Gino’s of Kissena Pizza Flushing, NY
Slice Rating
Gino’s of Kissena Pizza Flushing, NY
Posted By: Mad Greek August 8th, 2011
Abeetza eccellenza!!!
That's the epiphany you will come to at first bite.
Of course when family tradition has been in the midst of making fine pizza for over a half a century and also linked to many notable locations like the famous Gaby's Pizza on Hillside Avenue in Queen's Village, its hard not to impress your customers.
Gino's is a landmark in arguably the toughest of all locations to obtain critical acclaim - directly opposite Queens College, arguably the largest melting pot university in the U.S. For many years Gino's and Regina Pizza, a mere 4 blocks away, were battling it out for local supremacy. Over time, Gino's (my personal favorite of the two) came away like Secretariat winning the Belmont.
That's kind of how I feel about NY pizza and the battle of the boroughs. I think for the NY style neopolitan pie, Queens, above all other boroughs of NY (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island) has more top pizzerias than any other borough and its because of places like Gino's.
Fit to a tee from the owner's signature perfect blue Yankee hat down to all of their fresh and wonderful ingredients that make their pie so special, makes me wish I lived in Queens again. I would be like a kid in a candy store.
Now I know that many will swear the New Park Pizza, L&B Spumoni Gardens from Brooklyn, the Denino's of Staten Island and Luzzo's of NYC and the pizza that time forgot on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx - and all that great pizza may be fine and well, as it is. But from my perspective is far and few between.
Today's visit to the packed Gino's at lunchtime was yet another reminder that the pizza wars of NY start and end in Queens with more top 6+ slice rated pizzerias than any other borough of New York.
There's one way to find out... Let the wars begin.
Today's cannon shot is a solid and I mean solid 7 of 8 and a hair from the old perfecto, just because I tend to be much harder on the rating than some of my contemporaries that give out 7's and 8's like Bernanke gives out cash to loser banks.
I love Gino's and I love Alfredo and Anthony for their undying loyalty to tradition and their balls to wear NY Yankee hats deep in the heart of Metsies territory.
Next time you feel like doing a bit of pizza matriculation, get off at Kissena Blvd. and head straight across from Queens College and grab a few slices from the Ph.D's in Pizza at Gino's.