Wiseguy NY Pizza

Wiseguy NY Pizza is a little pizza shop that has garnered a lot of attention for bringing quality "Newyorkinized" pizza to DC.  The owner is Tony Erol, who's been doing this for over twenty years. Not only is he doing NY-style pizza by the slice, he's keeping authenticity by cooking in 2" deck ovens.  Salads, garlic knots, and Junior's cheesecake are also available.  Closest Metro is Judiciary Square.

Image via Wiseguy NY Pizza website

Erol's recipe for success is a combination of "thin and golden crispy but not cracker crust; somewhat lightly charred well done crust; slightly salty foldable crust; bread-like puffy chewy texture; quality cheese and tomato sauce; perfect cheese to tomato sauce ratio; as well as directly cooking on old-school deck oven."

Keith was in the mood for some pizza, and instead of driving all the way to the Italian Store, I suggested we try Wiseguy's instead.  We were feeling especially lazy and decided to place our order online and then just pop in and pick it up.  Super convenient!

Casualty of a small box.

We ordered the Plain that is a traditional pizza with tomato sauce and Grande Mozzarella cheese.  Keith generally likes to always get the plain pizza from a new place as the ultimate test.  This version ranked high among other contenders.  The sauce and cheese ratio was perfect and the crust was nice and foldable, although perhaps a hair on the thin side.  We also ordered the meaty Godfather, topped with tomato sauce, Grande Mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, ham, and bacon.  The sausage was spicy, but the bacon and ham gave another dimension to this flavorful pizza.  I don't eat meat that much, but I liked this meaty pie.  Both pizzas were 20", but came in boxes made for 18" pizzas, so they were slightly squished.

If you are craving NY-style pizza, Wiseguy's will satisfy and tide you over.  Their pizza is not a perfect reproduction of the original, but better than most versions you might find in DC.

Total Rating: 3.85
Food: 4, Price: 3.5, Service; 4, Ambience: 3.5, Accessibility: 4

What I ate:

Plain

Tomato Sauce, Grande Cheese

Godfather

Tomato Sauce, Grande Mozzarella, Pepperoni, Sausage, Ham, Bacon