I'm A 'San' Man!
Upper East Side, NYC — As long as New York City continues to be a place with too many pizza joints, I will continue to seek out the the ever few places that execute Gotham's best pies and slices. One such place has long been San Matteo, a local fave up here on East 90th Street in upper Yorkville, where for years neighbors and the friends and families have enjoyed a variety of high caliber and delicious pizzas, pastas, and more, without the inconvenience of being too well-known and consequentially, more crowded than it already gets on most week nights and all weekend.
But crowded it does get, and to better accommodate the ever-growing number of local nearby fans, they've recently opened a second outpost — just 8 blocks away on 82nd Street. Smartly, they offer the same great Neopolitan-style pizze, including this fast favorite of mine, the (bianche) cacio e pepe pie, staying true to the simple-yet-well executed cuisine of country regional Italian cooking basics, yet elevating the output topping this nicely "blistered, pliable, and chewy" crust with dry-cured pancetta, caciocavallo cheese, and fresh cracked pepper.
The mostly culinary homogenous and underserved Upper East Side can still boast San Matteo's top-notch pizzas as some of the best in the city. But it can now do it from two convenient locations.
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SAN MATTEO PIZZERIA E CUCINA | 1559 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10028 | (212) 861-2434 | www.sanmatteonyc.com
