Artichoke Basille's Pizza & Brewery
328 E 14th St (between 2nd Ave & 1st Ave)
(212) 228-2004
www.artichokepizza.com
In a city known for its pizza, it’s a sad but pretty well-established fact that a good slice is hard to find. Fortunately, in the past few years, Artichoke has come to solve that problem. Located in near Union Square in the East Village, Artichoke is one of the most highly rated pizza parlors in New York (especially outside of Little Italy and Brooklyn) among both food critics and internet bloggers alike. Artichoke is known for its thick crust pizzas and for famously using its namesake vegetable as a topping on its pizzas. Started by in past few years by Italian cousins Pizzaiolo Francis Garcia and Sal Basille, Artichoke has received rave reviews from the New York Times and New York Post.
With an old-school vibe, the restaurant takes the concept of bare bones to the extreme. The inside of the restaurant is a 4 foot by 4 foot square where customers walk through, order, pay and pick up their pizza and beer. Service, as you can imagine, is like a subway turnstile, although the staff is courteous enough. Also, don’t expect to use a bathroom here. A drab painting and a rickety chandelier hang from the inside, like remnants of some former restaurant that faded away years ago. Outside the restaurant is a single bench where maybe three lucky patrons can sit. The rest of the customers typically walk closer back to Union Square where this is an abundance of benches, steps and other areas to sit. Being a take out restaurant with no seating area, lines form down the block for this thick crust pizza. Waits can be up to 30 minutes or an hour.
Artichoke’s menu may be one of the smallest in the city. It four types of hand-made slices: Artichoke slice ($4), Margarita slice ($3.50), Sicilian slice ($3.50), Crab slice ($4.00). The restaurant also provides a variety of specialty-brew beers for $4.
… And that’s it.
Come with at least two people, because both the Artichoke and Crab slices should be tried, followed by the Margarita (with fresh mozzarella) then Sicilian slice. The pizza feels home-made: Portions are huge, even sloppy. Grated cheese looks like it was thrown without caution, and tomato sauce poured liberally. The pizza can be lumpy, sometimes a little too cheesy and occasionally burnt. For all these reasons, Artichoke makes some of the best, home-grown pizza that you can find in New York.