Pizza on Hudson Street is about as old as the Village but I recently dined at two new pizza restaurants within a few blocks of each other that share a similar evolution. Both places take great pride in what they do and pizza is elevated to real dinning out food with many expected and less expected variations.
Doppio is an offshoot of a restaurant that began in Greenwich, Connecticut and is also on Long Island in a few locations. It has replaced, what was not so different a place, Lievito which I have mentioned within the last few years and is no longer. The restaurant is small but helped, hopefully soon based on the weather,by some outdoor tables in the front. I enjoyed dinner for four at Doppio which means double and is a reference to coffee. Although just seating a few dozen people inside, it has an extensive menu with a focus on pizza.
The menu is divided into several sections allowing you to be creative at putting together a meal and from what we tasted, there was good consistency amongst many of the choices. A whole artichoke cooked “Alla Giudia” was an impressive fried large whole artichoke with a tender stem that stood up in a way that I had not seen before. Crispy Calamari and Shrimp were more typical though with a lemon-almond pesto to dip them in, which was pleasantly less expected. The pizza that we tried ranged from a kabocha squash, bacon – Doppio to a Puttanesca to a Daniele with included some prosciutto, they were all good, generously sized individual pizza with many the winning number being the latter which was pleasantly adorned with a good amount,but not too many toppings. Fusilla Calabrese or a rich pasta dish that went from sausage to mushroom, tomato, mascarpone and finished with some truffle oil maybe won out as the best tasting combination of flavors. We also enjoyed an “Ottomanelli & Sons” rib eye from the wood burning oven that scored. Doppio had pleasant service, an extensive wine list along with an accomplished bartender who did a good job of selling his wares while we waited for a table.
A few blocks north on Hudson Street is Pizzetteria Brunetti which is originally from Westhampton Beach and opened in the city about four months ago. More simply a pizza restaurant although with a few other options, Brunetti seemed to do a good business on a recent early Saturday afternoon. The place is also small but they have a very pleasant outdoor space in the back. It was established by a father and son’s passion for pizza and quality ingredients, with many variations including a signature all clam pizza. Also with a wood burning oven specially imported, their pizza seemed to bit smaller with a more tender crust that had a blistered finish coming from a very hot oven. We enjoyed the Margherita pizza with the addition of some tender prosciutto di parma. We started with some of Mary’s Meatballs which were generous and all beef. Service was pleasant and they do serve wine and beer with a good assortment at not very pizza oriented prices.
It is interesting that both places need an older sibling to start with before working it on Hudson Street and both are quality driven and not inexpensive, with pizzas ranging in price from just over $10 for a very plain pie to about $20 for the sexy ones. The competition and the need to sell better products to bring up the tab, helps produce a quality and service oriented place to eat but it is far from the old fashion economy of what a slice of pizza was to a person who was keen to eat on a budget.
Doppio 581 Hudson Street at 11th, 212 206-1444, Doppiorestaurants.com
Pizzetteria Brunetti 626 Hudson Street at Jane, 212 255 5699, Pizzetteriabrunetti.comPizzetteriabrunetti.com
