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Grimaldi's Pizzeria: Brooklyn Vs. Scottsdale

by Sandy Ikeda
Fri, 30 May 2008 at 5:21 PM

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Call me naïve, but I thought Grimaldi's Pizzeria near Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn was unique, or nearly so. I did hear a while back that the family had opened another shop in Scottsdale, Ariz. I was unaware that, according to their website, there are today nine Grimaldi's (with a tenth scheduled to open this year), five of which are in Arizona! Seems the current owner graduated from Arizona State University.

The one in Scottsdale is directly across the street from Sugar Bowl, an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor on Scottsdale Road in "Old Town," and a local institution. At only 50-years-old some might think it presumptuous to call it an institution, but, hey, this is Arizona.

Anyway, I've been to the Brooklyn Grimaldi's many times and regard it as one of the best pizzerias in New York, although of course I haven't tried them all. It's better IMHO than John's of Bleecker Street or certainly any of the umpteen "Ray's" pizzerias you find everywhere. Okay, I don't want to start a fight — de gustibus non est disputandum and all that — but I do want to compare Grimaldi's in Scottsdale with the one in Brooklyn. Here goes….

A group of eight of us entered the Scottsdale Grimaldi's (SG) at about 7 p.m. and were seated almost immediately. That's the first big difference, and it's telling. Most of the time there's a line in front of the Brooklyn Grimaldi's (BG). (I tried to go there this afternoon, but the line was way too long — at least 50 people, I kid you not.) Not surprisingly the interior of the SG is twice as large, and there's a bar in front, but the dining areas are about the same size. Pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge, not celebrities, adorn the walls. There was the familiar low brick wall at the end of the room, behind which were the essential coal-fired ovens, and on each table stood the C-shaped pizza stands I had expected to see.

We ordered two large pizzas, one with sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms, which is what I usually order at the BG, and soft drinks. The wait staff were young, friendly, and efficient women (at the BG they are young, dour, and efficient men), although when I ordered a diet Coke, they brought me diet Pepsi poured into a glass, instead of the cup of ice and an unopened bottle. As in the BG, our order came to the table quickly and the pizzas were piping hot.

They looked similar to what you would get in the BG, with thin, toasty crusts. But looking closer, I noticed that they didn't have the charred patches on the bottom and along the edges — uh oh. The flavor was similar, though there was more crushed tomato than I like, and after a few bites I imagined I could have been eating at the BG. On the whole, however, mainly because the crust didn't have that crackly texture blended with the flavor and smell of burnt dough, I was disappointed. Pizza at the SG thus fell quite short of the BG standard. And my niece, who works at Sugar Bowl and is a SG regular, told me that ours were representative.

The differences may be regional; perhaps Arizonans don't like crusts that crisp and smoky. But I hope the Scottsdale Grimaldi's will try harder to be like Brooklyn's, because a lot of New Yorkers vacation in Scottsdale and know Grimaldi's, and because Arizonans deserve to experience the real deal.

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