The Great Fresno Pizzapocalypse!
It’s happening now.
New York, Chicago, Detroit, or New Haven pizza seems to be finding a way into our neighborhoods. Whether it's by chain restaurants, local pizza shops, or in the markets, all of these styles are somehow coming to Fresno/Clovis, the Central Valley, and beyond. For right now, we're concentrating on Fresno and Clovis.
It's a pizzapocalypse of a grand scale, and we're not only the consumer but taste testers for this revolution.
And since we're the taste testers, we should have some say in what we taste. We'll get to this statement a little later in the post.
For now, I want to talk about pizza. I love pizza. I love the different styles that I have tried over the years. New Haven clam pizza at Pepe's. New York style on the streets of Brooklyn or Queens. Detroit style while at a business meeting in Detroit. Chicago deep-dish numerous times. Plus other local favorites in different cities.
What I have found over the years is that many of these pizza shops, while happy with their style, will try and replicate a New York style to bring in new customers.
Fresno isn't without its fair share of local and chain pizza shops trying to do the same, imitating the New York Style pizza right here in Fresno/Clovis, but there's a catch.
They can imitate, but they'll never get it right. That's coming from a former New Yorker who has tried just about every pizza shop bragging they have New York style pizza.
While there are not a lot of local pizza shops claiming to make a New York style pizza, there are a couple that claims that, and they can come close, but not that close.
The New York Pizza
What makes a New York pizza a New York pizza? There isn't one thing. It's a combination of many things besides the ingredients, and usually, each location has a little different flair to its pizza.
Let's take the easiest ingredient, water. Almost every borough in the city gets its water from the same source, so water is standard in all pizzas.
Next is the air. You may not think the air has that much effect, but it does. The atmosphere in Queens may have some microbes that the Bronx doesn't have or Brooklyn can claim.
Take, for instance, sourdough bread. San Francisco sourdough bread can't be replicated unless you have a starter from San Francisco. Want San Francisco sourdough bread in Fresno? You have to buy it. You can make Fresno sourdough because we have different microbes in the air that ferment the starter, giving it Fresno flavor, not San Francisco's.
In the book Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast, the author Ken Forkish a former Silicon Tech guy turned baker, explains in detail the making of a good sourdough starter. He describes the differences in making the starters due to the air around you. If you ask me, it's a book all bakers beginning and veterans should have in their library. Yes, I have a copy and refer to it whenever I need an answer to an issue with my bread.
The same goes for the dough in New York and here or, for that matter, anywhere else. The "Biga," or 'Poolish," as the ferment is called, is enhanced with microbes from the air in the local city.
Then it's the tomatoes used. Each pizzeria in New York has its preferred tomatoes that they use.
Then comes the mixing method. Do they use a stand mixer or mix it by hand? Where were the hands of the guy mixing the dough before he started mixing the dough? He might be wearing gloves, but those hands may have touched something before mixing, which changes the taste.
Let's. not forget the baking method. New York and many other locations may use wood-fired brick ovens, coal-fired ovens, or gas ovens. It makes a difference that New Yorkers and others notice.
With all of that in mind, my question is, why try an imitate New York or, for that matter, any other style of pizza? Why not just make your own and make it famous?
Back Home
In Fresno and Clovis, I have found only two locations that claim New York style pizza. Me & Ed's Coney Island and Russo's is a new chain restaurant in Clovis.
I've had Me & Ed's Coney Island, and while they do a pretty good job of imitating a New York style pizza with a thin crust that is crunchy and doughy at the same time, as well as cut the slice big as they do in New York, it's not New York. I didn't expect it to be either since our air, water, and many other things to consider aren't the same as New York. It's impossible, so don't claim something you can't do.
The same goes for the chain restaurant Russo's. They claim a New York pizza, but there is no way they can get that authentic New York flavor. Yes, they can have the big slices that you can fold into themselves, the crispy and doughy crust, and even the high temp to bake the pizza, but it doesn't have the air, water, or other factors that you find in New York. Why brag about something you can't replicate?
Fresno/Clovis Famous
Why not focus on making a famous Fresno/Clovis pizza that others want to replicate? Why don't we have a pizza that New Yorkers want from their local pizza parlors?
Not everyone in California is running out to get a New York, Boston, New Haven, Detroit, or Chicago deep dish, but you see some of these in the markets, and I hear people talk about trying one.
It still comes down to what a local place in Fresno/Clovis can sell to their customers and get good reviews.
Patti and I were in Pismo last fall and again this year, and we went to Pizmo Cafe in downtown Pismo Beach at the beginning of the pier. It was the best pizza dough I've had since I moved to California 15 years ago.
I wrote a post and did a video about our experience at Pizmo's and how great the dough was. When I asked Nathan, the owner, about his dough, he was coy as I expected and just stated he tweaked a recipe he learned working in LA at a pizza shop.
Tweaked is the keyword for any recipe. Whether here in California or New York, that tweak is the difference between a great-tasting dough or, as you can imagine, a lousy-tasting dough.
It's all in the baker and their tweaking.
The Future
There are some great pizza shops in Fresno/ Clovis, and I'm sure around the valley, and we'd like to try them all so we can write reviews of each which will take time, but we'll accept the challenge.
As of this writing, though, there's isn't one place that stands out for an authentic New York, or for that matter, back east pizza.
We'll keep searching, though, and let you know when we find it.
Until then, we're still searching for a classic Fresno/Clovis pizza that could be made world-famous.
The Great Fresno Pizzapocalypse isn’t over yet
Buon Appetito