh strawberry.
With better Neapolitan-style pizza restaurants popping up all over town, and plenty of other spots to eat at nearby, Paulie Gees is the rare pizza place that well pass on visiting again.
Paulie Gees
60 Greenpoint Ave. (betw. Franklin & West Sts.), Brooklyn, 347-987-3747.