I love Lucali. I Love Lucali because I love any place classy enough to only serve two things: Pizza or Calzone. Lucali is located on a sleepy street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. If the striped awning wasn't rolled out over the bench in front you might never see it in passing. It's a discreet brick faced building with a large glass window but lacks a sign or any other indication that the pizza within is probably the best in the city. Lucali looks and feels old school. The walls are decorated with old metal Coca Cola signs and wooden Schwepps boxes. The tables are simple and evenly spread out, providing a nice open engaged atmosphere. This place is always lively and always packed because the food is great. But the best part of Lucali is the process. If you wander to the back of the restaurant you will find the massive wood fired oven that lends this pizza its taste and crispiness. There are so few of these ovens left its worth the trip just to watch the guys behind the counter throw logs in and get the fire stoked up. The rest of the action takes place on a long counter at a 90 degree angle to the wood pile. On this counter the boss or one of the chef's rolls out the dough and covers the pies in the freshest ingredients I have seen in any pizza joint. The mozzarella sits in its milk in a big ceramic bowl at the chef's right hand and on his left is another large bowl containing all the available toppings. He has a pile of mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, pepperoni, salsiccia, etc. When putting the veggies on a pie they will grab a whole mushroom or zucchini and use one of those hand held razor slicers to lay down super thin slices of whatever topping you want. This method provides the perfect texture and crispiness when the pie gets in the oven. The cheese is torn by hand from the closet chunk and tossed on the pie and the whole thing is thrown in the oven and cooked at probably close to 600 degrees. The result is a fantastic flash fire cooked pie with a nice crispy crust and the perfect distribution of mozzarella, topping and a dash of Grana Padano. Truly amazing. Watching these guys make a pie is like watching Da Vinci paint, every movement seems deliberate and no detail goes unnoticed. If the owner is around you will get to see what makes Lucali a good business. Mark Iacono is a real people person. When not tossing dough he moves around the restaurant greeting diners and chatting with locals. In his apron and white v-neck t-shirt he looks like the classic pizza man but before the pies he spent 20 years working with marble and granite, according to local rumors he is the big neighborhood crush. He built the restaurant by himself, renovated the interior and even built the oven brick by brick. He also like to make sure the customer is happy, answering questions, taking requests, he even sold my uncle a big ball of mozzarella for a few bucks to take home. So you got great pizza, a handsome and friendly pizza master, what else could you need? How about BYOB? Yep, you got it. Like I said before Pizza and Calzone, stay classy Lucali.
Food: 4/4
Service: 4/4
Wine: Bring your own
Value: 4/4
Lucali
575 Henry St. at Carroll St.
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 858 4086
Cash Only
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