Bronx Pizza

San Diego, CA (The Joy of Food) — I subscribe to the philosophy that there is usually a pizza for every persuasion, some cooked with wood and coal and others in ovens with special stones made from the ashes of Mount Vesuvius, some dolloped with the milk of happy buffalo and others layered with a solid blanket of gooey cheese, stuffed crust, thin crust, and pan fried, and then there’s the issue of tomato soup masquerading as a pizza (Chicago, I’m looking at you). In the pantheon of pizza greatness, a good New York slice can be among the most delicious of American classics. 

If you are in the mood for New York-style pizza and you are in San Diego and not in New York, where a fabulous slice is found on pretty much any block, you might go to Bronx Pizza, which combines the very best about New York pizza taste, texture, and attitude.

Bronx Pizza has sat on Washington Street in Hillcrest forever and is still something of a wonderland for anybody looking for food that’s fast, tasty, and cheap. From the outside it is a small brick shack with a cramped ordering area in front and booths spread among different rooms in the back. You order your slices or whole pies first, then listen for your order to be called (yelled) over the ZZ Top and Metallica soundtrack. 

At Bronx, something called the porko is my favorite, a holy combination of tangy red sauce and slightly browned mozzarella topped by a bunch of pig parts, pepperoni, meatballs, and sausage arranged on an even dough that is thin, yet crispy and sturdy all the way to the center. The yeasty perfume is unmistakeable, with enough char and nuance to make each bite slightly different than the last.

Classics like the simple cheese or the pepperoni, with the curled cups, might be the slices of your youth, a dose of nostalgia and salty glory all in one. The deluxe is also pretty great, the usual base of red sauce and cheese topped with more meaty goodness (pepperoni and sausage) and a sprinkling of vegetables for good measure (green peppers, black olives, onions, and mushrooms). The pesto pizza is by far the weakest, tasting mostly of cheese and not at all of the pesto that gets dolloped like polka dots on the slice.

You may also be disappointed if you’ve arrived looking for a clean place to sit, but that’s okay, the pro move is to eat standing directly over the garbage bins, where you can curl up your slice and shake any excess pepper flakes directly into the trash and not onto your pants. Pies and warmed slices to-go get handed through a walk-up window facing the street. The popular two-slice combo with a drink is $9 these days, or $8 without the drink. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Cash only.