RED BANK: POLLARA PIZZA RANKED #1 PIE IN NEW JERSEY

The ricotta pie at Pollara. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

Here’s another superlative for the best town in New Jersey: Red Bank is now officially home to the best pizza pie in the state.

The food writers at nj.com/The Star-Ledger recently named Pollara’s ricotta pie #1 in its annual ranking of the 125 best pizzas in New Jersey. The five-writer team put the Monmouth Street newcomer’s pie above last year’s champion, Corner Slice of Maplewood.

Here’s how they put it:

We knew it was going to take a lot to knock Corner Slice from its pizza perch. Turns out, all it took was a homecoming from a Jersey guy who made his bones crafting Neapolitan pies out in Oakland, California. Jon Smulewitz opened Dopo and James Beard Award semifinalist Adesso in the Bay Area, but he always wanted to come back to Jersey. While he’s been back in the Garden State for three years, he just opened Pollara Pizza down the Shore in August. In an era of fancy pizza places opting to go pie-only, Smulewitz has embraced the slice.

The result is the ultimate slice shop, where Italian authenticity and Jersey-style pizza collide. Sourdough starterfrom Rome’s Bonci Pizzarium and Gabriele Bonci himself make for an incredibly flavorful crust that is crispy yet tender. While the anchovy pie and mortadella pie reflect his Italian influence, it’s a much simpler pie that steals the show. The ricotta pie is simply his rossa pizza with large dollops of Italian whey cheese on every slice. Sounds basic, but, there is something spectacular about going from the sweet, tomatoey tang of the sauce to an almost overwhelming hit of absurdly creamy ricotta.

Pollara owner Jon Smulewitz shows the homemade ricotta (made several times daily) that is scooped onto the ricotta pie. (Photo by Brian Donohue)

While all these rankings are subjective, of course, we used the word “officially” in the lede for a reason.

It’s because, amid the river of shoddy, paid-influencer slop the world of food content has become, the food writers at the old SLedger remain the closest thing left to old-school restaurant criticism. They eat at all the places; they don’t take freebies; they put in the work and treat it like journalism.

Or they did, anyway.

Two days after the annual top pizza list was published, author and legendary long-time food writer Pete Genovese, whose byline sits atop it, announced he had been fired without notice after three decades with the organization.

As someone who worked alongside Pete for many years (and who now includes Smulewitz and his family among my neighbors) I’m charmed that his last byline brought the coveted pizza title to Red Bank.

Meanwhile, Smulewitz said he was thrilled with the ranking. “I was like, “holy shit.’ I can’t believe that,’ he told redbankgreen. “I was not expecting that at all.”

“We are so new and we’re still trying to learn, and we’re trying to get better every day,” he said. The brief tenure so far, he said, “has been great. Red Bank has been amazing.”

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redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.

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