As I’ve said before, I am pretty preoccupied with pizza lately. The best of the new crop of pizzas I’ve tasted is almost certainly Pizza Moto. I’d tried one of their pies when a friend ordered it from Smorgasburg, and it was pretty good, but I have to confess that cooking pizzas in the frenetic open-air crowds always struck me as a fool’s errand. Luckily, Pizza Moto has recently opened a small restaurant under everyone’s favorite eyesore, the BQE.
If you have the fortitude to cross the street to the southish side of Hamilton Avenue you’ll be glad you did.* PM immediately transports you from the underpass through its eclectic and mechanically-minded decor and friendly service. The pizza I tried, a three-cheese many-mushroom configuration, had just the right mixture of cream and crunch. My grapefruit and mezcal drink provided a refreshing counterpoint, but the best concoction to come out of a cocktail glass was surely an almond semifreddo studded with biscuits and a cherry. (I could’ve done with more than one cherry, but that’s just quibbling.) Much like the pizza, now that I think of it, my dessert was creamy and crunchy and satisfying. Though I was quite full, I could’ve happily eaten another, Thanksgiving aftereffects be damned.
Faced with Hamilton Avenue and its rushing cars, your correspondent flagged a bit. Luckily, there is a bus stop around the (admittedly industrial and bleak) corner, so I was able to avoid the crossing again. With my leftover pizza box in hand, I was surely the luckiest of the B61’s patrons tonight.
Pizza Moto, 338 Hamilton Avenue, Carroll Gardens–Red Hook border
*Or even if you don’t have the fortitude, actually. Instead of opting for the simple, and hazardous-feeling, approach from the Carroll Gardens end, I took a nice stroll through super-industrial northern Red Hook, bypassing the BQE pretty much entirely. (In fact, I took a nice stroll from downtown Manhattan, via the Manhattan Bridge. Gotta seize the nice weather when you can.)
qedestrian 