Critic's Review
When a pizza place opens in Fort Lauderdale claiming to be "Authentic NY PIzza", there's nobody more skeptical than me. I needed to go to Publix and thought about going to Lunchroom, but the pictures I saw didn't convince me that I wanted to pay $10 for a sandwich there.
They keep changing their specials; I saw a 1/2 sandwich, slice and a drink for $8.95, which is a much better deal than at Lunchroom. And it would give me a chance to try the pizza and also get an Italian sub.
This place was for sale for 2 years and the current owner bought it hook, line and sinker. Place is just as it was before.
They had some sad looking slices on display; the owner was behind the counter and he was very enthusiastic. I ordered the Italian Supreme to go and said I'd eat the slice while I waited; I also grabbed a water.
The slice had to be warmed but only took a minute.
One of the things I noticed from their online presence is the inconsistency of the food. I can go back to my favorite pizzeria on Long Island after 6 years and get exactly the same pie I always got. That's why SFL pizza stinks. It's a random product.
This slice was so skinny that it was like a 1/2 a slice worth of food. Not bad tasting but you wouldn't accept this in NY. The crust was inedible.
The owner brought out the sub in a bag and I opened it when I got home. Not the well constructed subs you get at the speciality sub shops.
I asked them to "load it up" to see what I got. No mustard, mayo, onions, tomato or pickles. Also of note that the red peppers weren't roasted. They were pretty close to raw if they were cooked at all. Kind of a mess.
A lot of bread for the amount of meat.
After 1 bite I knew something was wrong. I took apart the sandwich and tasted the meat; Something was amiss. It's hard to tell when cured meat is bad, but when it tastes bad I opt on the side of caution; I threw the sandwich out. It tasted awful anyway, so there was no point to eating it.
Conclusion
While I appreciate the enthusiasm of the new ownership, I'm sticking to my original assessment: what we have here is a guy with an idea who has no idea how to implement it. I can tell from our conversation that he's just feeling his way through, and that's never going to work. The last people here were seasoned pizza people and they couldn't figure it out here.
