The girlfriend and I headed out to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza the other day. Coal fired pizza used to be almost exclusive to New York City. It's known for using high heat coal ovens to make a very crisp crust with some charring.
We were seated immediately on entering the restaurant. We ordered the meatballs for an appetizer and a large pizza topped half with sausage, and half with prosciutto.
The meatballs came out looking impressive. Served with two slices of focaccia bread, a dollop of ricotta, and fresh basil, the plate presentation was very nice looking. The meatballs however while quite tender, were also quite bland. The flavorful sauce and ricotta helped add some needed flavor. The focaccia was a nice accompaniment to place the meatballs on.
The pizza was a mixed bag of awesome and WTF? First off the crust was perfect. Thin, crunchy, with a little blackness on the edges, it was one of the best crusts I have ever had. The cheese was nice and bubbly. The sausage was good, being not overly seasoned. The sauce was also very good, too bad it was used so sparingly. The prosciutto was my WTF moment. It was long pieces, just layed over top of the pizza. It definitely needed to be chopped a little finer, and to be cooked with the pizza. Overall though, if you take away the ridiculous prosciutto presentation, you are left with a pretty damn good pizza.
All in all I liked Anthony's. While there were some missteps such as the prosciutto and minimal sauce, they still have one awesome crust to build off of. Will be heading back to try out some of their other menu items soon.
RATING: 6/10
