Midtown Lunch

It’s not often I go into a pizza place and everything looks so good that I seriously can’t make up my mind which slices to get. This was the problem I had while at Rosella’s Pizza on William St. (btw. Beekman & Ann) last week. It’s off the beaten path, although I’m sure they get a lot of business from the NY Downtown Hospital across the street and from Pace University students – and from office workers in the know. The only reason I knew about it was because of two recent recommendations for both Rosella’s pizza and pasta from Profiled Lunch’ers. No matter what kind of pizza you like, you’ll find some variety of it here.

The first thing that caught my eye was that the round slices in the case were of the thick-crust variety, not quite Chicago style but definitely heftier than the NYC norm. There were also the thin crust varieties, a splendid looking Sicilian that had just been pulled from the oven, and then a full row of square pies with pretty great looking toppings like broccoli rabe and sausage, bruschetta and fried eggplant. Normally these weird slices get dismissed, but these looked really good rather than gimmicky. So I went with my gut and ordered a plain slice ($2.50) and one of the square with eggplant ($3).

The plain slice was well balanced without a heavy hand on the cheese. One word of warning though if you don’t like dried herbs as Rosella’s is very fond of them. I was fine with it on this slice, but the dried oregano became a bit much by the time I got to the fried eggplant slice. This is one of my favorite cheese slices I’ve had in the Financial District.

If you’re going to do a slice as top heavy as the one with fried eggplant, I’d recommend eating it first and then seeing if you’re still hungry because this thing packs a serious punch. Between the fried vegetables, ricotta cheese and tomato onion sauce on top of it, and more cheese and oil on top of the crust, it’s a pretty greasy and rich lunch. Make sure you have a soda or Alka Seltzer nearby while consuming the fried eggplant slice. That being said, it was really good and I especially liked the chunky tomato sauce on top.

Rosella’s may be a bit out of the way for some of you, but it’s definitely one of the best pizza options in the FiDi.

Rosella’s Pizza, 164 William St. (btw. Beekman & Ann streets), (212) 619-8260