ABOVE: A pizza margherita ($13) at Jim Lahey’s Co. in Chelsea.
CO.: 230 NINTH AVE., NEW YORK
2/17/2010
NEW YORK – Carrie Parma-Collier’s dog, a samoyed, prefers Brazilian beef to MilkBones, but when you win best in breed in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, you can have whatever you want.
Eschewing the concession stand hot dogs, reporter Elizabeth Kim and I, who were in Manhattan covering the big dog show, had other plans for lunch. I’d been thinking about the assignment all week for one important reason: it’s within walking distance to both Co. in Chelsea and Café Grumpy.
Jim Lahey, of the Sullivan St. Bakery, opened the high-end pizza joint in late 2008 and has been making some of the best pies in the city ever since. This isn’t my first trip to Co., but I haven’t been in a while and was looking forward to trying the famed pizza bianca. (Lahey is still probably known best for his famous “no-knead bread” recipe).
We also tried the fennel and coppa pie with lemon zest atop a béchamel sauce, which was quite good but was a little heavy for our taste.
But the pizza bianca is legit; impossibly light and airy, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with coarse salt and rosemary.
Elizabeth balked at the sheer amount of bread involved in this meal, “I don’t understand why they serve bread before pizza. It’s like serving steak before steak,” she said.
Mmm….steak before steak…
–CP
BELOW: The pizza bianca ($4) and the fennel and copa pizza ($18).
You didn’t mention the walk through the blinding snow.
Comment by Elizabeth Kim — February 17th, 2010 @ 1:29 pm
In the summer time, I really like Co’s farmer’s market pizza… covered in fresh heirlooms, corn, herbs, etc.
Comment by adamclyde — February 18th, 2010 @ 9:29 am