Mamaroneck's Best Pizza Slice, Sicilian And Plain
Joe’s Pizza
A few doors down from Sal’s, Joe's tends to be where people go when the line's out the door at Sal's, or if they happen to be standing in front of it at the Saint Patrick's Day parade. The plain is thin here, too, with a slightly crispier crust, very little sauce, and adequate cheese that's a shade less tasty. But a decent basic plain slice—almost neck and neck with Sal's, in fact. Salad pizza, when in season, is another good bet.
Joe’s Sicilian crust has the requisite puffiness but an almost bitter aftertaste that is echoed in the mat of cheese. So skip the Sicilian and stick with plain at Joe's.
260 Mamaroneck Ave
Mamaroneck
(914) 698-2829
Plain: ★★★
Sicilian: ★★
Side Dish: The fettuccine Alfredo is worth a special takeout run.
The Original Emilio's Brick Oven Pizza
At Emilio's, across the street and closer to the train, the plain and Sicilian both suffer from a bready crust vaguely reminiscent of frozen pizza, and the other elements don’t do much to counter this. Meanwhile, though, check out their grandma pizza (pictured top) with a mound of plum tomato sauce and basil. The crust is a little crunchy and the cheese a little bland, but it’s the type of breakout hit that makes you cease wondering how all these pizzerias exist in such close proximity.
359 Mamaroneck Ave
Mamaroneck
​(914) 381-1111
Plain: ★★½
Sicilian: ★★
Side Dish: Go straight for the calzone (below)—the tallest, cheesiest one around—with tomato sauce for dunking. Baked ziti with ricotta is also delicious.
Jimmy’s Pizza
Thirty-five-year-old eatery Jimmy's Pizza, like the others, sometimes has to deal with living in the shadow of Sal’s. “So, you want good pizza, you go there; you want bad pizza, you come here,” Greek owner Jimmy once told me, when I asked him about it. But Jimmy’s gained its share of fame after being featured in an episode of HBO’s Girls. The clip below gives you a hint of the time-warp décor that alone can make it worth the trip.
I was able to try only the plain, as they were out of Sicilian the times I went. If there is a Mamaroneck style of plain pizza, defined by the thin, relatively understated slices at Sal’s and Joe’s, here’s where to get your floppier, oilier pizza. (Don’t even think of blotting that oil! You want the full experience, don’t you?) It gets gobbled up before you can say mozzarella. I will try again with the Sicilian; meanwhile, Scott of Scott’s Pizza Tours has described it as a “rockin’ slice” with a great “cheese-sauce combo, but the dough didn’t have much personality.”
When are you bringing your pizza bus to Westchester, Scott?
Plain: ★★★
Sicilian: N/A
808 Mamaroneck Ave
Mamaroneck
​(914) 698-5804; jimmyspizza.com