Archive for 'Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck'

Kicking It Old School With A Meatball Parm From Jiannetto’s

After an unsuccessful sandwich experience last week I decided it was time to hunt down a more substantial sandwich for lunch that wouldn’t leave me hungry two hours later. Two things normally come to mind when I need a filling sandwich: A parm from some deli/pizza shop or a banh mi. Luckily we have several options for both of these sandwich types in the Financial District, but I’d remembered seeing that Jiannetto’s was parked at its spot on Front St. & Wall that day and decided that if they’d been regularly parking there for so long, maybe their parm sandwiches had some fans. Could a truck that primarily serves grandma slices turn out a good sandwich, or was it just a secondary item to diversify the menu?

Read more »

What Exactly is a Grandma Slice Anyway?


Which one of these looks like your Grandma made it?

I have to say I was completely confused by the triangular slice of “grandma pizza” our Downtown Lunch correspondent Daniel Krieger posted about last Friday from Pizza Italia. Admittedly, I don’t know a ton about grandma pizza since my only exposure to it has been at the Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck on 47th btw. Park+Mad.  But I was under the impression that the one common quality shared by all Grandma style pizzas is that the slices are rectangular, right?  I checked in with Daniel, and he had this to say:

“Grandma slice has like a sweet/tangy sauce that I believe is slow stewed. I also just read somewhere its fresh tomatoes instead of canned but I don’t know if that’s accurate (someone said it on a board). It usually has fresh mozzarella on it and has the cheese on the bottom and then is covered with the sauce (as opposed to traditionally being vice versa). And is almost always a square baked pie like you said, not triangle. That’s why this one is a bit unique”

Wait- so what exactly makes this a grandma slice then? I decided to check in with the expert…

Read more »

Downtown Lunch: You Can Always Count on Jiannetto's Pizza Truck

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) You can never count on new carts, so when Daniel’s original destination went missing, he fell back on an old Midtown (and Downtown) Lunch standby.

I went down to check out the new pizza truck (supposedly parked on Pine near Broadway) but I’m starting to believe it’s a fantasy, because for the second week in a row there was no pizza truck to be found. I called John John’s actual location in Staten Island and they said they were having some issues with the truck so they haven’t really been there this week, but might be there Friday (meaning today). Good luck with that.

pizza 2s

I wanted pizza and I wanted a grandma slice NOW so I had to go check out the old standby Jiannetto’s (on Front and Wall.) Their Midtown trucks are already well known, and I figured it would be a good way to get my fix. Also I thought it would be fun if I turned the tables on my favorite stalker Yvo, who had recently checked out the same pizza.

Read more »