Week 4: Grimaldi's Pizzeria

Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn, NY is a 3000 mile round trip drive from our home in North Texas.  Considering we didn't have 50 hours to burn on Saturday night, we decided to go to the location in Allen, TX at Watters Creek.  When it turned out to be almost an hour each way, we had our fingers crossed that the pizza at Grimaldi's Pizzeria (www.grimaldispizzeria.com) would be worth the trip.  Upon our arrival we were greeted with a 45 minute to an hour wait and were told to return in 15 minutes just to get our "pager."  Under most circumstances, we would have happily declined the offer and chosen another dining destination, but we were on an mission.  We certainly weren’t going to take a two hour car ride for nothing!  The wait ended up being only 30 minutes and was over before we knew it.  It was time to get down to business...

The view from our table!

Our patience were awarded with the best seat in the house.  We were literally inches away from the three pizza cooks, and that kept the kids (and me) entertained throughout the meal.

Wasting no time, this is how things work at Grimaldi's: 3 sizes of pizza (personal, small, and large), 3 different sauces (famous red sauce, pesto, and white/garlic), 20 toppings to create whatever your heart desires.  There are no "specialty" pizzas, you call all the shots.  My first recommendation would be to get the large, yes its huge, but for only $2 more, you will WANT leftovers.  They are very accommodating with toppings/sauces and will let you split them over half the pizza or even a quarter.  But a word of caution, topping prices are the same regardless if you cover the whole pizza or just one slice.  A couple interesting facts we found out about Grimaldi's were: the pizza is cooked in a coal fired brick oven that burns coal transported by train from Pennsylvania, and each Pizzeria has a water filtration system installed that recreates the exact chemical composition of New York City water to ensure the authenticity of the pizza taste (or at least that's what they say).

With all the options of sauces and toppings, we selected a personal plain cheese, and a large red/pesto pie with tomatoes, chicken, and garlic.  We should have split the toppings on the large differently, but the prices of the toppings scared us away from creating a +$40 pizza.  After a short wait, our server reemerged holding in his hand what would in a few short moments become the greatest pizza that my wife has ever tasted.  Alright, I'll let her explain....

Large Half Pesto / Half Red Sauce

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I’m almost certain our 52 week mission has been ruined.  I fully expect to be disappointed for 48 more weeks because there is just no way anyone can make a better pizza.  I am prone to exaggeration - but seriously, I’m not kidding.  At one point I said (out loud) “I wish I didn’t have to chew.” It was that good - I didn’t even want to waste the time moving my mouth up and down, because I just wanted to eat more.  The crust was inexplainable, and the sauce had just the perfect amount of spice.  About an hour later, when we were on the car ride home, I was still savoring the after-taste.  

I am glad that Grimaldi’s is far away.  If it was too close to home I would be fat and broke.  The only reason I wouldn’t give it a perfect score is because of the pricing.  In reality though - knowing it’s that good, I would have paid double.

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Small Cheese

The Final Report: 9.5 out of 10

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria has become the top pizzeria location in 2011.  Fortunately, we have 48 weeks left, and so the journey continues...