Continuing on my mission to “try and save the world from bad pizza,” I followed up my trip to Little Italy Pizza with a visit to another Midtown joint I located through my IPhone. After making the dumb mistake of heading west when I needed to go east, I eventually found Previti Pizza, another joint that probably makes its money by catering to locals.
A quick aside here—my misstep did get me to use the Bryant Park restroom. If you have never before seen these facilities, you absolutely must. Immaculately clean tiled walls, fresh flowers and piped classical music, it’s a surprising site to find in a city park.
Previti is on the east side of Midtown just beyond the Library and Grand Central Station, two other fantastic places to see in the City. On the north side of the block, it currently sits under one of those construction facades that you see everywhere and that once put up never seems to go away.
Their rectangular room has ample seating. Off to the left side was the order counter displaying many slices for sale and an open oven area. Opposite was a television on which I watched some live Bob Marley & the Wailers while I waited for my slice. It was now almost 3pm and kind of late for lunch, but Previti still had a decent crowd.
My plain cheese slice was listed at $2.76 which conveniently rounded up to $3.00 after tax. After the quick reheat they mistakenly thought my slice was to go and it appeared on the counter on a paper plate in a brown paper bag. I unwrapped it at the table and immediately noticed some items of concern. The bottom crust was cushiony and full of air pockets while the end crust had a shiny buttery glow about it.
Eating through, something about the taste just wasn’t right. Trying to pin the blame on the tomato sauce or the cheese, I finally concluded that the off-tasting sauce was the culprit. In addition, the slice was too oily and the suspect crust just tasted pale. Putting all these flaws together resulted in a slice that just didn’t live up to the Snob’s taste standards.
Were it not for the decent construction and fresh cheese, this slice would have been a bigger failure. All in all, I really didn’t enjoy it and wound up leaving some of it behind. There was nothing drawing me in to eat it—I just gave up. I thought that maybe I was “over-pizzaed” and not very hungry. But then, that has never stopped me in the past from enjoying a good slice.
Previti’s slice is nothing more than mediocre. Unless you are in a hurry for a quick lunch, it is simply not worth a New Yorker’s time.
PIZZA SNOB RATING *** Better Than Dominos
Previti Pizza
123 East 41th Street (between Lexington and Park Avenues)
New York, NY 10168
212-557-4992
www.previtipizza.com
