Midtown Lunch

Nothing makes me happier than seeing an independent eatery that I was afraid wouldn’t make it thrive. That’s the case with It’s a Pizza – the sort of weird Italian place also serving Uzbek food that I first wrote about last summer. I hadn’t made it back to try anything other than pizza on the menu so I decided to rectify that situation and took a co-lunch’er along to see how they were doing. When I was there last they hadn’t been open long and were mostly focused on pizza and pasta with some other random things thrown in, including crepes. What I tried was good, but I was worried that with all of the Fulton St. Transit Center construction nearby they might not be seeing enough customers to survive. When I walked in the other day I could see that was definitely not the case. 

The crepe station was the first thing I noticed in the tiny store because there was a small line of people in front of it. And it makes the whole store smell like sugar and Nutella. They were serving crepes the last time I was there but there wasn’t a dedicated station crammed into the corner.

Pasta sounded really good, as it always does in the winter. I bypassed the regular items like spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna in favor of the more exotic salsiccia e burro ($7.95). When I asked what was involved in that a guy behind the counter started off the description with “It’s sausage, bacon, some cream and a tomato base.” You had me at sausage and bacon, sir. He then went back into the kitchen to cook it. That is the other thing I love about this place – most of the menu is made to order and it’s clearly a family-run business. Sure, it took about 10 minutes for me to get my pasta but it was well worth it.

My first thought was that the giant bowl of pasta looked better than what you get in some restaurants for twice the cost – or at Hello Pasta for half the amount of food. And holy crap, they didn’t skimp on the sausage and bacon! Sure, eating this on a regular basis might make your heart explode, but it really didn’t seem any more unhealthy than downing a couple of slices of pizza.

My co-lunch’er did just that, going with a cheese slice (which they confirmed was still delicious) and an eggplant slice ($2.75). The eggplant made the slice a hefty one, but it looked good if you don’t have a problem with fried food, ricotta and cheese piled on your pizza.

I ate only half of my pasta to save room for a crepe with Nutella ($6.50). Sure, this was not cheap but eating one would serve as a reasonably filling “light” lunch, and if you get one with fruit in it that counts as healthy, right?.

This place is good if you’re looking for somewhere to get Italian food without having to pay sit-down prices or suffer through steam table pasta. It’s the low-key answer to the swankier Zigolini’s in the southern part of the FiDi. Everything on the menu is under $10 and the people running it couldn’t be nicer. Just be warned that if you eat there you may be powerless in the face of those crepes.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• They cook most of the food to order.
• You can get two meals out of most of the portions.
• The store smells like sugar and crepes.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• There isn’t a lot of seating so it’s a crapshoot if you want to eat in.
• I don’t like smelling crepes while I eat.

It’s a Pizza, 20 John St. (btw. Broadway & Nassau), (212) 964-0999