Checking out the $1 Slice at Maffei’s Pizza Truck
Earlier this summer, I came across a $1 Slice Truck outside Maffei’s on 22nd street. I love me some $1 pizza, so I was psyched to find out that they were planning on parking in midtown with some frequency. (And especially excited after reading about Maffei’s Grandma’s slice in Jason’s Flatiron Lunch review.) It took awhile for my schedule to sync up with the pizza truck (ML twitter tracker stalking, anyone?) but I finally had a chance to check out the goods.
Here’s my pizza philosophy… if I’m not going to have a really great pie, then I want my slice to be fresh and cheap. Most of the midtown slice joints that I’ve tried are pricier than I want to pay for the quality of their goods. In my book, a fresh, cheap slice beats a pricey middling slice any day, but it’s got to be fresh. And with a good $1 slice joint, if you go at the right time you can generally get a hot and fresh one without too much waiting.
Timing was not on my side in this case. I couldn’t get away for lunch until later in the afternoon so it was about 2:30 by the time I finally made it to the truck’s 40th street parking location. There was only one person in line ahead of me so I got my order pretty quickly. One grandma slice to go, please!
Their grandma slice was decently sized and topped with plum tomatoes (shredded, not cooked in a sauce), mozzarella, and a fair sprinkling of basil and oregano.
The crust was thin, but not super thin and it was a nice ratio of cheese and tomato, but if you’re not a fan of thin crust slices or pizza without a cooked sauce, this isn’t for you. I only wish my slice had been hot and fresh. And as luncher “sugartoof” reported, they didn’t reheat the slice to get the cheese back in the melty zone. There was a pie in progress in the oven that I saw the guy check up on and I should have seen if I could wait for it. I wonder if they’d reheat slices if you requested it? Still their slices are cheaper than any other pizza truck in midtown and for $1 I’d be willing to give their slice another shot, I’m just going to try to hit it at peak lunch time so there’s more of a chance that I’ll get a fresh slice.
Whoa, it’s like a pizza truck showdown…
While I was at the truck I noticed that they are now cups baked ziti for $2. I didn’t have any extra cash on me–I actually paid for my slice with quarters from the bottom of my purse, so I’ll have to give their pasta special a try as well on my next trip, according to twitter it looks like they also occasionally do a rigatoni and vodka sauce special as well. Sounds like I’ll be making a return trip for some further investigation.
Pizza Truck NYC, Follow them on Twitter for daily locations
Posted by Brownie at 11:45 am, August 23rd, 2010 under Pizza Truck NYC (Maffei's).
8 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
I find myself thinking that $1 is too much for a cold, non-melty slice of pizza that looks like it has some OK crust but absolutely nothing else going for it.