&Pizza comes to NYC

I fell in love with &Pizza the very first time I took a weekend trip to D.C. a few years back, so much that I went back 3 times that same weekend. Ever since, whenever I am visiting D.C. or Philly, I make it my business to stop by one of their shops and get some pizza. I’ve been praying to the food gods that they would bring a shop to New York, and they finally answered my prayers when they announced they would be opening a shop in NYC this summer. This has been my favorite pizza shop for 3 years running, so of course, I was delighted when they invited us to their pre-opening party at their new NoMad location to try out some delicious pizzas and cocktails.

At &Pizza, you can choose from some of their delicious already crafted pie options, or opt to create your own pizza masterpiece. At the event, we feasted on some of their pre-crafted options. If you opt to create your own, you start with choosing your dough, which includes gluten-free options and my favorite, Ancient grains. Then you pick a sauce which includes everything from classic tomato, to basil pesto, mushroom truffle and a spicy tomato. Next you can choose between Shredded cheese, fresh mozzarella, or vegan cheese. Once that’s done, you move on to toppings, and they have so many! Broccoli, pineapple, mushroom, spinach, spicy chickpeas, jalapeños, the list goes on. Then you top it off with a protein of your choice with classics like pepperoni, Italian sausage and chicken, but also shrimp, scrambled eggs, and a vegan beef crumble. Then they pop it into a conveyor belt like oven and you wait for it to come out hot and delicious from the other end. Before boxing it up, they allow you to add a few finishing touches like parmesan cheese, fresh basil, olives, and even hot sauce!

At the event, they showered us with tastes of some of their NoMad pizza creations such as the OG, which had classic tomato sauce with mozzarella, tomato, and basil. The Farmer’s daughter had spicy tomato sauce and was topped with spinach, mozzarella, Italian sausage, egg, parmesan and red pepper chili oil. My favorite was the Maverick which was stacked with pepperoni, salami, and Italian sausage, and had their delicious pesto sauce drizzled on top.

But what really stole the show for us was the dessert pizza called Lori Lane. It had sweet ricotta, strawberries, powdered sugar and a berry drizzle on top. I’ve never had a dessert pizza before but WOW, this one was amazing. So good that we found ourselves watching for when they would bring out a fresh one. While nibbling on bites, they also had wine and beer to sip on a DJ spinning tunes, and some awesome &Pizza merchandise to grab. One cool handout was a personalized pizza pie box, by an artist who would design it with whatever you wanted.

While at the event, we also got the chance who to chat with &Pizza co-founder and CEO Michael Lastoria who shared that the idea for &Pizza came to him while living in Chelsea, and although he eventually took the idea to D.C. where it was born, he always knew it would come back to the Big Apple. So, it turns out that &Pizza has a little New York already inside of it!

Make sure you check out &Pizza NoMAd at 15 West 28th street, between Broadway and 5th avenue. You won’t regret it!